Scottsdale, Arizona vs St Petersburg, Florida - Long Term Win (living, best)

[my_handle]

Hello to Everyone Interested that has lived in either place.

Which one to choose.

I'm 39 and originally from northern California, recently Divorced, no kids. Decent Income and work from home. I love the water and green, dont like bugs or humidity (pretty standard I assume) I like the mountains but never climb them so flat is ok. Florida has the water and them parks. Arizona has lots close and you have to drive everywhere. Florida has the gulf in your backyard.

I lived in St Pete for 6 months and loved the ease of the downtown area ( except the bums ) food / drink / social. Loved the beach areas although not much going on there. Loved the wildlife of the Pelicans diving for fish, Dolphins and Stingrays jumping out of the water and all the cool birds. Being able to rent a boat and cruise the turquoise waters and dive for lobster! Not to mention amazing sunset after sunset on the gulf!
East coast Florida with all the north east people/attitudes are not appealing.

Now I live in Old Town Scottsdale for 2 years. It is by far the easiest and most relaxed place I have ever lived. Everything is bicycle distance and usually something do to. Food is ok but not great. Booze is plentiful and super easy to spend any weekend kicking in with your friends. Some amazing sunsets here. People are mostly nice and American.

I like both places but the Dryness in AZ and the lack of green is exhausting.
I always ask people from both places what keeps them there.
Arizona always says 'its cheap' in their top 3 but there is nothing aside from the job/family that holds them here and they always say they would live in California but its too $ or populated
Tampa/St Pete people tell me the water/weather and the quality of life plus being in a place where its always holiday.

What are your top 5 reasons for loving either place and what holds you there?
Lets not mention the typical: Bugs or Humidity or the 115 degrees in AZ
Property Tax: FL 1.7% AZ .7%
Flood Insurance: FL $$$ AZ $0
Income Tax: FL 0 AZ 4.5%
I just like it factor: ??

[KurtAZ]

Well...for us right now:
1) Job - Although my position CAN be pretty mobile
2) Family - My wife would have a hard time being away from her parents
3) Kids grew up here and it would be difficult to move them and be away from what they are used to.
4) Politics of the places on our short list
5) Recreation - Camping, off-roading, shooting, hiking, horseback riding, etc.

[locolife]

I can say I would only go to CA from Arizona if I had to for work, I would not move there for much other reason because I find Arizona superior in many ways, and were not here for cheapness personally.

1&2) Having a large city next to nearly endless recreational opportunities is a rarity in this country, add to that the fact that Phoenix (despite it's size) is a very mobile city, you can get around here nearly any time of the day without nearly the headache that any other top 20 metro area entails. That is HUGE to me, I learned this lesson the hard way when I moved away for a while and saw what other big city commutes are like. People are imprisoned in their cars for many hours a day in a lot of America's big cities.

3) This is a city that's continually growing and evolving, I moved away for about 5 years and I came back to find tons of new adventures in places that didn't exist just 5 years ago. I love that this place is not completely stuck in the past like some of the older cities in this country and still figuring out exactly what it will become.

4) I love the unique culture that Phoenix has, I'm probably infatuated a bit with our arts districts right now, but having been to many cities I do find the Roosevelt Row and Grand Avenue areas to be unique. I love the people that live there, they're all about Phoenix and it shows in their work towards making this area better and better. It's already one of the best art walks in the country and it's gaining even more of a reputation with recent publicity from USA Today. If you stick to Scottsdale too much I can see why you're bored, venture into Phoenix.

5) Watching downtown evolve, develop and grow has been awesome, I originally moved here in 2002 and I've watched this area go from truly a ghost town to something nobody would have believed it would become, in 14ish years. That's been cool, but so to has the indie scene that's setup in support of it, there's some unbelievable performing arts, chefs and entrepreneurs that are making this city very cool.

6) You mentioned a lot of things about the beach, clearly we don't have one of those, but we do have some awesome riparian preserves that are full of bird watching, fishing, and lots of other "beach-like" types of things. Sure, there's no waves, but since we have bike paths that run all of this town I will often grab my bike and head out to one of the preserves for an afternoon relaxing in the sun. I haven't done it yet but a lot of the wave pools, like big surf, will have movie night where you sit in your tube in the wave pool and watch movies. Try doing that in the ocean.

