How do you like Flagstaff? (Phoenix, Scottsdale: motel, quality of life, living in)

[pokuku]

Originally Posted by KitsuneMoon

I've lived in Flagstaff for five years, and plan to move somewhere else soon. I've traveled all over the country, and have lived in many other larger and smaller cities around the Western U.S. In my opinion Flagstaff does not compare well to other similar locales, and is nothing special as a place to live. All the people I know that love Flagstaff have either lived in Arizona most of their lives, or they moved here from places like Detroit, Kansas, or New Jersey. If you compare Flagstaff to other mountain towns like Boulder, Boise, Bend, Santa Fe, and Mammoth Springs, it's the retarded step-child of that family.

Summary of Living in Flagstaff:

Pros:

-Easy access to trails and scenic areas. Flagstaff is the gateway to the Grand Canyon, and the city is surrounded by Forest Service land with numerous trails. This is the one thing that people keep harping on, and if not for the outdoors, no one would want to live here. It would be Winslow. And really, even the outdoor scene is nothing special. There is one mountain. Let's double check and count them.....let's see....one. One mountain.

Cons:

-There is no water. Do you like lakes and rivers? Sorry, we don't have those. The "lakes" and "rivers' you see on maps are more like muddy, smelly fish cemeteries due to the long-standing drought.
-Poor air quality. The city is surrounded by Forest Service land, and the Forest Service has year-round burning operations. Approximately 30-60 days out of the year the air quality for particulates rates "poor", which is worse than Phoenix.
-Wildfires. There are wildfires EVERY summer. Some houses around Flagstaff have been destroyed by wildfires and mudslides in recent years. Oh and tornadoes. Don't forget the tornadoes.
-Poor Economy. Even if you have a so-called "Good Job" here, it is difficult to get ahead. Everyone I know here under the age of 40 lives with roommates, even if they own a house and have a "Good Job".
-Astronomical housing prices. Flagstaff is the most expensive city in the state.
-Horrible, horrible public schools. Your kids will be lucky if they even know that books open from left to right, forget about actually reading the words inside, writing, or doing basic math.
-The city is dirty and rundown. Someone screams at me, spits at me, and/or tries to pick a fight about every third or fourth time I go downtown. All the houses around downtown look like run-down shacks, and homeless people and drunk, belligerent NAU students are all over.
-The police act like the KGB. Do you enjoy being profiled by the police, constantly being followed and pulled over when you're doing absolutely nothing wrong? If so, move to Flagstaff.
-There are few services compared to other similar size cities. I never shop for anything in Flagstaff except food.
-The available services here are subpar. The local gyms are small, dirty, and expensive. The grocery stores are small, dirty, and expensive. The local restaurants are small, dirty, and expensive. The "best sushi" in Flagstaff, is equivalent to the worst sushi I've ever had anywhere else the world. There is only one small movie theater, and it's small, dirty, and expensive.
-Oh, and there's also a noisy train that runs through the exact middle of downtown and completely stops traffic about every 15 minutes.

Having lived in Flagstaff for years, I can say this is mostly all true, although you're exaggerating a bit.

If you compare Flagstaff to other mountain towns like Boulder, Boise, Bend, Santa Fe, and Mammoth Springs, it's the retarded step-child of that family.

Agree. It has nothing on Boulder, Santa Fe, or any of the other comparable western mountain towns. No, not even Durango, which is much smaller!!

-Poor Economy. Even if you have a so-called "Good Job" here, it is difficult to get ahead. Everyone I know here under the age of 40 lives with roommates, even if they own a house and have a "Good Job".

While mostly true, this is off a bit. You basically have two options for somewhere to work in this town. NAU or GORE. If you work there, I think you'll do alright. Everything else is some low-ish paying service or low level government job. The problem with Flagstaff is that there is not really any income being generated here for all of the pet projects that the city council keeps wanting to fund. They want to build a liberal utopia, but don't want to attract businesses to fund it.

