Sierra Vista

[JannAZ]

As a resident of Sierra Vista, and an employee of the SV library for 22 years, and the near-by smaller Huachuca City library for 4 years, I can highly recommend the local library system. Oh, and the community college has a pretty decent library system, too.

Jann

[blur01]

I lived in Sierra Vista for 3 months March-June 2009. I had a great time. I loved hiking through the river outside town. The only thing that sucked was I rented a room off a guy who then got his power cut off and gave me a bad check for 800. Tombstone and Bisbee are cool. My deadbeat landlord got his teeth fixed cheap in Naco (probably with my $). I met a pretty girl who worked at lowes. Damn she was fine, and a nice person. That combination is rare. Karshner caverns are nearby. The hiking is awesome. I miss it, out of all the places I lived and worked in AZ it was one of my favorites. They play movies in the park sometimes, though all the rugrats run around screaming their heads off and you have to move ten times. Shut up and watch the damn movie! I miss AZ so bad.

[WaAzGirl]

I grew up in Washington state and my family and I moved to Sierra Vista in 2003. The truth is at first I hated it. Not 'real' trees, no lakes close by, no snow in the winter. In 2008 my husband got a new job and we moved to California. I was excited about living near the ocean and all of that. To my surprise I missed Sierra Vista. Three of my children, now grown, still live in Sierra Vista and now have kids of their own.

Yes, it is a safe town. You will hear about the illegals more then you will ever see them. There are tweekers and pot heads just like any other town of it's size, just don't be one of them. One of the interesting things you will see is the homeless people. There are only a handful and they don't create any trouble as far as I know, but where I came from it was something I never saw. You get to know some of them by sight even if you never know their name, and they come and go with the seasons.

In all the years there I saw a scorpion once, a few black widows, and never saw a snake since we lived in town. You might see a cockroach now and then but they are easy to handle and will wave to you as they run and hide. lol.

The people there are nice. The 'Hall', a.k.a The Sierra Vista Mall, is small but better then nothing with a decent movie theater. In the years we have lived there the town has changed a lot. More and more places to eat and shop then when we first moved there. There are some pretty nice apartments right behind Food City which are a little pricey but new. There are plenty of other options for renting though so just look around. People will talk about 'Fry Town' which is the end of town near the main gate of Ft. Huachucha as being the 'bad' part of town but we lived there for 3 years and never had any issues. It is the seedier side of town but still OK.

Sierra Vista sits around 4600 ft. elevation and the summers are hot and dry, but nothing compared to Phoenix. The winters are mild with nights cold enough to make you know it is winter and be able to build a fire and where your warm jammies. =) We live in South Carolina now and let me tell you I miss the Arizona nights when the temps cooled down nicely and you could go for a wonderful star light drive. My personal favorite time of year is monsoon season (July to September) when you get some pretty awesome thunder and lightning storms and rain. October, depending on how much rain the monsoons brought in, is gorgeous with everything turning all green. You will not see such pretty sunsets in many other parts of the world then in AZ. You will be amazed at how much wildlife there really is in the desert. In other words, it can grow on you in a big way without you even realizing it. Be warned though. The town is a good town but it is still the desert and it has been my experience that you either love the desert or hate it.

The school district is.....not great. It seems to be OK up until high school. The high school works very hard to maintain educational integrity but it is over crowded and under budgeted.

The park is not very big but as a few people have mentioned there is always something going on there. It is smaller town stuff but part of what makes it a good town.

Gosh, I hope this is not too much information. This is just coming from someone who moved there from somewhere far away and totally different who enjoyed it.

[John1881]

WOW! That reply by WaAzGirl makes me want to cry, my wife and I have vacationed in Cochise County for the last four years or so. We want to move there sooooo bad, but stuck here in South Carolina!!!!!

[WaAzGirl]

Originally Posted by John1881

WOW! That reply by WaAzGirl makes me want to cry, my wife and I have vacationed in Cochise County for the last four years or so. We want to move there sooooo bad, but stuck here in South Carolina!!!!!

I know how you feel! We are still here in South Carolina as well and hopefully will be leaving soon. But there is a chance we may have to stay another 2 years!
I was back in Sierra Vista recently visiting. Growth had slowed down after the big housing boom, but building is picking back up again at a a normal rate after that horrible housing market crash in 2007-08. Very good to see. Fort Huachucha is still doing well and does not look like it is going anywhere anytime soon. I hope you get the chance to move to AZ someday John1881!

[Salpointe59]

I've lived in S Vista for 20 years and was lucky enough to retre from two careers, Army (19D) and H S teacher/coach. I was the Head of the Social Studies Dept at Buena and the Head Wrestling Coach. I grew up in Tucson and go there to see family often, I am always glad to get back to S Vista.
Buena is an excellent school for the motivated student, JROTC that is excellent, Robotics Club that has won first place nationally lately, I Q Invitational Club that is a National placer.
If your student is unmotivated they will have a rough time as in large classes when the Cream rises to the Top it is natural for the teacher to concentrate on them as they are the kids who raise the AIMs scores which gives the school funding.
Special Ed students on the other hand are part of an excellent Department. Like it or not the Special Ed kids get a large % of the funding. After I retired I went back to college so I could work with E D youngsters. That was a real eye opener for me, but it is a different subject.

[Steve Pickering]

Although I was living in Bisbee at the time, I went to Sierra Vista several times a week. On recent trips I was not as pleased with the town as I used to be. I really loved it, but the growth has not been good for the town from an occational visitor viewpoint.