Living in Prescott? (Phoenix: best town, condo, crime)

[KarmaPhx]

I was offered a scholarship to a college in Prescott, and I am considering moving up there for 1-2 years, but I have a few questions.

Does prescott still have a drug problem? (hard drugs)

Is the town full of rednecks and old people, or does it have some sort of a night life?

We are a younger couple who would be moving, we want to be able to still go out and such on the weekend but I am not expecting much on the weeknights obviously.

I don't want to live in a town where everyone is going to consider the younger crowd "punks" and give that automatic sense of dislike.

[Megadeth]

Hello Karma, Lemme answer a few of your questions. I've been living here a couple of years, and can probably answer at least a few of your questions.

Does prescott still have a drug problem? (hard drugs)

To a degree, but not nearly as bad as a big city. There are some small areas of town where you might see some of that, but quite seldomly. Drugs, and crime are generally worse in prescott valley than in prescott itself. That, and EVERYWHERE I have lived has at least some drug problems, whether or not is was a fairly small town or a large city.

Is the town full of rednecks and old people, or does it have some sort of a night life?

We have some rednecks, hahah. But, not as many as one would suspect. There are generally more of them out-of-town, or in smaller areas such as dewey-humboldt. However, prescott generally has a higher amount of old people as opposed to rednecks. Or, generally a higher amount of old people than cities of its size; it is a popular retirement city and all. But don't worry, there's not a shortage of young people whatsoever. As to a nightlife, I can't say we have much compared to phoenix. We have whisky row, and some other bars, but nothing too much.

We are a younger couple who would be moving, we want to be able to still go out and such on the weekend but I am not expecting much on the weeknights obviously.

There's still plenty to do up here (Although not as much shopping, or clubbing. We still have all the big stores such as sears, lowes, costco and such here. There's also tons of places to eat, many of them with plenty of charm.), ESPECIALLY if you like to be outdoors, as opposed to phoenix where you're confined to an Air conditioned building most of the year! You'll find the seasons are all very bearable up here, it's very possible to be outside all day in summer, or winter and still be comfortable. Though, we do occasionally get in the high 90's, or even low 100's for a few days in the most extreme cases, and we got 10 inches of snow once the past winter.

I don't want to live in a town where everyone is going to consider the younger crowd "punks" and give that automatic sense of dislike.

Hahah. I wouldn't worry too much about that. I'm a metalhead/rocker that blasts his music all the time. I'll occasionally get a dirty look from some old folks (And, hell I'm certainly not the only one around at all that does that), but most either ignore you or don't seem to care. And, of course there's still more young people here than old. There's just more elderly people than the norm and you'll see plenty, but no shortage of young people... so I wouldn't stress it.

Overall, prescott is much slower and laid back than phoenix, it sorta has that small town charm, but at the same time it's not exactly a small town if you count PV and how much the city has grown.

Anyway, this is just my two cents. There's more stuff to do outside here and less to do in terms of shopping and clubs and such. You may find things are a little different to you if you come up, but I'm pretty sure you'll like it up here and have a great few years; maybe you'll even decide to stick around longer after college, but if not I'm sure that you'll have at least a few good memories, or remember how pretty it is.

Cheers.

[KarmaPhx]

Thanks for the great post man, it has helped a lot. As long as there are a few bars where I can go on the weekends that is fine. I plan on doing a lot of outdoor stuff, I am buying a new set of quads this summer, and possibly a small boat.

I will need to find a connection for some recreational substances, hopefully that won't be a problem.

[checkthecodes]

On boating forget "gas" power boats, local lakes only allow electric motors... You'll do fine with quads and bikes, lots of trails.

[spyderman]

You would like "Whiskey Row" it is a blast ! Walk to several different bars all with different live music on the weekends

[homlish560]

I think Prescott is very charming. Good place for a summer home!!!!!!!!!

Not my ideal spot for a full-time residence because I really prefer the larger cities like Phx. But I'm still relatively young. Maybe when I'm older I'd consider living in Prescott area.

[scottdavis]

Originally Posted by KarmaPhx

I was offered a scholarship to a college in Prescott, and I am considering moving up there for 1-2 years, but I have a few questions.

Does prescott still have a drug problem? (hard drugs)

Is the town full of rednecks and old people, or does it have some sort of a night life?

We are a younger couple who would be moving, we want to be able to still go out and such on the weekend but I am not expecting much on the weeknights obviously.

I don't want to live in a town where everyone is going to consider the younger crowd "punks" and give that automatic sense of dislike.

I just rented a condo to a young lady in her mid 30"s that moved here from Denver. She is going to attend Prescott College this fall. She was told that Prescott was like Boulder was in the 60"s.

I seen her last week and asked her if Prescott was what she expected. She said no and I asked her why. This was her reply.

1. There is no middle class in Prescott. It is rich retirees 60 and over or poor families with no money. All you have to do is look at the cars and the people who drive them.

2. Drugs- Everywhere you look you will find someone in recovery or someone that should be in recovery. Lots of hard core drug problems but you can find the police force everywhere trying to keep it under control.

