Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can give a pass to San Jose, after all, San Francisco and Oakland are right next door. SF is the financial nerve center of the Bay Area, Oakland also have financial industry, but it is mostly a major port city. San Jose on the other hand, really didn't become important untill the 1980s, with the rise of Silicon Valley.
Pheonix on the other hand doesn't have a bad of a skyline like most people make it out to be. I think the reason why it looks uninpresive, is because the city is sprawled out, and there isn't a major body of water near the downtown area.
A good city shoudn't be measured by its skyline. What I would like more is for greater density of midrises in both cities--something like what many European cities and a few American ones have (D.C., parts of Brooklyn). A vibrant, densely built doesn't require skyscrapers--unfortunately, neither city is particularly vibrant nor densely built.
True...
BUT
DC and Brooklyn still have great architecture... Phoenix and San Jose don't.
would argue Phoenix has the better skyline ...but i'll admit both are nothing special
economically , Silicon Valley relies heavily on the tech industry...which favors sprawling campuses near great scenic driving roads to test out ones expensive sportscars on the way to the office
Phoenix, Az is a very dry and dusty outpost city that just grew in population because of its weather after air conditioning was invented. It still hasn't lost its dry dusty "last outpost on the trail" type of feel. It is an absolute nowhere land way, way out there in the middle of the desert.
Eventually it had enough people to warrant putting up a Walmart and then eventually they had enough Walmarts to employ enough people to put up a Home Depot and then came Taco Bell and MCdonalds and a mall and eventually a whole Master planned community was born. Well this growing community and the home depot, Walmart, Taco Bell etc. as well as needing people to help build all the new houses and work at the restaurants attracted illegal aliens to come and get jobs there. The cycle just kept repeating itself until today. That in a nut shell is what Phoenix is.
The largest industry is just building more houses and home depots and Taco bells etc. Why would you need any hirise buildings for that??
So if you expect a dazzling skyline to come out of all this you won't be getting it any time soon. This just goes to show that you can build a city based on services without any core industry at all. Growth is the industry. The only problem is what do you do if the growth stops????? OOOOOOPS!!!!
I see you edited this post. Is this the usual garbage post you make about Phoenix every 2 weeks, just reworded?
Both cities have horrid skylines...there's no excuse for having such a weak skyline. The "airport promixity" argument isn't too valid in my opinion considering Boston's skyline is good and its airport is directly across the harbor.
Of the two, I guess Phoenix is the lesser of two evils, but I'd rather live in San Jose.
Both cities have horrid skylines...there's no excuse for having such a weak skyline. The "airport promixity" argument isn't too valid in my opinion considering Boston's skyline is good and its airport is directly across the harbor.
It's proximity compounded by alignment of the runways.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,060,443 times
Reputation: 4047
San Jose. My cousin works in the downtown there, I LOVE the food and the restaurants and the activities, but HATE the skyline.
Phoenix has my vote for better. It didn't look as bad as everyone is saying when I saw it last time I was there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
