Sierra Vista (Phoenix, Tucson, Douglas: low crime, mobile home, neighborhoods)

[littlepawsinn]

Hi, I am a single female late thirties with two small kids. One is diagnosed autism who is very high functioning. Live in New York at the moment but I may have to move a good distance away from a family member. I find Arizona beautiful and love the weather and scenery and like what I've seen when researching Sierra Vista. This move will be one that is unplanned and out of my control and hopefully be happening in about a year's time. I like the idea of starting out somewhere safe and new. My finances are so that Arizona's cost of living is doable at the moment. Have also been looking into New Mexico before I discovered Sierra Vista. Could anyone living in Sierra Vista or similar kind of place, with similar situation (single with small kids) tell me their experiences, the pros and cons, job opportunities there, schooling etc. I will probably be looking into mobile homes (what I am living in now)until I can get situated better financially. I have an Associate's degree and Bachelor's degree as well as taken graduate courses in teaching. Special ed will probably end up being my course of studies. Thanks!

[noahzarc1]

I lived in Sierra Vista 2000 until 2006, when I moved to Tucson. There are many pros and cons to the area, I guess I will try to give you some of them.

First off, Sierra Vista is about 65-90 miles southeast of Tucson (that sounds like an odd number, just because it depends on which part of the Tucson sprawl one would drive from to get to Sierra Vista). The main employer in Sierra Vista is the Fort Huachuca military base. If that base ever closes, you can probably put a huge fence around Sierra Vista and close it down too. Sierra Vista grew exponentially from 2000-2007 during the housing rush. Additionally, there are a large number of retirees who've relocated to the area. This eventually brought in a large influx of shopping and restaurants. Not sure where in NY you are from, but think of Sierra Vista as a large suburb, but all the surrounding suburbs have been removed. It kind of sits by itself in the southeastern part of Cochise County where it is located. There are some small areas around it, such as Hereford, and Bisbee. However, Bisbee is an old mining town whose mines now have a little bit of minor activity, but their hayday was in the 50's and 60's and once the mines began shutting down, so did Bisbee. It has a large hippee population there. Sierra Vista is also situated rather close to the border. This means alien and drug smuggling. Sorry, that is the bad news, no matter who wants to pretend that is not a problem just to the south. Southeast AZ has been one of the major smuggling hubs into the U.S. for over 15 years. That is a hard and fast truth. However, Sierra Vista also has a very good police department and the Border Patrol presence is massive down there. You have the Douglas, AZ, Naco, AZ and Sonoita, AZ Border Patrol stations all situated within 30-40 miles of Sierra Vista. (In case someone wants to refute my statements about the smuggling problem there, they can then explain why 1000 agents are assigned to the area). Anyway, most of the traffic goes around Sierra Vista, however, it is something you should honestly be aware of.

Despite its proximity to the border, the crime rate was relatively low in the area. There were still dirt roads in some parts of Sierra Vista when I lived there, so it has grown to be a pretty sizable little city in the last 10 years. The best part about S.V. is the weather. You seldom will have a summer day hit 100, with no humidity, that is almost a dream for AZ. Sierra Vista sits at about 4000 feet above sea level, more or less. Bisbee/Douglas (which are closer to the border) sit at about 5000 feet. It is what they sometimes refer to as "high-desert". It is desert climate, but at higher altitudes, certainly higher than probably where you live in NY. Therefore, despite its proximity to the southwest border, the higher altitude makes for very comfortable living. You will witness dry climate from October to July. In July starts the best time of the year in southern AZ, which is monsoon season. That is the stormy season. Sierra Vista is normally one of the best areas in the region and I think this year they are about 3 inches ahead in rain than the rest of southeast AZ. Your lightning storms are amazing to watch, so it is enjoyable. After monsoon season ends again (mid-September), it is usually dry. Winters will be colder because of the elevation (which is what makes a place like Tucson so enjoyable in the winter). However, you will experience January like you never knew it in NY. (I'm from NY by the way). The site of seeing people out walking their dogs and riding their bikes in January is something you really won't see in NY that time of year.

Sierra Vista is in Cochise county, so you can research all you want on that. The counties in AZ are massive, they cover a lot of area. I think the county total has about 100,000 residents. Most of that population, (maybe 40,000+) is in Sierra Vista. Again, the military base is the whole reason Sierra Vista ever existed before. Sierra Vista used to be known as the town of Fry. Hence, the main blvd there is Fry Blvd. If you go by the main gate of the military base, you can see some of of the original trailer parks that made up the sleepy little town. I think Fry was changed to Sierra Vista in either the 50's or 70's. It remains a gem mainly for people who once lived there. Just know there is not a ton of industry there. So most of the employees are government, government contractors or military. I really don't know what other type of living besides professional (i.e. doctor, lawyer, medical, etc) there is. Sierra Vista gets pretty small pretty quick. So if you don't have a plan for how you want to spend your time there, you may see that it is a pretty small town.

Again many retirees love it because many of them also are snow birds too. There is plenty of hiking in the area. The Huachuca mountains are in your back yard. Again, in those mountains I would use extreme caution because of the illegal alien traffic in the area.

You say the move is "unplanned and out of your control." That tends to be why most people end up there. It is really not the worst place you can end up. When I moved there, I do not think there was one chain restaurant. While living there Chilis opened around 2002. I can tell you it was the highest grossing Chilis in the country for a long time. We had no restaurants. Then eventually Outback came, then many other restaurants started coming. Now there is a Best Buy attached to the little mall there, etc. There is some absolutely awesome neighborhoods there now. Housing is fantastic and is affordable again. Even much of the housing has been redone on the military base. Again, as long as that base keeps kicking, Sierra Vista will be on the rise. I even heard recently they just approved the annexing of some property to make something like a little downtown area with a few multi-story high rise buildings. That is all a plus. I am not a small town person, so while I enjoyed my time there, I always had my eye on leaving. If you are small town person, it may be the greatest thing that ever happened to you. Another positive is that you are only 1 hour from Tucson, which was a positive for me when I was moving there. Tucson is over 1,000,000 people and has everything a city needs. From Sierra Vista you are only about 2 1/2 - 3 hours from Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the U.S. So it sits in a good area.

Sierra Vista has a University of Arizona extension campus. I believe they just built a new hospital (Finally!!!!). High School as a bit sketchy 15 years ago, as there was only 1 high school for the whole city. That is not a good thing honestly. You may be able to find it, I believe Buena High School was even on Oprah back in the late 90's as the high school with the 2nd highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. But again, that was over 15 years ago, but research Buena High School and check out whether any other high school options are now available. There are plenty of wonderful churches in the area. Grocery stores are nice. You have Target, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot.

My experience was positive one. I look back fondly on my time in Sierra Vista. I am an east coaster and that is where I am returning to next month after 15 years in AZ. I wish you and your family the best. I believe you will make the best of it.

[littlepawsinn]

Nice thorough description. It's a lot to think about it. Appreciate it. Thanks !

[LordBalfor]

Noahzarc1's description is pretty much spot on as near as I can tell.
Overall Sierra Vista is a pretty nice town. You could do a lot worse and you'd be hard pressed for find a whole lot better. Beautiful scenery, WONDERFUL weather, low crime, no congestion, reasonable cost of living, having pretty much everything you need shopping-wise - what more could you want?

Ken

[inthetrees430]

I am moving to Sierra Vista next month and wondered how littlepawsinn and family are faring.