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

[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.

[sablebaby]

You must not have found the many areas of Phx that is nice, or at least not a ghetto. You may have thought you were in one of the suburbs but it was actually Phx. Phx is HUGE. Did you go north at all?

[GilaMonster]

You know, strange thing is that lately I had the same thoughts, and I live in the valley. It probably has to do with the fact that the neighborhoods near the main interstate highways (I-10 and I-17) mostly are really bad. And those roads are mostly used by tourists zipping through the valley. The airport is in a pretty bad neighborhood as well.

The rule of thumb is, the farther North and East you are the better Phoenix is. But there are some nice pockets even in the other parts of the city.

[twiggy]

No one comes here to live in the city so don't worry about it. It's all about the burbs here like a little Cali. We all burb it here. Who would want to go into Phoenix. Yuck. It is a large metropolitan area, but I believe you said you went to Scottsdale and Tempe right? Well, thats the best you'll get. If you come back don't even waist your time in Phoenix. People will yell at me for this but, it's just my opinion. Phoenix is gross!

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by twiggy

No one comes here to live in the city so don't worry about it. It's all about the burbs here like a little Cali. We all burb it here. Who would want to go into Phoenix. Yuck. It is a large metropolitan area, but I believe you said you went to Scottsdale and Tempe right? Well, thats the best you'll get. If you come back don't even waist your time in Phoenix. People will yell at me for this but, it's just my opinion. Phoenix is gross!

I could not agree more. It's a pit. That's why I try to stay in my neighborhood. I was out in the west valley recently and shocked. Not nice.

[twiggy]

Originally Posted by movin'on

I could not agree more. It's a pit. That's why I try to stay in my neighborhood. I was out in the west valley recently and shocked. Not nice.

I'm glad someone agrees with me. I was hoping they'd work on it down there, but I don't see it yet.......

[FutureMover08]

Originally Posted by sablebaby

You must not have found the many areas of Phx that is nice, or at least not a ghetto. You may have thought you were in one of the suburbs but it was actually Phx. Phx is HUGE. Did you go north at all?

Our hotel was in I think Biltmore and was located on 16th street just north of Camelback Road. It wasn't a bad little area really and we felt safe around the hotel but just a couple of blocks away it started to get a little worse. We went to Scottsdale which was the nicest part of the area that we saw and I guess Scottsdale is the nicest part of the area. We went to Scottsdale Fashion Square which was probably the nicest mall I've ever been to.

I guess the thing that was kindof shocking was how we actually were considering possibly moving to the Phoenix area if we felt like it would be a good place to live but we quickly changed our minds. If we had the money to live in an area like Scottsdale it would be different but for what we could afford we would be down in the hood somewhere in Phoenix. I never really felt unsafe in any part of the area except south of downtown on the way to South Mountain but still wouldn't want to live in any of those areas. We also didn't really get out of the car except downtown and the suburbs so that's why I never really felt unsafe but if I had to walk those streets I would probably feel pretty unsafe, especially at night.

Another thing is I read on this site about road rage and stuff before we went and didn't think much of it... happens everywhere and I figured it was just talking honking the horn at someone for doing something stupid or whatever. I guess at this time of year a lot of people ride around with windows down since it's not too bad yet and I counted 5 times where people screamed out of their window at someone for not even good reasons... One was at us, we pulled out of a McDonalds down in the hood near South Mountain and wanted to go left but couldn't so we turned right and pulled out a little slow to look ahead at where we were going to turn at to get turned around going the way we wanted and some guy screams out "DO YOU EVEN HAVE A F***IN' CLUE?!" I don't know if it was just coincidence or what but we didn't find it to be a very friendly town. You have those road rage incidents then I think twice at D-Backs games someone dropped F Bombs on people for getting up too much to go to the concourse and I guess blocking their view or whatever... The one was Saturday's game and this kid (probably 14-15 yrs old) and I guess it was his dad got up to leave about 3-4 times throughout the game and when they came back one of the times I heard someone a couple rows back ask someone they were with something and the guy like yelled "I DON'T KNOW I CAN'T SEE BECAUSE THESE F***ING PEOPLE WON'T QUIT GETTING UP"... I don't particularly like it when someone stands up too much to leave but I'm not going to drop the F-Bomb on them, it's not like they are intentionally trying to block your view they are just trying to get out for whatever reason.

We did encounter more friendly people but it did seem like there were quite a few uptight people. I don't know if the sun makes them crazy or what but I always thought Phoenix was a pretty easy going place to live but maybe not.

Overall we had a good time on the trip and the city was ok but I personally was a little bit dissappointed in the city itself. Maybe my expectations were too high but I guess I was just thinking it was a little nicer and a little more laid back that what we experienced.

[MichaelinWA]

Sprawling Phoenix has a lot of nice parts and quite a few not-so-nice ones. To say that the entire city is "ghetto" is pretty ridiculous, though.

[GilaMonster]

Well, future mover, your experience is not unusual. It takes a much longer time to appreciate the diversity in the valley of the sun.

I used to come to the valley for vacation for 12 years in a row before I finally moved here. As a tourist I mainly stayed in Scottsdale and ventured to Phoenix only for the typical tourist attractions: South Mountain, the Heard, the Zoo, of course the airport.

My opinion about Phx was that it wasn't that bad but not that wild either. I basically never had been in the East Valley, I saw Mesa and didn't like it so I figured there is not much more.

Now I live in the East Valley. When I came to buy a house I quickly found out I could not afford Scottsdale. So I looked around and found areas I never knew that they existed: areas much worse than I ever thought, like many parts of West Phoenix and Glendale, and areas much better than expected like Gilbert or South Tempe. I now live in Gilbert and hardly ever go to Phoenix.

So your impressions as a tourist can be very deceiving. Generally though you were right, most of the burbs here are much nicer than Phoenix itself.

[vegaspilgrim]

FutureMover08, after just having lived in Phoenix (Tempe, actually) for almost four years, I think your statement that the "whole city" of Phoenix is "the ghetto" is highly inaccurate. There are whole sections of town, huge tracks of land mile after mile that are either a run-down dump or new construction but with low income gangbangers living there (you can search the archives of this forum and easily find where those areas area), but there are many nice areas too: nice old (1950s-60s era) parts of Phoenix like Arcadia, the Biltmore area, parts of North-Central Phoenix, and tons of nice and newer areas within Phoenix city limits: Ahwatukee, parts of North Phoenix. Some suburbs are indeed nice-- ranging from high end Paradise Valley and Scottsdale to middle-class south Tempe, most of Chandler, Gilbert, north Glendale, north Peoria, and Surprise. There are also many "suburbs" that are downright nasty places to live (again, I won't mention names, I don't want to start a flame war). Not all of Tempe and Scottsdale are that great. There are parts of Tempe that I would say the word "ghetto" is an accurate description. There are parts of Tempe and Scottsdale that aren't "ghetto" but can be pretty grimy at times. In any case, you have be able to recognize distinctions and analyze the urban geography; to call an entire city the "ghetto" is just ignorant.