SCOTTSDALE, AZ - to any locals, need info. (Phoenix, Mesa: relocation, income)

[keikekai]

Question to those living in Scottsdale, AZ as I am considering it on 'my list' of possible places to move....

Is it really that bad as far as the snobbery issue I keep hearing about ? I keep hearing how snooty everyone is there (why is that??), and its definitely a concern. Tell me what's the real deal - any details you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Also, is there much to do there with kids (under the age of 12) ? How hot does it get there during the hottest summer month, also what are the winters like ? How much sun do you get there ? Pros/Cons of the area ? Thanks !!

[AksarbeN]

YES! You are correct about Scottsdale. It’s a city for “special people” or people who think they are!

I don’t know if there is any more or less for kids under 12 to do there then anywhere else. Summer time is gets HOT ~ look for 110 and more most of the days and you will be sun burned in 20 –30 minutes in direct sunlight without protection. There are only a few days that there isn’t any sun. Most of the time you adapted to where you are at, you look for parking in shaded areas, you park the car facing north, your car will heat up to 135+ inside, if you touch the metal parts on the car you will be burned. We don’t go to daylight saving because we don’t want more sunlight. Leave an egg in the car in the morning and it’s hardboiled by noon for lunch.

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by keikekai

Is it really that bad as far as the snobbery issue I keep hearing about ? I keep hearing how snooty everyone is there (why is that??), and its definitely a concern. Tell me what's the real deal - any details you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

I think that's a stereotype. Like all stereotypes, it is based on a germ of truth but then wildly exaggerated. Most Scottsdale residents I know are pretty down-to-earth people. I suspect a lot of the negatives people perceive about restaurants, shopping, and nightclubs in Scottsdale may actually come from customers who live elsewhere and are just trying to "act Scottsdale" in a silly attempt to impress people.

The one thing about some (certainly not all) Scottsdale residents that does bother me is a tendency to think of Scottsdale as a standalone community instead of a suburb of Phoenix, which is what Scottsdale really is. Scottsdale is a nice, attractive community in which to live, and it also has some major employment centers within its city limits. Nevertheless, without the airport in Phoenix, the university in Tempe, the sports venues in Phoenix and Glendale, the international restaurants in Mesa and Chandler, etc., Scottsdale would not function as it does. I sometimes hear people say that they never have to leave Scottsdale. If that's how they really live their lives, they are missing out on a great deal that exists in the larger metropolitan area.

[ravenclaw]

Its a terrible place..been here for 11 years and finally getting out next month as the natural disasters start rolling in (May thru October)...the absolutely worst assortment of people from a social and cultural perspective. Phonies,plastics, uptight mooks that are living momth to month while pretending they're multimillionaires...now why would anybody with real wealth live in any part of Scottsdale?
Just a lot of mediocrities here who pretend they are living the SoCal upscale lifestyle when they can't really afford the real thing.
This is a ****hole with terrible weather and bad air that has turned into a repository for pompous phony ***holes.
(For what its worth, my income and net worth is significantly above the average of these pseudo-millionaires in "upscale"
North Scottsdale. Trust me this is not upscale, I know upscale and real multimillionaires).

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by ravenclaw

Its a terrible place..been here for 11 years and finally getting out next month as the natural disasters start rolling in (May thru October)...the absolutely worst assortment of people from a social and cultural perspective. Phonies,plastics, uptight mooks that are living momth to month while pretending they're multimillionaires...now why would anybody with real wealth live in any part of Scottsdale?
Just a lot of mediocrities here who pretend they are living the SoCal upscale lifestyle when they can't really afford the real thing.
This is a ****hole with terrible weather and bad air that has turned into a repository for pompous phony ***holes.
(For what its worth, my income and net worth is significantly above the average of these pseudo-millionaires in "upscale"
North Scottsdale. Trust me this is not upscale, I know upscale and real multimillionaires).

nevercoldcall, is that you??

[gigi927]

Sure sounds like it, sablebaby!

In answer to the OP's question...I lived in far north Scottsdale for 4 years and I did struggle a bit finding things for my little ones (who are very little) to do. We ended up spending a lot of time at the mall. I think summers are pretty tolerable in AZ unless you have little kids, and then it gets hard, even with a swimming pool you don't want your kids out in the 115 degree direct sunlight for that long.

We were 15 minutes north of Loop 101, and if I had to live there again with children, I would definitely pick an area of Scottsdale that was closer to Loop 101 or to the older parts of Scottsdale that are more central. That'd be my best advice to a family who chose to live in Scottsdale. Good luck!

