What Phoenix Lacks is.... (Tucson, Scottsdale: schools, taxes, place to live)

[joninaz]

People watching places.

Agreed?

Forget all of those other things... jobs, schools, taxes, Fortune 500 companies, even weather.

I cruised around today when we had the rock & roll marathon surrounding my area. There was something very cool about having 20,000+ people bounding about, with bands, food and drink on every corner. We need more of that.

London has crappy weather, but is fun to walk around. As is NYC. Pre and post Katrina, New Orleans has been a fun city but crappy place to live. Vegas is designed to steal evey penny, but we still like it from a human interaction experience. Downtown San Diego is dead without the Gaslamp, as would be Denver minus LoDo and Austin minus their bar/music district. The list goes on. The common element, with all places, is that good cities have good palces where people abound.

Los Angeles was a love/hate city for me. Overpriced. Overcrowded. But it does get kudos for people watching places... Famer's Market near Fairfax. The Beaches. 3rd St. If ever bored, you could go to these places and walk around.

PHX has malls. We have some greenbelts. We've got pods of other shopping places. We need a bit more. We could use, as Aussies say, more places to walk about. he folks developing Tempe and Old Town Scottsdale seem to be moving in this direction. PHX developers have some plans, but I'm not sure if they are congruent with the casual lifestyle.

Thoughts?

[foma]

Seeing that "people watching" is one of my favorite past times, too, I would have to agree, not a whole lot of places where you can just "hang out" all day and people watch other than the mall, which is always PACKED by teenagers. No offense to teenagers but I can only take so much profanity and juvenile behavior!

I live in "way out there" west phoenix so there's even fewer places to hang. I'm excited about the new outdoor shopping prospect, however. It would be really awesome to just have an area where you can walk around all day and just chill!

[ibarrio]

You can't really compare L.A. to Phoenix in that regard. L.A. had 3rd street promenade, Venice Beach, Downtown Pasadena, Downtown Burbank, The Grove,Sunset Blvd, and so on...

Maybe Tempe and Old Town Scottsdale are a step in the right direction.

Hopefully the big plans are for Surprise are followed...if so it should have a nice walking downtown area around the stadium complex...

[steve22]

Interesting editorial on this very subject appeared in the AZ Republic today. A recent Brookings Institute survey ranked the 30 largest U.S. cities in terms of walkability. Phoenix ranked near the bottom (no surprise).

Getting footloose: Phoenix is catching up with trend (broken link)

[Beliy Plashik]

Originally Posted by foma

Seeing that "people watching" is one of my favorite past times, too, I would have to agree, not a whole lot of places where you can just "hang out" all day and people watch other than the mall, which is always PACKED by teenagers. No offense to teenagers but I can only take so much profanity and juvenile behavior!

For teenagers in Phoenix and Tucson, there is no where else to go except the mall. 4 months of the year you cannot even be outside for more then 10 minutes without getting sick.

So the nice malls in Phoenix is pretty much the only thing that is packed with many people..

Kind of sad. That is the highlights

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Beliy Plashik

For teenagers in Phoenix and Tucson, there is no where else to go except the mall. 4 months of the year you cannot even be outside for more then 10 minutes without getting sick

Well, that leaves out Desert Ridge then, eh? lol

[yakijy]

Originally Posted by joninaz

People watching places.

Agreed?

Forget all of those other things... jobs, schools, taxes, Fortune 500 companies, even weather.

I cruised around today when we had the rock & roll marathon surrounding my area. There was something very cool about having 20,000+ people bounding about, with bands, food and drink on every corner. We need more of that.

London has crappy weather, but is fun to walk around. As is NYC. Pre and post Katrina, New Orleans has been a fun city but crappy place to live. Vegas is designed to steal evey penny, but we still like it from a human interaction experience. Downtown San Diego is dead without the Gaslamp, as would be Denver minus LoDo and Austin minus their bar/music district. The list goes on. The common element, with all places, is that good cities have good palces where people abound.

Los Angeles was a love/hate city for me. Overpriced. Overcrowded. But it does get kudos for people watching places... Famer's Market near Fairfax. The Beaches. 3rd St. If ever bored, you could go to these places and walk around.

PHX has malls. We have some greenbelts. We've got pods of other shopping places. We need a bit more. We could use, as Aussies say, more places to walk about. he folks developing Tempe and Old Town Scottsdale seem to be moving in this direction. PHX developers have some plans, but I'm not sure if they are congruent with the casual lifestyle.

Thoughts?

Actually, I find a lot more places to walk about in the Phoenix area than someplace like Chicago. There are trails around the zoo, small lakes and parks to fish or walk. Malls are much better here. Desert Ridge has free music every weekend. I walk my dog regularly 4 blocks to the park off-leash, and can do it 9 months out of the year. In Chicago I would go around the block, but not much more - too many lights, traffic. There's much more a feel of empty space here. You can be absolutely alone in a number of places pretty easily.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by yakijy

Actually, I find a lot more places to walk about in the Phoenix area than someplace like Chicago. There are trails around the zoo, small lakes and parks to fish or walk. Malls are much better here. Desert Ridge has free music every weekend. I walk my dog regularly 4 blocks to the park off-leash, and can do it 9 months out of the year. In Chicago I would go around the block, but not much more - too many lights, traffic. There's much more a feel of empty space here. You can be absolutely alone in a number of places pretty easily.

Phoenix is more walkable than Chicago? LOL Now Ive heard it all. LOL

[yakijy]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Phoenix is more walkable than Chicago? LOL Now Ive heard it all. LOL

LOL, I guess you have

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by yakijy

LOL, I guess you have

Yeah, just seemed like a shock that you'd say that, thats all. I find it to be exactly opposite of what you say, but hey!