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Lot's of good comments and lot's of useless ones as well. Every state, city, town is both good and bad depending on your personal circumstances. I live in Florida, I've been all over the state - I've seen the good the bad and the ugly!! I hope to move to NM sometime next year, mainly because the weather and beauty, I am concerned about employment, but nothing else concerns me about the potential move. Only question is where, still doing research and open to suggestions, message me if you want to contribute.
The one common theme of the posters who like NM seem to love it and have great passion for it, they've lived other places and are now very happy with where they're at!!
Only question is where, still doing research and open to suggestions, message me if you want to contribute.
I'd suggest starting a thread, and open with as much detail as you can regarding preferences. Like job/career, climate and setting (mountains or desert), size of town, etc.
Lot's of good comments and lot's of useless ones as well. Every state, city, town is both good and bad depending on your personal circumstances. I live in Florida, I've been all over the state - I've seen the good the bad and the ugly!! I hope to move to NM sometime next year, mainly because the weather and beauty, I am concerned about employment, but nothing else concerns me about the potential move. Only question is where, still doing research and open to suggestions, message me if you want to contribute.
The one common theme of the posters who like NM seem to love it and have great passion for it, they've lived other places and are now very happy with where they're at!!
I grew up in the Miami, Florida area, then traveled a lot, and ended up retiring in the Rio Rancho area. My wife was a Federal employee and was offered and took a transfer in 1998 to Albuquerque. We both worked for some years and finally just retired here.
The Albuquerque area tends to have the most jobs, but other areas may be an exception, if you are a scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory frequently has openings. I was initially offered a job at White Sands when we moved out, but it was not satisfactory for me...
Lot's of good comments and lot's of useless ones as well. Every state, city, town is both good and bad depending on your personal circumstances. I live in Florida, I've been all over the state - I've seen the good the bad and the ugly!! I hope to move to NM sometime next year, mainly because the weather and beauty, I am concerned about employment, but nothing else concerns me about the potential move. Only question is where, still doing research and open to suggestions, message me if you want to contribute.
The one common theme of the posters who like NM seem to love it and have great passion for it, they've lived other places and are now very happy with where they're at!!
A few things. First of all, if you're moving from Florida, realize that you're going from a sub-tropical area to a high desert. It means the humidity goes from 90% where you are to 20% in New Mexico. You're going to be dry all the time. It's not the temperature that will get you, since you're used to that. It's how arid it is. Make sure that's tolerable for you.
Second of all, you can't just choose where you want to live, unless you're retired. As I mentioned, where you live is largely determined by your ability to be employed. So find employment first before considering where you want to live. That's a must.
I didn't read much of the posts in this thread, but I'll give my opinion as an outsider.
There are several reasons New Mexico has a bad reputation:
1) It's relatively sparsely populated. The majority of the population for the entire state is in one city (Albuquerque), which a distant second being Santa Fe, the capital. That means that huge areas of the state are either completely unpopulated desert or just composed of very small towns. That's true of lots of states, but keep in mind that even Albuquerque is not that large a city compared to the larger cities in other states (think Dallas or New York City). There just aren't a lot of people living there.
2) There isn't a lot of industry in New Mexico. It's a weird place (again, I'm an outsider) because I'm not sure what people do there. Yes, there are lots of top scientists at Los Alamos, but if you asked me what New Mexico produces, I'd be at a loss. It seems like there are a lot of unemployed people and people who just work in the service industry. There aren't, for example, car manufacturers or pharmaceuticals or things like that.
3) There doesn't seem to be a lot of college-educated people. The University of New Mexico is the state university and I don't think there are even a lot of people there. I have no idea if this is true, but I'd be willing to bet that there are a significant number of people who are only high school educated or dropped out.
4) There's a LOT of poverty. Besides what I already said, one thing you notice almost immediately when you visit the state is that a lot of the girls are (single) mothers in their teens. It's really unfortunate because even the residents will tell you that basically everyone there becomes a teenage mom or dad. That leads to dropping out and not having a job, which then leads to drinking and drug use.
5) Referring to point 4, there's a lot of drunk driving, is my understanding.
So you might say, sounds like the bad reputation is deserved.
You obviously spent a lot of time thinking and writing here, but you didn't check your facts. A lot of what you wrote is inaccurate:
1. Santa Fe ranks 4th in population, after Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho. True, the state is sparsely populated, but you don't explain how that adds up to "bad reputation."
2. Tourism is an industry, as is health care, etc., the same industries that you find anywhere else.
3. Educational attainment here is a mixed bag. We do have high dropout rates, on the lower end of college grads, but one of the highest rates of advanced degrees including PhDs because of the labs. Although this may be changing because of recent downsizing at the labs. The University of New Mexico's enrollment is over 27,000 (undergrads and grads, 2015 figures). Is that "not a lot of people"? New Mexico State in Las Cruces has over 25,000 students. There are several other universities scattered across the state.
