Poll - Which metro area do you think is most comparable to Phoenix? (Tucson: public school, to live)

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

Not Atlanta--an apples to oranges comparison. Atlanta is spread out and automobile-centric, like Phoenix, but Atlanta is a much more dynamic city and is in another tier of cities than Phoenix, for now.

I'd compare Phoenix to these:

Los Angeles (much larger, obviously on a different level, but I've always said that Phoenix is like 1/3 the size of LA without Hollywood and the beach ) )
Las Vegas (a smaller city but desert city as well and growing quickly like Phx)
A few others that are good, but smaller comparisions:
San Diego
Albuquerque
Denver
Salt Lake City

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego I can understand, but not sure about Albuquerque, Denver, or SLC. Albuquerque is really more like Tucson than it is like Phoenix. Denver is much less automobile centric than Phoenix. Salt Lake City I don't think is all that similar either.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by locolife

Phoenix of course lacks beaches and no major theme park and those are both for what I’d consider very obvious reasons. We have a pretty awesome selection of water parks, which is expanding and a proposal for a massive theme park near CG. Within a short drive you’ve got the 2 valley zoos, 3 aquariums, out of Africa, and Bearizona up in Williams. Yeah there’s no no Disney or six flags but the lineup is pretty good.

Point being that hardly anybody is coming to Phoenix from around the country or all over the world to visit our awesome selection of waterparks, the two great zoos, 3 aquariums, Out of Africa, or Bearizona. When it comes to fun tourist attractions, Phoenix is always skipped over in favor of either Vegas, L.A. area, or San Diego. What this translates to is a huge loss of revenue for us while Vegas & southern CA reap the profits.

Originally Posted by locolife

Downtown Phoenix is changing really rapidly, we counted 6 cranes this weekend and the street level urbanity is evolving quickly all over Roosevelt, Evans Churchill and the downtown core. I’m most excited about this improvement and looking forward to seeing a few more major projects begin in the next 6-12 months.

I am as well, and I hope it doesn't slow down. What we need to enhance this and progress even more is a better corporate presence in the central core. Phoenix's skyline is still puny for being such a large city. And before anybody gives the same tired out excuse about Phoenix still having plenty of room to grow outward, so do cities like Houston and Atlanta ... however, they both have impressive skylines, mainly because of the number of corporate HQs. When you have more large businesses downtown, that also has a way of encouraging more residences, hotels, and attractions downtown.

[the topper]

San Jose

[Mac58]

San Jose is a pretty good call, the more I think about it. With its own unique suburbs satellites and a nebulous lack of center. Some major league teams, light culture.
San Jose has a huge advantage in weather. Large salary potential in tech sector, other industries at disadvantages because of housing costs.
Phoenix has huge advantage in housing costs, overall COL.
Both car centric. Traffic strikes me as being better in Phoenix. But I would leave that to data experts to figure out. San Jose can be pinned in by the Bayshore and the Mountains, Phoenix has more options in all directions it seems. San Jose had terrible air quality in the 70s, due mostly to geography. With the clean air act it's one of those cities with noticeably cleaner air.
Some of the best weather in California, with more heat than SF and East Bay, but night breezes and marine cooling at night.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Mac58

San Jose is a pretty good call, the more I think about it. With its own unique suburbs satellites and a nebulous lack of center. Some major league teams, light culture.
San Jose has a huge advantage in weather. Large salary potential in tech sector, other industries at disadvantages because of housing costs.
Phoenix has huge advantage in housing costs, overall COL.
Both car centric. Traffic strikes me as being better in Phoenix. But I would leave that to data experts to figure out. San Jose can be pinned in by the Bayshore and the Mountains, Phoenix has more options in all directions it seems. San Jose had terrible air quality in the 70s, due mostly to geography. With the clean air act it's one of those cities with noticeably cleaner air.
Some of the best weather in California, with more heat than SF and East Bay, but night breezes and marine cooling at night.

Maybe a bigger, more grown up version of SJ. Our downtown is certainly much larger and more developed. we aren’t a satellite city to a much larger city just 20-30 miles away, all 4 pro teams (not some)plus 2 major colleges play within 20 miles of city center, our economy is driven less by tech and more by financial services and tourism, although tech is getting larger here, the Phoenix airport is much larger than SJ’s airport, the geographic layout is quite a bit different with no bay or ocean here.

I can see some similarities in being car centric without a super focused downtown but the fact that SJ is connected to SF is a pretty stark contrast. Phoenix is the king of this metro on all fronts population, jobs, sports, arts etc...

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by locolife

Maybe a bigger, more grown up version of SJ. Our downtown is certainly much larger and more developed. we aren’t a satellite city to a much larger city just 20-30 miles away, all 4 pro teams (not some)plus 2 major colleges play within 20 miles of city center, our economy is driven less by tech and more by financial services and tourism, although tech is getting larger here, the Phoenix airport is much larger than SJ’s airport, the geographic layout is quite a bit different with no bay or ocean here.

I can see some similarities in being car centric without a super focused downtown but the fact that SJ is connected to SF is a pretty stark contrast. Phoenix is the king of this metro on all fronts population, jobs, sports, arts etc...

I was in San Jose a few years ago, and I thought the Silicon Valley as a whole had similarities to parts of the Phoenix (particularly the older, somewhat greener sections). But you're right that San Jose has a rather insignificant downtown area compared to Phoenix. A lot of that is because of its close proximity to San Francisco, where much of the large corporate business is. With San Jose's population being over a million now (larger than San Francisco), I would hesitate to call it a satellite city ... especially with the heavy tech sector there which is world famous.

[Pink Jazz]

Note that one industry that is very large in the Inland Empire is the logistics industry. Many retailers have fulfillment centers located in the area; I get a LOT of Amazon orders shipped from that area, and most of my Kohl's orders tend to ship from San Bernadino.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

I was in San Jose a few years ago, and I thought the Silicon Valley as a whole had similarities to parts of the Phoenix (particularly the older, somewhat greener sections). But you're right that San Jose has a rather insignificant downtown area compared to Phoenix. A lot of that is because of its close proximity to San Francisco, where much of the large corporate business is. With San Jose's population being over a million now (larger than San Francisco), I would hesitate to call it a satellite city ... especially with the heavy tech sector there which is world famous.

Yeah I can see some similarities but the heavy tech presence gave it a much different vibe in my experience. Everyone in the bay area always seems really caught up in the tech scene rat race as I call it, I find it a particularly annoying side effect of the massive economic success it has brought. That along with a very un-affordable region for anyone who doesn't make tech money.

I guess I question it like this, would Silicon Valley still have grown where it did if SF wasn't there? I'm not super knowledgeable of the history but I'm guessing the financial players in SF had a lot to do with SJ developing how it did.

But I do get what you're saying, SJ today is capable of standing on it's own I just don't think it would have got there without SF.

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

Originally Posted by Pink Jazz

Note that one industry that is very large in the Inland Empire is the logistics industry. Many retailers have fulfillment centers located in the area; I get a LOT of Amazon orders shipped from that area, and most of my Kohl's orders tend to ship from San Bernadino.

And we have a lot of logistics and trucking terminals here

[locolife]

Originally Posted by FirebirdCamaro1220

And we have a lot of logistics and trucking terminals here

I think the phrase I’ve heard is inland port but I may be wrong, when you fly in over the west side you get a much better perspective for how much warehouse space there is basically paralleling the 10 west of 19th ave all the way to the 303 and even north along that highway as well.