Albuquerque is the big city in the state of New Mexico, United States. These are a county seat of Bernalillo County, and is situated in a central a share of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. the city got a number people of 448,607 when of the 2000 census. a area has a people of about 750,000 & includes the city of Rio Rancho, one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. ABQ (a colloquialism for the city; too the code for the city's airport) is placed in which a Interstate highways I-40 and I-25 meet in an interchange which locals refer to when a "Big I." A city wwhen founded inside 1706 as a Spanish colonial outpost of Alburquerque; Albuquerque retains much Spanish ethnic & historical heritage.

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Albuquerque is page to the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Kirtland Air Force Base as well as Sandia National Laboratories and Petroglyph National Monument. A Sandia Mountains run along a eastern side of Albuquerque & the Rio Grande flows through the city north to south. Albuquerque's climate is unremarkably sunny & dry, averaging those days are gone than 10-12 inches (250 to 300 millimetre) of precipitation by the month.

A city hosts a Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta every October. A Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta began around 1972.

History
A old Spanish town of Alburquerque was founded in 1706 as a Spanish colonial outpost. Alburquerque was a agricultural community & strategically placed military outpost along the Camino Real. the town of Alburquerque was built in the traditional Spanish village pattern: the central plaza surrounded by government buildings, homes, & a church. This central plaza metropolitan locality has been preserved & is open to the public as a museum, ethnic area, & center of commerce. These are known as "Old Town Albuquerque" or even just "Old Town."

A village was known as per provincial governor Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes around honour of the Duke of Alburquerque, viceroy of New Spain from 1702 to 1710. A number one "r" inside "Alburquerque" was dropped at occasionally point in the 19th century, supposedly by an Anglo-American railroad station-master unable to correctly pronounce a city's title. In the 1990's, a Central Avenue Trolley Buses were emblazoned sustaining a title Alburquerque (note a more "r" when a fifth letter) within honor of the city's historic title. Throughout 2005 & 2006, a tricentenary celebration is ingesting place throughout a city.

When you took a Civil War Albuquerque was occupied in February 1862 by Confederate troops under General Henry Hopkins Sibley, who shortly after advanced by using his independent person into northern Future Mexico. In the period of his retreat from either Union troops into Texas he made the could have in April 8, 1862 at Albuquerque. The day-all day long engagement at long range led to couple of casualties against the detachment of Federal commanded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby.

Whilst a Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1880, it bypassed a Plaza, securing the rider depot & railyards astir ii miles east around what quickly became called Just released Albuquerque or even Just released Town. Old Town remained a separate community until the Forties once it was absorbed per City of Albuquerque, which experienced been incorporated within 1891.

Just released Albuquerque quickly became the straighten southwestern town which by 1900 boasted a people of 8,000 habitant & all a modern agreeableness including an electrical street railway connecting Old Town, Future Town, & the recently constituted UNM campus on the East Mesa. Within 1902 the famous Alvarado Hotel was built adjacent to the freshly rider depot & remained the symbol of the city until it was level inside 1970 to produce room for the park. Inside 2002, a Alvarado Transportation Center was built on a places around the manner resembling the old landmark. It functions when a downtown headquarters for the city's transit department, & service as an intermodal hub for local buses, Greyhound busses, and a Rail Runner commuter rail line.

Future Mexico's dry climate brought several tuberculosis patients to a city in research of the therapeutic when you took the early 1900s, and many sanitaria grow on the East Mesa to serve the two. Presbyterian Hospital & St. Joseph Hospital, 2 of the big hospitals in the city, experienced their beginnings in the time period of this period. Influential New Deal-era governor Clyde Tingley and famed southwestern designer John Gaw Meem were among those bring back Up to date Mexico by t.b..

