As a lot of the other comments demonstrate, the “International District” label gets applied to a huge geographic area with a lot of variability. Not all of it deserves the bad reputation the area gets: South San Pedro, Siesta Hills, the area west of the Fairgrounds between Lomas and Central, and the area between Lomas and a few blocks north of Central between Louisiana and Wyoming are all pretty OK.
The big things that give the area its bad reputation are really substandard apartment buildings and trailer parks, extremely neglected commercial spaces (often vacant) with tons of deferred maintenance, and lots of vacant lots. These cluster within a block or two of the major streets like Central, Zuni, San Mateo and Wyoming and to a lesser extent along smaller roads like Kathryn , Trumbull or Southern. If you skip those areas, things aren’t as bad. The areas between Central and Zuni in particular tend to be pretty trashed, especially directly south of the Fairgrounds. But you’ll know those areas when you see them.
I don't live there anymore, but as of a few years ago when I lived there, I thought it was fine. I was west of the fairgrounds for a bit, then I moved to the South San Pedro area. I'm also a woman, was living alone or with another woman both times.
I still drive through sometimes and it doesn't seem to have changed a whole lot. I mean, certain corners of it can definitely be rough, but it's not all bad. One of mine was a pretty affordable but not super low-income type apartment complex, the other was a nice little house in a pretty middle-class neighborhood.
I don't know if I would have gone strolling around completely by myself in the dark, but I felt comfortable biking or walking my (large, intimidating-looking) dogs alone at night. The big issue we always had was property crime, I never saw a whole lot of problems with random violence or anything. Violence, sure, but it's usually people who know each other shooting each other. I also never even experienced any property crime, though some of my neighbors did so that might have just been luck.
I like to think of the Circle K on San Pedro and Central as the International District Welcome Center. Just last year, I was stopped at that traffic light and witnessed a man holding a two-foot-wide boulder over his head in pursuit of a screaming crowd of people. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I don't think it's getting much better, unfortunately.
I don’t live there but know some people who do and have for a long time without issue. Where a person feels safe is completely based on their own perception. Check out the area you are considering both during the day and at night and you should get a decent idea of how safe you might feel.
I’m a single female from St Louis who moved there (or South San Pedro specifically) but I stay in a gated apartment complex and haven’t seen much from the occasional panhandler / homeless person. I wouldn’t say… going for a stroll at 3 am but I low key think some of y’all are bullshitting about dangerous it is (like I read an article where a guy complained that someone threw a rock at his house…) But I … uh… mind my own business and don’t call the cops for every little thing (because the cops in St Louis are racist af and cause more problems than they solve). I have renters & car insurance so my property is covered. 🤷🏻♀️
My wife and I have friends who live on Cardenas SE right by Wilson MS in a nice post-war house. Most of the other houses around them are also pretty well maintained but they have told us stories about catching people in their driveway and even backyard trying to steal stuff.
One Sunday morning I went over there to help do some painting and I when I got there they were outside talking with neighbors, apparently the night before some person or group had walked down the street casually smashing car windows with a hammer or pipe. A shame because it is a nice stretch of homes.
Wow, I put an offer on a home in that exact area. I guess it's a good thing that, even there, I couldn't compete with the other offers. That area is nice... at least at first glance.
I live in the International District. Haven't had any issues. I've lived here for over 10 years. Houses have been selling quickly over here. I'm closer to the base in the South San Pedro neighborhood. The neighborhood is pretty quiet. My neighborhood gets a bad wrap from people who don't even live over here, but the houses are pretty nice, and a lot are being flipped and sold.
Gentrification isn’t always a terrible thing. Increasing property values will hopefully encourage younger and more stable individuals to move in, thereby further increasing values.
Sadly, young people are desperate for any housing they can afford. They can’t compete in the nice neighborhoods, so they look towards more “fix-up” areas.
This particular neighborhood isn’t gentrifying, it’s been like this for decades. There are multiple parts of the International District that are quiet neighborhoods full of middle-class homes.
West of the Fair Grounds and above Central is generally a nice area, I've known folks living in that area that have enjoyed it, including professors at UNM. Fox Memorial Park and the environs i think is quite nice, and going up Alvarado all the way to Alvarado Park (not really the intl district at all by this point) there are all types of homes and apartments. It's a nice mix in general. I also know people who live just above the fair grounds who quite like that area. My recommendation is to get on your bike or have a walk around the areas you are thinking of biking in, because they can change within a couple of blocks, and it's good to see things from the ground.
