Thinking of moving to NM

[SheilaT]

17. I'd say that Taos would be much more isolated than Santa Fe.

Depending on your preferences, that may be a good or a bad thing.

I'm only 45 minutes from Albuquerque. Taos is more like three hours from the big city.

It is a much smaller city, less than a tenth in size in population, just under 6,000, compared to about 70,000. Its economy seems to be even more dependent on tourism. The Taos Ski Valley, around 20 miles north of the city, is a better developed ski area than the one here in Santa Fe. Recently some billionaire bought the ski valley and is in the process of installing new lifts and in general upgrading the entire facility.

Taos itself is less than a thousand feet higher than Santa Fe, but up in the ski valley you're at 10,000 feet plus. In either case altitude should be taken into account, especially if you have any reason to think it will be a problem. I spent two weeks in the Taos Ski Valley in July (science fiction writing workshop) and I could clearly tell the difference in altitude. And I love living at 7,000 feet, as I do here. Because of the higher altitude, they get a lot more snow in winter than we do here in Santa Fe. And up in the mountains, in the ski valley, it rains a great deal more than in the summer. It's understandably cooler year-round. Either place there is no air pollution to speak of.

They do have a hospital there, but it is much smaller and many people, if anything serious goes wrong, come to Santa Fe or all the way to Albuquerque.

In general, if you like small town living you would like Taos. But it's a significant drive to Albuquerque. However, the scenery there is even more spectacular than I have, and their night skies are significantly darker, meaning you'll see even more stars there than I do. And I love my night skies here.

If you are giving serious thought to any of New Mexico, try very hard to come out for at least a month and check out different places. While staying in a hotel is not quite like being in an apartment or home, you'd still figure out a lot about where you'd like to be. For me, Santa Fe is perfect. It's close enough to Albuquerque for whatever big-city things I need, and far enough away, with open desert between, that we are not just a satellite of ABQ. Taos is even more so a separate place.

Santa Fe has a reputation for being terribly expensive. In my opinion it's not that expensive, but I've lived in other parts of the country, unlike so many here in NM who've barely ever been out of the state. Both places have their share of movie stars. Julia Roberts lives part time in Taos, I understand. Santa Fe has Ali McGraw (whom I've met and is incredibly nice), Gene Hackman (whose wife owns a restaurant on the north side of town), and Shirley McLean (whom no one says anything nice about). We also have a thriving movie and TV industry, which means often many more such are spotted. The series Longmire has been filmed here, and will continue to be if some other network picks it up. Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque.

A surprising number of s-f writers live all over the state. George RR Martin is in Santa Fe, as well as some others you may not have heard of: S. M. Stirling, Melinda Snodgrass, and Ian Tregellis. A couple of years ago George (and everyone calls him that) bought the Jean Cocteau Cinema here, refurbished it, and it now shows all sorts of interesting movies and hosts special events. A bunch of other s-f writers live more in the Albuquerque area. Stephen Gould, Walter Jon Williams, Daniel Abraham, and others whose names don't immediately come to mind. Oh, and while I have no idea if George is on DU, at the beginning of this week he did an event with Senator Tom Udall who is running for re-election this year. I've met Tom several times and he's a very nice guy.

If you are an s-f person Bubonicon is held in August, usually the third weekend of the month.