And crime rates in ABQ are still terrible. Yeah, they are better than in Baltimore, Philly, Atlanta, or basically any other black metro. They are about the same as in San Francisco. Which only seems good if you're escaping one of the big cities. Face it, ABQ is a pit when compared with any decent suburb of Seattle, Austin, or heck even Vegas.
One other thing: the city government has taken a course towards turning the city into every other cesspit. The ART project is deeply symptomatic of this "new urbanism" approach. Screw basic safety or roads, let's compete for mythical young professionals, is what is on the agenda. The crime rate may seem competitive now, but wait until bums spread into new habitats.
It used to be that the warzone was the only bad region. A year ago I found used needles in a restaurant near the Big-I. The rotten core keeps spreading, enveloping Nob Hill.
One surface observation you might like is the spread of the cages on the doors and windows. When I moved in, some time in 2008, you pretty much had to drive along Central or Zuni to see every house caged. Not so now. Every time a house is broken in, owners cage it. You 50% or more caged blocks all over the city. Even west of the river on the mesa it's a pretty common sight.