Tucson, AZ vs. Las Vegas, NV vs. El Paso, TX vs. Lubbock, TX vs. San Antonio, TX (Atlanta, people)
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Vegas for me earlier this year for the first time I actually explored places outside of the strip, and I've got to say Vagas is a really nice city with tons of scenery, and California is right down the road. This is what it looks like less than an hour outside of Vegas https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2633...7i13312!8i6656
I just like Tucson a lot better than El Paso. El Paso is a boring city in the middle of nowhere, far from other big cities. Tucson is super close to Phoenix and close to California and Las Vegas.
You sound boring.
Trying to trash EL PASO is not going to make tucson better and it will not change the fact that tucson lives in the Shadow of phoenix.
Shopping: Las Vegas (I personally don't do a ton of high-end shopping, but Vegas wins here by a mile)
Entertainment: Las Vegas (The Strip is better than anywhere else on this list)
Weather: San Antonio (None of the five are particularly appealing to me by this standard, so I'll just go with San Antonio because I dislike long rain droughts and it'd likely be the one of the five I'd most enjoy myself in)
I just like Tucson a lot better than El Paso. El Paso is a boring city in the middle of nowhere, far from other big cities. Tucson is super close to Phoenix and close to California and Las Vegas.
Face it, no matter what city you move to you're going to get bored with it eventually, and then? Where can I escape to within 2-3-4 hours of here? And if the city you pick is too from anywhere (Minneapolis/Denver) then you well better like that city.
San Antonio is a quick drive to Austin, and you can also zip on over to Corpus Christi. El Paso, well, I've done it, taken the bus to Chihuahua, not a bad city to escape to. Tucson? It's a long drive to San Diego, too long, and too long of a drive to Las Vegas (6-7 hours) but there's Phoenix, and if you go south you can take the bus out of Nogales and go to the ocean in Guayamas, San Carlos, a shorter distance than San Diego.
I just moved out of Las Vegas for Tucson and all that I miss is the aridity and the mountain scenery wrapping around that city.
Tucson happily lives in the shadow of Phoenix. Historically, Tucson preceded Phoenix, and is a very mature, civilized city to live in with lots of surprise everywhere.
Las Vegas is still going through its teenage years, and it has a lot of maturing to do, like establishing an art museum (last big city to get one) and getting some light rail line built, a tall order as the 9-10,000 taxi drivers in Las Vegas have repeatedly rejected the idea, particularly a line going from the Airport down the Strip to Fremont. Give Las Vegas 10-15 more years of maturing and it'll be one great city to live in.
Face it, no matter what city you move to you're going to get bored with it eventually, and then? Where can I escape to within 2-3-4 hours of here? And if the city you pick is too from anywhere (Minneapolis/Denver) then you well better like that city.
San Antonio is a quick drive to Austin, and you can also zip on over to Corpus Christi. El Paso, well, I've done it, taken the bus to Chihuahua, not a bad city to escape to. Tucson? It's a long drive to San Diego, too long, and too long of a drive to Las Vegas (6-7 hours) but there's Phoenix, and if you go south you can take the bus out of Nogales and go to the ocean in Guayamas, San Carlos, a shorter distance than San Diego.
I just moved out of Las Vegas for Tucson and all that I miss is the aridity and the mountain scenery wrapping around that city.
Tucson happily lives in the shadow of Phoenix. Historically, Tucson preceded Phoenix, and is a very mature, civilized city to live in with lots of surprise everywhere.
Las Vegas is still going through its teenage years, and it has a lot of maturing to do, like establishing an art museum (last big city to get one) and getting some light rail line built, a tall order as the 9-10,000 taxi drivers in Las Vegas have repeatedly rejected the idea, particularly a line going from the Airport down the Strip to Fremont. Give Las Vegas 10-15 more years of maturing and it'll be one great city to live in.
Las Vegas may never grow from it's reputation from the Strip. The Strip does a lot for Vegas of course, but I think Vegas needs to offer more outside of the Strip to really mature. Imagine if Vegas did not have the Strip, but everything else staying the same. How would it compare to Phoenix? Or Tucson? Personally I wouldn't see very many unique qualities. Vegas on a surface level to me reminds me a lot of Phoenix in it's architecture and development style, even moreso than Phoenix and Tucson in my opinion. Vegas needs unique offerings to identify it as a major city, not as a "rich playground in the sand" city. Then again that isn't stopping Dubai, so maybe I have this all wrong.
Tucson and Phoenix share a similar dynamic to LA and San Diego in the sense that LA and San Diego are two very different cities who offer different lifestyles to people who want similar climates. San Diego being smaller, more "laid back", more conservative, etc. in comparison to LA. Tucson being more liberal, smaller, marches to the beat of its own drum, historic, in comparison to Phoenix.
There's tons of money in Las Vegas, many rich-rich people move there to escape a state income tax, including a billionaire Wal-Mart heir. I don't think any number of them live there year-round, they merely establish residence there to escape taxation.
And with all that tax savings, Las Vegas can't find enough donors to merely build a world-class art museum? Shameful, shameful!!
And no ground is yet to broken for a light rail line!
For entertainment, food, shopping I think Las Vegas outdoes all the rest here, but maybe it's better for visitors than those who live there. All these features are expensive.
To my mind, Tucson and San Antonio stand out. They are moderately attractive cities with some limitations--weather and transit come to mind. And, for me, San Antonio is in Texas and the state's politics are more repugnant than Arizona's. So maybe Tucson.
And how did Lubbock sneak into this comparison? It is nowhere near as large as the others on the list and compares more to Amarillo, or even Las Cruces.
I'm not a big fan of Las Vegas. Too touristy and outside the strip is kinda dumpy, however, there are some nice areas. Still, Arizona>Nevada anytime for me. As I've said, I feel Tucson is the best city on this list. El Paso and Lubbock are probably the worst ones. San Antonio is nice, but it's way too humid and I can't stand humidity.
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