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I am visiting New Mexico and am enjoying seeing Albuquerque Santa Fe and Taos. I wonder why ABQ is much smaller than Phoenix. ABQ has a milder climate for one and plenty of land to expand. Phoenix has grown exponentially but my observation is that Albuquerque is much smaller and growing more slowly.
Though we have never lived in Phoenix we have family and good friends living there and for us; if we had a choice it would be ABQ for sure. Who knows why Phoenix took off like crazy about 30 years ago and has never stopped. We actually have friends who moved from ABQ to Phoenix.
Abq has the best weather of anywhere we have lived and we have lived many places in our lives. They have a lower cost of living and I think it is much prettier than Phoenix. The biggest negative,of course is the horrible crime rate and there are no large companies with headquarters in ABQ or even large existing offices.
guess these are some reasons for the difference in population of the 2 cities.
Albuquerque is bounded by the Cibola National Forest to the east, reservation land to the north and south, and has still some area to the west for new growth. So no, we don't have plenty of land to expand into, and we don't want to become another Phoenix.
Proximity to the massive population in LA/southern California has a significant part in it, I suspect.
I agree with this. Albuquerque and Phoenix were similar sizes up through around 1950 and then Phoenix exploded. Albuquerque boomed but never to the extent Phoenix did.
I think Albuquerque is probably one of the most isolated major cities in the US.
Phoenix was "decently close" to LA, which is where the majority of people living here come from (that are newer transplants anyway). The other, older majority of people living here come from either the Midwest or Northeast moved here because there is no winter, of which Albuquerque does not meet the criteria, even though Albuquerque's may be deemed a mild winter.
Phoenix's growth was also supported by the development of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canals from the Colorado River. Phoenix used to be the small city in the territory and was secondary to Tucson, but this only flipped due to aggressive conservative taxation policies which made Phoenix a friendlier business climate. It's ironic, given now that the City of Phoenix suffers this same fate from its suburbs. Albuquerque I don't believe ever pursued this route, in fact some people say New Mexico now isn't very business friendly but I'm not sure if that's true.
Most of my family who came here way back in the day came here for business opportunities with the exception of one part who came here due to respiratory issues.
Though we have never lived in Phoenix we have family and good friends living there and for us; if we had a choice it would be ABQ for sure. Who knows why Phoenix took off like crazy about 30 years ago and has never stopped. We actually have friends who moved from ABQ to Phoenix.
Abq has the best weather of anywhere we have lived and we have lived many places in our lives. They have a lower cost of living and I think it is much prettier than Phoenix. The biggest negative,of course is the horrible crime rate and there are no large companies with headquarters in ABQ or even large existing offices.
guess these are some reasons for the difference in population of the 2 cities.
I love New Mexico. I left Phoenix back in the summer to do consulting in ABQ. Although the job market is great for information technology in many major American cities, ABQ was unusually limited. The best jobs are at Sandia Labs but those are slow to onboard due to massive background checks. The other choice is Intel but they have been known to have layoffs sporadically. By contrast, the job market is much larger and stronger in Phoenix. So, I am back in Phoenix.
I miss ABQ though. I love that La Luz Trail. I miss going to Twister's or Taco Cabana in the morning for breakfast. I also miss the unique Rio Grande syncretism of the three cultures (locals know what I mean).
I'll just have to visit when I can.
The job market in Phoenix is great, but the housing prices are escalating rapidly. Plus summers are ridiculously hot. It's also more liberal like California these days rather than the Phoenix I knew back in the 70s and 80s of my childhood. To be fair, Santa Fe is becoming somewhat "Californian" too.
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albuquerque vs phoenix
