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Traffic IS bad but it's still not on-par with L.A., Dallas, Atlanta etc. If you can, I'd try to avoid commuting from 7 a.m.-9 a.m. and again from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. which are the prime times for traffic jams. Other than that, traffic honestly isn't all that bad; you can easily drive most other time.
In other words, you suggest not going to work, Speedy! Not that it's a bad idea... I'm all for it!
Dear Wanting Out" I too, relocated from Wisconsin where I lived in Waukesha, for 20 ys. I could no longer take the bitter cold; worse yet the wind chills for 35+ BELOW! HERE on the other hand is the opposite EXTREME! It is not at all unusual to spend MONTHS above 100+ degrees! Its hideous. Throw in the humidity, and hang it up. My husband and I comprised my moving to Cordes Lakes straight up Interstate 17 less than an hour. It has an elevation of 4000 feet. Four seasons, with mild winters, occasional snow flurries that dont stick, but beautiful seasons, surrounded by mountains on all 4 sides. Phoenix has two seasons, hot and HOTTER! The air in Cordes Lakes is crystal clear, and so fresh and crisp! The population is only 2000 with a crime rate that is negligable. It less than a half hour North to Prescott Valley the next large town 40,000, and ten min. further to Prescott. Lots of work available, but the cost of living is higher there. Most people live OUT of Phoenix where it is more affordable, and less crime, heat, and traffic, and commute as we did. Sadly my husband passed away last year at the age of 40, and I was not well enough to keep the house up by myself and carry on, so I am living in Sun City taking care of my elderly parents. My house is for sale, if you are interested. Its a wonderful community. I go up once a week to visit, i miss it so, and because its such a different world up there. Country living, opposed to city living. A great place for kids to grow up, full of nice people. Yet a stones throw away from the city. Its called a "bedroom community" that would be the best way to go I would reccomend. I have lived all over Az, from South in Tucson ,to North in Prescott, and am just outside of Phoenix right now which is FULL of crime, dirt, dust, pollution, and HEAT!. Good luck to you. Robyn
[quote=WantingoutofAz;2142007]The traffic here is AWFUL except maybe compared to LA. If you have to work downtown, good luck. The housing is very expensive anywhere downtown and if you live where it costs less then you pay with your time. We live in a very nice area called the Arrowhead area (the northwest part of the valley).
Just wanted to know is that where the Arrowhead Hospotal is located? Looks like that might be the place where I spend the next 20 years of my life working. Is that a bad commute from Surprise Farms area, west of 303 and south of Bell road? I think that the hospital is about 16 miles from my home.
The weather will be much different from what you're accustomed to. It does get hot in the summer and you have to learn to stay hydrated and be careful about over exerting yourself. The dry head when it gets to 110 does not bother me as much as 80 degrees with 90% humidity.
After the three months of hot summer, the other 9 months is worth it.
Bill
Just my two cents...... I have lived here for the past 28 years and I would have to say that we have more than 3 months of hot weather. It normally starts getting hot in May but there has been a 100 degree day in March in Phoenix- back in 1988 and sometimes April can get a little toasty. Our summer is normally from May - October - sometimes later. Like for example this year we were still 92 degrees in November! It was record breaking but still... yuk! Enough already. I do agree with Bill though that a dry 110 is WAY better than a humid 80. Without a doubt.
So we have 6 months of what most people would consider "summer" and then 'spring like' conditions break out in November (sometimes October but not lately) and maybe 'fall like' conditions for November if we are lucky and then December and January are usually cold (sometimes freezing cold like last winter) and February is usually pretty chilly. Then we are into Spring again. So there you go. We usually have 3 cold months and the other 9 are either warm or hot. So if you love little rain and lots of sunshine and warm-hot temps most of the year then this is the place for you.
As far as traffic goes, yep it can be a bit congested here especially on the freeways so I try to avoid them whenever possible. I take the surface streets which are no picnic either but a little better then the freeways. Our roads are still behind our growth but they have improved them over the years.