-Astronomical housing prices. Flagstaff is the most expensive city in the state.

True. And there is not much to show for it being so expensive, other than it not being Phoenix This is how they artificially keep Flagstaff small...or "Don't PHX FLG" as all the bumper stickers around town say. Good, that's great...but how about some jobs, too? Including the NAU population, Flagstaff has some 85,000 people. Why is the city pretending they only have 20,000?

-Horrible, horrible public schools. Your kids will be lucky if they even know that books open from left to right, forget about actually reading the words inside, writing, or doing basic math.

This is right on. The public schools are absolute bottom-of-the-barrel. If you care at all about your kids, do not send them to public schools in Flagstaff. Now some of the private schools are much better...but you have to hope and pray they can make it via a lottery drawing, since nobody wants to go to public school.

-The city is dirty and rundown. Someone screams at me, spits at me, and/or tries to pick a fight about every third or fourth time I go downtown. All the houses around downtown look like run-down shacks, and homeless people and drunk, belligerent NAU students are all over.

The whole city is not dirty and rundown, but I know what you mean. The Sunnyside area needs to be demolished, its an eyesore. There are some rundown shacks in the downtown area that look a bit third-world, and I wonder why this city, with its heavy-handed ideals, allows it (even from just a public safety stance). The entire length of Route 66, minus the downtown portion, looks run down, as well.

The street drunks issue is by and large one of the worst things about Flagstaff. Check the newspaper, there are attacks happening all the time by these people that the city refuses to acknowledge. For example...just yesterday, a 12 year old boy was assaulted by drunks in broad daylight in a park. There are attacks on female joggers, rapes, assaults, and constant begging for money for more boose. Heck, even a few months ago, police officers downtown got beat up by drunks in front of the infamous San Felipe Cantina. Was anything done? No. Is anything ever done? No. All of this is swept under the rug to maintain the nice mountain town image for tourists.

There is only one small movie theater, and it's small, dirty, and expensive.

It is crazy that this is supposed to be a college town, but there is no indie/art-house cinema. What a joke.

[Slater]

The Harkins theatre is OK, in my view. If you go down to Phoenix you can have your pick of any number of really nice (and relatively new) theatres, but the Flagstaff Harkins is comparable to some of the small-midsize ones that you'd find there.

[CodyW]

The Harkins in Flagstaff is on par with all of the smaller Harkins facilities in AZ. I've never found it to be particularly dirty. The tech is up to date. The pricing is exactly the same as all of the other Harkins. My only complaint is that the very top row seats are RIGHT up against the wall, and don't rock back like the do in other rows or in the top rows of other Harkins. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Crime in Flagstaff? Apart from property crime and alcohol/drug related assaults, Flagstaff doesn't much of it. You guys are grossly exaggerating the things that go on. Violent crime is almost non existent. The rape stats are high, but I think most people would attribute that to the university. Flagstaff went a whole two years without a single murder, up until last December. That's rare for a city of its size. Prescott had four in 2011, alone. Kingman had two. I'd say Flagstaff is doing pretty well.

I miss Flagstaff. I was there for NAU.. but I wasn't fond of NAU. Flagstaff was what did it for me. Jobs are hard to come by and housing is expensive, but other than that, there's not much wrong with Flag. If I had a reason to move back up there, I would do it in a heartbeat.

[Slater]

I suppose one positive is that Phoenix and Flagstaff are only a couple hours away from each other, although with gasoline prices these days making the trip can be a bit pricey. Still, it's nice to get down to the "big city" once in a while.

[ZhugeLiang]

I loved my time living up there. I was going through a pretty troublesome time in my life and living in a place where I felt removed from the world was just the right thing for me. Even better was living in east Flagstaff away from the university. I was even more thankful for this when the snow started falling. I was spared the rash of traffic collisions that always occur around those parts.

