A complaint about Phoenix from a newbie. (Scottsdale, Chandler: hotel, home)

[raindance maggie]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

You live in a great area! There's tons to do around there. Not sure why you'd drive all the way to City North. Check out the Little Woody, Nook Kitchen, OHSO, Postino, LGO, Pig's Meow, Chelsea's Kitchen, The Grind, The Vig. I could go on and on. Your location is enviable.

Hello and thank you for those suggestions.
I guess I've been too busy running around doing errands and going on job interviews that I haven't had much time to check out what's in our immediate area. We live in a quiet little neighborhood.
We're going to eventually try out some of those places. Thank you.

[raindance maggie]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

I have a feeling the OP read about some hip places in CityNorth et al and he/she only wanted to check them out.....just didn't realize the drive

like most Western cities, it's always been cheaper to build out than up....basic economics.....plenty of cheap land out there....

You hit the nail on the head!
We heard about the Rick Bronson comedy club and wanted to check it out. We got there and the line was super long and didn't seem to be moving. The crowd seemed a little young for us too----we're in our 50s.
We then hit the Blue Martini bar and same thing, very crowded and everyone seemed so much younger than us, so we left. We were impressed with the layout and feel of City North but not too impressed with how far away it is from everything.

[raindance maggie]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

The last time I checked, Sacramento and most other California cities have lots of sprawl and require plenty of driving for everyday commutes and errands, no different than Phoenix or most other western-sunbelt metropolitan areas.

The only exception to this is San Francisco.

I agree with you that Phoenix has a lot more to offer than Sacramento, especially professional sports, recreation, and better dining-nightlife.

Phoenix isn't exactly a conservative stronghold, there are many registered independents and even a few strong liberal areas, but if you prefer Phoenix's political climate more than where you came from, I'm certain you'll be happy.

I can't differ with anything you said at all.
Sacramento is sprawly but nearly everything we needed was in a central or midway point. We knew Phoenix was much bigger and more sprawly but we were surprised that everything is located here, there, and everywhere with so much driving all over the place.
All in all, we're glad we made the move. The high cost of everything in California was killing us and we wanted better weather and more things to do anyway. Both my husband and I are trying to get more physically active and lose some weight. I think we can accomplish that better here.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by locolife

Can you tell us where you live and what you mean by "everything" that is located here, there and everywhere? I rarely find myself going beyond roughly a 10ish mile radius of my house. Work, pro sports, college sports, 3 urban centers (DT Phoenix, DT Tempe, and DT Scottsdale) are all within that drive, tons of restaurants, at least 1 location of every major grocery store in the state, eye doctor, dentist, primary care physician, a casino or 2, miles and miles of hiking trails, miles and miles of paved walking paths around town lake and up the green belt, comedy clubs, arts centers, museums, zoo, botanical garden, butterfly world, a few traditional malls, tons of local shopping options.

Not sure where you chose to live, but this is totally within each persons control. If you moved here wanting a brand new house with the most square feet per dollar paid, you might of moved way out on the fringe of the valley, and then everything probably seems really far. We chose not to do that because the house itself means less than the area were in, so I actually drive less miles here than when I lived in a big Northeast city that had a more central focus to everything. When you start talking about drive time, it's much, much less here because of the sheer amount of congestion in places where "everything" is in a 3 mile radius (Boston, New York, etc..)

Everyone has different life priorities but I find that complaints like this are often within the control of the person making the complaint and certain life circumstances resulted in the decision being what it is. But that's certainly not a requirement for living in the valley. A car, yes- it's probably still a necessity at this point in Phoenix, but driving here, there and everywhere for everything, is not necessary.

They already said Arcadia. It sounds like they found something on the Internet and went for it. I live near Downtown myself and use the rail frequently, but often I still need my car and often it's for trips longer than most other metros would have me doing in similar circumstances.

No need to feel slighted, it's no secret that Phoenix is in reality a multi-nodal Sprawl Monster.

[Valley Native]

I can empathize with the OP on a number of things, especially the concern about so much sprawl and lots of amenities being such a long drive. The Westgate fiasco is a good example of not only a massive sprawl project that is in financial trouble, but it's such a horrible location for a sports/entertainment district. These types of things should be more centrally located. CityNorth is another good (or I should say a bad) example of a sprawl development that was funded with public money ... and along with Westgate, became another huge boondoggle which the taxpayers are on the hook for.

On the cost of living issue: I used to want to live in California many years ago because of the immense variety in scenery, climate, recreation, higher paying jobs, etc., but you wouldn't catch me even thinking about moving there now with the ridiculous prices, taxes, and burdening laws. I think the OP will find it a lot better here, especially on a political & economic level.

