Phoenix Sphere of Influence

[DetroitN8V]

Casa Grande seems like no man's land to me. It's too far out and isolated to be part of the Phoenix-metro area. Just a place to get gas and a snack on the drive to Tucson.

[sh9730]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Casa Grande seems like no man's land to me. It's too far out and isolated to be part of the Phoenix-metro area. Just a place to get gas and a snack on the drive to Tucson.

My guess from your statement is you have never ventured off the freeway when driving through CG. Yes, at present the only I 10 development is at the Florence Blvd Exit. But if you drive west just a mile or so you find a city of 50K full time and 75K winter population. It looks like Surprise, Peoria, Queen Creek, Buckeye, or any of the other smaller, but growing cities.

It will always be a bit isolated to the north because of the GRIC land, but development along I 10 at McCartney Rd has started now again, and there will be another freeway exit built between the two now(my guess within 5 years but maybe a bit longer), and more freeway development will occur.

But you cannot judge the city of CG strictly by driving through on I 10.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by sh9730

My guess from your statement is you have never ventured off the freeway when driving through CG. Yes, at present the only I 10 development is at the Florence Blvd Exit. But if you drive west just a mile or so you find a city of 50K full time and 75K winter population. It looks like Surprise, Peoria, Queen Creek, Buckeye, or any of the other smaller, but growing cities.

It will always be a bit isolated to the north because of the GRIC land, but development along I 10 at McCartney Rd has started now again, and there will be another freeway exit built between the two now(my guess within 5 years but maybe a bit longer), and more freeway development will occur.

But you cannot judge the city of CG strictly by driving through on I 10.

Fair enough but driving through it won't change it's location. It seems too far out to be considered a part of Metro Phoenix. It's halfway to Tucson.

[sh9730]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Fair enough but driving through it won't change it's location. It seems too far out to be considered a part of Metro Phoenix. It's halfway to Tucson.

I do not completely disagree with that - but the OP's question was sphere of influence. It is much more Phoenix than Tucson as I stated earlier in the thread.

Eventually as someone else mentioned it will likely become more of it's own region with Maricopa (the CG and Maricopa city limits already touch now - though there is nothing there yet), Coolidge, Eloy, AZ City, and over to Florence sort of merging together. There are some large employment projects in the works (Phoenixmart is pouring cement slab now -5K jobs, the Attessa Racetrack Complex, and some soon to be announced multi thousand employee projects). So CG and environs will probably jump to total of 200K or so within 10 years if all goes the way it seems.

But it will be a very long time before it has it's own media market etc...for that it will be Phoenix for the foreseeable future.

ETA - in distance though CG is approx the same as Queen Creek, Buckeye, and Maricopa - all cities which seem to be much more easily considered "Phoenix Metro". But the difference of course is the sprawl has, or will, fill in all the way to those city limits, whereas the res will always separate CG.

[TKO]

Not quite what the OP might have meant but I thought maybe interesting. Phoenix is so big it influences Tucson, the rest of AZ and beyond. Primate cities I think they call places so big that have a major influence on a very large area.

I know in southern NM when we need to get certain high end goods or services Phoenix is the place that is guaranteed to have them closest to us. Albuquerque, Tucson and El Paso large as they are can't be depended on for many things, health care in particular. An awful lot of people in this area make semi-regular trips to Phoenix even though it's 300+ miles away. Dallas, Denver and others cities serve the same purpose for their respective regions.

So while we don't get the traffic we still depend on having Phoenix where it is and many of us probably wouldn't live where we do if it or some other large city wasn't reasonably close.

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by TKO

Not quite what the OP might have meant but I thought maybe interesting. Phoenix is so big it influences Tucson, the rest of AZ and beyond. Primate cities I think they call places so big that have a major influence on a very large area.

I know in southern NM when we need to get certain high end goods or services Phoenix is the place that is guaranteed to have them closest to us. Albuquerque, Tucson and El Paso large as they are can't be depended on for many things, health care in particular. An awful lot of people in this area make semi-regular trips to Phoenix even though it's 300+ miles away. Dallas, Denver and others cities serve the same purpose for their respective regions.

So while we don't get the traffic we still depend on having Phoenix where it is and many of us probably wouldn't live where we do if it or some other large city wasn't reasonably close.

Well, this is well stated and certainly I know people who live in the Rim Country and other parts of the state that travel to the Valley quite frequently for various things.

I know my own grandmother who lived in rural NM often traveled long distances for various business and healthcare-related pursuits. In her case the closest medium-sized city was Amarillo and if they didn't have it, e.g. certain healthcare procedures/needs, then she would go to Dallas or Phoenix. Similarly my relatives in OK often drive into OKC for all manner of things, ranging from healthcare to just the chance to buy good organic produce beyond what the local Walmart stocks, haha.

I guess it's a bit of a depressing thought but there is a bit of a longevity advantage depending just how close you are to a general hospital, and also how close you are to a major/Trauma 1 type hospital. Particularly if you or your spouse or someone else close to you has health problems that need regular care that may not be easily available in a rural setting.