I am female.

Go to gravatar.com and create avatar for your email id. Email id should match with the email id you use here to post comments.

The answer has already been given in the past, dude!

The reason Bay Area rocks is because you can make a lot of money living here, where as in NY it sucks all the money out of you.

ABQ has a high amount of illegals because neighboring Santa Fe is a “Sanctuary City.” Amazingly enough, Santa Fe has priced illegals out of their city (where have I heard this before???) and so they live in ABQ.

Recently, 2 illegals shot five people to death in a Denny’s restaurant in ABQ.
http://www.mysuncoast.com/Global/story.asp?S=10569749&nav=menu577_2_1

Breitbart has the FBI list of crime numbers. Albuquerque is (IIRC) the same as or worse than Palmdale.

http://www.walletpop.com/insurance/most-dangerous-states?photo=5

ABQ is a big “small town” with all the associated problems of a large city yet without the tax base to support adequate law enforcement.

Q: What CA city is comparable to ABQ?
Ans: I would say its like San Bernardino.

Another notoriously high-rent city, San Jose, Calif., falls at the other end of the spectrum, emerging as the country’s most affordable major city.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/29/cities-family-affordable-lifestyle-real-estate-cities-family.html

Of course they throw in the caveat of a two-income household earning the median $100k salary. Bummer for singles, stay-at-home parents and anyone else without a tech job!

San Francisco did well too:

San Francisco, a city well known for its pricey housing and steep cost of living, turns out to be one of the country’s most affordable. The city may have high costs, but similarly flush wages soften the blow. The average budget only runs to 68% of a family’s income.