Tell me what you hate about the Valley (Phoenix: home, schools)

[WSPHXPELON]

Too many right wingers.

[new2colo]

1) The manmade environment is very aesthetically bland. Many parts of the Valley look nearly identical with very little defining characteristics. It's the same beige, stucco tile roof homes from Gilbert to Surprise to Buckeye to Mesa.

2) There are very few hip neighborhoods for being a metropolitan area of 4.5 million. With the exception of a handful of the downtown areas (Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Glendale) there are just no cool areas to walk around like you find in major metropolitan areas. Phoenix proper really has no walkable, hip areas outside of maybe Roosevelt Row and the immediate downtown. It's really kind of odd.

3) There is no respect for history here. There are various websites that I frequent that feature images of Phoenix as it was in the 20th Century. It seems like a number of locations that gave the Phoenix area a sense of place were mowed down with little care. The Fox Theater in downtown Phoenix is a prime example. While many other cities have saved their historic performing arts theaters, Phoenix city council and residents allowed the theater to be mowed down for a bus station, which of course was mowed down and is now just a vacant lot. Numerous other buildings were torn down for surface parking lots. Mom and pop shops which seemed to be scattered all over the place were torn down for strip malls, bland high rises, and endless chains. Phoenix is all about the new. Everything that is older is cannibalized for the latest.

4) The design of the entire Valley is auto oriented. Unlike many other cities, Phoenix is completely designed around the automobile. Stores here aren't don't have entrances that face the street, but the parking lot. On street parking is banned in most areas of the Valley to allow for rapid vehicle circulation that has basically turned every arterial street here into a freeway where you can easily zoom through at 60+ MPH with drivers still tailgating and dangerously passing to go 70 MPH. Try going these speeds in LA, Chicago, Boston, DC, New York. It's impossible.

6) The constant talk about weather. People here are OBSESSED with talking about the weather. This is not just on this forum, but in daily life here. For a place that really has some of the most predictable weather year round, it is strange to have people talking to me about the fact that it's 110 in July or the fact that it is 70 degrees in January, like it's abnormal. I understand that talking about the weather is a good way to make small talk, however it is really over the top in my experience.

7) The fact that many people seem to like Phoenix for what it's near and not for what's here. I have a coworker who said her favorite thing about Phoenix is that it's an easy drive to Vegas and the beach. It seems like people are constantly trying to escape this place and have very little attachment here.

8) The complaints about traffic. It seems like a lot of people here who are transplants from small Midwestern towns or natives who grew up in a smaller Phoenix love to gripe about how "horrible" Phoenix traffic is. Those of us who are from other large cities or have experienced traffic jams in other places know that Phoenix's traffic problem is not really a problem at all. Traffic flows very well here. There is stop and go traffic during rush hour, but the random traffic jam on a Sunday night at 11 PM is non-existent here aside from an accident or a special event.

[kell490]

1. Too many new home tracks AKA "Bedroom Community's" So close together with tiny backyards.
2. Dust is crazy here your house will get dusty very fast.
3. Hot and humid while monsoon is active. Example 90 Degrees at 5am
4. Scorpions can be a big issue depending on where you live.
5. There are no Seasons here it's either hot then cool sun all the time
6. Too many people here for the amount water we have.

[dirtydan57]

Originally Posted by locolife

The fact that someone is complaining about people going 45 on side streets should give you an indicator of how little traffic is a problem here. I know when I was in Boston it was rare to get above 30 on side streets and we were lucky to hit 55 on the Pike or 93, even post r ush hour.

What is the speed limit on these streets?

[Colt AZ]

Tell me what you hate about the Valley

WHICH valley?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Colt Cassidy

WHICH valley?

More like what valley? Actually that is something I "hate" about the place: that they call it the Valley of the Sun. It's a basin, not a valley and it is flat as a pancake for miles in every direction - made worse by the practice of laser leveling the fields houses are now built on. It should be called the Basin of the Sun.

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

More like what valley? Actually that is something I "hate" about the place: that they call it the Valley of the Sun. It's a basin, not a valley and it is flat as a pancake for miles in every direction - made worse by the practice of laser leveling the fields houses are now built on. It should be called the Basin of the Sun.

Yep. I've been looking for valleys here and there, left and right, N, E, W & S -- and for the life of me, I've never found a true valley around here. Basin of the Sun sounds more correct.

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by stevek64

I dislike hearing some people complain after moving here on why this/that/the other thing isn't the same as it was in the place they moved from.

Steve, I love that you dislike that.

[locolobo13]

Originally Posted by Colt Cassidy

Yep. I've been looking for valleys here and there, left and right, N, E, W & S -- and for the life of me, I've never found a true valley around here. Basin of the Sun sounds more correct.

I think the original "Valley of the Sun" referred to the Salt River Valley between South Mountain on the south and the Phoenix Mountains on the north.

[PhureeKeeper]

The lack of a "walkability" factor here. You have to drive (or take a bus) everywhere.

Poor air quality.