Hi..I have a question for NM DUers..Anyone here live in or around Taos?

[SheilaT]

6. I live in Santa Fe, and I've been to Taos on occasion.

Taos is greener because they get a lot more moisture there, even though it's a bit higher than Santa Fe, and if you go up to the ski valley you are several thousand feet higher. A year and a half ago I spent two weeks of July in Taos, and I was surprised to learn that it rains almost every day in the summer.

If you simply are a visitor in either city, you'll have a very different experience from those who live there, even those who work in the tourist industry. In both places there's a lot of art and galleries, and most of that stuff is bought by tourists. Some does go to the wealthy residents of either place, but most of us aren't that wealthy. And the majority of residents have ordinary jobs, hang out with friends, and so on, just as they do everywhere. However, in both cities we have amazing views, and especially in Santa Fe, amazing night skies. Taos gets a lot more cloud cover, so their night skies aren't quite as star-filled.

Santa Fe keeps on getting a bad rap for being so expensive, and I honestly don't get what people are talking about. Partly it's because they've never been to a really expensive city, like maybe NYC or San Francisco or Honolulu just to name three, but it's also because they only look at the high rent part of town. When I moved here from Overland Park, KS, considered generally to be a lower cost of living area (although the people on the Missouri side of the border think it's too expensive for anyone to live there) I rented a two bedroom, two bath (and three skylight) apartment for $850/month, what I would have paid for a comparable place in OP, only I wouldn't have had the skylights.

After a year I bought the place I'm in, similar size, and likewise two bedroom, two bath, and three skylights. I also have a million dollar view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains across my backyard. I live on the never popular, supposedly high-crime south side of the city, off Airport Road. It takes about fifteen minutes, max, to get anywhere in this city by car. I can walk a quarter mile and take the bus downtown, which I like to do, especially when any one of our fiestas are happening, so I don't have to hassle trying to find a parking space.

A lot of workers commute in from Albuquerque because they say they can't afford to live here. Although right now the cost of gas is way down, there's still a cost to commuting, and then there's the question of what is your time worth? Of course, if they all tried to move here, housing really would go through the roof.

Both cities are small. Santa Fe's population is about 70,000, Taos around 6,000. In both places everyone knows everyone else, it seems, and a lot of people are related to each other, which in Santa Fe at least is part of our political corruption. Plus, when I first moved here I had several people tell me not to even bother to apply for a job with the city, and maybe not even the state government, as I was not related to anyone and so stood very little chance of being hired. I never bothered to test that assumption, but at the local hospital, where I worked for four years, I saw an awful lot of employees who were related to each other.

But back to your question about dry and desert vs green. While that difference is mainly a factor of the difference in precipitation, both cities are at relatively high altitude, and that's a huge thing. If you're coming from sea level, you want to be very aware of being at high altitude and adjust your activity level accordingly. Plus, drink lots of water. Lots. You'll also be peeing a lot, but that's good. You need the water because it helps your body to produce more red blood cells which is what you need more of when at altitude.

I moved here in 2008, after a divorce. I looked at several other parts of the country, but as I like to say, Santa Fe kept calling my name. I may not live here the rest of my life. I have two grown sons, and I've warned them that I may well relocate to be nearer to one of them some day in the future. I know how difficult it was when my own mother was in what turned out to be her final illness, and none of her six children lived within 800 miles. I tell them I'll make it easy for them to go to the nursing home and sign the DNR orders. But for now, I'm quite happy here. I no longer work, I write, I cruise the internets, I get together with friends, I travel. It's a good life.

A lot of people wind up stuck in a city or part of the country they're not really crazy about. I know what that's like and I'm so glad I was able to move to a place where I really wanted to be.