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Sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder. After spending five days in Michigan, we couldn’t help but notice there are a lot of good things in Rio Rancho and in New Mexico that we didn’t see in Michigan. It was good to come home.
The most obvious difference for us during this brief trip was the weather. The beginning of spring in Michigan felt a lot like winter to New Mexicans, whose ideas of spring really does mean warm weather.
Actually, we probably shouldn’t complain about Michigan’s weather last week when, for the people there who had just lived through a Michigan winter, it probably felt mighty warm; it just didn’t feel very warm to us. However, we were glad our trip was at the end of March rather than the end of January.
Michigan has suffered with bad economic times a lot more than New Mexico has. Not all areas in the state are suffering to the extent Detroit is, but seeing the decaying buildings, poverty-stricken neighborhoods and the desolation in that city could bring tears to one’s eyes — tears of sadness for what those people are living through and tears of relief that New Mexico has escaped such despair.
Thankfully, other areas in Michigan are doing better than Detroit.
One area of similarity — both Detroit and Rio Rancho have new city managers, one city manager appointed by the state because of the city’s financial problems and the other hired by normal procedural methods. The only similarity is both cities have new managers; everything else is as different as it could be.
We know there are people who disagree with the process Rio Rancho has gone through in the last year, but we can almost guarantee there is nobody who would choose to trade places with what Detroit is going through. Bankruptcy is a whole lot worse than just struggling through some lean times.
Rio Rancho is definitely the winner in the city manager contest. Regardless of past history and disagreements about the new manager’s contract, we got to choose who runs our city and the state doesn’t get to tell us how to spend our money.
With all the cold weather in Michigan, with the struggling economy and with a car industry that is not what it used to be, it must be difficult to convince businesses to locate to Michigan. Compare that state to our sunshine, blue skies, open spaces and business-friendly environment; we would think New Mexico would come out on top every time.
For all the negatives, we met lovely people in Michigan, watched our niece marry a great Michigan native, drank some lovely Michigan wine and enjoyed seeing family members. It was a good trip. It did not convince us, however, that we would choose to live in Michigan, nor would we probably choose to vacation there.
One comparison that left Michigan far out in front of New Mexico was watching two Michigan teams progress through the brackets of the NCAA tournament. It brought back the disappointment we all felt when the University of New Mexico lost in the first round after so many of us had high hopes for a few more games.
With New Mexico State losing also, the state didn’t get to experience the excitement that Michigan did. Now, Michigan even has one team playing in the Final Four, so the whole state will still be cheering a basketball team. We just couldn’t find much loyalty for Michigan schools.
But New Mexico will be enjoying warm weather. And, in our books, the final score will show New Mexico the winner for great places to live.
— This article appeared on page 06 of the Albuquerque Journal
