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My sister-in-law and her husband live back east, and are considering moving out west-ish. They've found a nice looking place on the internet in Dona Ana (just north of Las Cruces).

Before they go flying into town to check it out, I was wondering if any of y'all might know something about the area. Things like weather, lifestyle, demographics, etc. Good, bad and ugly. About all I know is that NM State is there.

TIA...

...D

We've gotten our annual rainfall (about 8 inches) the past week but a great place to live. I lived in LC for four years and enjoyed it. It is a large town turning into a small city quickly which is one reason why we moved to Alamogordo. BTW, it's still raining right now.

Actually, if you want roasted Hatch green chile, just go to any grocery store in NM and get them by the bushel. Just get some ziplocks and separate and freeze. If you like them hot, get the hot. Mild, get Big Jim chiles. Be warned, chiles get hotter while frozen. We put them on everything, including ice cream.

I don't know how much it has changed since I lived there almost 20 years ago. I moved there directly from having lived in New England, and the culture difference was large. People would ask me personal questions when they did not even know me....and that took a while to get used to. Easterners, 20 years ago, were perceived as extremely pushy because they expected things to happen MUCH faster than they did. I finally summed up the culture difference this way: Back East, it was "efficiency before courtesy," in the sense that getting something done well and quickly was more important than smoothing people's emotions. In the Southwest, it was exactly the opposite, "courtesy before efficiency," in that smoothing people's emotions was far, far ahead of both timeliness and quality.

While the arts are available in LC, quality of musical groups will not be what Easterners are used to. I do remember the theater as being exceptional though.

All the border towns' crime has gotten worse and worse over time due to the drug traffic and the illegal crossers. As enforcement has gotten stronger, the illegal activites have gotten more violent in response; as the milder criminals have been discouraged, a much more violent element has taken over, willing to take higher risks and be more brazen.

LC was designated one of the most desireable places to retire to recently by AARP magazine, and it has caused an influx of people and probably a rise in property values. I don't know if groceries are open on Sundays yet or not.

Tell them to check out St George, Utah. That is farther from the border and probably safer. I don't know about property values though.

MA

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