Sorry to be a spoil sport - but New Mexico does not have any "HUGE METROPOLITAN CITIES its entire state population of 1,900,000 would just barely qulifiy it internationally and then it would equal that quaint Barvarian Village of Munich, Germany at 1,950,000

Albuquerque at 448,700 is New Mexico's ONLY city over 100,000.
Even Santa Fe can barely scrape together 62,000

Tokyo Japan 34,000,000
Mexico City Mexico 22,350,000
New York USA 21,800,000
Sao Paulo Brazil 20,000,000
Bombay India 19,400,000
Los Angeles USA 17,750,000
Cairo Egypt 15,250,000
Manila Philippines 14,550,000
Karachi Pakistan 13,800,000
Moscow Russia 13,650,000
London Great Britain 11,950,000
Istanbul Turkey 11,250,000
Beijing China 10,700,000

Even among metropolitan cities of the USA - New Mexico ranks as a piss-ant.

Chicago USA 9,700,000
Washington USA 8,050,000
San Francisco USA 7,200,000
Philadelphia USA 6,000,000
Detroit USA 5,750,000
Houston USA 5,300,000
Atlanta USA 5,000,000
Phoenix USA 3,800,000
Seattle USA 3,700,000
Minneapolis USA 3,350,000

SOURCE: http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html

According to the 1995 to 2000 data of the USA Census (published 2003) New Mexico has a NEGATIVE 17.8 migration rate (more people are leaving than are moving into the state. (http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-12.pdf)

I believe Mr. Robbins was referring to the entire state of New Mexico, not a specific geographic region when he used the words "BAD-LANDS."

Sincerely,
Gargoyle