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Sure, Phoenix is not my favorite large Western metro area, Sure, there are a lot of bland cookie cutter suburban development no doubt, and I do agree that there are a lot of people, who just sit in their air conditioned car/house, but I disagree about the lack of outdoor areas to recreate and enjoy nature..
Seriously, don't you just look on the horizon see a mountain and figure on driving in that direction?
Squaw Peak/Camelback Mtn?? Thats like Phoenixes version of LAs Griffith Park.
McDowell Mountains park NE near Scottsdale/Fountain Hills
Estrella mountains and White Tank mountains to the west.
Superstition mountains much further to the east beyond Apache Junction.
All great Sonora desert ecosystem areas. I get to see lots of different lizards, fascinating plant life, birds, gambels quail, hawks, vultures, etc. Can you see that in Central Park in Manhattan or Chicagos lakefront. Sure those places are beautiful, but they are not nature.
Sure, in eastern cities, people may walk more, but its just in their urban neighborhood or in the artificially planted and landscaped park.
Eastern cities may have "artificially planted landscape parks" within the city limits...but you don't have to travel far from any city east of the Mississippi river to be out in real and beautiful nature as well. And it tends to be much more lush with greenery and bodies of water than those out west.
Eastern cities may have "artificially planted landscape parks" within the city limits...but you don't have to travel far from any city east of the Mississippi river to be out in real and beautiful nature as well. And it tends to be much more lush with greenery and bodies of water than those out west.
I think the west has the best...but also the worst landscapes. East of the MS is pretty nice allover but doesn't usually have crazy looking geography like parts of the west.
Eastern-Usually of higher density
Western-Not really dense except for west coast cities
Eastern-Greater emphasis on historical preservation, usage of older buildings more
Western-Still preserves historic areas but not as much and usage of old buildings is rare.
Eastern-Minorties generally in the city while lesser in the suburbs
Western-Races distrbuted evenly except for los angeles
Eastern-More emphasis placed on walking and public transportation
Western-Driving centric
Also define east do you mean everything east and west of mississippi? Because st.louis is more like the east then the west by a lot
Really defined by where are most valuable jobs and cos. based...and where those workers/owners choose to reside
Not that many valuable cos. left in East: NYC or Chic region hasn't done anything in decades, and Bos, etc are even more laughable
In SiliconValley, most valuable cos. are HQd in suburban campuses; highest-paid workers choose to reside in nearby suburbs; a few poor yuppies choose to reside in SF and do the 35min commute...and anyone not a Luddite doesn't commute most of wk anyway in era of modern computing
LA is essentially a resort town for wealthy dudes from SV or Medina or DFW/Hou
Real question is how world's most productive choose to live/work; suspect answer is places like NYC/LA/SF/FL/LV are mockable resort/tourist towns and most of world's productives live/work in various CA/TX/WA suburbs and often telecommute anyway, changing conventional notions of physicality of offices and cities in era when productivity is rather virtualized and suburban....
The way I see it, there are distinct differences between cities in the eastern half of the country and those of the western half of the country. None of this is to suggest that one is better than the other, but that they are just different. I much prefer the culture of western cities to eastern cities, and while they are all different, from my experiences and observations there are some generalizations one can make about western cities and eastern cities. Here we go:
Eastern: More passionate, rapid, loyal sports fans, and support may be more universal. People do engage in outdoor/nature recreation across their region/state but it is a lower priority or a niche activity.
Western: Outdoor recreation of various sorts of all levels is one of the higher priorities that people are into/value, while they have major league sports teams, many are somewhat indifferent or may only get into when team is doing well.
Eastern: Cities are dominated by older buildings. 100 year old rowhouses, factories/warehouses converted into lofts, etc. Obviously many new buildings too, but mixed in. More often seen as more "real cities" to urban enthusiasts.
Western: While there are certainly historic districts, mostly dominated by new buildings. Many neighborhoods or even downtown may have been smaller/more suburban at one time but then became more dense/urban over time (building modern apartments as infill, houses converted to apartments, modern office buildings/modern light rail). Because of this, often mistaken for suburban.
Eastern: Suburbs are relatively sleepy, family oriented that may even have a rural aesthetic, with many residents having deeper roots in area (at least relative to cities in general). (or convsersely may have bombed out rustbelt ghetto suburbs in some areas.
Western: Suburbs may be much more than bedroom communities with some significant attractions in their own right. Shopping, theme parks, etc. California is the epitome of this.
Eastern: Has distinct, even insular inner city ethnic/immigrant neighborhoods
Western: Immigrants/diversity more likely to be scattered/evenly distributed across metro area.
Eastern: Known for having beautiful parks, but more likely to be created/landscaped/manmade.
Western: City parks more likely "real nature" a wild hill/mountain/canyon/etc. in middle of city.
