Green areas in Arizona (Phoenix, Tucson: college, gated, camp)

[Michyd]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to Arizona to be near my family. He is originally from Indiana and I am from New Jersey. We want an area that's green, has grass, trees etc. Which areas do you think suits our interests? Do you think it will be easy to find mechanical engineering jobs? Graphic Design jobs?

Thanks!

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by Michyd

My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to Arizona to be near my family. He is originally from Indiana and I am from New Jersey. We want an area that's green, has grass, trees etc. Which areas do you think suits our interests? Do you think it will be easy to find mechanical engineering jobs? Graphic Design jobs?

Thanks!

You might want to look into another state. There is no part of Arizona that I am aware of that is green, has grass, and has trees - not natively anyway. Of course there are parks and golf courses, but those are the exception. Arizona is predominately dirt, rock, and cactus or chapparral. There are some higher elevation areas with pine trees, but again no grass and not overly green.

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by Michyd

My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to Arizona to be near my family. He is originally from Indiana and I am from New Jersey. We want an area that's green, has grass, trees etc. Which areas do you think suits our interests? Do you think it will be easy to find mechanical engineering jobs? Graphic Design jobs?

Thanks!

Hi - you may want to post this under the general "Arizona" blog, so you can get some input from others in different parts of the state. As far as trees, and grass, areas around Prescott and Prescott Valley and Chino Valley and Camp Verde do have those things. The problem is that we're only green during monsoon season (July - September) and sometimes in the late fall and early spring if we're having a wet year. This year has been prettiy wet so far, but we're headed into our two driest, windiest months of the year (May & June) so things will be probably be quite brown again by the time the monsoons get here in early July.

I think the bigger problem would be finding jobs in your field up here. There might be one pop up, but you'd really have to be on top of it. Phoenix and Tucson would be the better places for job opportunities (and maybe Flagstaff, which is a college town). Phoenix has areas that have a lot of lawns and palm trees, but you'd have to able to handle the relentless 100+ heat for 5-6 months of the year. Flagstaff is nice, but the winters are more like the midwest winters with quite a bit of snow. It's more mountain vegetation up there with lots of pine trees. I would think job prospects would be better up there, but you'd probably have to compete with college grads for them.

[Michyd]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the help. I was looking at Flagstaff too and it seemed to suit what we are looking for. Other areas that I've heard that were sort of "green" were Payson & Peoria?

[Michyd]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to Arizona to be near my family. He is originally from Indiana and I am from New Jersey. We want an area that's green, has grass, trees etc. Which areas do you think suits our interests? Do you think it will be easy to find mechanical engineering jobs? Graphic Design jobs?

Thanks!

[beekay21]

If a place is irrigated it will be green and have trees--Check Camp Verde, Cornville, Cottonwood....there are some nice irrigated areas. Zillow and/or Craigslist are helpful.

[redjan1225]

I can tell you that Graphic Design jobs are next to impossible to find. To better your chances, web design knowledge is a plus. I don't have as much info for you on the mechanical engineering career outlook.

The problem is that the green areas tend to be the areas with smaller towns with fewer and smaller businesses. Check out Camp Verde, Flagstaff, St. Johns, Payson, and the areas in the white mountains, like Greer, Pinetop. Tucson tends to be a little greener than Phoenix, with slightly milder temperatures.

[Phxguy]

Much of Northern, eastern, and southeastern Arizona is green. Look at Flagstaff, Prescott, Show low, Williams, Snow Flake, Pine top-Lakeside, Sierra Vista, and there are many more. Those are jsut the ones I could name off the top of my head.

[kdog]

There's plenty of green in Arizona!

[redjan1225]

Originally Posted by kdog

There's plenty of green in Arizona!

This is by far the greenest spring I have ever seen. We had a good amount of rain this winter. But with the spring and the sun come the brown and the bugs. The green is slowly starting to disappear from the natural lands (preserves).