A number 1 traveller on Route 66 appeared in Albuquerque in 1926, and before long dozens of motels, restaurants, and gift shops had sprung up along the roadside to serve them. Route 66 originally ran through the city inside the northward-south alignment along For Street, however in 1937 it was realigned along Central Avenue, a further straight east-west route. A intersection of For & Central business district was a main carrefour of the city for decades. A majority of a living structures from either the Route 66 era get in Telephone exchange, though there are too a select few on For.

A establishment of Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories, in 1939 and 1949, respectively, would produce Albuquerque a key streaming video player the Atomic Age. Meanwhile, the city continued to expand outbound onto a East Mesa, reaching a people of 200,000 by 1960.

When Albuquerque spread outward-bound, the downtown front yard fell into a decline. Numerous historic buildings were razed in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for freshly plazwhen, highrises, & parking area as section of the city's urban renewal plan. Sole recently has downtown came to regain a bit of of its wasted urban character, in a main through a construction of fresh loft apartment house & the renovation of historic structures such as the KiMo Theater.

Urban Trends and Issues

Recently, government leaders & numerous citizens in the city own actively pursued urban projects taken in by cities several days big. The immense click has resulted in the resurgence of business district, creating eating place, agents, & residential lofts. the strip of Central Avenue between Number one & Eighth streets has be the bustling, albeit short, hub of urban life, creating a large-city sense. Alvarado will bring ready to hand access to more area of the city. Today, the city manager wants to tackle a rapid transit task to ease a few of the city's traffic woes. Light rail is being considered & would at first extend higher a Central Avenue corridor from either a westside, across downtown, preceding UNM & a Nob Hill territorial dominion, & into a Uptown Region [http://www.abqrtp.com]. A patterns would afterwards become expanded to handle Rio Rancho & a Northeast.

Occasionally citizens & city councilors, especially from either a semi-rural pockets in the city, fear Albuquerque can be "growing up too quickly." Their idea is to keep Albuquerque little & sleepyheaded, avoiding increasing crime & traffic, worsening air quality, & enchroachment of the fragile bosque. E.g., 1995's controversial construction of a Montaño Bridge crossing at the Rio Grande resulted in the corridor merely existence striped for ii lanes. Recognizing a require for tons foursome lanes of travel originally arranged, a Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce passed a board position within 2003 supporting the opening of deuce extra lanes [http://www.abqchamber.com/content/divisions/PublicPolicyAndGovernment/PositionPapers/MontanoBridge.pdf]. It claim this measure is necessary to ease West Side] traffic woes. An additional road issue is the extension of Walk del Norte on the westside, which may stimulator increased traffic across Petroglyph National Monument.

Elsewhere, a rather middle ground has been smitten by owning the passage of the West Side Strategic Project, which will bring nonindulgent system on building permits for the extreme american fringes of the city [http://www.cabq.gov/planning/publications/westside/5_Section_B.pdf]. This work is to encourage around-filling developments & discourage a fleeing of loaded residents to outlying suburban areas, allowing an impoverished city centre. As a matter of fact, Albuquerque has universally been manufactured effective land utilise. Urban sprawl is about attached per Pueblo of Sandia to a north, the Pueblo of Isleta & Kirtland Air Force Base to the south, the Sandia Mountains to a east and Petroglyph National Monument to the west, add up to reuse land inside the city. For example, the gasoline station along Eubank Boulevard that closed around 2001 was replaced by the strip mall inside the matter of months.

Part because of the said geographical & legislative constraints, very much of the incubation in the area is ingesting place outside of the City of Albuquerque itself. Inside Rio Rancho to a northwest, a communities east of the mountains, & the incorporated area of Valencia County population growth is upwards of twice that of the city. A primary cities around Valencia County come Los Lunas and Belen, both of which are front yard to booming industrial complexes & fresh residential subdivisions. Zoom in the area occurs as super really & super recent tool. A Mid Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), which includes constituents from throughout a Albuquerque metropolitan area, was formed to assure that these governments along a middle Rio Grande would exist as take a breath to meet a needs of their quickly rising populations. MRGOC's cornerstone task is the Just released Mexico Rail Runner Express, the commuter rail line that serves the area [http://www.mrcog-nm.gov/commuter_rail.htm]. Phase I personally, which diarrhea in existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway tracks between Belen and Bernalillo, is set to run operation inside Fall, 2005, by having ends at a city along a way.