Eastern: While cities may have PLENTY of healthy eating options, people are more likely to rave about food unique and special to said city, that is widely known to be tasty, yet not healthy.
Western: Healthy eating higher priority, although cities may still have lots of unhealthy food too. More people are vegetarians, or eat animal products hunted or raised in organic/natural condition.
Eastern: Even if people are white collared professionals, those with blue collared roots, may not have lost their tough guy, straight talking blue collared way of speaking.
Western: More politically correct. Possibly even a little passive aggressive.
Anything else??
Its interesting where this divide begins and ends. On the Mississippi, St. Louis clearly feels like a eastern city, whereas Minneapolis feels a western city.
Obviously there are way more variations. One can not forget southern cities, etc. I think Texas cities are certainly more western than eastern. Big difference between Pac-NW and Southwestern, etc.
I know I'm going to get comments about how these are pointless generalizations, but I still think the patterns are significant enough, to make one prefer western or eastern more than the other.
True about food. They think pizza is another food group. I've spoken to people who've never heard of a turkey dog. And, vegie burgers are like yelling fire in a crowded room.
Blue Collar, Tough guy/girl thing, definitely true. Less bravado would be better and less loud voices. Ouch. Western is more politically correct. Good observations IMO.
48.8% Hispanic
28.7% Non-Hispanic White
11.1% Asian
9.2% Black
Los Angeles County
47.7% Hispanic
27.8% Non-Hispanic White
13.5% Asian
8.3% Black
Los Angeles CSA
44.9% Hispanic
33.6% Non-Hispanic White
12.1% Asian
6.6% Black
Please advise and show proof if I'm wrong.
Also, in Eastern cities/areas, the make up of the people in the suburbs varies. There are suburbs of the major cities that are diverse or have a high percentage of a "minority" group.
You also have a difference in terms of the make up of Eastern and Western cities. Western cities/area tend to have higher Asian and Hispanic percentages, while Eastern cities tend to have higher Black percentages. With Native Americans it depends on a particular area of concentration. There is crossover though.
I'll tell you about the outdoor recreation I am noticing in a really really big Western Metro. Phoenix. I don't blame them completely because the area seems lacking in outdoor venues. Its a world of strip malls and long long streets that mean more strip malls. Not pleasing to look at beyond all the nice palm trees. Housing that is so close together no wonder there are all these walls for privavy. Yes some of them go out and hike and ride a bike on one of the few trails you can find. Or they go and drive miles and miles to the Flagstaff area and ski in the winter. Things of that sort. When you add up the population the active ones are far and few between. I notice alot of really overweight people here. Not nearly as health concious as I thought it would be this close to Calif.
Outdoor activity here is getting in your car (that is if its parked outside)Many live in walled in societies here and the car is in a garage.( So your not even outdoors for that moment) Driving somewhere parking in a parking lot and then walking to your place of employment or a store. That is the outside activity for many in this area. Walking to and from a car and the distance required to walk in a parking lot, and thats it for many of them. Though I doubt many will admit it. They will say there is all this outdoor activity here, but many really do not make use of what there is here. Its a distance away, its to hot, a multitude of reasons. That and the fact the Phoenix area is really a rather dull area when you add it all up. Its rather limited other than stores and businesses. A real lack of really nice parks other than a few of them. The more desert hiking type of park, but other than that. The area is rather limited here for average outside activity for some reason. Perhaps its the weird politics here I'm not sure, but something intentionally keeps this place back so it can't reach its potential. Outdoor venues and places to enjoy the outdoors really has been looked over. So that virtually everything evolves around driving a car. I know its brutally hot here but not 12 months a year. There is some beautiful comfortable weather here for months, yet to find a place to spend some time outside is very hard. Just to take a nice walk thru a park or in a downtown that has some life. I just don't see many outside here like most other places. Other than driving and in parking lots. It really didn't have to be built this way and its bull to think it had to because it sprawls. Fix the damn place and build it more appealing to live in.
I prefer the Eastern areas other than the cold climates, and the really high cost of living in many of the areas back there. However the Phoenix area to me is a big bland artificial area with people coming and going like a hotel. Yet it has little personality and really lacks a homey type of feeling. Outdoor activity. Yeah walk to and from your car drive to where your going, and then do the reverese back to your house Total time outside wakling to and from your car. I rarely see anyone walk or jog or spend time outside here. Even in this beautiful weather we have right now. BORING.
Its a shame really how the place is designed. All this nice weather that is just started and will continue to late April or so. Yet there really is a lack of appealing places to spend this time outside nearby. Yet again many will not admit it here. Which is sad in itself and the reason it is like this.
You obviously haven't been to Camelback Mountain! That place is overflowing with in shape people, some of which climb the mountain every single day.
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