Silver City, New Mexico
Writing by Rich on April 14, 2007
Silver City, New Mexico has, by far, the friendliest people of any town we’ve visited on this trip. From the moment we flew into New Mexico, I noticed how friendly people were, but no place has made us feel as welcome as Silver City. Heck, people are even nice to us when they learn that we are from California and are interested in moving here!
A burgeoning arts scene is driving downtown redevelopment here. While there are still a significant number of vacant store fronts, over 30 galleries have brought a real vitality to Silver City. The town is definitely in the midst of a renaissance. Motels were full on a weekday, and there aren’t that many houses for sale. Someone relocating here might need to buy a new house, but there seems to be no shortage of those. And while we didn’t have time to fully explore the local real estate market, costs don’t seem to be too high.
Unfortunately, Silver City is a little isolated. The place we’re living now requires a two hour drive, each way, if you want to do much in the way of shopping. And it’s three hours to the airport. It seems like we’ll be right back in the same situation with Silver City. Las Cruces has a Target and a Sam’s Club, but we didn’t see anything like a Whole Foods, Trader Joes or Wild Oats there. For that, you’ll probably have to go to El Paso, 2-1/2 hours from Silver City; it’s also the location of the nearest large airport. As a result, we had nearly ruled Silver City out, but a wonderful early morning hike up Gomez Peak got us reconsidering. It was so nice, that it had us thinking of other ways to handle those shopping trips (think lots of storage, a big freezer, etc.).
An active outdoor recreation scene really is the coup de’grace. It looks like Silver City has the best mountain biking of any town we’ve visited. And the Gomez Peak trailhead is minutes from downtown. Silver City stays on the list.
Category: Best cities and towns
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Comment by Jess Waller
Made Tuesday, 27 of May , 2008 at 10:23 am
Gawd, invasion of the locusts pondering over post-housing market crash real estate that’s still inflated. Good luck on TJs, Wild Oats, or Whole Foods in El Paso. Was this an attempt at a humor, or plain ol’ ignorance, which is often a common affliction of newbies to NM? This is taco ‘n beans country. Better to make do at the Silver City co-op. OK, so there is a Sun Harvest in EP which is part of the Wild Oats-now-Whole Foods Market chain. EP does have a nice airport tho’, which says something about what it is really useful for.
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