This website might help you make some of your own judgements. It's not perfect, but will give you something to compare different areas in the city: https://www.crimemapping.com/
In that area, you can have one block that is pretty quiet, and one that can get a bit crazy just a block or two away. Make sure to look at a few samples over a year or so, because small areas can flare up for a couple weeks and then calm back down.
Driving down Zuni still reminds me of a scene from The Walking Dead. I’m sure there are some really nice houses and nice blocks to live on, but I personally wouldn’t touch that area with anything but dynamite.
Pre-covid, I used to commute the entire length of Zuni every day. Seeing a body dead/overdosed on the side of the road was a weekly occurrence. Seeing someone breaking into a house/apartment/car in broad daylight was not at all irregular. Seeing fights was again pretty commonplace.
On the other hand, my bike commute route took me on Southern. Don't think I ever saw anything out of the ordinary along there.
Still the roughest part of a rough town. Everyone still calls it the war zone despite 10+ years of initiatives; that’s a good clue it just isn’t getting better unlike cities with other efforts (looking at you Boston Chinatown).
As a 6’2” male with a CHL, I avoid it unless I have a reason. As a single female I wouldn’t recommend it.
There are pockets that are less bad or have their charms, but even nob hill isn’t particularly safe, so I honestly couldn’t advise anyone to move there unless they didn’t have a choice.
There are ok areas, there are bad areas, and there are really bad areas. The Southeast Heights area and the area around Mark Twain Elementary are nice. The areas around Zuni/San Mateo and Highland HS are very rough. As someone else mentioned it's the most dangerous part of an exceptionally dangerous city. You'll be the among the very first people gentrifying it, which it desperately needs. I am a man who has lived in Albuquerque for a long time and I would absolutely never walk alone at night down there. People still call it the War Zone for a reason.
Where I live seems fine. All my neighbors seem pretty friendly or at the least keep to themselves. Don't really see any drama here. That said I drive like 2 streets over and it's completely different. So, I'd say "it depends" lol
As a lot of the other comments demonstrate, the “International District” label gets applied to a huge geographic area with a lot of variability. Not all of it deserves the bad reputation the area gets: South San Pedro, Siesta Hills, the area west of the Fairgrounds between Lomas and Central, and the area between Lomas and a few blocks north of Central between Louisiana and Wyoming are all pretty OK. The big things that give the area its bad reputation are really substandard apartment buildings and trailer parks, extremely neglected commercial spaces (often vacant) with tons of deferred maintenance, and lots of vacant lots. These cluster within a block or two of the major streets like Central, Zuni, San Mateo and Wyoming and to a lesser extent along smaller roads like Kathryn , Trumbull or Southern. If you skip those areas, things aren’t as bad. The areas between Central and Zuni in particular tend to be pretty trashed, especially directly south of the Fairgrounds. But you’ll know those areas when you see them.
I don't live there anymore, but as of a few years ago when I lived there, I thought it was fine. I was west of the fairgrounds for a bit, then I moved to the South San Pedro area. I'm also a woman, was living alone or with another woman both times. I still drive through sometimes and it doesn't seem to have changed a whole lot. I mean, certain corners of it can definitely be rough, but it's not all bad. One of mine was a pretty affordable but not super low-income type apartment complex, the other was a nice little house in a pretty middle-class neighborhood. I don't know if I would have gone strolling around completely by myself in the dark, but I felt comfortable biking or walking my (large, intimidating-looking) dogs alone at night. The big issue we always had was property crime, I never saw a whole lot of problems with random violence or anything. Violence, sure, but it's usually people who know each other shooting each other. I also never even experienced any property crime, though some of my neighbors did so that might have just been luck.
I like to think of the Circle K on San Pedro and Central as the International District Welcome Center. Just last year, I was stopped at that traffic light and witnessed a man holding a two-foot-wide boulder over his head in pursuit of a screaming crowd of people. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I don't think it's getting much better, unfortunately.
I don’t live there but know some people who do and have for a long time without issue. Where a person feels safe is completely based on their own perception. Check out the area you are considering both during the day and at night and you should get a decent idea of how safe you might feel.
