Anyone know anything about Surprise, AZ (Gilbert, Peoria: sales, 2015, city hall)

[jimj]

Originally Posted by stevek64

Received our city of Goodyear info document in the mail the other day and mentioned this info on the 303/I10 interchange completion:

Overview

Getting close.

Yes, I just saw a billboard yesterday on I-10 advertising the opening Aug 16th.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Took this from steve64k's link above:

On Saturday, Aug. 16 at 7:30 a.m., ADOT and the city of Goodyear will be holding a grand opening celebration for the Loop 303 corridor between I-10 in Goodyear and US 60 in Surprise. Come walk, bike and explore the new traffic interchange between Loop 303 and I-10 and celebrate the completion of this major freeway-to-freeway connection.

I vividly remember going to the grand opening of the deck park tunnel way back when. We walked the length of it and hung out drinking water and listening to the pols back slapping each other. The flyover on the interchange is probably worth going to just to walk it and have a look down from the top.

I remember that Deck Park opening party, too, and walking through the tunnel. (and PARKING in the tunnel!) Walking that interchange could be fun, too, especially since they are doing it early in the morning.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by rmecso

Thanks for the information, just moved here from New Jersey and bought a house in Waddell, every little bit helps, have a good day!!

The only downside is lack of 303 access at Olive and limited on Northern. Busiest street in that area and no access?
The next road that will be great to see finished is Northern Expressway.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by jimj

The only downside is lack of 303 access at Olive and limited on Northern. Busiest street in that area and no access?
The next road that will be great to see finished is Northern Expressway.

The biggest downside is building the thing at all, encouraging more sprawl, more ruined desert and more water use.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by observer53

I remember that Deck Park opening party, too, and walking through the tunnel. (and PARKING in the tunnel!) Walking that interchange could be fun, too, especially since they are doing it early in the morning.

Hang on. Here is one of those "where did the time go" moments. The Deck Park Tunnel opened on August 10, 1990 - 24 years ago!

[rmecso]

A Olive Ave exit and entrance would of been nice, I heard the reason was the railroad tracks, for a train that maybe comes twice a day Northern Parkway will be nice. Oh well off to Northern Ave and The 303, have a nice day!!

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

The biggest downside is building the thing at all, encouraging more sprawl, more ruined desert and more water use.

Much of the area it is "opening up" is agricultural land. So the desert has already been ruined and the water use will drop when houses replace farm fields.

[Marv101]

How did the city of Surpirse come about in the first place, and how would you rank it as a place to live?

I read somewhere else on this board that it's the second safest city in the state next to Gilbert---is that correct?

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Marv101

How did the city of Surpirse come about in the first place, and how would you rank it as a place to live?

I read somewhere else on this board that it's the second safest city in the state next to Gilbert---is that correct?

Hi Marv. We winter in Surprise so I know it well.

Yes. Surprise is the 2nd safest city. For instance the town has around a hundred of mostly retirees drive in Surprise squad cars to direct traffic, look for suspicious activity, etc. When I am not there, I'm on a 2 day rotation where a police volunteer drives up in a squad car to my lot, removes free newspapers, check all the doors, etc. I see them on my cameras and often get texts from neighbors saying "a police just was at your house". I've gotten phone calls from them asking if I knew a car was parked in my driveway etc. So this feature helps.

Like any metropolis, the farther you get away from the less-than-ideal crime ridden population, the harder it is for them to steal. Hence, the outer burbs have an advantage in the crime department (think Goodyear, Gilbert, Surprise, PV, Anthem etc). But another reason it ranks so high in safety is that Sun City Grand is part of the cities population. Demographically speaking, 38,000 SSG out of the 125,000 total Surprise retirees don't steal and they watch their neighbors backs. A 22 year old thief is going to stick out like a sore thumb in SSG. Hence 38,000 people in SSG have near zero crime which helps the towns statistics.

Surpise developed fast because more dirt was needed to build. To escape the hyper inflated prices of the early 2000 building boom, Surprise grew from 30K people in 2000 to 120,000 in 2005. It's only 126,000 in 2014. A decade ago, prices were somewhat reasonable (yet way over priced) in comparison to more commutable areas of town. If you look at the maps of foreclosures, the people who walked from their homes the mostly in the newer areas. Therefore Surprise was epicenter for foreclosures. The market UNDERshot and incredible deals were to be had. You could of stole a house in early 2011 when I bought.

Like much of the west valley, Surprise was farmland. There still is a lot of it around.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Marv101

How did the city of Surpirse come about in the first place, and how would you rank it as a place to live?

I read somewhere else on this board that it's the second safest city in the state next to Gilbert---is that correct?

Surprise came about like most of the cities in the Phoenix metro. It started out as a place where latino farm workers lived as we had segregation back in the day and, also, the places were close to the fields. Then, the city just came to them with all the growth here. The cores of many of our suburban cities still reflect their humble origins and are often considered the "bad" part of town. The new stuff is considered the good part. New means when the development tsunami swept over them. In the case of Surprise that was right around 2000. It got clobbered by the recession though and is just now picking up again.