Getting Ready for Halloween!! (Scottsdale, Tempe: appointed, best neighborhoods, crime rates)

[El_Waiboi]

I want the kids to have a really good time this year, and of course they measure their happiness in quantity of gathered candy LOL! The past five years I have taken them to five different neighborhoods trying to find the greatest neighborhood to go trick or treating in, and at best, it has been "hit or miss".

I thought I could figure out the best trick-or-treat local scientifically, by looking by zip code at population density (for more trick-or-treating per square mile), or Median Household Income (figuring that more "well off" people would be more generous), and other tactics that I thought would be smart. Turns out that I'm not as smart as I thought LOL!

And now, I am turning to you, my fellow Phoenicians! In your experience, where is/are the best neighborhood(s) to take your kids trick-or-treating? We gone from one extreme to the other, we have tried from North Scottsdale, Tempe and Ahwatukee to Guadalupe, Garfield and Maryvale. Your advice and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I just want my kids to have a good time. Thanks in advance.

[LBTRS]

Wow, people really seek out the best neighborhoods to get the most amount of candy? Several things come to mind on this...

First, we provide candy to trick-or-treaters with the thought that these are our neighbor kids and are returning the favor of them doing it for our kids over the years. I'm certainly not providing candy for people that drive all over the valley looking for the biggest haul.

Second, I've raised two kids that are past trick-or-treat age and we always took them to a few houses in OUR neighborhood and they got WAY MORE CANDY THEN THEY SHOULD EVERY HAVE. I can't imagine the need to drive from North Scottsdale, Tempe, Ahwatukee, Guadalupe, Garfield and Maryvale just to find more candy.

Lastly, it sounds like you're willing to take your kids to neighborhoods that are known to have higher crime rates then others. I would urge you to rethink your position on this as getting more candy certainly wouldn't be worth the risk of putting my family in more jeopardy then they would be in my own neighborhood.

My recommendation, take them to a few houses in your neighborhood and create a sense of community for your kids which they will appreciate more in the long run then more candy they could ever need or should be allowed to consume.

Best of luck.

[Property Cupid]

Really?! I am amazed at this post. Trick or Treat in your own neighborhood, stay with your kids, go to the door with them, check over the candy before it's eaten, and let the kids tire themselves out walking all night for a pound or teo of candy.
Trick or Treating is NOT a candy competition! Don't foster this idea with your kids.

[Scott2.0]

I think it's bizarre that you would drive your kids to different neighborhoods trying to mooch the most candy (that's really what you're doing) off people that aren't your neighbors. My fondest memory of trick or treating is going around my neighborhood with my friends that lived nearby. Even as a child, I would have felt uncomfortable going around to homes in a random neighborhood unfamiliar to me. What's wrong with the area that you and your kids live in?

[El_Waiboi]

You guys are right, and I do appreciate your input. And we have gone in our neighborhood before. The years we went in Maryvale and Garfield, that's where we were currently living. I decided to seek out other neighborhoods because I was so let down from the experience. I remember when I was a kid, the majority of houses would have the lights on and welcome the neighborhood kids. Now, in my own neighborhood and in most all of the places we have tried, walking down the streets looks like a ghost town. Most all of the houses have all of their lights off and you can walk a good mile and just find a few welcoming houses.

I just want my kids to have the same great experience that I remember having as a kid. Honestly it makes me feel disappointed for them to be all dressed up and excited and then have to walk down dark street after dark street with no one opening the doors to them.

I don't know if trick-or-treating is a dying phenomenon or if we just have not found the right area do it in yet. I was hoping that we had just to yet find the right local, but it may be that Halloween is no longer what it used to be.

Again, thank you for your comments to the people who commented, and I would still be open to more suggestions.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by El_Waiboi

You guys are right, and I do appreciate your input. And we have gone in our neighborhood before. The years we went in Maryvale and Garfield, that's where we were currently living. I decided to seek out other neighborhoods because I was so let down from the experience. I remember when I was a kid, the majority of houses would have the lights on and welcome the neighborhood kids. Now, in my own neighborhood and in most all of the places we have tried, walking down the streets looks like a ghost town. Most all of the houses have all of their lights off and you can walk a good mile and just find a few welcoming houses.

I just want my kids to have the same great experience that I remember having as a kid. Honestly it makes me feel disappointed for them to be all dressed up and excited and then have to walk down dark street after dark street with no one opening the doors to them.

I don't know if trick-or-treating is a dying phenomenon or if we just have not found the right area do it in yet. I was hoping that we had just to yet find the right local, but it may be that Halloween is no longer what it used to be.

Again, thank you for your comments to the people who commented, and I would still be open to more suggestions.

I can empathize with some of your points but have you ever considered that maybe those people with the lights out are doing exactly what you're doing (leaving the neighborhood to seek out better/more candy) and you're perpetuating the cycle even more? Who is at your house giving out candy when you're running all over the valley with your kids?

We've been invited to halloween parties over the years and always declined because we didn't want to leave the neighborhood and leave our house empty and the lights off. One of us would give out candy and the other would walk the kids around the neighborhood or we took turns with neighbors and we would walk their kids one year with ours and they would walk ours the next.

Now, I could see if I was forced to live in a neighborhood that I didn't feel was safe and took my kids to a friends neighborhood that might be safer.

I think your behavior of driving to other neighborhoods to score candy would be reason for people to say enough is enough and shut the lights out as I don't want to pay for and give out candy for people that are driving into my neighborhood. If I knew that was happening to a large extent I may be inclined to stop doing it also.

I do respect your desire to provide a better situation for your kids then you had and I do wish you the best in accomplishing it.

[El_Waiboi]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

...I do respect your desire to provide a better situation for your kids then you had and I do wish you the best in accomplishing it.

Thanks! And just for the record, while I'm out with my kids trick-or-treating, my wife stays home and hands out candy to the few kids that pass by the house...

[AZ Tracy]

I think "trick-or-treating" is a dying phenomenon. I used to get a couple of hundred kids, now, probably just 3 or 4 groups of them. Most people take their kids to school, church or community events. If getting a big haul of candy is important to you, go to the local drug store the next day and buy a bunch at half price.

[Ponderosa]

In my immediate area, TorT is fading. But it is due to all of us getting older at the same time. We all bought 15 years ago when our kids were little. They are bigger, grown and gone now leaving a bunch of old timers and few T or T 's. My advice to you would be head to anywhere there are young people in starter houses, not affluent areas necessarily. The newest parts of the newest suburbs. A good spot would be Laveen or Avondale south of the freeway.

[johnp292]

When we lived in PA some of the towns designated different days other than Halloween for trick or treating. Stupidest thing I ever heard. Halloween is Oct 31. Period. Confusing as heck. Some towns not only picked the day but limited the hours (no idea how they could have enforced that). Last year it was especially crazy, and to add to it there was a freak snowstorm on Oct 30.

Someone please tell me trick or treating is on Halloween (Oct 31) here?