Such a sordid little burg...
I live in Albuquerque, and like many who also live here I kind of like it. Of course Albuquerque has it's problems, and the biggest is Californians. We're flooded with them, and they're driving the local residents to drink. Literally. I'll explain. Albuquerque is a small city. We're a little backwards, and generally ok with that. Of course, the city is growing, fast. I had a strange experience the other day as someone who's been living here for about six months or so pointed out how quickly the new houses were springing up, and how they had all been empty lots when he had arrived. I found this particularly funny, because he was pointing to an area I had remembered as being nothing in the middle of nothing, surrounded by miles and miles of nothing. I wouldn't even have suspected there was anyone living out there, much less a whole new part of the city. This is really par for the Albuquerque experience. Anyone who's been here for a while will gladly, and at the drop of a hat, reminisce about how much smaller they remember the city being, and with a little pressing what stores used to be where other stores are now. It's kind of a local pastime.
So, here we are a small city caught in an explosion of growth that's been going on for years now, and what do we have to show for it? Well, that's a somewhat complicated question. The truth is we've been getting better movies, but we've also been slowly losing our character. We've become inundated with chain stores of all kinds, lame theme restaurant, and lots and lots of SUV's. The problem is this: California. There's been a steady influx of people from California moving to New Mexico to get away from California, and yet they keep bringing it with them. It really wasn't that long ago that you could go to a local cafe, have a cigarette and leaf through some books you bough at a local bookstore. Now you can buy some books at Barnes and Noble and enjoy then sans cigarette in a Starbucks. One thing in Albuquerque's favor, however, is the fact that, to my knowledge, we do not have any chain Mexican restaurants. I'm fairly certain they wouldn't last too long, if the City even let them have the permit to open in the first place.
What we're really talking about here is homogenization. New Mexicans are not, for the most part, concerned with what the rest of the country is doing, and you see it in the strangest things: the way even McDonalds, great kingpin of blank-faced corporate America, advertises a green chile cheeseburger, the way chain bars like Banana Joe's can't seem to stay in business, or the way we still occasionally have outbreaks of the plague.
The problem is that every year these things fade a little bit more. We lost Santa Fe to the outsiders long before I can remember, and they've started in on Albuquerque. Santa Fe, for those who have never been there is best described as "Southwest-land". It's a theme park dedicated to high priced stucco housing and selling expensive silver and turquoise jewelry to tourists. Ok, Albuquerque has it's share of turquoise jewelry, but here its still sold by Native American street vendors. Its the influence from California, I think, that's causing all of this. They move in with their SUV's and start demanding things like heater repair at 3:00 in the morning, and then bitch when they can't have it. They institute smoking bans in our restaurants, patronize the chain stores and restaurants, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In Albuquerque you can now only smoke in bars, which I'm sure is a great help to our DUI problem, but whatever. If it makes the Californians happy...
The fact of the matter is this. Albuquerque is a relaxed little place, where no one really does that much. We wake up late, we hang out, and things will get done when they get done. If a store doesn't open on time, they probably didn't feel like coming in just yet, and it would be better for everyone here if our Californian population either accepted this or went back home. We don't want that brand of civilization, but we are, hopelessly it seems, outnumbered.
So, here we are a small city caught in an explosion of growth that's been going on for years now, and what do we have to show for it? Well, that's a somewhat complicated question. The truth is we've been getting better movies, but we've also been slowly losing our character. We've become inundated with chain stores of all kinds, lame theme restaurant, and lots and lots of SUV's. The problem is this: California. There's been a steady influx of people from California moving to New Mexico to get away from California, and yet they keep bringing it with them. It really wasn't that long ago that you could go to a local cafe, have a cigarette and leaf through some books you bough at a local bookstore. Now you can buy some books at Barnes and Noble and enjoy then sans cigarette in a Starbucks. One thing in Albuquerque's favor, however, is the fact that, to my knowledge, we do not have any chain Mexican restaurants. I'm fairly certain they wouldn't last too long, if the City even let them have the permit to open in the first place.
What we're really talking about here is homogenization. New Mexicans are not, for the most part, concerned with what the rest of the country is doing, and you see it in the strangest things: the way even McDonalds, great kingpin of blank-faced corporate America, advertises a green chile cheeseburger, the way chain bars like Banana Joe's can't seem to stay in business, or the way we still occasionally have outbreaks of the plague.
The problem is that every year these things fade a little bit more. We lost Santa Fe to the outsiders long before I can remember, and they've started in on Albuquerque. Santa Fe, for those who have never been there is best described as "Southwest-land". It's a theme park dedicated to high priced stucco housing and selling expensive silver and turquoise jewelry to tourists. Ok, Albuquerque has it's share of turquoise jewelry, but here its still sold by Native American street vendors. Its the influence from California, I think, that's causing all of this. They move in with their SUV's and start demanding things like heater repair at 3:00 in the morning, and then bitch when they can't have it. They institute smoking bans in our restaurants, patronize the chain stores and restaurants, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. In Albuquerque you can now only smoke in bars, which I'm sure is a great help to our DUI problem, but whatever. If it makes the Californians happy...
The fact of the matter is this. Albuquerque is a relaxed little place, where no one really does that much. We wake up late, we hang out, and things will get done when they get done. If a store doesn't open on time, they probably didn't feel like coming in just yet, and it would be better for everyone here if our Californian population either accepted this or went back home. We don't want that brand of civilization, but we are, hopelessly it seems, outnumbered.
posted by brian at 1:38 AM
2 Comments:
There was an "On the Border" on the westside but it closed and became a "Gardunos".
Fo those who weren't aware. "On the Border" is some kind of Mexican food chain. If Albuquerque had one, it must have closed in the blink of an eye. On their website there isn't one within 25 miles. In fact, New Mexico and Utah are the only states in the southwest without one.
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