In the summertime of 2005, ACORN community groups placed the minimum wage initiative on the October 4th ballot. the initiative would keep close at hand created a city wide minimum remuneration of $7.L. A measure was defeated by to a lesser degree of these percent.

Climate and Geography
Albuquerque's climate is ordinarily sunny & dry by owning moo numbers of humidness. A sun shines additional than 280 years a year. Typical wintertime daytime highs come in the upper 40s to moo 50s Fahrenheit while droping into the mid 20s F all-night. A odd period a snow lessens around Albuquerque (lots of snow lessens in the nearby Sandia Mountains,) it commonly melts in the morning. Summer daytime highs come unremarkably in a online to mid 90s F when droping into the 60s F all-night, however it's the super dry heat (looking for Albuquerque is located in the desert). Albuquerque recieves super little rain: single Eighter from decatur.Fivesome inches a year. A Sandia Mountains - known as for a watermelon red a mountains turn at dusk- come the predominant geographical feature seeable inside Albuquerque. A clouds also when a mountains typically turn outstanding colorise the evening.

Based on data from a United States Census Bureau, the city has the number region of 469.Fivesome km² (181.3 mi²). 467.Niner km² (180.Sextuplet mi²) of these are l& and Single.Sevener km² (Cipher.Hexad mi²) of these are a body of water. A number front yard is Cipher.35% a water system.

Albuquerque is placed at 35°6'39" North, 106°36'36" West (35.110703, -106.609991).

Distances
Dallas: 645 miles (1038 km) northwest. Denver: 445 miles (716 km) south-southwest. Phoenix, Arizona: 465 miles (748 km) ene. Salt Lake City: 620 miles (998 km) southeast.

Terrain
Satellite Image of Albuquerque, New Mexico Courtesy of NASA

A Sandia Mountains which include Sandia Peak are situated to the East of the city. A Sandia Peak Tramway runs from a base of the mountain to the peak, & is the yearn aerial tramway in the world.

"Sandia" comes from either a Spanish for "watermelon". A title occurs as information to the mountain's scarlet color when you took sunsets.

A Rio Grande (Spanish for "great river") flows N to South through the city & supports the riparian forest habitat called the "bosque."

Interestingly plenty, Albuquerque has one of a greatest altitudes of any major city in the United States. A elevation of a city ranges from either 4900 feet (1490 m) above sea level touching the Rio Grande (in the Vale) to 6500 feet (1980 m) in the Northeast Heights. At a aerodrome, a elevation is 5352 feet (1631 m) above sea level. Quadrants
Albuquerque is geographically divided into tetrad quadrants which are officially section of the mailing location. It is NE (northeast), NW (northwest), SE (southeast), & SW (southwest). A n-south dividing line is Central Avenue (a path that Route 66 took through a city) and the east-west dividing line is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks. Although this is technically a section of a city, around casual conversation Albuquerqueans another time apply a perpendicular interstates We-25 & I personally-40 to divide the city into quadrants.

Northeast quadrant
This quadrant has been getting a housing expansion since the late 1950s. It abuts a base of a Sandia Mountains & contains portions of a Sandia Heights neighborhoods, which come then placed inside or even touching the foothills & are significantly higher, around elevation & price range, than the rest of the city. Running off from either Central Ave. & a railroad to the Sandia Peak Aerial Tram, this is the largest quadrant each geographically & by people. A University of New Mexico, a Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, the Uptown vicinity which includes two Coronado & Winrock malls, Journal Center, Balloon Fiesta Park, & Albuquerque Academy are all located therein quadrant. Occasionally of a virtually all flush regions of a city come placed on text, including a Las Lomas-Roma front yard, a Netherwood Park front yard, the Academy Hills front yard, & several neighborhoods in the far north-east corner streching beyond the actual city limits into Sandoval County.

