10 Reasons Not To Move To Tucson (Phoenix, Catalina Foothills: vacation, lease, job)

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by Arizona?

It`s a somewhat minor thing, but I think the left turn signals in Tucson are highly functional...I`ve never been anywhere else where the turn comes after traffic going straight ahead, but I liked that. I`ve been everywhere from places like DC to Seattle & I wish they`d all follow Tucson`s example on that.

You're right, Arizona . . . a little unique and strange at first but after awhile, it starts to make sense.

[sickofIL]

It amazes me at how tere are so many that either hate or love Tucson. There doesn't seem to be much said here from people that are in between.

We are planning to move there from the western Chicago suburbs possibly as soon as spring/summer 08. We visited there shortly after the flooding in 2006. I can agree and disagree with many things that have been said here. However, as someone above stated, it depends on where you are comming from as to how good or bad the city is.

As far as cost of living and things to do, here (Chicago area) there are an endless amount of things to do. You just can't afford to to them anymore. How about $100 to go the the zoo, of $120 to go to a museum. I have 5 in my family, myself, my wife and 7yo triplets. We simply cannot afford to see much here anymore. If you want to do something in the city, you need to pay for parking. If you can find cheap parking, it is $10/hr. Otherwise it can be as high as $20/hr.

The other problem with doing anything here is the weather. If it isn't raining, hot and humid (90's with 70% or higher humidity, it's cold and sloppy. There are very few days that are actually nice and most end up being during the week when you are working.

Housing? I live in a 1800 sq. ft 50 year old (needs lots of repair) Cape Cod. It was Just appraised for $325,000. (down because of the market) My taxes are cheap because we live in an unincorporated part of out suburb and I pay $4900. If we lived in the incorporated part of the city it would be more like $7000! I Tucson we could buy a very nice house for less and have taxes that are a fraction to what they are here. I house here with 3-4 bedrooms and a built in pool will go for close to $400,000 and have $10,000 taxes. I've been watching housing in Tucson online and from listings that a realitor in Tucson has been sending us. Many of the $200-$250,000 houses there would be $500,000+ here.

They say we have good schools here. I can easily say that this is true because most parents here spend at least 1-2hrs/day teaching there kids after school because of what they do not get in school. The schools here that are not too good are in areas where the parents either don't have the time because thy both work long hrs. or they do not have the ability to help there kids.(we have a large amount of Mexicans that do not have good education) we have 26.02% Hispanics/Latinos

We loved our stay there. The driving was a pleasure, sorry for those of you that do not agree, but I am comparing it to here. And I am in the suburbs. Compared to the city itself, I would say there is no traffic. Driving in the city of Chicago is hell! The suburbs is better but nothing like Tucson. Drivers are nice in Tucson.

I can say that we saw difference in some neighborhoods. We drove briefly through south Tucson. I agree with what has been said. But most everywhere else we were, it didn't seem to us that it was dangerous. We found most people to be quite friendly. Although this is in comparison to here.

My wife is a nurse and I am a mechanical Test/Development Engineer with 20+ yrs experience so i don't think we will have difficulty finding jobs.

When we arived in Tucson it was the tail end of the rain. some streets were still flooded. Our reason to visit was because we are planning to move there. I am also on two Yahoo groups "Tucson parents" & Tucson Life" both have good information--about the bad and good. My wife is from Brazil and she felt safe there. In most places in Brazil it isn't very safe to walk at night, especially if you are American. And I haven't had any insidences there. There are neighborhoods not too far from where I live that there are gunshots rutinely. The house we moved from a few yrs ago was in a very nice neighborhood but only a few blocks away was a mini Ghetto. A place I wouldn't drive during the day.

So it all depends on you point of view as to how nice/safe/practicle Tucson is. I guess I am ranting, sorry. But point ov view can make a huge difference.

[sickofIL]

The only thing I forgot to say is that I am a little concerned with the whole new FEMA flood plain thing. Right now I have been looking for a map that shows this so We can make certain we do not buy a house that is in the new designated areas. I haven't found anything useful yet.