[pokuku]

Originally Posted by CodyW

Crime in Flagstaff? Apart from property crime and alcohol/drug related assaults, Flagstaff doesn't much of it. You guys are grossly exaggerating the things that go on. Violent crime is almost non existent. The rape stats are high, but I think most people would attribute that to the university.

It has little to do with the university. The alcohol/drug crime is largely due to proximity to the reservation, sadly.

Also, Flagstaff just had a drive-by shooting at Thorpe Park a couple days ago. Sounds violent enough for a town with 65,000.

[thedirtman]

Originally Posted by pokuku

It has little to do with the university. The alcohol/drug crime is largely due to proximity to the reservation, sadly.

Also, Flagstaff just had a drive-by shooting at Thorpe Park a couple days ago. Sounds violent enough for a town with 65,000.

The other thing is the proximity to Los Angeles and Phoenix. It's about one easy driving day to LA, and just two hours to Phoenix. The big share of crime is along the main strip. Anywhere else is mostly quiet.

[buckeyenative01]

Originally Posted by Slater

I suppose one positive is that Phoenix and Flagstaff are only a couple hours away from each other, although with gasoline prices these days making the trip can be a bit pricey. Still, it's nice to get down to the "big city" once in a while.

That's about where I'm at myself. The rest of my family lives in Phoenix and they love living there, which is great for them. I like going down to visit knowing I have a free place to stay for the weekend (even though they live in Ahwatukee which requires a drive spanning almost the entire Phoenix metro from north to south) and they like coming up for a weekend whenever they feel the need to get out of the heat.

I really do enjoy living in Flagstaff, all things considered.

That said, this past week or so hasn't been the greatest, safety-wise, for the town. I don't know what's been going on lately but the drive-by a few days back was a little disconcerting, and then yesterday's big drug/gang bust in Williams happened.

However, I work in the jail, so that might skew my perception a little. Aside from the occasional encounter with a drunk idiot along San Francisco in the Southside neighborhood, I've never felt unsafe whenever I'm downtown (or anywhere else in Flagstaff for that matter).

[GoldCountry80]

Ok I am going to start by saying that My mom and stepdad may try to relocate or retire to Flagstaff. They and I currently live in the Foothills of California in this community called Auburn. Its outside of Sacramento.

When comparing the 2 places, it seems Flagstaff is more out there and not as central a location as where I am now. It might have more vibrancy however because of the university but if everything closes early, that is still not what I am looking for. I just researched Flagstaff because California might be getting too expensive for them but I looked at costs on Flagstaff and the average house just runs 40-50 grand less.. Not by too much. Other parts of AZ seem cheaper.

So yes, if Flagstaff say is anything like more conservative, lights out early style living then I want no part of it myself frankly. I already have those same issues here in the foothill edges right toward the foothill territories here. They're for really narrow minded paranoid types it seems where the locals don't really want to welcome newcomers or people with East Coast accents. Not that I am told that to my face but felt I experienced discrimination here too and now and then am mistaken for being a Jew. And it for sure seems Flagstaff has many of the same issues, am I right or not? And any town where you have to be rich where someone of a lower status cannot start out anywhere due to no jobs for them I cannot even fathom living in. I had enough of here after 10 months even as its the same. I will hightail it to Florida again before I let moving to Flagstaff EVER happen.

I am not a pro gay rights type and can lean conservative but the only difference is I'd rather be where the availability is and Flagstaff seems even further from PHX than here is to Sacramento. I'd rather live near it all because white flight has caused a big problem fleeing from cities where people moved far hoping to get away from minorities and "weirdos" but its gotten us nowhere. We gotta be in their neighborhoods where more affordable housing is and deal with it accordingly, stop trouble on the spot, period. That is my response to Tom Lane or anyone who is Anti Flagstaff.

[tsmw47]

GoldCountry80 So.... you've been mistaken for "being a Jew" how about being mistaken for being Jewish a little less prejudicial sounding.