Do You Prefer Phoenix Or Tucson? (Fountain Hills, Queen Creek: job market, gated, wage)

[Colt AZ]

Any place in Arizona is terrific as far as I'm concerned. The back & forth between Phoenix & Tucson, and ASU & UA will go on forever, but here is my take:

Love Tucson for its close proximity to all of its beautiful mountains & desert, especially Mt Lemmon; love its incredibly delicious Mexican food, especially from El Charro; love the cooler temps; love its (still) small-town feel; love that it's relatively free of freeways, and especially love that it's in Arizona!

Love Phoenix because of the Diamondbacks & Cardinals, love its close proximity to the cooler Arizona northlands and its beautiful forests, and also especially love that it's in Arizona!

If Phoenix & Tucson were in New Mexico... forget it!

[magnum0417]

The lower pay scale in Tucson quite frankly is the primary reason Phoenix is preferred for working age people as myself. As a nature lover, Tucson blows Phoenix away even though it is a further distance from my second home near the Grand Canyon in Valle. Sabino Canyon and Windy Point enroute to Summerhaven blow Camelback and South Mountain away. You got the Rincons and the lovely Mt Wrightson which is a 9400 ft pyramid shaped peak in the Santa Ritas also visible south of the border in Nogales.

However, scenery does not pay the bills. If I was offered the same salary in Tucson as Phoenix, I would move. However, that will not happen. The subfreezing winter nights do contribute to some serious potholes in Tucson. That is the trade off for 2500 feet vs 1000 ft in Phoenix. The air quality is far better in Tucson as well due to more wind with the altitude and not having nearly 5 million people in a bowl shaped valley. Elevation decreased from 4000 ft near Nogales to 2000 ft near Marana but its a gentle slope from Tucson to Nogales. I would argue Tubac and Rio Rico arguably have one of the best climates in the state with lovely scenery as well.

[magnum0417]

Windy Point....case closed

[magnum0417]

Humphreys and Kendrick Peak from our acreage in Valle where we keep our RV. I am about access to lovely peaks and Phoenix lacks them. Yes, Four Peaks holds its own but you beat the crap out of your vehicle to to get up close and personal. No such case in Tucson.

[magnum0417]

Catalina Hwy blows away South Mt

[sunluv]

Reading all this, and from visits there, there are clear differences that come down to personal preference. It's not one or the other but rather what matters more to someone:

-Parts of Tucson are dumpy, run down in ways most of Phoenix isn't. But Tucson also has some nice areas that are arguably more charming. There's no reason one would have to bother much with the less desirable areas when living there.

-Phoenix has more amendities and jobs, but is also a huge, impersonal, almost-infinite sea of tract houses and suburban banality, CVSs and dollar stores. Tucson has more character, including their infrastructure and surrounding scenery. Tucson being a smaller city is quite a bit more appealing for some; it seems more personal as smaller cities often are. Less jobs but there are still opportunities, coupled with some advantages in quality of life that accompany medium and smaller cities.

It looks like there's a proportionally larger inventory of older houses, which means more character that can be run-down or charming depending on the neighborhood, vs. more money in Phoenix spent recently to erect endless oceans of pleasantly anticeptic insta-houses that seems to have been put up in the last 15-20 years.

-Even a little cooler especially nighttime, would help.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

From a perspective of being in the next state over I find Tucson more interesting to visit, but I'd definitely rather live in Phoenix. Tucson has an older soul but its charms would ware off too quickly if I lived there. I'd rather hold on to the intrigue that I have with the place by visiting once in a while.

[Leaving Arizona]

Tucson is one of those places: you either love it or hate it. My dad, born and raised there, pined for it for the rest of his life. I was born up in the Phoenix area, and can't stand Tucson and would rather be shot than live there (visiting, of course, is fine). There are places in Tucson that seem to not have been touched since my father's teen years in the mid/late 1940s - I'd see the background of my dad's old pics as I drive through certain areas, and they are instantly recognizable, though dirty, run down and unmaintained. That's a big fail by city management and a huge turn off - lovely developments elsewhere in Tucson doesn't erase this.

But the Phoenix area is now a mini-Los Angeles without the history and culture, which is why I was happy to leave - it's now got the same sprawl, the same crappy attitudes, crappy drivers, insufficient infrastructure, crammed developments, creeping cost of living... and the people are still coming in droves. The Phoenix area desperately needs to learn the lesson of L.A. as Arizona as a whole does of California's: be careful about how you manage your resources and how many people you attract.

[RJ312]

When I lived in Tucson, it was said that Tucson was only acceptable for being a college student or being a retiree. I think that was apt for Tucson.

Phoenix is slightly better for the young professional than Tucson. But even Phoenix leaves a lot to be desired as a city where you can build your career. There's not a good base of Fortune 500 HQs in Phoenix. Even with Phoenix, one's quality of life is often better if you make your money elsewhere and retire in a place like Paradise Valley.

Tucson's weather is a little better.

Slight edge to Phoenix, but to outsiders, the cities are not all that different.

[ShowLowAz10]

Love Tucson although Phoenix is nice