Is Tuscon really beautiful or trick photography? (Phoenix, Tucson: 2013, countertops)

[dockinabox]

Tucson and the surrounding Sonoran Desert CAN be beautiful, but it is a rugged beauty and not for everybody. If you see a picture of Tucson and it's green, it was either taken of an irrigated area(like a golf course or park), or taken during the rainy season. Our desert DOES have a lot more plant life than most people would picture in a desert, but it is course, waxy growth which guards its coveted moisture with spines and thorns, and toxins. The desert is a HARSH place. Air-conditioning is what makes living here year-round, feasible. The view of the mountains is just what the pictures show. The Catalinas are gorgeous and they change "moods" with the time of day, and the season, and the weather, and I really haven't gotten tired of looking at them, even after 28 years. Hiking them is fun too. Tucson is dealing with a crowding problem, true, mostly due to a lot of folks moving hear for our climate. In the early 80s , we were about 450K pop. and now we are well over 1M. Traffic can be an issue at some times of day, but they just widened our freeway, and, compared to some jams I've experienced around NYC and LA, there are no comparisons. (Phoenix is a very different matter there.) Naturally, it doesn't rain a lot. We get about 320 days of sunshine per year. What they don't mention in that stat is that we get the other 25 days of rain seemingly all too often on the weekends. (I have no idea as to why that is.) On the other hand, I originally grew up on the East Coast, and although it took almost 20 years of seemingly perpetually blue, Tucson skies for it to happen, eventually, I came to greatly appreciate cloudy, rainy days. There is a smell that the desert gets when it rains. It's the aromatic oils released from the creosote bushes, and it smells like nothing else. There are so many little nuances like that about desert life, that I couldn't even begin to mention them all. You really should check the place out for yourself, and see what you think, and I recommend a number of trips, at different times of the year, especially at least a couple, during the heat of summer to experience it at its worst. A trip to the AZ-Sonoran Desert Museum as a first stop, is strongly urged...along with a hat, some UV blocking shades, and a lot of sunscreen.

[miamiman]

Tucson is a very green city. Much of the native vegetation creates a greenish hue on the mountains and throughout the desert.

Grass, if intensely cared for, will remain green in Tucson. Some golf courses and lawns here in Tucson have some of the greenest grass I've ever seen.

ALL of Tucson is not pretty. Tucson has some EXTREMELY ugly areas. However, if your life is together and you have some money, is don't take much to have the capacity to live in a very nice area.

[Marcy1210]

Originally Posted by JMadison

6) Utility costs - In the summer it goes over 100, in the winter down into the 40's. Only maybe 1 month on either side of the year are you *not* heating or cooling 20 or more degrees. I've lived all over the country, highest utility bills I ever had were in Tucson, in the winter, LOL! Seems places are built with the idea that heat won't be needed, mininal insulation... water heater often out in a utility room... so it ends up costing a bundle to keep the water hot in the winter, especially if you have a heater that is run off the water tank.

Best to go out and see it first if you can, before you move there.

You obviously haven't lived in the mountains of Colorado. In winter, the average nightime temp is in the 20's, usually lower, and even if the daytime temps are in the 40's, you're still using heat. In fact, you use heat almost all year round. The average utility bill for gas and electric in winter runs most people around $300.00 or more. We paid an annual average of about $4800.00 a year in utility bills in Colorado, and that's with no AC (you don't need it in the mountains). Here, our monthly utility bill is around $100 a month in winter, $200.00 in summer. More in the summer, yes, but nowhere near what we paid in Colorado for about the same size house.

[CABQ]

This whole thread has been eye opening. miamiman are those picture you took? How green yes?

Is extremely ugly places in impoverished areas or do you mean the landscape? Are you from Miami? I'm in Sarasota and the humidity is really getting me down! : )

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by CABQ

This whole thread has been eye opening. miamiman are those picture you took? How green yes?

Is extremely ugly places in impoverished areas or do you mean the landscape? Are you from Miami? I'm in Sarasota and the humidity is really getting me down! : )

All ugliness is man-made and generally in impoverished areas. That's the way it is everywhere. You can see various examples of ugly, middle-of-the-road, and luxurious on these 2 threads.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tucso...hood-tour.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tucso...hborhoods.html

[dintymoore]

I could outdo those first set of pics (these http://www.city-data.com/forum/tucso...hood-tour.html) here on Oahu pretty easy.

None of that looked anywhere near as bad as some major east coast cities, not even close, like I said, there's worse here on Oahu.

For me I found the beauty in the desert around Tucson awesome. When I went there in '74 to UA I was expecting sand dunes like the Sahara.

My understanding is that the whole area was once a shallow sea and when the water left the plants adapted to land, so it's covered with life, just like the ocean floor is.

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by dintymoore

I could outdo those first set of pics (these http://www.city-data.com/forum/tucso...hood-tour.html) here on Oahu pretty easy.

None of that looked anywhere near as bad as some major east coast cities, not even close, like I said, there's worse here on Oahu.

Well, there are some neighborhoods that look even worse than that, but nothing really like the decay and boarded houses (using the term loosely) in Gary, IN, or Flint, MI, etc.

[CABQ]

lol sierraAZ I was born and raised in Gary IN. So I went from NW Indiana armpit ugly to never return. I lived in the beautiful area of Eugene OR from the mountains to the ocean. Moved to SW Florida, lush beauty and pure white quartz sand beaches, and now I am interested in desert beauty.

Thank you so much for those neighborhood tours.

[RickTucsonHomes]

Here's a pic I took of Sweetwater Preserve in west Tucson.

[LexusNexus]

Tucson is as beautiful as you make it.