Thinking of moving from Silicon Valley to Flagstaff-What am I in for? (Sedona: live, area)

[caryberry]

Flagstaff is a great "little" town...but as other have stated in reply to your post - WORLDS away from S-Valley on so many levels. My mother-in-law suggests "never being further than 20 miles from a Costco...there is a reason that they are there. The rest will work itself out."

Arizona is a very, very, very conservative Red state. Did I mention conservative?

[caryberry]

Originally Posted by buckeyenative01

We like Phoenecians for the tourism dollars they spend, but hate that they clog our roads to ski in the winter and to get out of the heat in the summer (75-80 is about the average high in the summer months, its possible, but rare, to reach 90)....Despite that, Flagstaff is (despite my desire to move elsewhere), my favorite city in Arizona.

We like for the "Phoenecians" to visit north AZ too...gets them out of the city and off the roads...and we live in Scottsdale

[adventuregurl]

Originally Posted by caryberry

My mother-in-law suggests "never being further than 20 miles from a Costco...there is a reason that they are there. The rest will work itself out."

Arizona is a very, very, very conservative Red state. Did I mention conservative?

Love that about Costco, I do miss being closer to one in Sedona.

Although it's a conservative state, it's not 'in your face', at least from my perspective, and I'm not conservative.

[buckeyenative01]

For the most part, Flagstaff isn't the same shade of red as, say, metropolitan Phoenix.

[azdr0710]

would be cool to hear from the one-post wonder original poster again about all this

[j_cat]

If you have a job lined up, then you have already conquered the hardest part about living in Flagstaff. Everything else is gravy. As a former Arizonan who has been living "back east," I would consider Flag to be the Best of the West.

[carecare7]

You are in for very low wages which don't nearly cover the high cost of living in Flagstaff.

You are in for a "right to work" state which means your employer can fire you without even having a reason (maybe they just don't like you).

You are in for high rents and housing prices (low compared to California but high for the wages here).

You are in for taking a long time to find a job, though they DO prefer hiring out-of-town folks for the better positions. In fact being from another state is to your benefit; employers in Arizona seem to think that hiring educated locals who are established here is a bad idea so they hire out of state people who come here and end up leaving soon after. Arizona is called a "transient" state because for every five people who move here, four move right back out so it makes no sense why employers prefer hiring out of state folks but it is what it is.

You are in for very cold winters and lots of snow at times and not always getting your street plowed until after 5 PM the day of the snow (we live behind the hospital and they rarely plow our street before 5 PM after a snow storm).

You are in for streets on hills too icy to drive up because the city didn't get the plows and cinders out fast enough even though a storm was forecast.

You are in for a friendly town but a difficult place to establish a sense of community unless you already belong to a church or other club or group.

[tryingtofindthespot]

"Thinking of moving from Silicon Valley to Flagstaff-What am I in for?"

much lower taxes.

[j_cat]

Originally Posted by tryingtofindthespot

"Thinking of moving from Silicon Valley to Flagstaff-What am I in for?"

much lower taxes.

Can't imagine how that would matter nearly as much as this:

Originally Posted by carecare7

You are in for very low wages which don't nearly cover the high cost of living in Flagstaff.

I guess it depends on your situation.

[George Tirebiter]

As the other folks here stated the big challenge here is jobs. It's a 'right to be an indentured servant (I mean right to work') state, so low wages and vamployers galore. If you have jobs you may be over that hurdle, but if you're not used to significant amounts of snow, it could be a shock. 12 feet of snow a year is not uncommon. Also 75 in the summer may sound great but being at 7000ft elevation that leads to rather cold winters and less than ideal temps (compared to Silicon Valley) during spring and fall.
In Flag you're also a long way from many conveniences you're used to in Silicon Valley. It might be a novelty initially, but a nuisance fairly quickly.
It is a beautiful area though around Flagstaff although Flag itself isn't much to look at. Spend as much time as you can in Sedona where it gets about 12 inches of snow a year and is usually at least 15 degrees warmer in the winter. When we lived in Sedona we only went to Flagstaff on the days in the summer when it was hot. Otherwise it was too cold, especially after coming from Southern California.
My suggestion would be to spend a week or two in Flag in the dead of winter and see how it feels to you.