[SpeedyAZ]

Its a terrible place..been here for 11 years and finally getting out next month as the natural disasters start rolling in (May thru October)...the absolutely worst assortment of people from a social and cultural perspective. Phonies,plastics, uptight mooks that are living momth to month while pretending they're multimillionaires...now why would anybody with real wealth live in any part of Scottsdale?
Just a lot of mediocrities here who pretend they are living the SoCal upscale lifestyle when they can't really afford the real thing.
This is a ****hole with terrible weather and bad air that has turned into a repository for pompous phony ***holes.
(For what its worth, my income and net worth is significantly above the average of these pseudo-millionaires in "upscale"
North Scottsdale. Trust me this is not upscale, I know upscale and real multimillionaires).

Why would anyone want to live here?
ANSWER: Great golf, top notch schools, fine restaurants, amazing art galleries, great shopping, tons of activities, etc etc. I could go on and on. It's been voted one of the best places to live in America. I love living here and I'm sure many other share the same setiment. Scottsdale has a bad stereotype of being "snooty" when really 90% of the residents are as down to earth as you can be.

And after you got finished saying how "snobby" Scottsdale is, you started to talk about your own net worth. Talk about hypocritical...

[sugarlips]

keikekai,

I wouldn't worry about the "snottsdale" reputation. There are snobs everywhere, even in middle america. I remember when we moved to CT, everyone told us not to do it. We were warned that everyone stuck up and unfriendly in CT. We found it to be the complete opposite. We had and still do have many friends in CT. I remember having lunch in Greenwich, CT (which is arguably one of the most affluent places to live in the entire country) and the owner of the restaurant sat with us and had a long conversation. He was very friendly. This was right after our relocation and I thought back to all of the warnings others gave us and had to laugh to myself.

That being said. There are going to be people on this forum who have run into a few snobby people in Scottsdale and, from their experience, would say that it is full of stuck up people (that's assuming that the snob was even from Scottsdale...who really knows?). The only way to really know what a community is like is to live there.

As far as weather, Scottsdale has the same weather as the rest of the Phx valley. Some people say that the east valley is cooler than the west...yada yada yada. When you get up past 100 does a few degrees really make a difference?? There are a few months of insanely hot weather, a few months of tolerably hot weather and a bunch of months where it is just about perfect. The sun shines alot.

As far as things for kids to do...I don't know about that one.

[ravenclaw]

I mentioned my "net worth" only to illustrate that unlike the thousands of wannabes who can't make it anywhere else and flock to Scottsdale to pretend they're affluent and live in an "upscale" commmunity, I have no need to fake it. Besides driving a twenty year old car, my kids all attend public schools and my wife who is an avid coupon clipper works full-timeas a clerk in a local supermarket while we own thousands of their shares (Fry's Kroger Corp.). Our values are based on self-worth not Scottsdale phony net worth values.
Schools are a national joke and that includes the Scottsdale Unified School District.(the Scootsdale phonies dream of Notre Dame High School at 15k per yr. but fool themselves by talking up Chapparal as a great school).
Golf courses overated, unusable and desolate for 6 months of the year and when in use watch out for rattlesnakes, wild javelina and bobcats coming through.
Restaurants are in the vast majority national chains offering microwaved corporate cardboard food prepared and served by bored teenagers.
Art galleries are owned/run by bored middle-aged housewives peddling mostly perverted Western cowboy themed schlock and tasteless romanticized Native American "art".
Shopping for the residents of Scottsdale, (most of then cash-strapped), is Costco,Target, Trader Joe's, Marshall's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Discount Tire and the rest. The mass market retailers who strive for the boutique experience are frequented mostly by tourists and visitors. When Bulgari,Bacarrat,Hermes or Prada opens a shop in Phoenix/Scottsdale please let me know. Even high-end department stores like Bloomingdales and Bergdorf have no presence here, while Nordstrom and Saks have mini-junior version of their stores here because of the lack of affluent shoppers.
This says it all:The biggest employer in the Phoenix metro area as well as the state of Arizona is Wal-Mart !
And try getting an international flight that doesn't go to Mexico out of Phoenix airport that brags it's one of the busiest and fastest growing facilities in the world.
This entire metropolitan area,( including Scottsdale), and the residents are afflicted with a serious case of a municipal inferiority complex unmatched by anywhere else in this country.
As somebody else wrote once: "Phoenix(Scottsdale), there is no there, THERE".

[JeepGirl118]

I have lived in Scottsdale - and currently I live in Fountain Hills. Scottsdale is not as some make it out to be. I have a couple of residential/office cleaning companies and I have met more than my fair share of residents - and depending on what areas of Scottsdale you plan on moving to, it's typically not something to raise your eyebrow at. There is plenty to do for kids under 12 - you have the ice rink, the park district is great, tons of parks, great restaurants and movie theaters --and in the valley itself - if you do not mind driving, there is Rawhide and a vast amount of things to do/see- you have your fairs and your carnivals like any other city.

It's hot. The others said it well. We only have two seasons here - Spring and Summer. Last Summer when we moved out of our house it was 117 (Aug). The winters....what is winter?