King of the Road - January 2011
No Place Like Home
Find the American dream and more in Rio Rancho
Story and Photography by Lesley S. King
I bought my first home on Albuquerque’s west side. Fresh out of college, I was starting my writing career and had little money, but my older brother and sister partnered with me in the deal. At the time, I luxuriated in having my own bedroom—not just a room in a dorm or my parents’ house. And I treasured the freedom of exploring the desert west of the city, where, beyond our little subdivision, stretched a golf course and what seemed infinite sage forest.
Today, as I drive into Rio Rancho, I’m reminded of those days. This town, on N.M. 528 about 10 miles north of Albuquerque, epitomizes the notion of owning one’s own home—that great American ideal that promises security and freedom. In fact, Rio Rancho, now the third-largest and fastest-growing city in New Mexico, with some 82,600 residents, began as a housing development.
In 1961, the American Realty and Petroleum Corporation (AMREP), a national real-estate company based in New Jersey, bought 55,000 acres here. The company subdivided the property, named it Rio Rancho Estates, and sold homes (often site unseen) to buyers from the Midwest and East Coast, their sales pitches promising beautiful land and lucrative investment value. The marketing strategy worked so well that, in 1971, AMREP bought another 35,000 acres. From 1961 to 1977, the company created some 86,000 lots.
Today I stop at Venezia’s Pizzeria, where I meet Aldo Venturino, whose aunt and uncle were among those early lot buyers. His parents, too, bought land here during that time, though not from AMREP.
IF YOU GO: For info about Rio Rancho: WHAT TO SEE & DO J&R Vintage Auto Museum Santa Ana Star Center Sweet Escape Ballooning WHERE TO DINE Turtle Mountain Brewing Company Venezia’s New York Style Pizzeria WHERE TO STAY |
Venturino’s family had initially emigrated from Italy to a neighborhood in the Bronx, in New York City. When he was five years old, they moved to Rio Rancho. “Rio Rancho was small, very quiet,” he says. “My parents loved it. They had half an acre, with plum, apple, and pear trees. It reminded them of Italy. They’d sit in the backyard and enjoy the view of the Sandía Mountains.” Indeed, from here the mountains seem to tower over the lush riparian ribbon of the Río Grande.
Unfortunately, AMREP couldn’t make good on its promised resale values. In the mid-1970s, the company changed its approach, and now 30 years later, it has instead focused on attracting employers to Rio Rancho, selling to in-state buyers, and keeping housing in the community affordable. In 2010, the city ranked 51st in Money magazine’s list of “100 Best Places to Live in the U.S.”
After relishing a Venezia’s Special—a pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef, mushrooms, peppers, and onions—I head out to explore. I stop at the J&R Vintage Auto Museum: 15,000 square feet of cars that are the passion of owner Gab Joiner, who bought his first Model T Ford in 1959 and has been trading cars ever since. “I’m a better buyer than a seller, so I ended up with a lot of them,” he confesses. A stroll through the museum reveals some 70 cars, all of them still owned by Joiner. I admire the oldest, a 1912 Buick Gentleman’s Roadster with soft top and bug-eye headlights, and a 1935 Ford Roadster, with an elegant greyhound hood ornament.
My next stop, the Intel Corporation plant, dominates a full city block. Opened in 1980 with fewer than 25 employees, this national developer and manufacturer of computer chips now employs 3,200 people, making it the biggest employer in the city. Geeks will especially enjoy Intel’s Rio Grande Innovation Center, which chronicles, among other things, the production of computer chips and their uses. I find a Gore-Tex suit like the ones that workers must wear full-time in the clean rooms as they make the chips. Most interesting for me, though, is a simulation of the solar system and the stars of our Milky Way Galaxy.
As evening comes, I consider my options: Rio Rancho offers plenty of nightlife, with concerts and sports at the Santa Ana Star Center, a venue owned by the City of Rio Rancho, whose naming rights were purchased by the nearby Santa Ana Pueblo. Performances by the likes of crooner Michael Bublé and the acrobatic Cirque du Soleil draw crowds to the 8,000-seat stadium, as do two minor-league sports teams: the New Mexico Mustangs (ice hockey) and the New Mexico Thunderbirds (basketball). Tonight, though, I turn in early at the Inn at Rio Rancho, where AMREP once met with prospective land buyers.
Before dawn, I drive to an empty lot just a few miles west of the Inn, where I meet up with Dave and Donna Smith, of Sweet Escape Ballooning. As the sun rises, their crew inflates a 250,000-cubic-foot nylon envelope, a hot-air balloon twice the normal size. Eight of us board a wicker gondola and soon take flight. The sudden weightlessness is magical, a floating sensation that lifts my spirit into the sky.
Dave, a pilot since 1997, fires the burner, which shoots flames up into the vast balloon to heat the air inside, which makes it lighter than the air outside the balloon, which causes us to climb. We’re now high enough that I can see the J&R Museum and Intel, and houses and more houses. I consider the homes I’ve owned over the years, including my current one, which recently was flooded so badly that I’m temporarily living elsewhere. It seems our houses, our cars (imagine owning 70 as Gab Joiner does), our jobs, fulfill us—and break our hearts.
Dave Smith announces that we’re now floating 2,000 feet above Rio Rancho. Up here the early-morning light sparkles, while the Jémez Mountains, to the north, and the Sandías, to the east, stand blue in the distance. Yes, I think, having precious possessions is wonderful—but rising above them, and knowing that I’m free and happy no matter what, is even better.
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