Change of Heart On Phoenix (Chandler, Tempe: 2014, crime, neighborhoods)

[Trail Dreamer]

FWIW...

I've lived in Phoenix for 15 years now. For me, at least, it has been a love/hate relationship. I love the nice winters but yet hate the summers. The traffic has gotten worse over the last couple of years almost to the point I feel I am driving in a third-world country. The cost of living is going up fast as the houses they are building might as well be duplexes as they are close together. I like Phoenix for the opportunity to do various things and close to the outdoor activities up north.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Originally Posted by popwar

You musnt have read about the water shortage or unsustainability that was talked about. I do agree that its getting nicer. I visited several times since 2018 and finally moved here this past December. I do play on moving again later this year near Sacramento , though. I thought I would like the heat , but its not for me.

As water shortages become more profound, I think that southern CA will be forced to desalinate ocean water on a large scale (and the technology for that is improving all the time). Then much of CA's current allocation of Colorado Compact water can be reduced and diverted to AZ, UT, etc., even to the point of refilling Powell and Mead. Irrigation water (especially for crops that are shipped to China) will increase, but if China wants alfalfa for its cows, they'll have to pay for it. Personally, I'm not going to lose sleep if China has to pay more for agricultural products, we can just call it "their fair share".

I always liked the idea of diverting some of the Columbia's flow (where it dumps billions of gallons of fresh water into the sea and is "wasted") down to irrigate parts of southern Oregon and Northern California. Again, the technical solutions are available, it's a matter of willpower and dollars. Expect more and more court cases and wrangling between the citizens of the western states, sooner or later the Compact is going to have to be re-opened.

That's why the vast majority of the Nation's citizens live east of the Missouri river, where there's adequate rainfall for crops and cities. Phoenix is great, but having millions of people living in the desert with a finite supply of river water is challenging.

[LS Jaun]

The other thing to consider is Phoenix's high crime rate. While the bed room communities are quite good, Phoenix itself is worse than 90% percent of the nation.

https://www.city-data.com/crime/crim...x-Arizona.html

[Maroon197]

Originally Posted by locolife

Couldn't disagree more. I think State Farm, the Grand at Papago and Watermark are really nice buildings. I love the glass architecture and the night time lighting elements are cool. It's shortsighted to assume that only students live/work in downtown Tempe, and would use the street trolley.

Do you really think your average Tempe resident is going to pay money to transport themselves from one side of the ASU campus to the other via trolley? Why on earth would someone do that? Does it go to Tempe marketplace? No. Does it go to south Tempe? No. Does it go anywhere of use to someone who isn’t a student living in a dorm on Apache and trying to get to the bars on mill? No.

That was sure worth hundreds of millions of dollars and years of construction headaches.

[BeerGeek40]

Originally Posted by Angelino19

Over the past 5 years I have visited the Phoenix area 4 times. After a 2 year absence I recently visited Phoenix and was there 4 days. Prior to this trip I viewed Phoenix as a wasteland, and quite unattractive. All that went out the window on this trip. The city and it's surroundings left me quite impressed. What I saw was Urban Planning at it's best. From downtown to the outer burbs, the beautiful modern architecture of it's buildings and dozens upon dozens of new parks was impressive.

Excellent urban planning was most notable in downtown Phoenix and Tempe. The refreshing modern architecture, small parks and tree lined streets in both city centers was eye catching.

Phoenix already had an excellent freeway system, rivaling that of my home town, Los Angeles. But after this trip I can honestly say Phoenix has arrived and the future looks very bright for this modern city.

That is so odd to see this posting because I have also visited Phoenix 4 times in past 5 years.

Phoenix is a really nice city -- except for the summer weather. I've been there in either the springtime or the fall, and have never experienced June/July/August here, and not sure I would ever want to.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

The other thing to consider is Phoenix's high crime rate. While the bed room communities are quite good, Phoenix itself is worse than 90% percent of the nation.

https://www.city-data.com/crime/crim...x-Arizona.html

This is complete nonsense as you're not understanding the statistic. Phoenix is the 5th most populous city in the country and out of the top 100 most populous cities, we're #34 when ranked by crimes per 100k people. That puts our massive city as a safer place than Tulsa, Wichita, Anchorage, Dallas, Buffalo and many others. To say that Phoenix has higher crime than 90% of the cities in the US is actually a favorable statistic when every single other city, large and miniscule is being considered in that and we're as populated as we are.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

This is complete nonsense as you're not understanding the statistic. Phoenix is the 5th most populous city in the country and out of the top 100 most populous cities, we're #34 when ranked by crimes per 100k people. That puts our massive city as a safer place than Tulsa, Wichita, Anchorage, Dallas, Buffalo and many others. To say that Phoenix has higher crime than 90% of the cities in the US is actually a favorable statistic when every single other city, large and miniscule is being considered in that and we're as populated as we are.

Well said, Phoenix seems about average to a little below average on crime to me.

[wase4711]

after multiple decades living in Chiraq and the surrounding suburbs, I can say DEFINITIVELY that phoenix is one of the SAFER big cities. no doubt about it..
My only fears here are getting hit by a car while crossing the street, and getting killed by some moron doing 30mph over the limit while driving...

[locolife]

Originally Posted by BeerGeek40

That is so odd to see this posting because I have also visited Phoenix 4 times in past 5 years.

Phoenix is a really nice city -- except for the summer weather. I've been there in either the springtime or the fall, and have never experienced June/July/August here, and not sure I would ever want to.

Most people I know who visit in the summer are surprised that it's not as bad as they were expecting.

[LS Jaun]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

This is complete nonsense as you're not understanding the statistic. Phoenix is the 5th most populous city in the country and out of the top 100 most populous cities, we're #34 when ranked by crimes per 100k people. That puts our massive city as a safer place than Tulsa, Wichita, Anchorage, Dallas, Buffalo and many others. To say that Phoenix has higher crime than 90% of the cities in the US is actually a favorable statistic when every single other city, large and miniscule is being considered in that and we're as populated as we are.

"Nonsense"? It's data , that's it. It's Data from city data. Did I say it was small town vs. large city, no. Sorry Mr. Detroit, the data on the city data site wasn't wrapped around your small city, big city comparison. Anyway, We are definately better than your city, Detroit