7) There's never a lack of things to do here, I can't even tell you how many things I miss that I'd love to go do if I had more time. There's always new restaurants opening, music festivals galore, food festivals, art walks, car shows, group hikes, star gazing gatherings, and I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff. Despite living very close to New York City for a number of years, I missed the fact that I can spend about 12 months a year, bug free outside here.

8) I'll only mention this because I really love it about Arizona and I really missed it when I was out East. You can be in any environment you want within a few hour drive of here. Mountains, desert, or even the ocean (via Rocky Point) are all within 4ish or less hours of Phoenix. I do love that and I didn't realize how unique it was until I left. I know CA has it but again, CA is not a place I'd choose to go.

[JGMotorsport64]

I've felt is presumptuous of California posters to infer that California is some good standard. It's a nice place, but there are better. And for how expensive CA actually is, I'd spend that money somewhere else .

[locolife]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

I've felt is presumptuous of California posters to infer that California is some good standard. It's a nice place, but there are better. And for how expensive CA actually is, I'd spend that money somewhere else .

Even if it was cheap, not sure I'd go there. I'm not a fan of June gloom, I don't like the natural disasters that occur there, and the congestion is beyond insanity. I don't mind our weather that much and I can't tell you how many CA friends come here to visit and are jealous about the trail access I have right outside of my back door. I think I'd still pick AZ over CA, even it was free. I don't mind visiting though and we are close enough to do that.

[my_handle]

locolife,

Thank you for your articulated response! I read all the points and can not disagree with them because I have come into contact with everything you said. now its coming up to 3 years.

the comparison is West coast florida ( tampa/st pete and scottsdale/phx )

both areas have their transient population and reasons for wanting to move.

since this posting, I have been asking most people I come into contact with and the main reasons I will post here for the forum feedback:


Reasons to move to PHX/SD
1. is job relocation - there are more businesses pulling people from CA-OR-TX here.
2. coming back 'home' after trying to live in CA-NY-WA-TX
3. leaving CA for good and starting new here
4. tired of IL-IN-OH and want sunshine

No one said because they liked the dessert life

Then there are the justification reasons to move here, which were in this order:
1. cost! - houses are so cheap .... fill in the blank
2. its close to so many things to do - GCanyon, California, Vegas etc ( usual suspects)
3. its very clean and well organized vs where I am from.
4. if I want to go somewhere nice, I can fly and more often because I am saving money on everything else.

No here are the reasons that I heard mostly from people moving out:
1. this heat is over-the-top
2. during summer its almost a ghost town, no one is outside, events dry up, most well-to-do people leave for the summer and all the snow birds are gone.
3. winter and spring its a mad house on the road - people cant drive, accidents galore
4. spring training time - all restaurants and entertainment cater to the influx of people and service and prices are reflected vs cities that have steady tourism and thereby business as usual.

disclosure; my polling data is by casual conversation by mostly random people that have lived here for at least 2 years ( not snowbirds ) and from Central PHX, Downtown PHX, Old Town SDale, North SDale, Arcadia, Chandler and one couple from Gilbert.

It would be great to hear the West Coast Florida side; the cost from Belleaire Beach to Treasure Island. Dunedin, clearwater, etc

[march2]

I'd go with St. Petersburg over Scottsdale. I would hate to live somewhere hot like AZ and not have beaches. Also has close access to the whole myriad of things to do in Central FL. You mentioned the Northeasterners in FL, but didn't mention the Californians in AZ. I'll take the Northeasterners any day.

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by march2

I'd go with St. Petersburg over Scottsdale. Northeasterners any day.

I'm the complete opposite!


I'd go Scottsdale because of Florida being inundated by Northeasterners.
(Although, for now, the west coast is still primarily Midwesterners.)

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by my_handle

No one said because they liked the dessert life

Who doesn't like dessert?


Oh! You mean the desert! I moved here in part because I adore the desert flora and fauna.

[march2]

Originally Posted by cfbs2691

I'm the complete opposite!


I'd go Scottsdale because of Florida being inundated by Northeasterners.
(Although, for now, the west coast is still primarily Midwesterners.)

lol, yeah, I guess it could be a 50/50 split with people. It's just a general observation. I don't want to bemoan all from the NE or CA. Heck, my wife was raised in the Boston area and her family still lives there. You'll find annoying people across the nation. Just my personal experience with some from CA think the sun rises and falls there and the rest of the nation is a cesspool in comparison. Beautiful state, but has its share of wart just like the rest of us.