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Old 01-04-2012, 06:58 AM
 
Location: Tempe, Az
12 posts, read 20,404 times
Reputation: 21

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Good Morning Folks,

I am a 33 year old soon to be divorced father of 4. I was born in the Bronx, Ny, but moved to Tucson, Az at a young age. I love the desert, but my wife talked the whole brood into moving to Bolingbrook, IL (Suburb outside of Chi) and we have been here for 4 1/2 years. I am looking to move back to Az mainly Phoenix as i hear the job market is not as saturated as Tucson's is. I don't know anyone in Glendale as all my friends are in Tucson..but i'm just looking for a new start. So i need some help from my "City-Data Family". I can' decide between Tempe or Glendale. Here is what i'm looking for:

  • Safety (As my 4 children will be with me in the summer)
  • Centrally Located (As i will not have a car when i initially move back)
  • Close to Shopping, Night Life, Parks, etc...
  • Close to Public Transportation
  • Close to Major Job Hubs
I would prefer to live near the new Az Cardinals stadium and i was looking at an apt. complex there called, "The Villas at Camelback Crossing"...what mainly attracted me to it is because of the stadium (I'm a huge sports fan), and the huge pavilion across the street for shopping and such.....

Any info/thoughts/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Happy New Year and God Bless Everyone!!!
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Old 01-04-2012, 07:06 AM
 
20,524 posts, read 15,951,067 times
Reputation: 5948
Tempe near ASU hands down.

Light Rail
Orbit shuttle bus

Remember it sucks living here with no car.

Otherwise it's a wash between Tempe and Glendale.
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Old 01-04-2012, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix, AZ USA
17,915 posts, read 43,545,327 times
Reputation: 10736
Tempe. Better mass transit, great parks rec and library dept, good schools, great quality of life overall, and closer by a lot to your friends in Tucson.
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Old 01-04-2012, 10:07 AM
 
9,091 posts, read 19,274,641 times
Reputation: 6969
I agree with Tempe as well ..... between the light rail and orbit it's probably going to offer the most flexibility without a car.

Get a rental and get settled and then find a spot that works best for your position for the long term.

Plenty for the kids to do in tempe in the summer (including some water places)

More importantly, it will give you a larger geographic scope to reasonably look for work

There is a park & ride near the glendale/101 ...... however, it's mainly express routes and can be fairly limiting

The local routes run on the grid and can be unreliable in schedule as they cover a large span of miles through many traffic lights ... definitely not the best option out there
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Old 01-05-2012, 12:45 PM
 
Location: Tempe, Az
12 posts, read 20,404 times
Reputation: 21
Thank you guys for the "fruitful" info...i am kind of surprised that you guys are going with Tempe (which was my 1st Choice) because of it being a college town. That was mainly my biggest concern with the kids and what not. I will take this info and do some digging...its funny as i write this my sister just called me telling me i need to move back to NYC.....FAMILY...what do u do??
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Old 01-05-2012, 12:57 PM
 
3,391 posts, read 7,181,436 times
Reputation: 3837
Quote:
Originally Posted by miraclmoore View Post
Thank you guys for the "fruitful" info...i am kind of surprised that you guys are going with Tempe (which was my 1st Choice) because of it being a college town. That was mainly my biggest concern with the kids and what not. I will take this info and do some digging...its funny as i write this my sister just called me telling me i need to move back to NYC.....FAMILY...what do u do??
Tempe's a large suburb (approx. (+/-) 200K population) and there's waaaaay more to it than ASU.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:01 PM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix, AZ USA
17,915 posts, read 43,545,327 times
Reputation: 10736
Quote:
Originally Posted by miraclmoore View Post
Thank you guys for the "fruitful" info...i am kind of surprised that you guys are going with Tempe (which was my 1st Choice) because of it being a college town. That was mainly my biggest concern with the kids and what not. I will take this info and do some digging...its funny as i write this my sister just called me telling me i need to move back to NYC.....FAMILY...what do u do??
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimballette View Post
Tempe's a large suburb (approx. (+/-) 200K population) and there's waaaaay more to it than ASU.

SOOO true. Once you are south of Southern, or even Broadway, you don't even know the university is there. It is actually not the typical "college town" at all.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:06 PM
 
Location: Sonoran Desert
39,132 posts, read 51,432,240 times
Reputation: 28388
Quote:
Originally Posted by observer53 View Post
SOOO true. Once you are south of Southern, or even Broadway, you don't even know the university is there. It is actually not the typical "college town" at all.
True, but those areas are not near the light rail or particularly convenient to the other amenities OP seeks without a car. When you get away from ASU, Tempe is pretty much the same as any other suburban area of the metro in that regard.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:29 PM
 
1,232 posts, read 3,142,117 times
Reputation: 673
There are worse things to have in your town than a major U. Those students spend a lot in Tempe = city revenue.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:55 PM
 
9,091 posts, read 19,274,641 times
Reputation: 6969
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ponderosa View Post
True, but those areas are not near the light rail or particularly convenient to the other amenities OP seeks without a car. When you get away from ASU, Tempe is pretty much the same as any other suburban area of the metro in that regard.
Yes & no - Orbit is a fee bus service that does a good job swinging through some of the residential neighborhoods. As long as you live close to an orbit route you can connect into the light rail (or scottsdale trolley from one of the routes).

Tempe does a good job with their neighborhood circulator, plus there are the city buses that will run on the major streets (making it easy to connect to LR stops near price, mcclintock, rural & mill)

Also, as mentioned, it's not like Tempe is really a college town of any sorts ..... it's a typical metro suburb that just happens to have 50,000 students there - while there are a lot of things that cater to the student crowd, it's also very easy to avoid them with plenty of other options that students will typically avoid
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