Moving to AZ want to live in a fun part of town. Mesa/Phoenix area??

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by locolife

I'd shoot for downtown Phoenix, Scottsdale could also serve you well based on what you've heard from others on here. But I like the energy going on downtown right now and with the sheer number of new restaurants/bars opening up, the bigger city amenities that scottsdale just doesn't have (the sports/concert venues, arts, events all over the city, and a decent/still growing night life scene). That would be my pick, there's some killer new developments popping up like Portland on the Park and a bunch of stuff around RoRo. I'm a few years younger than you and living in Tempe, I have zero complaints because Tempe is I think, the densest, city in the state. But it's hard to not give DT Phoenix a second look. We considered Scottsdale, but at the end of the day felt more at home in either Phoenix or Tempe and ultimately landed in Tempe.

Downtown would be the best area to be close to things like concerts & pro sports while being centrally located & not having to drive way out to Westgate. The thing that downtown lacks, however, is basic amenities like grocery stores for residents. They still end up driving or taking public transit for many everyday items. Also, while downtown's nightlife is improving, the scene can still seem pretty dead at times compared to Scottsdale or Tempe.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Downtown would be the best area to be close to things like concerts & pro sports while being centrally located & not having to drive way out to Westgate. The thing that downtown lacks, however, is basic amenities like grocery stores for residents. They still end up driving or taking public transit for many everyday items. Also, while downtown's nightlife is improving, the scene can still seem pretty dead at times compared to Scottsdale or Tempe.

All true, even living downtown I'd still look at have access to a car somehow, probably through zipcar or something along those lines, to get where you want to go when you need to. Plus AZ has way too many cool places to explore to not have access to wheels, I head to Sedona, Flag, etc.. quite a bit.

On the grocery thing, I do think it's just a matter of time now. Their are quite a few new residential projects popping up, nothing massive, but tons of multi-family near Roesevelt Row so I wouldn't be surprised to see a grocery store soon. For now at least there is a CVS or Walgreens (I forget which one) at Cityscape, it gets you some of the grocery stuff. Yes, DT PHX doesn't have anywhere near the scene of Scottsdale or Tempe, so I would say if your life revolves around the bar scene those are the places to go. But for me, being in my mid-30's, I'd be perfectly content with the amount of bars down there. We recently hopped around between Gypsy, Bitter/Twisted, Squid Ink, Luhrs Rooftop Bar, Copper Blues, and maybe one or two others in there. This was on a Friday night and everything was pretty well packed, we had to wait about an hour to get into Bitter/Twisted, they text you when a table is ready for you to come in. There was certainly enough to keep me entertained but I'm definitely a big time partier.

I like the energy downtown, it has a different feel than Tempe or Scottsdale, at least seems to. And I think it will be the most improved urban type area in the next 5-10 years as this snowball effect continues. But Tempe is doing a lot to make their downtown more of a young professional/working professional area. The State Farm project is pretty impressive along with what's planned at the former Monti's site and even the Hayden Flour Mill project. I won't complain if both areas have a great urban feel. It's been lacking here for a long time!

[dropkickreligion]

I was looking into dt phx, but seems expensive to live. any suggestions on specific apartments to check out or houses to rent?