3. There are little to no activities for the younger crowd. Everything is geared for the older crowd or the out-of-towners who flood the city on weekends. Whiskey Row downtown is well.... just that.

4. Its hard to meet people as most are guarded keep to themselves and not very friendly to strangers. However once you can break the ice some of the people will warm up. But you have to make the first move as most of the time they wont.

I have said it before and I will say it again that Prescott has great weather and is a great place to retire. Not very accomidating to those with families or the working class. I figure from what I can see that the unemployment rate is about double that of other places. Lots of closed down businesses and empty commercial properties.

Have you ever been here before?

Be careful and good luck. Let us know how it is going...

Scott

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by scottdavis

I just rented a condo to a young lady in her mid 30"s that moved here from Denver. She is going to attend Prescott College this fall. She was told that Prescott was like Boulder was in the 60"s.

I seen her last week and asked her if Prescott was what she expected. She said no and I asked her why. This was her reply.

1. There is no middle class in Prescott. It is rich retirees 60 and over or poor families with no money. All you have to do is look at the cars and the people who drive them.

2. Drugs- Everywhere you look you will find someone in recovery or someone that should be in recovery. Lots of hard core drug problems but you can find the police force everywhere trying to keep it under control.

3. There are little to no activities for the younger crowd. Everything is geared for the older crowd or the out-of-towners who flood the city on weekends. Whiskey Row downtown is well.... just that.

4. Its hard to meet people as most are guarded keep to themselves and not very friendly to strangers. However once you can break the ice some of the people will warm up. But you have to make the first move as most of the time they wont.

I have said it before and I will say it again that Prescott has great weather and is a great place to retire. Not very accomidating to those with families or the working class. I figure from what I can see that the unemployment rate is about double that of other places. Lots of closed down businesses and empty commercial properties.

Have you ever been here before?

Be careful and good luck. Let us know how it is going...

Scott

Yep, that sounds like the typical concerns of a 30-something Prescott College student.

So, just out of curiosity . . . what was Boulder like in the 60's?

The closest firsthand knowledge I have of Boulder in the 60's was Boulder in '71.
Lots and lots and lots of hippies.
If you wanted drugs, anything from pot to LSD, just take a walk in downtown Boulder or near the campus. They were everywhere. Not only the era of "free love" but "free drugs" too.
Has Boulder ever had a "middle class"??? I only remember Boulder housing as being twice as high as Denver housing. That was unless you happened to "camp" [permanently] in the mountains or lived in one of the communes.

Unless a person wanted to relive their glory days as a hippie (in which case you'd be in your 60's now), I can't imagine why anyone would want to move to a place that was categorized as "Boulder in the 60's".

I'd also be interested to know what exactly are "activities for the younger crowd" (as the 30-something college student referred to her peers)? I know what "activities for the younger crowd" were available in Boulder in the '60's. I certainly hope those aren't the types of "activities" this "young" middle-aged college student was looking for.

[scottdavis]

Originally Posted by scottdavis

She was told that Prescott was like Boulder was in the 60"s.

GEZE Gretchen

Meaning Laid Back, Uncongested, Friendly, Youthful, Unspoiled.

Nothing to do with drugs thats why she was shocked at all the evident substance abuse. Read the entire post.

Believe me there is alot more hard drugs in Prescott now than there was ever in Boulder in the 60's. I lived there too...

[Gretchen B]

Okay, Scott. Just getting a little overwhelmed with glass-half-empty types yesterday. I respectfully beg to differ with you on a couple of points, though. And I know most of this is just personal perspective and personal circumstances. Even the best town can be a nightmare if things are going bad for a person, and vice versa. I've lived in a few places that were far from perfect, but because of good friends, they were some of the places we loved.

As far as Prescott, my personal experience (coming from a "country/rural" background is that Prescott is Laid Back, Uncongested, and Friendly. When I visit Phoenix for the day, I can hardly wait to get back up to having smiling people in the stores and on the streets. (Nothing against Phx, just the difference between "city" and Prescott).

Youthful - maybe not so much, but there are plenty of things for kids to do. My own kids (in their 20's now) are always doing stuff and having a good time. Never once have I heard them complain "there's nothing to do around here." If you love the outdoors, I don't think it matters whether you're young or old, you'll like Prescott's location. No we don't have the Dessert Ridge type hangout complexes that Phoenix does, so if that's what somebody wants they won't find it at Prescott. If somebody loves city lights and action, that's not Prescott, but there's plenty to do that's fun around here.

I just really don't get the drug comment. Boulder in the late 60's was really bad. While drugs are pretty much in every town in America now, I've never seen evidence of any major problems in Prescott. Are all our retirees on meth or something? It's kind of a contradiction in terms to say that Prescott has a lot of retirees but that there is a huge drug problem. I would be naive to say that drugs don't exist here, but our crime statistics would indicate that we do not have a major problem.

I don't think you'll find any nice place that's like any town of the '60's. And I can't imagine that someone would expect to find that. Things have just changed too much. But I would definitely take Prescott over a large metro area any day. At least it still retains some small town charm.