The crime rate is pretty high here and there are certain areas I refuse to go near EVER no matter what time of day. But I would not let the high crime rate scare you- just check the neighborhood out thoroughly before moving.
I really like living here. Although, I would prefer change of seasons and maybe a little more cool weather but other than that I'm happy in Phoenix and have no desire to move anywhere else in the near future.
The traffic here is AWFUL except maybe compared to LA. If you have to work downtown, good luck. The housing is very expensive anywhere downtown and if you live where it costs less then you pay with your time. We live in a very nice area called the Arrowhead area (the northwest part of the valley).
Just wanted to know is that where the Arrowhead Hospotal is located? Looks like that might be the place where I spend the next 20 years of my life working. Is that a bad commute from Surprise Farms area, west of 303 and south of Bell road? I think that the hospital is about 16 miles from my home.
Hi SOON2BNSURPRISE:
Arrowhead hospital is located at 67th ave and Union Hills. Without traffic from Surprise Farms area to the hospital you are looking at probably at least 30 minutes. The problem with Surprise is there is really only one way in and one way out (east/west) which is Bell Road. Bell Road runs smack through Sun City (where all the retired folks live) and can be VERY slow at times. So if you don't have to travel at rush hour times then I would guess it to take you about 30 minutes. However, if you are traveling at rush hour times I would add 20-30 minutes.
Surprise is a neat little community but is tough because there are no freeways running east/west to get into town from there. If you don't have a job with Arrowhead hospital yet might I suggest you look into some of the hospitals in Sun City like Boswell. Or even the West Valley hospital in Goodyear because then you could take the 303 south and then the I-10 over. Others who live in Surprise might have better advice for you. Not living there myself I could be off.
Commenting on the weather... and this comes from someone who loves AZ but HATES the heat, I really do.
If we look at it month by month... January is nippy but not too cold to hang out outside during the day. February is the same pretty much. March, a bit warmer and great for outdoors. April, getting a bit warmer but still great for being outside. May is getting hot... I still venture outside but it is getting a little warm for me. June is hot and while going outside is ok, I don't go running or anything outside other than maybe quick trips to the park during this month. July and August are both wayyy too hot for me and I tend to stay either inside or by the pool. Sept is about the same as June for me so outside in moderation. October can go either way during the day... sometimes it can be pretty hot during the day and sometimes it's perfect outdoor weather during the day. The evenings in October are generally staring to cool off. November is nice again. People start hanging out outside and there's generally a day where all of a sudden the temp just cools offs and it's 60's and 70's during the day.. which I LOVE. December, perfect outdoor slightly chilly weather.
So IMHO there is 6 or 7 months of lovely outdoor weather ranging from chilly to warm (Nov - April + Oct sometimes) then a couple months of so/so venture outside in moderation and 2 or 3 months of absolutly stay inside or by the pool weather.
We visited ND/MN in June of 2006 and OMG I have never been so miserable. I'll take June in AZ any day!! Not only was the heat and humidity unbearable but none of the homes we visited had central air and it even seemed the hotels (and we stay at the nicer ones) didn't have great air... I couldn't sleep from the heat. I kept telling my husband.... geesh, we only use our heat in AZ once or twice a year but we still HAVE IT... why don't these people have air???????
Hi all- As you can see my my login name, want out of WI. I was considering the Phoenix area, btu was wondering if I would like it there. I have several good friends that live there and have visited often and loved it, but to reside in a place and visit often a way different.
I am a mid-level purchasing agent, looking for an area with a decent job market, andfrom what I hear Phoenix has it.
I love to bicycle, and the weather would be great, but I'm concerned about heavy traffic, which I don;t like.
I'm pretty down to earth and enjoy nature cycling and working out, but wonder if the lifestyle would be too fast.
Plus it seems EVERYONE is movign there, so i'm concerned about overcrowding, traffic jams long commutes, overburdened health care facilites crime.
