2016 Gentrification Thread (Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale: established neighborhood, to buy, gated)

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

Too bad--it's such a nice area, but that wouldn't surprise me. There are so many homeless people out here. They're everywhere. The climate here is so permissive that they just go wherever they want, without ever needing to have a place to go. I had some kook living in a wash or dry drainage canal near me in Ahwatukee years ago, all the way down near Chandler Blvd.

If you go south a little bit toward Indian School near the VA hospital...

Its a work-in-progress. As I said above, its not a horrible area, just not one Id consider for now. Maybe in a few years all the bad elements will have been removed. There is still lots of open, run down lots over there, homeless, and graffiti issues (you can tell by all the painted walls). If I absolutely had to move to 16th St, it would only be the areas right around the Hilton Pointe at the very end.

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by sargeant79

I'm not sure where the shady characters impression is coming from...that area is already way gentrified and is actually a really nice neighborhood north of Camelback. The corner of Bethany Home and 16th Street has many bars that cater to a 20-something crowd, a Z'Tejas, and a Starbucks. Plenty of restaurants and a Sprouts at 16th and Glendale, and past that is where it starts to get really nice with the Pointe Hilton resort.

I still see lots of covered-up graffiti, empty lots, rundown businesses, all right in that area.

[RenW]

I live in far west central Tempe and am often over in the Southern Phoenix area. In our neighborhood that was built in the late 70s it seems like many of the new people moving in are really fixing up the properties. It is one of those neighborhoods that I felt could go either way, but it definitely seems to be progressing towards getting nicer. This is aided by all the newer housing developments and businesses along Baseline. Gradually we are seeing empty lots getting developed and older buildings getting torn down to put in new businesses.

South Phoenix in general is this wonderful eclectic mix of older homes, newer developments, old and new industry, and agricutural/plant businesses. I can really see neighborhoods improve creeping west of the 10 and going north of Baseline. There are already pockets of newer developments and improved houses scattered throughout South Phoenix. That area has a fairly easy commute to many places in the Valley so I can really see it getting more developed. Plus you have close access to South Mountain park. I can't speak as much to South Western Phoenix, but I've heard new developments are being built in Laveen.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by :-D

I wonder if "Gunnyslope" and the South Mountain region will ever gentrify. Both regions are close to the mountains and have a close commute to Downtown. If you were to live in the South Mountain region you'd be close to DT while being at the base of the nation's largest urban park. Yet it's currently a dump.

If those two were to gentrify, I will believe everywhere in this city can gentrify... Except Maryvale. I see houses technically listed in ALHAMBRA going for above 500k. So in a sense Alhambra is gentrifying... as that doesn't make sense at all.

People out here are really wrapped up in their little names and borders, like they live in a 1 square mile Connecticut suburb. How many times can (for example I'm going to pick on the Gilbots again) we hear how Gilbert is such an all-American treasure, as if you can't get an identical vanilla house in countless other equally nice (and/or equally vanilla) subdivisions in other suburbs, that are equally close to a Target and some chain restaurants.

You have the same thing with a lot of the Phoenix urban villages like Alhambra, which is huge. Alhambra has a bad reputation because it goes all the way west to 43rd Avenue. It also has one of the most beautiful and wealthy areas of the city. So, yes, you do frequently see $500k (and up) homes listed in what you call "technically Alhambra", which are, in fact, in Alhambra. To many people, Alhambra = dump, and they'll argue that with moronic statistics and trumped up "facts", until they are blue in the face. Then they'll promptly declare victory and retreat to the East Valley until they make their next annual trip into Phoenix to go to the airport.

South Mountain: Same thing. Yeah, a lot of it is not great, but its reputation suffers because of the dumps mostly north of Baseline (or Dobbins, depending on where you are east to west). Around South Mountain it's a mixed bag, but generally the closer to the mountain, the better. Light rail is going to bring big changes (IMO).

Sunnyslope... who knows. While I'm not betting my own money on it, I also wouldn't be surprised if it went up.

[pbenjamin]

Where in Alhambra is this "most beautiful and wealthy" area?

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Where in Alhambra is this "most beautiful and wealthy" area?

Along Bethany Home Northern or Glendale near Central are some of the nicest areas of town and are technically Alhambra.

[sargeant79]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

I still see lots of covered-up graffiti, empty lots, rundown businesses, all right in that area.

I see a little bit of graffiti but nothing that would raise too much of an eyebrow... Out of curiosity, near what intersection was this photo taken?

I think you and I probably have drastically different definitions for what constitutes a sketchy area. A little bit of graffiti and a few homeless people wandering around is pretty normal in just about any part of the city, including the good parts. And that goes for Phoenix as well as almost every other medium to large sized city. If city neighborhoods can't have any of those "bad elements" to be considered a safe and/or fully gentrified area, then everywhere in Phoenix except for maybe Arcadia isn't going to be up to snuff. And even in Arcadia you'll even run into the occasional homeless crazy guy or graffiti along Indian School.

I still maintain that the gentrification ship has sailed for the area north of Camelback that we're talking about. It is one of the nicer areas within the city limits these days, and the home prices per square foot are one of the things that reflect it. I wouldn't think twice about walking down the street in the middle of the night there any more than I would think twice about doing the same in Scottsdale. As with anywhere, if you pay attention to your surroundings and don't make poor decisions that place you in a position to be a victim, you'll be fine.

[sargeant79]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

Along Bethany Home Northern or Glendale near Central are some of the nicest areas of town and are technically Alhambra.

Absolutely. ^^^ This area is littered with mansions and multi-acre horse properties yet it gets lumped in with the same area of 35th and Camelback when talking about Alhambra crime stats. Phoenix has so many pockets that it's virtually impossible to come to any meaningful conclusions about the relative safety of a particular urban village using only crime stats.

[Potential_Landlord]

I think the revival follows the Millennials' life cycle (because there are so many of them they drive it):
1. Improvements in the urban core (apartments)
2. Improvements in hipster young-adult yet childless areas like Arcadia
3. Improvements in the classic suburbs - spacious homes and gardens for families with children
4. Improvements in retirement communities (still decades away)

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

Along Bethany Home Northern or Glendale near Central are some of the nicest areas of town and are technically Alhambra.

Interesting, I didn't think of the neighborhood that I normally think of as "North Central Ave" as being part of the Alhambra village.