[goolsbyjazz]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

I can empathize with the OP on a number of things, especially the concern about so much sprawl and lots of amenities being such a long drive. The Westgate fiasco is a good example of not only a massive sprawl project that is in financial trouble, but it's such a horrible location for a sports/entertainment district. These types of things should be more centrally located. CityNorth is another good (or I should say a bad) example of a sprawl development that was funded with public money ... and along with Westgate, became another huge boondoggle which the taxpayers are on the hook for.

On the cost of living issue: I used to want to live in California many years ago because of the immense variety in scenery, climate, recreation, higher paying jobs, etc., but you wouldn't catch me even thinking about moving there now with the ridiculous prices, taxes, and burdening laws. I think the OP will find it a lot better here, especially on a political & economic level.

There are many of us who once thought of living there but have changed our minds for the reasons you mentioned. On the other hand, many people are finding out that Arizona is a decent alternative. Our traffic suggests so!

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by goolsbyjazz

There are many of us who once thought of living there but have changed our minds for the reasons you mentioned. On the other hand, many people are finding out that Arizona is a decent alternative. Our traffic suggests so!

It's kind of a slap to think of AZ as an alternative. It is its own independent place that is better then CA and doesn't need the constant comparison.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

They already said Arcadia. It sounds like they found something on the Internet and went for it. I live near Downtown myself and use the rail frequently, but often I still need my car and often it's for trips longer than most other metros would have me doing in similar circumstances.

No need to feel slighted, it's no secret that Phoenix is in reality a multi-nodal Sprawl Monster.

You got on that really fast, I deleted it after I re-read the comments from the earlier posts and realized they're in Arcadia. One of the reasons we didn't go to Arcadia is we felt that the lack of freeway access could be burdensome, were about .5 mile from the freeway and about 1 mile from the train about 3 miles from downtown Tempe. My big point is that like me and you have done, it's pretty easy to limit the driving to a large extent, but I notice a lot of people move to the fringes of the valley (although not the case here) and then complain that there's nothing fun nearby, the city is so far away, everything looks the same, etc... I think I've had that conversation on here and in person so many times now that I automatically go back to it.


But good to know the OP has not 1 but 2 people who have managed to setup their lives in a way that limits driving to some extent, for a multi-nodal city.

[raindance maggie]

Originally Posted by locolife

You got on that really fast, I deleted it after I re-read the comments from the earlier posts and realized they're in Arcadia. One of the reasons we didn't go to Arcadia is we felt that the lack of freeway access could be burdensome, were about .5 mile from the freeway and about 1 mile from the train about 3 miles from downtown Tempe. My big point is that like me and you have done, it's pretty easy to limit the driving to a large extent, but I notice a lot of people move to the fringes of the valley (although not the case here) and then complain that there's nothing fun nearby, the city is so far away, everything looks the same, etc... I think I've had that conversation on here and in person so many times now that I automatically go back to it.


But good to know the OP has not 1 but 2 people who have managed to setup their lives in a way that limits driving to some extent, for a multi-nodal city.

Thank you.We did our research before we picked a place to live and we wanted a bigger city with more going on, but ------
We didn’t want to be stuck in traffic all hours of the day so that ruled out the Bay area and LA-OC-SD areas. We were really looking to get out of California entirely because of the cost of living, job situation, and bad political climate. Most of all we wanted a warmer climate so we narrowed it down to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, or Dallas. After discovering how cold Texas can be in the winter that was scratched.
We almost chose Las Vegas but we were shocked to learn how cold it can be there in the winter too. Phoenix turned out to be the better of the 4-----awesome weather, outdoor recreation, sporting events, less liberal politics, good job market, and even the traffic isn’t so bad. We’re even longing for summer to see how well we can handle the heat, I think we can manage just fine because we lived in Sacramento where it can be mighty hot in the summer.
A central location is what we wanted without being right downtown. If more things were at a midway point instead of scattered about so much, Phoenix would be the perfect city for us.

[goolsbyjazz]

Originally Posted by raindance maggie

Thank you.We did our research before we picked a place to live and we wanted a bigger city with more going on, but ------
We didn’t want to be stuck in traffic all hours of the day so that ruled out the Bay area and LA-OC-SD areas. We were really looking to get out of California entirely because of the cost of living, job situation, and bad political climate. Most of all we wanted a warmer climate so we narrowed it down to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, or Dallas. After discovering how cold Texas can be in the winter that was scratched.
We almost chose Las Vegas but we were shocked to learn how cold it can be there in the winter too. Phoenix turned out to be the better of the 4-----awesome weather, outdoor recreation, sporting events, less liberal politics, good job market, and even the traffic isn’t so bad. We’re even longing for summer to see how well we can handle the heat, I think we can manage just fine because we lived in Sacramento where it can be mighty hot in the summer.
A central location is what we wanted without being right downtown. If more things were at a midway point instead of scattered about so much, Phoenix would be the perfect city for us.

Were you surprised at how cold it got in Phoenix during the winter?