Why was I there in the first place? Just the former teacher doing her homework – looking at all options. I had scoured the Albuquerque Journal and online resources thoroughly to prepare for my three-day visit to the city to find a place to live. I was open to all possibilities – or so I thought – until I saw the Freeway Inn. My list ranged from apartment complexes, condos, mobile homes, motels and houses for rent to homes for sale. I wanted to see the full range of possibilities and develop a sense of pricing in a market new to me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was approaching my selection the same way I’ve prepared market evaluations as a Realtor for thirty-three years. What’s the most it could be worth? (current, aspirational, listing prices). The least? (distressed short-sale or bank-owned sale prices). Okay….there’s my range, now, let’s narrow in. The Freeway Inn was a “limit setter.” How could I find a more economical rental than this – a $500/month shabby, furnished motel room.
The young man on the other side of the glass partition was pleasant and responsive to my disarming question: “How often do the police come here?” Pause. “Not very often.” “What does that mean? One, two times a week. A couple of times a month?” Hesitation. I discovered the hesitation was not a deliberate concealment when I asked, “How long have you worked here?”
A couple of months. Hmmmm….high staff turnover too. As I joked with him about the “bullet-proof glass,” the words “transient” and “saving up enough to stay” slipped from his lips. Ohhh….. Cars and trucks matching occupants littered the lot as we crossed the asphalt to see a dimly-lit sample room. Two double beds. Worn, dismal spreads. Frayed drapes, formica counters, vinyl bathroom flooring, carpet that looked like it would be sticky – nothing you’d want to touch. No freshly-laundered and pressed white duvet covers or Pottery Barn pillow collections here. Like dog-smelling homes I’d toured as a Realtor, in which I couldn’t breathe, the room compelled me to exit quickly in search of fresh air. Needless to say, it wasn’t a match. I decided I didn’t need to see the other monthly-rental motels or the $395/month furnished studio either. Remarkably, for $105 more, not much in the world, unless you don’t have it, and for the same amount as the Freeway Inn room, I could live in a leafy suburban neighborhood in a single-storey, pueblo-style, adobe home surrounded by resplendent gardens. Worlds apart. It truly was like changing TV channels and tuning in to another reality.
Blurbs from the Burque:
This week's most-read stories in The Albuquerque Journal:
- Al Unser Jr. Arrested in Albuquerque on DWI, Reckless Driving Charges
- New-Mexico-born Al-Qaida Cleric Killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the Islamic militant cleric killed this week in Yemen, was born in Las Cruces, NM in 1971 when his father was studying at the University of New Mexico.