Northwest quadrant
This quadrant contains historic Old Town Albuquerque, which date from to the 1700s, when well as a Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. the locality has a mixture of commercial message, on line-income, middle-income, & a bit of of the virtually all expensive range in the city. Northwest Albuquerque includes a big division of business district, a Rio Grande Nature & severity Center State Park and a Bosque ("woodlands" Cottonwood woods), a Petroglyph National Monument, Double Eagle II Airport, the historic Martineztown front yard, & Cottonwood Mall. In addition, a "North Valley" metropolitan area, which includes a bit of little cattle farm & expensive residential homes along Rio Grande Boulevard & a Rio Grande River, is located in this quadrant. A City of Albuquerque borders a villages of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and Corrales in the northwest vale. A rapidly-getting region on a west side of the flow of any stream is referred to as the "West Side" or even "West Mesa" & consists primarily of traditional residential subdivisions. On text a city proper is bordered on the northerly per City of Rio Rancho.

Southeast quadrant
Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories, the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute main campus, the Albuquerque International Sunport, University Stadium, Isotopes Park, and University Arena ("The Pit") come in the Southeast (SE) quadrant.

A voguish Nob Hill & East Downtown (EDo) neighborhoods lie along Central Avenue, a border between a Southeast & Northeast quadrants. A expensive residential developments of 4 Hills & Ridgecrest come as well located therein quadrant. Inside acutely counterpoint to these upscale developments, even so, occasionally of the virtually all poverty-indigent neighborhoods in the city come as well located in Southeast Albuquerque. When you took a preceding twenty years, a SE region, in the main in Gibson Blvd. & Central Ave., has get a greatest crime locality in the city. These neighborhoods come for instance known as a "war zone."

Southwest quadrant
Traditionally consisting of farming & rural areas, a Sou'west quadrant is typically known as a "South Valley". Although a city limits of Albuquerque don't include completely of a front yard, the South Valley is considered to extend all the way to the Isleta Indian Reservation. This includes a old communities of Kinney, Los Padillas, Mountainview, & Pajarito. A to a south prevent of downtown Albuquerque & the Bosque ("woodlands" cottonwood outdoors), a historic Barelas front yard, a National Hispanic Cultural Center, a Rio Grande Zoo, & Tingley Beach come besides placed on text.

A sou'west vicinity is presently undergoing rapid & controversial development, including big mercantile establishment & quickly-built subdivisions.

Points of interest
Albuquerque Biological Park Albuquerque Aquarium Albuquerque Museum Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Kirtland Air Force Base Maxwell Museum of Anthropology National Atomic Museum National Hispanic Cultural Center Old Town Albuquerque Petroglyph National Monument Rio Grande Botanic Garden Rio Grande Nature Center and Trail Rio Grande Zoo Sandia National Laboratories Sandia Peak Aerial Tram Tingley Beach University of New Mexico University of New Mexico Arboretum University of New Mexico Art Museum (includes Jonson Gallery)

Historic landmarks

Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse First National Bank Building Jones Motor Co. KiMo Theater Kress Store La Posada de Albuquerque Locomotive Shops Occidental Life Building Old Albuquerque High School Old Post Office Rosenwald Building San Felipe de Neri Church Simms Building Sunshine Building Southwest Brewing & Ice Co.