4. We do have a high teenage pregnancy rate (on par with Texas) although it is declining along with the national decline. But it is nonsense to claim that "everyone there becomes a teenage mom or dad."
5. According to this site, NM ranks high in traffic fatalities overall, but is not in the top 10 worst states for traffic deaths (whether driver was drunk or not) and has a lower rate than Florida: Fatality Facts
You obviously spent a lot of time thinking and writing here, but you didn't check your facts. A lot of what you wrote is inaccurate:
1. Santa Fe ranks 4th in population, after Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho. True, the state is sparsely populated, but you don't explain how that adds up to "bad reputation."
2. Tourism is an industry, as is health care, etc., the same industries that you find anywhere else.
3. Educational attainment here is a mixed bag. We do have high dropout rates, on the lower end of college grads, but one of the highest rates of advanced degrees including PhDs because of the labs. Although this may be changing because of recent downsizing at the labs. The University of New Mexico's enrollment is over 27,000 (undergrads and grads, 2015 figures). Is that "not a lot of people"? New Mexico State in Las Cruces has over 25,000 students. There are several other universities scattered across the state.
4. We do have a high teenage pregnancy rate (on par with Texas) although it is declining along with the national decline. But it is nonsense to claim that "everyone there becomes a teenage mom or dad."
5. According to this site, NM ranks high in traffic fatalities overall, but is not in the top 10 worst states for traffic deaths (whether driver was drunk or not) and has a lower rate than Florida: Fatality Facts
I'm not a resident of NM, but my statements made that clear. That being said:
1) Rio Rancho, is basically an extension of Albuquerque, from what I could tell. And how that leads to "bad reputation" I mentioned. People view the state as non-populated, like Montana (sorry to the Montana forum). Like on the east coast, you hit Boston, then New York City, then Philadelphia, then Baltimore/DC in rapid succession. Upstate New York is barren, but ppl have that I-95 corridor in mind when they think of the east coast, not Sayre, PA. Similarly, when ppl think of New Mexico, they think of ...nothing. You may find this shocking, but I don't think many people in Minnesota immediately say "Albuquerque" when someone says "New Mexico." They think "desert." Just like when you say "Montana" to most people, they think "big, open plains with two cows" and don't have an urge to visit.
2) Tourism is definitely an industry and you're right, it's probably the biggest industry in New Mexico. But that's the point. There's huge unemployment in New Mexico and most people aren't involved in the biggest industry in the state and there's not much other industry. New Mexico doesn't "make" anything, that I can tell.
3) UNM may have 27,000 students, but ...that's like the entire student body of the state. I'm not ragging on UNM. I'm just saying if one university can provide the secondary education for most of the state and it's not that large ...you know?
4) I assumed ppl would understand that I am stating that teenage pregnancy is rampant, not that it was a literal statement. If you read it that way, then OK. I feel you're just arguing with me to argue.
I'm not a resident of NM, but my statements made that clear. That being said:
1) Rio Rancho, is basically an extension of Albuquerque, from what I could tell. And how that leads to "bad reputation" I mentioned. People view the state as non-populated, like Montana (sorry to the Montana forum). Like on the east coast, you hit Boston, then New York City, then Philadelphia, then Baltimore/DC in rapid succession. Upstate New York is barren, but ppl have that I-95 corridor in mind when they think of the east coast, not Sayre, PA. Similarly, when ppl think of New Mexico, they think of ...nothing. You may find this shocking, but I don't think many people in Minnesota immediately say "Albuquerque" when someone says "New Mexico." They think "desert." Just like when you say "Montana" to most people, they think "big, open plains with two cows" and don't have an urge to visit.
Rio Rancho is is separate city from Albuquerque.
Rio Rancho is in a separate county from Albuquerque.
Did you look at the different crime rates, shopping facilities, populations, employment possibilities, school systems, taxes, etc, etc, etc...
And I will ignore the remainder of your comments in that entire post.
BTW, it's interesting that this thread asks "why does New Mexico have a bad reputation?" And then when you explain why, every from New Mexico gets angry. Which is basically like saying "if I scream at you enough, you're going to like me." That's vaguely amusing. And all the New Mexicans deliberately ignored all the positives I said about the state and oddly found no factual inaccuracies with anything I said positively.
Here's a hint to New Mexicans: if you want to deny that you have a low population, mostly small cities, a lot of unemployment, and teen pregnancy, that's fine. Nobody is going to respect the state more for you saying that.
And then when you explain why, every from New Mexico gets angry.
Did everybody from NM respond to your post?
I thought you made mostly good points. But don't be surprised if some people disagree, and some even take offense.
For the record, I don't think NM has much of a reputation of any sort, because a lot of people in the US don't even know it exists.
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