I would overnight in ABQ and saw around old town a little while at a reunion.
We would stay on Coors which is way west, but stayed everywhere else along I-40 or downtown also. Up towards the east side of town on Eubank. It seemed like a pretty normal area, I walked to strip mall bars and malls.
One neighborhood up towards the tram has an interesting HOA rule. I went for a ride up there with a girl I met. Their code is leave the natural vegetation, no watering, and that they like stars and night sky, no light pollution and unattended use of outdoor lighting prohibited. Leave the porch light on and you can get a ticket. That was the whole reason she took me up there and it really is a great views, but probably an exclusive neighborhood.
I spent a night at a friend in Rio Rancho, it was a mid seventies brick place and pretty nice neighborhood. We parked a bus in front and he hung out and hid from his wife. We must have shot tequila so not much more accurate information.
Another time I visited a guy who was drummer. I took a ride with him up the hill going west, there are some neighborhoods that first sprang up in the '90s. Pretty nice neighborhoods, nothing too fancy. I took my bicycle in his van so I could have a ride . Gotta love the 10 Mi. all downhill on a ten speed back to the motel downtown.
I guess it all depends on how much you want to get into it for, and it's always easier to be close to the job. Old town and southeast from there was kinda blighted, generally south of the old hiway on the west side of town seems to be on the show cops a lot.