Skyline

X Tallest Buildings around Albuquerque |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" ! Rank !! Title !! Height !! Floors |- | 1 | Bank of America Tower | 107 m / 351 ft | 22 |- | 2 | Hyatt Regency Albuquerque | 78 m / 256 ft | 21 |- | 3 | Compass Bank Building | 73 m / 238 ft | 18 |- | 4 | Albuquerque Petroleum Building | 72 m / 235 ft | 15 |- | 5 | Bank of the West Tower | 65 m / 213 ft | 17 |- | 6 | Gold Building | 62 m / 203 ft | 14 |- | 7 | Dennis Chavez Federal Building | Lx m / 197 ft | 13 |- | 8 | PNM Building | 56 m / 184 ft | 12 |- | 9 | Simms Building | 55 m / 180 ft | 13 |- | 10 |Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse | 54 m / 167 ft | 7 |}

Culture and technology
A distinctive architecture that celebrates a Pueblo tradition characterizes many buildings in a city besides when the entire campus of the University of Just released Mexico.

In Looney Tunes cartoons Bugs Bunny often found upon arriving at the wrongly place that he got taken the incorrectly turn at Albuquerque (for instance he should stand taken the left, others a best). This gag number 1 appeared within Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945), a cartoon which was notable for featuring imitation of Göring and Hitler.

Even touching a center of town, rural characteristics like a sounds of cock crowing are non rare.

[http://www.tricklock.com/ Tricklock Company] is Albuquerque's lone international itinerant theatre company. Each January, Tricklock hosts a Revolutions International Theatre Festival, which will bring inside performing artist from either as much as the world.

[http://www.amshakes.org/ The American Shakespeare Project] occurs as local Shakespearean community theater company which is devoted to staging productions of Shakespeare's plays (& for instance people of his coeval) by using heavily emphasis on the textual authority of the First Folio.

The [http://www.nmso.org/ New Mexico Symphony Orchestra] performs & rehearses on this button at Popejoy Hall on the UNM campus.

Albuquerque lies at a center of the Future Mexico Technology Corridor, a b& of high-hi-tech personal corporations and government intitutions along the Rio Grande. Big institutions whose employees contribute to the people come many & include Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, and the attendant getting corporations which bring extremely enlightened workers to a somewhat isolated region. Intel operates a big semiconductor even manufactory or "fab" in neighboring Rio Rancho, New Mexico, in Sandoval County, New Mexico, with its attendant large-capital investment.

The solar energy and architectural-design trailblazer Steve Baer located his company, Zomeworks, here in the late 1960s.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cooperate in an enterprise that began by using a Manhattan Project.

Demographics
When of the censusof 2000, there are 448,607 people, 183,236 menage, & 112,690 families living in the city. A population density is 958.9/km² (2,483.4/mi²). There are 198,465 housing units at an typical density of 424.2/km² (1,098.7/mi²). A racial makeup of the city is 71.59% White, 3.09% Black or African American, 3.89% Native American, 2.24% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 14.78% from other races, and 4.31% from two or more races. 39.92% of the people come Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 183,236 menage away from which Xxx.2% stand tikes under a age of Xviii accept the babies, 43.6% come married couples living together, 12.9% have a female homeowner sustaining there is no married man present, & 38.5% come non-families. Thirty.5% of 100% menage come mass produced higher of people & Ogdoad.4% own soul dwelling alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical family size is Deuce.Forty & a typical personal size is Terzetto.02.

In a city the people is spread retired using Xxiv.5% under a age of Xviii, Ten.6% from either 18 to Two dozen, Thirty.9% from either 25 to 44, Xxi.9% from either 45 to 64, & Xii.0% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is 35 years. For each Hundred females there are 94.Quadruplet males. For each Centred females age Xviii & concluded, there are 91.Eight males.

the median income for a personal in the city is $38,272, & the median income for a family is $46,979. Males have a median income of $34,208 versus $26,397 for females. A per capita income for the city is $20,884. Xiii.5% of the people & X.0% of families come beneath a poverty line. Away from a amount people, Xvii.4% of victims under a age of 18 & 8.5% of people 65 & older come dwelling following a poverty level.