Just want to hear responses from residents in the area as to what it is REALLY like. THanks all!!!!
Any large metropolitan city particularly a city ranked in the top 5 is going to have traffic to some degree. You can't expect to live in a large city and not endure congestion. So the first question you should ask if is if you want to live in a large city. It's one thing to visit but it's another thing entirely to live in a large metropolitan area. I've lived in a lot of different cities and the traffic is far better than NY, LA, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, SF, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando. We have our rush hours but outside of those, there is no traffic on the weekends or past 7 PM. If there is traffic during non-rush hour, it's usually because they closed a highway off for construction or there is a major 3 car accident.
Overcrowding is not a concern because there is a lot of space here. You can infinitely build in the desert. We are not limited by a peninsula or a Bay like Seattle and San Francisco. Builders are doing a better job and building communities and not just houses like 7 years ago. Even if you live in some extreme part of the valley, you will still have a Pei Wei, a Cosco, grocery stores, Harkins movie theatres, Best Buy you name it...they will build it there. So you can live in pretty much any part of the valley and get your basics. Sure, some areas are nicer but you can always drive to those areas when you want to go out or need something special.
Crime....most of our crime is autotheft. This can be misleading and provide the impression that our city is unsafe because of the high crime statistics but there isn't a lot of armed robbery or mugging that you see in more urban areas. Most of our crime is related to autotheft. People steal cars and take them accross the border to strip them for their parts. However, violent crime here is pretty rare; it's so rare here that when it happens, it's always on the news. In other cities, it's so common that it never makes the headlines. And nearly all of the violent crime is focused in bad areas aka 19th and Van Buren. Even if crime occurs in Chandler or some suburb, it's usually in the poorest part of the city or some rundown area. There isn't one part of this city that I'm afraid to drive through, let's put it that way. And some people are just squeamish in regards to Hispanics. They assume if they see a lot of brown faces that it's crime ridden so keep in mind who is telling you what areas are unsafe. I've heard people admonish not driving through Guadalupe or Alma School/Main in Mesa because of the "crime" but they are just Hispanic areas. They are not unsafe in regards driving through them or dining. Sure, you might have issues if you buy a house there.
Weather....that's something you need to think about. Your physiology is adjusted for cold weather and people like you have the most difficult time adjusting to the heat because our summer is long. The heat lasts from mid-May to mid October. Sometimes, the summer can be longer or shorter depending on the year. The "bad" or intense heat lasts from June to late September. This year was an anomaly. Yeah, we can have the occassional 100 degree day in March, but we also have the occassional 88 degree day in July and August due to rain or a storm. People love to complain about the hot days in our winter months but they forget there are abnormally cool days in the summer that occur too.
Health care is good and bad. The valley builds several smaller hospitals to which people can access as opposed to large hospitals with academic and teaching facilities in the downtown as you see with other hospitals. It's easy to get access to these hosptials. The problem is these small hospitals they are building lack resideny programs which is how most cities attract physicians. Physicians do their residency at a program and often remain in the city. This city has a major dearth of residency programs so there will always be a shortage of physicians here as a result and patients complain about the long waits. The physicians love it because they are always busy.
I think the outdoor activity aspect is overrated. We essentially have hiking, rock climbing, golf and mountainbiking. Lakes are at least 1-2 hours away. We have snowskiing but it's far. Flagstaff has the Snowbowl resort but it's not open for very long and it's small. Showlow has nice skiing but it's 3 hours away. We have outdoor activies when compared to most cities in this country (Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Houston) but we pale in comparison to Denver, Seattle, Portland, LA and San Diego. If you really enjoy the outdoors, go to Colorado.
Last edited by cxray; 12-04-2007 at 12:11 PM..
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Not that it's a bad idea... I'm all for it!
from Wisc. to Az
It was record breaking but still... yuk! Enough already. I do agree with Bill though that a dry 110 is WAY better than a humid 80. Without a doubt. 