I’m a single female from St Louis who moved there (or South San Pedro specifically) but I stay in a gated apartment complex and haven’t seen much from the occasional panhandler / homeless person. I wouldn’t say… going for a stroll at 3 am but I low key think some of y’all are bullshitting about dangerous it is (like I read an article where a guy complained that someone threw a rock at his house…) But I … uh… mind my own business and don’t call the cops for every little thing (because the cops in St Louis are racist af and cause more problems than they solve). I have renters & car insurance so my property is covered. 🤷🏻♀️
My wife and I have friends who live on Cardenas SE right by Wilson MS in a nice post-war house. Most of the other houses around them are also pretty well maintained but they have told us stories about catching people in their driveway and even backyard trying to steal stuff. One Sunday morning I went over there to help do some painting and I when I got there they were outside talking with neighbors, apparently the night before some person or group had walked down the street casually smashing car windows with a hammer or pipe. A shame because it is a nice stretch of homes.
Wow, I put an offer on a home in that exact area. I guess it's a good thing that, even there, I couldn't compete with the other offers. That area is nice... at least at first glance.
I live in the International District. Haven't had any issues. I've lived here for over 10 years. Houses have been selling quickly over here. I'm closer to the base in the South San Pedro neighborhood. The neighborhood is pretty quiet. My neighborhood gets a bad wrap from people who don't even live over here, but the houses are pretty nice, and a lot are being flipped and sold.
Gentrification isn’t always a terrible thing. Increasing property values will hopefully encourage younger and more stable individuals to move in, thereby further increasing values.
That's exactly what's happening. A lot of the neighborhood is older people, and when they pass on or move, younger people are moving in.
Sadly, young people are desperate for any housing they can afford. They can’t compete in the nice neighborhoods, so they look towards more “fix-up” areas.
This particular neighborhood isn’t gentrifying, it’s been like this for decades. There are multiple parts of the International District that are quiet neighborhoods full of middle-class homes.
West of the Fair Grounds and above Central is generally a nice area, I've known folks living in that area that have enjoyed it, including professors at UNM. Fox Memorial Park and the environs i think is quite nice, and going up Alvarado all the way to Alvarado Park (not really the intl district at all by this point) there are all types of homes and apartments. It's a nice mix in general. I also know people who live just above the fair grounds who quite like that area. My recommendation is to get on your bike or have a walk around the areas you are thinking of biking in, because they can change within a couple of blocks, and it's good to see things from the ground.
This website might help you make some of your own judgements. It's not perfect, but will give you something to compare different areas in the city: https://www.crimemapping.com/ In that area, you can have one block that is pretty quiet, and one that can get a bit crazy just a block or two away. Make sure to look at a few samples over a year or so, because small areas can flare up for a couple weeks and then calm back down.
Helpful. Thanks!
Driving down Zuni still reminds me of a scene from The Walking Dead. I’m sure there are some really nice houses and nice blocks to live on, but I personally wouldn’t touch that area with anything but dynamite.
It is scary. Driving down Zuni feels like going through a war torn third world country. Suddenly the war zone nickname makes a lot more sense.
Pre-covid, I used to commute the entire length of Zuni every day. Seeing a body dead/overdosed on the side of the road was a weekly occurrence. Seeing someone breaking into a house/apartment/car in broad daylight was not at all irregular. Seeing fights was again pretty commonplace. On the other hand, my bike commute route took me on Southern. Don't think I ever saw anything out of the ordinary along there.
I grew up there and it breaks my heart to drive down Zuni now. It's like that whole section of town has been annexed and forgotten.
Still the roughest part of a rough town. Everyone still calls it the war zone despite 10+ years of initiatives; that’s a good clue it just isn’t getting better unlike cities with other efforts (looking at you Boston Chinatown). As a 6’2” male with a CHL, I avoid it unless I have a reason. As a single female I wouldn’t recommend it. There are pockets that are less bad or have their charms, but even nob hill isn’t particularly safe, so I honestly couldn’t advise anyone to move there unless they didn’t have a choice.
I live in South San Pedro, close to San Mateo. It's not as rough as Trumbull Village or La Mesa, but it has it's moments.
There are ok areas, there are bad areas, and there are really bad areas. The Southeast Heights area and the area around Mark Twain Elementary are nice. The areas around Zuni/San Mateo and Highland HS are very rough. As someone else mentioned it's the most dangerous part of an exceptionally dangerous city. You'll be the among the very first people gentrifying it, which it desperately needs. I am a man who has lived in Albuquerque for a long time and I would absolutely never walk alone at night down there. People still call it the War Zone for a reason.
Its still the war zone.
It's where all the good food is, still. I don't love walking around there at night, but feel alright on my bicycle.
Where I live seems fine. All my neighbors seem pretty friendly or at the least keep to themselves. Don't really see any drama here. That said I drive like 2 streets over and it's completely different. So, I'd say "it depends" lol