Talk:Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hydrology

In the first sentence under the Hydrology section, the parenthetical aside in the Rio Grande reference - "(river water diverted from the Colorado River basin through the San Juan-Chama Project[28])" - should be struck. While the Rio is certainly supplemented by the San Juan diversion due to water rights wrangling, that diversion is a very small part of the Rio's hydrology itself and adds little or nothing to the ABQ hydrology discussion. It certainly belongs in a discussion of the Rio Grande, but not here. In fact it is a misleading digression. Someone spent time on the reference, so I wanted to make my case before striking. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlamastra (talk • contribs) 13:51, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

How is it misleading? Albuquerque is specifically named in the Upper Colorado Compact, and it has the largest share of NM's entitlement. In fact, the city of Albuquerque has no right to surface water from the Rio Grande. The hydrology section is about water in a growing city in a desert. The sources of the drinking water that the city receives should remain in the article.Synchronism (talk) 02:13, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Rio Rancho and Intel

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but because Rio Rancho is a separate city, although it might be alright to mention Intel's employment in text, I do not think that it should be listed as one of the top ten employers in Albuquerque...because it isn't. Intel is a large employer in Rio Rancho. I suppose one could write that the list includes the top 10 employers in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statitical Area, but then one needs to look at all the businesses in Rio Rancho as well. Rio Rancho Public Schools may bump some other group out of the category of largest employers in the Albuquerque MSA. Taram (talk) 21:48, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

I think it would be most meaningful to keep the table as is, but make it clear that it is a list of the largest employers in the metro area. After all many people from Albuquerque work at Intel, and if you want to be truly pedantic Intel is not in Rio Rancho either since that land is unincorporated. Similarly KAFB and Sandia are also not located inside the city limits, but it would be absurd to suggest they not be listed. Camerafiend (talk) 18:19, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

I like your idea of making it clear that the list refers to the ABQ metro area. 75.173.143.242 (talk) 18:20, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

I'll just do that then and hopefully everybody will be satisfied. As a sidenote the table doesn't seem to have a source but I'm sure that can be rectified. Camerafiend (talk) 18:37, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Example restaurants

While I personally agree that The Frontier is a culturally important part of ABQ's history, I'm reluctant to list it in the article without a WP:SECONDARY source saying so. Saying that a place is culturally important, without explaining why it's important (with a source), is just WP:PEACOCK. Additionally, without solid sources these sections always seem to degrade into bland lists of every restaurant in a city with no indication of which ones are significant, and which ones paid a publicist for some WP:COVERT advertising. That may be an extreme example, but Blake's Lotaburger had some suspicious activity in that direction in the past, so I don't think this is a minor issue that should be taken lightly. Grayfell (talk) 03:26, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

New Mexican cuisine is extremely important throughout New Mexico, and the same holds true for Albuquerque. Since this is the largest city in the state, this food plays an important part of the city's culture. In much the same way that Tokyo's cuisine is internationally acclaimed. Several restaurants have become iconic staples in the city, since Albuquerque was a city on several historic trade routes; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, U.S. Route 66, Interstate 40, and Interstate 25. In fact one of the oldest buildings in the state, is a restaurant. There are several universally accepted restaurants in Albuquerque, according the articles I'll supply; Casa de Ruiz, Los Poblanos, Cecilia's Cafe, Sadie's, El Pinto, El Modelo, Frontier Restaurant, Garduño's, Little Anita's, Mac's La Sierra, The Candy Lady, Blake's Lotaburger, and so many more. My prior list was accurate, but here's the sourcing. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. I can find more sources, but Albuquerque's cuisine is important to the history of the city, and not in a small way. Smile Lee (talk) 06:15, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Those links show me that I'm doing a really bad job at getting my point across. What do this city's trade-routes have to do with iconic restaurants? That's something that should be explained in the article, not here. Nobody is denying that good restaurants exist in Albuquerque. Saying that food is important to the city's culture is subjective. Which cities value food less? Which value it more? It's not really helpful to be setting it up that way. Ask some anthropologists, and I'm sure most will tell you that food is important to ALL cultures. Saying that it's important, without explaining why it's important, or how its different from other cultures, is kinda WP:PEACOCKy to me.