[LordBalfor]

sickofIL -

No you're not ranting. You are exactly right. Everything is relative - and I've mentioned that myself many times here. Folks who were in Tucson before the big housing boom complain that the prices are too high - and for them it's the truth. Compared to what they were before, the prices are indeed ugly. But for folks like you and me - who live in even more expensive areas, Tucson prices are still a relative bargain.

Same is true for crime and traffic. Tucson traffic is nothing compared to that in Seattle.

Ken

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by sickofIL

The only thing I forgot to say is that I am a little concerned with the whole new FEMA flood plain thing. Right now I have been looking for a map that shows this so We can make certain we do not buy a house that is in the new designated areas. I haven't found anything useful yet.

You might wanna order the maps because those FEMA has online I find very hard to use (you can certainly give them a try, though). They're also outdated. Hopefully the purchased ones are not. Perhaps it's better to doublecheck before spending money on it. There's also a department in the city or the county (don't remember) you can call and ask about a specific address. I have the number only at work and I'm home today. Hope I didn't lose it. I can give it to you tomorrow.

FEMA Map Service Center -

You can see my thread on Marana. It's about this issue. It's still up in the air.

[JMadison]

Well let's see. I lived in Tucson for 2 years. I can't say I have a list of 10 things. But some things really jumped out at me.

1) Everything is 2 feet from a former landfill. Los Reales borders the airport. Pantano Wash is almost literally in the down town. So literally everything that gets flown in gets a nice coating of landfill filth from Los Reales. Marvelous planning there.

2) There's a PCB problem in the water on the west side of town that has led to a "statistically significant cluster" of cancer over there.

3) Many, many years ago American Atomics leaked radioactive tritium into the adjoining chocolate cake factory and it was fed to about 40,000 kids.

4) I seem to recall some sort of water contamination problem down town where they were considering pumping water back in, to force the contamination away, or some such.

In the end, I'd say try to live in the Catalina Foothills if you can. That's about the nicest section in my experience.

[sickofIL]

Does anyone know where American Atomics was located? I've been searching and have read a lot about this but nothing said anything about the address. Just curious what is at that location now.

JMadison, we have been looking at the north western area. I don't have any idea where we will work, but the more attractive areas to us are Catalina Foothills and northwest of there such as Marana, Oro Valley, etc. However, when the time comes to find jobs, it may change this.

[utspg]

Originally Posted by sickofIL

It amazes me at how tere are so many that either hate or love Tucson. There doesn't seem to be much said here from people that are in between.

That's usually the case with most anything. The people who care enough to voice their opinion about something are the people who feel strongly about said topic.

Take politics for example. Who bitches more? People who are apathetic towards politics, or those who feel strongly about their views (one way or the other)?

[angelhealer1]

Originally Posted by twixcookie

Ken,
Yes, that's pretty much true. All lands are essentially conquered lands, so whoever defends and claims the lands now has them. Even if you go back in time, there were the Paleo-Indians here, before the tribes we know about.
As the populations have expanded on every continent, lands have been taken over.
I don't see it about being smug or not and I don't understand those who think we should hand back our lands to someone else. Where would the cycle stop?

So true! This land is your land this land is my land this land is our land, this land is GODS land, King of the hill. EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SHARE!

[junkman18]

Originally Posted by Idaho

10 reasons in random order:
1. highest skin cancer rate in the nation
2. valley fever - it's real and can be very hard to recover from
3. schools - worst ranking in the nation in graduating kids from high school
4. very low wages for same work compared to other parts of the USA
5. poor representation in the state capitol - tucson is az's step child
6. termites - only 2 kinds of houses here - those that have termites and those that will.
7. water issues are worsening with time - very long drought!
8. infrastructure (roads, etc) cannot keep up with the population boom
9. & 10. Can't think of any more . . . other ideas out there?

How about the illegal alien problem and the crime that goes with it.