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i went on a vacation to alamogordo for two weeks and i just loved it there. yeah thatere is poverty but isnt that everywhere? i live in OK right now and we see as much poverty as New Mexico does
... the effects of man on the land are sad to see ...
...anywhere. Not just New Mexico.
"You cannot improve on it. The ages have
been at work on it, and man can only mar it." -- T.R.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hombre57
Another thing our state could do is give consumers ...
a penny for an aluminum can.
That's not necessary.
An aluminum can is already worth more than that as scrap metal.
The more you have and the cleaner they are, the more you get.
A bottle, having been run over by a car, eventually becomes dust
on the pavement and worthless. A can actually becomes more
valuable because the recyclers pay more for compressed cans.
In my ghetto-living days, a can tossed out in the street on any
given night would be gone the next day - collected. A bottle
tossed out, would be broken.
I used to save up a pound or so and hand them to the collectors
in a clean, compressed condition. These hardworking people
deserved my contribution to their efforts.
The can isn't actually worth more compressed. It just takes up less space. I flatten all my alumminum cans because I can get a lot more of them in a trash bag to take to the recyclers. Last time I went, I had 3 bags with 35 pounds of them!
I'm all for the bottle deposits and wonder why they quit offering them.
I agree, Alamogordo has a great location! 22 miles from Cloudcroft, which is about 4300 feet higher. That's a good 20 degrees cooler in summer. I suppose it works in reverse for Cloudcroft residents who want to warm up in winter.
Santa Rosa's revenue must depend on ticky-tack traffic fines. Crappiest little town I think I've ever passed through. I'll avoid it at all costs in the future.
As for Alamogordo, it has a kind of run-down appearance, but it's in a great location. In about 20 minutes you can be in Cloudcroft - a wonderful place to escape the desert heat in the summer and get in some snow skiing in the winter.
Everytime I think of Santa Rosa, I think about how we just like to get through there and never look back. This isn't because we don't like the place, we used to stop for gas and a bite to eat, but 3 times in a row we had car trouble there. The first time we were heading from NM to AR to house hunt. Our car broke down, Sunday morning and we were luckier than hell to find a mechanic open. He was able to 1/2 ass fix the car and send us on our way.
Then we were on our way to relocate from NM to AR and we had a blow out, just as we were entering Santa Rosa. We had to get a new tire plus our old donut tire had rotten so we were only had the new tire and nothing else. Then low and behold, we were on our way back to visit our friends in NM last summer: Santa Rosa here we come, same mechanic here we come: something was causing our gas needle to go full, emty, full empty, we ddin't know what the heck to think. If you need to have your car break down, at least they have a good mechanic..better yet, avoid driving through the town.
The fine for pitching must differ in different areas. Along I-25 from exit 79 to Hatch, it's only $300.00.
Jim, if you see cans standing up, the wind must have done it.
I don't see how glass gets crushed on a sandy highway right of way?
Who likes to drive over broken glass to purposely grind it up?
I can recall my ghetto days too, broken glass on beaches, broken glass on playgrounds and lot's of children's bloody feet.
I think there are a lot of people settling in that Estancia Valley area who are
bringing money with them, but aside from taxes, I wonder how much that actually
benefits the little towns that they live near? With Albuquerque only an hour away and
Santa Fe not that much further, how much of their relative wealth is actually spent
in these little towns' retail businesses? I suspect the answer is "not that much"...
As a former county employee, I can tell you that revenue in the county is up, due mostly in part to the incoming and existing met towers and wind farms.
Temporarily, retail and restaurants benefit while the non-local construction employees are there.
I kinda like Santa Rosa- much more than Alamo, anyways. My husband worked there 5-7 days a week for almost ten months (with out of state tags) and never recieved a ticket for anything and he's the original lead foot, lol!
I was terribly disappointed the first time I laid eyes on Albuquerque as well. I thought twice about taking a job here. But the measly salary I was offered here was more than the measly salary I made back east, so it was hard to refuse. Once here, I discovered so many new things to do in the surrounding areas that I would never have experienced had I stayed back east, so eventually I was able to overlook the trashier aspects of the city and believed that I lived in a kind of deserty-mountainy wonderland.
I don't know much about Santa Rosa except I like the old route 66 feel to it, and the Blue Hole is really cool.
I had really terrible Chinese food in Alamogordo, it feels like the very politically conservative Air Force town that it is with a military kind of aesthetic. But the view of the Sacramentos makes up for that, and proximity to White Sands, Oliver Lee State Park, and other attractions already mentioned I think would make it a decent place to live.
The can isn't actually worth more compressed.
It just takes up less space.
Yes it is.
It's worth more because it is compressed. The recyclers will pay
a premium for a compressed can. They can fit more weight on a
truck. It uses about the same amount of fuel to haul 2,000
pounds as it does to haul 20,000 pounds and that's reflected
in the price you get for your scrap.
Hence, when a car runs over the piece of scrap ( not garbage ),
it becomes more valuable. ( Scrap is a resource. )
Quote:
Originally Posted by catman
I'm all for the bottle deposits and wonder why they quit offering them.
Can you say "lobbyists" boys and girls?
The deposit should be 50 cents on every friggin' bottle
and just as much on those fast food cups and wrappers.
After several years of trying, I finally made a trip to the Alamogordo area to check things out. Overall my reaction was one of disappointment.
My first experience was in Santa Rosa. Local cop gave me a ticket for not having my seat belt fastened. $81 down the drain. My fault, but was still surprised. Could hear the cop say he had gotten an '" out of stater "
Proceeded down rt 54. The towns of Vaughn and Corona struck me as quite depressing. Seems the only viable business in town were gas stations for those traveling thru.
Did go thru Carrizozo. Some attempts there at improving the town. Contrast between nice and shabby places quite stark.
I did like Tularosa. To my eye, there seemed to be a plan for improving the town. Actually the main road thru town is nice.
Then on to my real destination of Alamogordo. Arriving from Tularosa was quite a shock. I was in Alamogordo about 25 years ago and remember it as a nice sleepy town with the Space Museum being excellent. Now it has sprouted every fast food and motel chain on the face of the earth. I was struck also by the contrast between the beautiful mountains in the background with a trashy appearance in the foreground. Not my cup of tea. So will not be living in Alamogordo.
Next drove up into the mountains to see Ruidoso. Actually it is a nice small town in the mountains. The mountains were a treat. Much more impressive than i imagined. It snowed 7 inches at the ski area overnight and my car was froze up in the morning at my motel. Kind of surprised by that. Guess I shouldn't have been.
I did make it to Capitan. Coming in from the south, I was very impressed with a broad valley surrounded by mountains. But the town itself was a disappointment. I am so used to the neat small towns in Illinois, that to see such poverty was a surprise. Once again, guess I shouldn't have been, since I have been told about the poverty in NM.
From Capitan I headed east arriving in Roswell. I had been in this town many years ago and wasn't that impressed. However, this time it was a pleasant surprise. I really like Roswell. It has definitely improved with time.
From there headed thru Portales and Clovis into west Texas. Another downer for me. I was very glad to get home.
I must apologize to any of you that I may have offended with my comments. However, my purpose is to just give my honest opinion of what I saw.
Overall, New Mexico to my eye is truly the land of enchantment. It is magical in its beauty. But the effects of man on the land are sad to see.
This trip was just a quick look by me. Sort of a snapshot. I know that I missed many great things to see and do. Perhaps left for another time.
Portales was a downer for you, I think its the best town in New Mexico. Its got real character.
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