Is it just me or is the whole city of Phoenix basically the ghetto? (Mesa: house)

[jlzpo1]

Where are you coming from? I think Philadelphia is MUCH more "ghetto" than Phoenix...can you define a bit better what you mean?

[bonni0827]

My husband and I just spent the last 5 days in Phoenix. I have an aunt in Scottsdale and friends who retired in Cave Creek. We stayed at the Phoenix Desert Ridge and we have stayed at other various hotels in the area. I love Arizona and I think the desert is beautiful. I found people to be very friendly and helpful. Whenever I went to purchase anything in the stores, people would converse with me. I have never met anyone in the last 5 years of visiting Arizonia who was sorry they moved there. We have quite a few restraunts that we eat at when we come to Arizona. I live in Michigan and you want to talk about road rage!!! On the way home from Detroit's lovely airport we almost got run over several times by speeding cars. I find the drivers here worse than any other state we have visited. Since we have 9 months of winter here, the extreme heat does not bother us. Our summers once they arrive are very humid. If you want to see ghetto, come to downtown Detroit. I realize that every city has problems, but some are worse than others.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by bonni0827

Since we have 9 months of winter here, the extreme heat does not bother us

Where the flip do you live? Antarctica? MI does not have 9 months of winter, get real and quit exaggerating.

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by FutureMover08

We just got back from a 5 day trip to Phoenix and we covered a large amount of the area. I was suprised to see that nearly the whole city of Phoenix itself was pretty run down looking with pretty bad looking neighborhoods and bars in windows and stuff like that over most of the areas surrounding downtown before you got out into the suburbs.

Downtown was ok, but the rest of the area just didn't look very nice. Once you get out into one of the many suburbs (we went to Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe just to name a few) it gets really nice but Phoenix itself didn't seem nice at all to me.

I don't mean to offend anyone here or anything but I was just very suprised that you had to go out into the suburbs before you found nice areas that felt safe.

Hmm. It's hard to respond to such an offensive generalization, but as others have suggested, either you have an unusual defintion of "nice," or you didn't look in the right places. There are numerous highly desirable neighborhoods within Phoenix city limits: Ahwatukee, Biltmore, Arcadia, Moon Valley, North Central Phoenix, and Encanto-Palmcroft are just a few. Also keep in mind that many municipal boundaries are confusing. Large portions of what people consider to be in Scottsdale based on zip codes is actually the northeastern portion of Phoenix.

[artvandelay]

If you can name more shady parts of the valley than nice parts, then that tells you something:

Nice
Scottsdale, Arcadia, Biltmore, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Goodyear, North Glendale, North Peoria, North Phoenix, Central Phoenix, East Mesa, PV, Litchfield Park, Fountain Hills, Anthem.

Crummy
West Phoenix, South Phoenix, Laveen, Tolleson, Avondale, South Glendale, Buckeye, El Mirage, Mesa, South Peoria.

That's all I can think of, besides Cave Creek and Surprise, which IMO are a bit of both.

I have 17 nice areas I can think of, and 10 crummy I can think of. Now, which covers the majority of the valley, the 17 nice or 10 crummy?

[Garson]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

If you can name more shady parts of the valley than nice parts, then that tells you something:

Nice
Scottsdale, Arcadia, Biltmore, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Goodyear, North Glendale, North Peoria, North Phoenix, Central Phoenix, East Mesa, PV, Litchfield Park, Fountain Hills, Anthem.

Crummy
West Phoenix, South Phoenix, Laveen, Tolleson, Avondale, South Glendale, Buckeye, El Mirage, Mesa, South Peoria.

That's all I can think of, besides Cave Creek and Surprise, which IMO are a bit of both.

I have 17 nice areas I can think of, and 10 crummy I can think of. Now, which covers the majority of the valley, the 17 nice or 10 crummy?

Actually there are parts of your crummy areas that are quite nice as well. There are some very nice parts of Avondale and there are very nice areas of Buckeye too ( I live in one)
I am sure there are also nice parts of some of these other communities as well. This is just not a place where you can generalize by town or city. It is sometimes block by block.
People often malign Buckeye - I guess they are just ignorant to the number of million dollar homes here or have not seen some of the better areas such as Verrado, Tartesso or Festival.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Garson

Actually there are parts of your crummy areas that are quite nice as well. There are some very nice parts of Avondale and there are very nice areas of Buckeye too ( I live in one)
I am sure there are also nice parts of some of these other communities as well. This is just not a place where you can generalize by town or city. It is sometimes block by block.
People often malign Buckeye - I guess they are just ignorant to the number of million dollar homes here or have not seen some of the better areas such as Verrado, Tartesso or Festival.

I agree. I think that Buckeye (parts of it anyway) will eventually be one of the most desirable communities in the valley.

[artvandelay]

Really? Buckeye has million dollar homes? My point is that when you own a house, the value is in the house/land itself, proximity to things, the areas you have to drive through to get home, the schools you may or may not use. I agree many cities have good and bad, such as the Avondale that is connected to Goodyear. But I couldn't imagine a house big enough, or nice enough, in Buckeye or almost anywhere in the WV, to be worth a million. It's just surrounded by too much filth.

[Synergy38]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Where the flip do you live? Antarctica? MI does not have 9 months of winter, get real and quit exaggerating.

She's not lying at all..

I know for sure we have 9 months of winter. It snows literally from September through to Mid May and even June.

He'll it snowed a Foot and a half here not 2 weeks ago. I don't think Detroit is much different at all.

Either way living somewhere when it's only really nice 2-3 months a year is bunk.. If 2-3 months of unreal heat is all I have to deal with to get a good 9 months in.. that's a good deal to me!

Re: Ghetto's i've been to Phoenix a couple of times and to me it was much safer than Seattle and San Francisco... at least I felt much more safe in the Phoenix area and the people were a hell of a lot more friendly.

[bloodsucker66]

Yeah, I know, for a city that's supposed to be on the cutting edge of society, Pheonix is pretty trashed. There's so many run-down buildings and creepy looking places. For me, being a horror freak, it's still pretty cool. I love the atmosphere, but I know that bums some people out - they want a brand new "mall" on every block - but hwere's the character in that? Anyhow, I'm going to check out this killer live horror show that's coming up, check out the banner - it looks pretty cool - but not for folks that think Pheonix should look like a giant mall.