is to make sure you really get to know a place before making permanent changes.Good luck!

Take a long road trip. Don't just go by what you have heard or read from others.

We road tripped through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Arizona (among other States) last year.

We passed through Las Cruces last year. Got some wonderful tamales and biscochitos. Generally liked the State of New Mexico, but moving to Las Cruces would not personally be our top choice. (I should also add, some areas in Arizona we thought we would love, we did not. And some areas of Colorado we loved over 20 years ago, we were less impressed with this time.)

Don't know where your beliefs lie, but they fit your description.

I’m not down with fascists. Sadly I am stuck here.
I do hope you can find a suitable place. 🙏🏻

Florida is not the Florida I’ve lived in almost my whole life..a change might be good…

Biden scored victories in all of the state's three largest counties: Bernalillo, Doña Ana, and Santa Fe counties, home to Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe, respectively; all of them voted for Biden in margins greater than ten points.[4] Aggregate polling correctly showed Biden ahead by double-digits in the state.[5][6]

They absolutely love it. (especially the part about it being blue)
Las Cruces is a university town, plus UTEP is on the far western edge of El Paso. Lots of hospitals, amenities, etc Also New Mexico is a up and coming wine area with a number of vineyards to tour and sample.
We spend the night in Las Cruces when we drive to PHoenix to visit our daughter.

New Mexico has scenic variety, lots of cool places to go, great food and all your friends will want to come visit you.

When we went back tovisit, we were disappointed. The city has dreamers but not ones that follow through to make their dreams successful.

revitalize downtown or what if we had an industrial park to bring in clean businesses or other ideas that help a city grow but limit sprawl and too many cars, etc.
Leaders are those who take those ideas and come up with practical plans to make the ideas a successful reality. In the years I lived 15 minutes south of Cruces in a rural solar home, I saw lots of good dreams coming from the dreamers but little that lasted.
Take the case of the downtown. They closed off the street to traffic to provide a pedestrian walking area for downtown stores but never figured out how to attract people to them. My town in North Carolina, on the other hand, didn't totally close downtown to traffic but made it a very slow drive with some parking and only closes it for events then came up with tons of events on most weekends from late spring to early fall, live music with dancing and beer and wine one Thursday a month and weekly dancing to live music but no beer every Friday. Even during the cold months, they have events but not as often. Ours has been successful forever but Cruces' died because they had no leaders willing to commit the money, change things that didn't work, and promote downtown with the businesses there.

Where were all those atomic blasts taking place? Where does the underground water take the fall out?
Is there restrictive water rationing? Are you allowed to capture rainfall in a water catchment system and recycle it on your plants?

Bottled water is a must. For 6 or 7 months you stay indoors to get out of the scorching heat. Not pedestrian or bike friendly. The downtown mall is an embarrassment and best ignored. More cops.

There is a commission (?) that has a continuous 30 year water plan for Las Cruces. I do not know how effective they are or how much they have planned for growth and climate change.
I learned they have several deep (1200 feet plus) wells that supply the area. I am not sure of the details.

We will be visiting soon (road trip) and staying long enough to get a feel for the town. Thanks for the tips.

Las Cruces is a great place if you like it arid. My skin became dry in Rio Rancho in the 90s. We moved away from New Mexico to western NY because of climate change. Desert life is OK for some people though.

We are in a UU congregation which began in 1885 and helped the underground railroad even before its founding. Chat if you want to

I loved my home city of Memphis, Tennessee, but I've been visiting Las Cruces every year since 2018, usually in the fall (except 2020 due to the pandemic, but I visited twice in 2021). At this point I'm adamant that I'll be retiring in Las Cruces, if I don't get there before then. Being in a big blue dot in an increasingly irrational red state is affording me only so much happiness. I'm feeling froggy.
My husband and I are awaiting some major financial good news, hopefully to arrive soon. If and when that happens, we may start looking at houses as early as this fall during our visit.

Great climate, beautiful in the summer when the monsoons hit in the afternoons, lots of mountains to explore, El Paso and airport are only an hour. Best Mexican food on the planet! Nice size! With NMSU and NASA in the area, there are a fair amount of intellectuals.