Singling out a restaurant because it has gotten good reviews is understandable, but it's not always neutral. If we list every restaurant that has gotten attention from the press, the list becomes very long, and functionally useless, so we need to be selective in who we're mentioning, and why. I'm not questioning your motives, but the end result is that some restaurants are getting additional promotion, while others are not. We need to have a good reason to provide that advertising. If you want to make a point about food-culture in Albuquerque, you should find sources that talk specifically about food culture. Reviews and travel-guide listings are selective samples of what's trendy and positive, and are only a very superficial, commercially motivated examination of the city's culture. I think it is better to avoid listing any specific restaurants without a solid, in-depth source that specifically links it to the city's food culture, or that describes it as being exemplary. If that means no specific restaurants are mentioned, I think the article is better off for it. I know it's a high standard, but I don't think it's an unreasonable one. NYC gets away without mentioning The Four Seasons or Ray's Pizza, after all. I know, I know, OTHERSTUFF. Grayfell (talk) 07:21, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Agree completely with Grayfell. Actually, I would prefer to not see any restaurants at all. You are begging for crufting up the article. If we do list restaurants, a baseline requirement should be WP:N. But I do not know what purpose even listing notable eating places would serve. Certainly you could make a point about cuisine without listing any extant establishments? By listing any open eating places, we are begging for that crufty list thing and are rapidly in the territory of WP:NOTGUIDE. John from Idegon (talk) 09:26, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Of course food is important to every single group of people, I've studied anthropology. But in anthropologic studies there is a huge difference between personal identity impact and cultural impact. The aspect of food in New Mexican culture is significant in an extreme way. Its comparable to Southern American cuisine, but it has a slightly broader scope than that. Here's an article that covers a tiny piece of it from Fast Company (magazine) [6]. The cultural connection between New Mexicans and their cuisine caused it to become an identity for them. WP:N doesn't have anything to do with the content of articles, though I agree that a list of restaurants could make it lean towards WP:NOTGUIDE. I have opted to just explain it without listing anything, and further fleshing out the articles on Wikipedia related to New Mexico's culture. I'll return to editing here, after I've added a bit more specifics on Albuquerque's part in the cultural identity of the state and its people. Smile Lee (talk) 21:31, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Etymology image

The MOS recommends against sandwiching text between an image and an infobox (MOS:IMAGELOCATION). Where doing so is necessary to keep the image with the appropriate text, as here, reducing the image may be needed to avoid choking the text. The image in the Etymology section was enlarged to regular size and moved to the top of the article recently. Between the bottom of the Index, two section headings, an image, and an infobox, the beginning of the article looked very cluttered, and the text was squeezed down to where only three and four words fit on some lines, even on a large monitor. I reduced the image to decrease the choking and moved it down a paragraph so the article starts with text. This keeps the image with the appropriate text while appearing less cluttered. Laszlo Panaflex (talk) 02:22, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Demography

The Ethnicity percentages don't add up

69.7% Caucasian 4.6% Multiracial 4.6% American Indian 3.3% Black 2.6% Asian 15.1% Other 46.7% Hispanic — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.188.93.39 (talk) 23:50, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

According to the cited source, "Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories." Thus "Hispanic" is an indicator of ethnicity, not race. Laszlo Panaflex (talk) 00:17, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Organization

I'm re-arranging the order of some sections for a more logical presentation. The geography section now flows from the physical features to the layout of the city; the architecture section was moved to the Arts & Culture section; etc. Also spreads some images and tables to break up some cluttered areas. More content needed in many sections, of course. Laszlo Panaflex (talk) 00:30, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Police Shootings

Do you think we should add a section regarding the recent issues regarding the police, particularly the shooting of James Boyd? It made international headlines and sparked protests throughout the city. As a resident of ABQ I can tell you that people are still very much talking about it and the wounds have not healed.

City Councilors

I see that the mayor is mentioned but the 9 city councilors are not. Is that information that should be included? http://www.cabq.gov/council