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i have the option of moving to NM. there is a job a carlsbad and hobbs that I already have waiting for me. I was in lovington/tatum during july and got to check out hobbs and roswell area. there nice. being from northern michigan i really like the lakes and trees. so i do understand it would be an adjustment. the company really wants me to work in carlsbad. thats the one area i did not get to visit. so any help or pictures of carlsbad would be great. i would like the good and bad info please. thanks
Well Carlsbad is also hard core desert but it does have the Guadalupe mountains close by and also the Pecos River runs thru the town and there's Brantley Reservior where you can water ski etc..just north of town.
But it definately is not Northern Michigan as you may be sevierly disappointed.
We enjoyed Carlsbad during the time that we lived there, but it would not have continued to be a good fit for our family. The town is small. There isn't much night life. Many people join the country club or the Elk's to have a place to eat and socialize. There is a section in the newspaper that lists the local events. They are usually well attended. If you want to shop, there is Wal-Mart, a couple of other grocery stores, and a few dollar stores. The local newspaper is online. Check out currentargus dot com. I don't have pictures I can post, but you can probably google some on-line.
We found out several people like us, who were transplants from somewhere else. We ended up making friends rather quickly. Not being from the west or southwest, we enjoyed getting out to see what we could see. We called ourselves 'resident tourists' because we were able to use Carlsbad as our home base and travel around the state. Your life is what you make it. You'll have see for yourself whether Carlsbad is a fit for your lifestyle.
Well thanks for the info. I hope to gets lots more before making a decision. i have read a lot of negitive things lately. one being the school ratings for the middle school. not too happy with those results. i have 3 small kids so schooling is a top priority. and the other is drugs. i know drugs are eveywhere but Dateline just did a special on the biggest drug towns in the southwest and carlsbad was near the top. it looks as if carlsbad has not increase there funding to fight the drug problem in ten years. whats that all about? being that close to the border i would think that should be a number one priority. Im not knocking the town by any means just stating what i have read and seen. I would be working in the oil industry so i know i will be making good money, but i having second thoughts about moving my family down there. keep up the replys. i really enjoy reading about them. thank you
6/3 is right. It is definitely a change from what you are used to. I like SE New Mexico, have a good friend who lives maybe an hour north of Carlsbad in Hagerman. It's elevation is a little more than 3000 feet, is very warm in the summer (starts hitting 90 degrees in mid-April) Don't have to worry too much about snow but it can get real windy in the winter. There has been some newer stores put in on the north side of town; sadly the downtown area along Canal St. (down the hill-Canal is hwy 285, the main drag) could use a facelift.
I like the area myself; always have! Dad worked oilfields all over SE New Mexico when I was real young. Wish I can help on the school situation and local issues/politics. There is a long time NM poster who lives in the area (name escapes me) who has given out good info on the town; hopefully she is reading this and can help.
The drug situation in the Rocky Mountain West is a problem everywhere, not just Carlsbad. I was not aware of the Dateline story, though. I have friends from Hagerman, NM to Sheridan, Wyoming to Tooele, Utah and the small towns are ALL having problems with it.
Major shopping is kind of an issue. Nearest Sam's Club is in Roswell. El Paso, Texas is a little over 2 hours away on 62/180. Some nice parks there; Living Desert State Park and Brantley Lake State park are a couple of them. And then there is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. IMO there are 2 big cahunas in the National Park System; the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns.
Unfortunately, Carlsbad is a small town with small town problems. If you follow the newspaper, you'll notice that Carlsbad has problems with drugs, unwed parents/teen pregnancy, and high suicide rates. I blame a lot of that on the isolation of the town. The local community doesn't seem to have the enthusiasm or desire to achieve like I've seen elsewhere. There isn't the vision or leadership to make the place better. Local politics often turn into a sideshow.
I can't really comment on the middle school. My only experience with Carlsbad schools was ECEC for the kindergartners. It was awesome. I wish I could find that quality of education here. I think as a parent, the best thing you can do is to stay involved with your children. They are going to have obstacles wherever they live. Like I said previously, Carlsbad fit our life for the time that we lived there. We were able to use the experience to make our lives better.
I was not aware of the Dateline story covering the drug problems in the SW and specifically Carlsbad. It seems that the drug problem in this city had been pretty well concealed by local policy makers to add one less negative aspect of the city. The truth is that most locals here are in denial of this problem.
If you are a parent with 3 children and any of them at middle or high school age, i'd be very cautious of coming here. While there is no doubt that good, involved parenting plays a key role in rasing a child, the school system here is not going to aid you in this process. You will need to be more involved and aware in your child's day-to-day life. Read the local newspaper, currentargus.com, there is a 16 year old being tried as an adult for murder here, after he burned and killed a 15 year old student. Drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy and larceny are the more common things kids (and adults) are involved in here. While there are lots of good people here, there is no doubt an over whelming shadow of drug and alcohol related crimes that plague the city. The crime here is more than what I would expect for a city this size.
Like the saying goes: you can't change the people unless they want to change themselves. If you don't see a problem then you don't see the need to change!
Wow, I'd never even read of the drug situation in Carlsbad. Once when I proposed living there to a relative who lives in Santa Fe, he mentioned it being a major disposal and storage facility for nuclear waste, as of 1999, so it'd be kind of like moving outside the White Sands area, during WWII nuke testing.
All very odd, since of course, Carlsbad is world famous as for their spectacular natural wonder, the caverns, with its 20 story high interior main chamber.
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