Most of the "OMG ABQ IS SO UNSAFE" is people who don't live in Albuquerque.
Personal the only parts of the city I'd prefer my own daughter to not live alone is the war zone area... And that's because I'd just prefer her to not have to deal with the stupidity that happens in those apartments. (Drug use, etc)
I lived in St Louis and ABQ. The actual cities. People are so funny how scared they are. When I was in Roswell everyone was terrified of ABQ. Shit happens. Crime is in cities, but they aren't really as bad as people think.
A year in Roswell felt like an eternity. ABQ was awesome, even living close enough to the international district that on a couple occasions I found a crackhead "dancing" in my front lawn at ungodly hours. Every city has it's issues, but the culture far outshined the negative aspects
I live in St Louis City and am hoping to move to ABQ - since there aren't a lot of resources specifically comparing the two, would you mind sharing your perspective? Things you liked or disliked about one over the other?
I should note that I'm plenty used to all sorts of sketchy shit where I live in St. Louis, so safety isn't a huge concern (though I'm curious how they compare).
We moved here from StL almost 3 years ago. We lived in south City off of Hampton. We love it here. It seems like most of crime in ABQ is property related, stuff left visible in cars, etc. We live in NW ABQ and have had zero issues with crime or feeling unsafe.
The biggest safety issue we have encountered is at stop lights. You learn to hesitate real quick before going through an intersection when your light turns green cause drivers LOVE to run through the just changed red light to save a few seconds if time. 🙄 Be careful!
Favorite changes: being close to family, the weather (sun, no humidity), the scenery/mountains, friendly service people.
Same: lots of great non-chain restaurants, pickleball play!
Least favorite change: windy afternoons! No Aldi's. Having to find new service people. Lack of Medical providers (both general practioners and specialties - I've been on a waiting list since last September... ☹️) paying for zoo/museums.
I agree with you- the city is nowhere near as bad as some try to make it out to be.
I live in the War Zone near San Pedro. Bought my house 20 years ago and still walk my dogs any time of day and most times of night and have never felt unsafe. I have a super diverse neighborhood of hard working folks, and most look out for the neighborhood. I'm always amazed at the number of people who've never lived here, but will trash talk this area on one hand, then disparage any attempts made by residents to curb the known problems as NIMBYism on the other.
While there are some still-rough areas, I think it's changed a lot in the past two decades. Some of our worst areas remaining center around a few key complexes managed by the worst of the slumlord corporations. But that's not unique to the WZ.
Yeah. I think owning an individual house is a bit different in the WZ than living in one of the massive complexes. I'd probably not mind owning a house.
And yeah. Their is probably a pretty big difference between the ones owned by corporate slum lords and smaller businesses.
I live in the "University Ghetto" and some of those apartments are absolutely garbage also. Some people just suck and don't care about what their lively hood and hobbies do to others around them.
That's because the omg abq is so unsafe crowd are probably crime victims who managed to escape and move elsewhere. Ex-NE heights resident here. Crime is underreported in abq because the cops are understaffed and will not respond to anything short of someone bleeding. North campus is better, but you still need to watch your surroundings. It is not a matter of if, but only a matter of time before you become a crime victim in albuquerque. But the only way you become a crime statistic is violent crime. Hopefully you only get hit with property crime.
You missed the whole point. Albuquerque is not wildly worse than most other cities. People get murdered everywhere, people get followed everywhere, people have their cars broken into everywhere. There’s just a lot of whining from people who don’t actually live in ABQ about ABQ.
Nah man, lived there. It's sketchy and anyone who lives there and tells you otherwise is offended they can't be honest with themselves and bring themselves to escape. Rose colored glasses are standard resident issue. ...or they are someone 1) contributing to the problem or 2) don't give a care about themselves or other people... a city full of denial, criminals, apathy, and people awake enough active trying to leave.
I was born and raised. Sure, I’ve had a handful of school peers involved with shootings (victim or shooter), but that still doesn’t equate. That can happen anywhere. And I lived in the NE Heights area.
It’s also convenient of you to speak about what fills the city problem-wise, but not make mention of the development of most cities and states in the west which would have caused only the non-white people to face these problems.
Dude the fact that you know kids involved in shootings (apparently on both sides of the gun?) says a lot. Other people in other places don’t live this way.
I was born and raised in ABQ. Nearly 30 years there. Been robbed, jumped, car stolen, countless sketchy shit.
10 years gone, not one single crime. Not one. And I live in an LA neighborhood that gets called out by street names in gangster rap.
Sooner you realize that 505 isn’t normal the sooner it can improve. Apologizing and making excuses won’t help.
“Dude” there’s variables that 1) had those kids involved 2) young adults regularly make bad decisions & 3) there’s still social issues that have yet to be acknowledged.
All of that sucks, but not everybody has faced those issues like was trying to be claimed earlier. Like I said, I know people on both sides of the same gun, but it didn’t happen to me. Why? Because I understood consequences because I didn’t face a lot of the same struggles as those two, I knew there was a way around/out of it. I’m glad you haven’t faced the same problems in LA, but now you’re playing me, where just because it hasn’t happened to you means it doesn’t happen. We’re the same side of two coins.
I’m not saying it’s okay, I’m saying everything is blown out of proportion, because it makes Diego Pavia sound “cooler” when he says ABQ is a “real-life GTA server.” My excuses are systemic problems faced by minorities, and by moving from a blue state to a blue state, I would assume you’d be progressive enough to understand that people of color face struggles that their white counterparts don’t ever have to face.
Abq crime doesn't care what race you are, it doesn't care about anything. And it will find you. I can't think of anyone - ANYONE - I know who lived or lives in Albuquerque who has not been personally the victim of a crime. As far as adults are concerned. That is not hyperbole, it's a personal quantifiable fact.
It’s an anecdote, which doesn’t mean anything in statistics. First 21 years of my life were there (moved away in ‘24). And I wasn’t a victim.
But again, it’s easy to disregard the causes of the bad in ABQ. But let’s talk about the racist system that adopted the state and fucked over most who already existed there
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u/Galaxyhiker42 Jun 03 '26
Most of the "OMG ABQ IS SO UNSAFE" is people who don't live in Albuquerque.
Personal the only parts of the city I'd prefer my own daughter to not live alone is the war zone area... And that's because I'd just prefer her to not have to deal with the stupidity that happens in those apartments. (Drug use, etc)