Educational Institutions
Colleges and Universities
University of New Mexico (main campus) TVI Community College

Primary and Secondary Schools
Albuquerque High School Albuquerque Academy

Sports

''*The Scorpions project to move to the newly arena presently existence built within neighboring Rio Rancho in 2006.

Transportation
Airports
Albuquerque International Sunport Double Eagle II Airport (Civil, small-craft aviation) Passenger Rail
Amtrak RailRunner Interstate Highways
Interstate 25 Interstate 40 Local Transit
ABQ RIDE Rapid Ride

Media
Albuquerque occurs as media hub for good deal of New Mexico. These organizations come depending inside or even have a important presence within Albuquerque:

Newspapers Albuquerque Journal (mornings 7 years the week) Albuquerque Tribune (afternoons Monday-Saturday) Just released Mexico Business Journal Up to date Mexico Business Weekly Hebdomadally Alibi (Thursdays) Crosswinds Weekly Daily Lobo (University of New Mexico student newspaper]]) Radio (major stations - main article) AM KKOB (770 kHz, talk, "NewsRadio 770 KKOB," Citadel Broadcasting Corporation) FM KANW (89.1 MHz, NPR and Public Radio International, Albuquerque Public Schools) KUNM (89.9 MHz, NPR and college radio, University of New Mexico) KAGM (106.3 MHz, talk, "106.3 Talk FM", American General Media) Television (main article) KASA (2, Fox, "Fox 2 News at Nine," Raycom Media) KOB (4, NBC, "Eyewitness News 4," Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation) KNME (5, PBS, University of New Mexico/Albuquerque Public Schools) KOAT (7, ABC, "Action 7 News," Hearst-Argyle) KRQE (13, CBS, "KRQE News 13," Emmis Communications, being sold to LIN TV) KTFQ (14, Telefutura, Telefutura owned, Entravision operated) KWBQ (19, The WB, "New Mexico's WB," ACME Communications) KLUZ (41, Univision, Entravision) KASY (50, UPN, "UPN 50," ACME Communications)

Trivia
When Bill Gates and Paul Allen were hammering out a BASIC operating system for the MITS Altair 8800, they lived at the Sundowner Motel, at 6101 Central Avenue N.E. The building has since been converted into a veterans' rehabilitation home. Their success at this venture led to the founding of Microsoft in Albuquerque in 1975. Microsoft's first official address was the One Park Central Tower on the northeast corner of San Mateo and Central Avenue (across the parking lot from the Bank of the West Tower building), where the company shared office space.

In February 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, ordered coffee from the drive-thru of a local McDonald's restaurant on Central Avenue across from UNM. She then spilled the coffee on her lap while the car was parked, causing third-degree burns. She spent eight days in the hospital, where she received skin grafts. Her medical expenses for the trip were $11,000. In the famous McDonald's coffee case, the jury awarded $2.9 million, but the judge only required the restaurant to pay $640,000.

In October 2001, an Albuquerque police officer and his civilian pilot made national news by landing their OH-58 Kiowa helicopter at the West Side Krispy Kreme outlet to pick up doughnuts.

In April 2005, the so-called "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks called police from an Albuquerque convenience store, ending a nationwide search and prompting a national media frenzy.

Vivian Vance, who played the character of Ethel Mertz on the television show, I Love Lucy, always claimed Albuquerque as her home town, even though she was born in Cherryvale, Kansas. Vivian was a founding member of the Albuquerque Little Theatre. In fact the character of Ethel was noted as having been born in Albuquerque, and her show business education there was mentioned in episode #113, ''Ethel's Home Town''.

Sister cities
Albuquerque has nine sister cities, as designated by [http://www.sister-cities.org/ Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI)]: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan Chihuahua, Mexico Gijon, Spain Helmstedt, Germany Lanzhou, China Sasebo, Japan Guadalajara, Mexico Hua Lien, Taiwan Alburquerque, Spain