Valley this... Valley that... (Phoenix, Tucson: purchase, live, vs)

[ZonyPony]

Help me out here.
The Phoenix area always uses the "Valley" designation. To death, I might add.
I realize that Phoenix is in a valley, but why use East Valley as a geographical area or direction instead of just saying the name of a town or city?
For instance, when I lived in Flagstaff, we never said East Mountain or West Mountain, and people in Tucson don't say East Desert or West Desert.

[Steve-o]

In PHX, there is a friendly battle between West Valley and East Valley residents. Its no different than the Northside Chicago vs Southside Chicago residents.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by ZonyPony

Help me out here.
The Phoenix area always uses the "Valley" designation. To death, I might add.
I realize that Phoenix is in a valley, but why use East Valley as a geographical area or direction instead of just saying the name of a town or city?
For instance, when I lived in Flagstaff, we never said East Mountain or West Mountain, and people in Tucson don't say East Desert or West Desert.

Because a lot of those towns or cities are next door to one another and occupy the same region. It would be a pain to say the "Chandler Gilbert Mesa Tempe" area instead of something as simple as the East Valley. I don't know about Tucson but the Phoenix metropolitan suburbs all bleed into one another so that half the time, you don't know which city you are in. For example, a morning traffic jam on the 60 can influence members coming from all the cities in the East Valley, do you want to have repeat "Chandler Gilbert Mesa and Tempe" every single time? Also, cities like Scottsdale occupy a huge area and parts of it are in the East Valley while other parts are in the North Valley. Flagstaff is a lot smaller too. "Towns" like Glendale, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert each have 200,000+ people which are all bigger than Flagstaff so there is probably a reason why they don't have designations like East and West Mountain when describing Flagstaff.

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

Because a lot of those towns or cities are next door to one another and occupy the same region. It would be a pain to say the "Chandler Gilbert Mesa Tempe" area instead of something as simple as the East Valley. I don't know about Tucson but the Phoenix metropolitan suburbs all bleed into one another so that half the time, you don't know which city you are in. For example, a morning traffic jam on the 60 can influence members coming from all the cities in the East Valley, do you want to have repeat "Chandler Gilbert Mesa and Tempe" every single time? Also, cities like Scottsdale occupy a huge area and parts of it are in the East Valley while other parts are in the North Valley. Flagstaff is a lot smaller too. "Towns" like Glendale, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert each have 200,000+ people which are all bigger than Flagstaff so there is probably a reason why they don't have designations like East and West Mountain when describing Flagstaff.

Great explanation!!!

And, it's not because of the west v. east thing.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I think it is kind of cool the friendly rivalry that takes place about where in the valley you choose to call home. Saying you are in the Valley of the Sun sounds cool to me. Maybe that is where it comes from. Either way the Phoenicians seem to like it. I know in the LA area it is called the South Land. Same applies to the Phoenix area, because it is made up of so many different cities. As Azriverfan said, why call out all those city names.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

I think it is kind of cool the friendly rivalry that takes place about where in the valley you choose to call home. Saying you are in the Valley of the Sun sounds cool to me. Maybe that is where it comes from. Either way the Phoenicians seem to like it. I know in the LA area it is called the South Land. Same applies to the Phoenix area, because it is made up of so many different cities. As Azriverfan said, why call out all those city names.

Let's be honest, we can all tell who has and who hasn't been to Phoenix. The people who have never been here think Phoenix is supposed to look like Tatooine on Star Wars. They think we are surrounded by endless miles of sand dunes and everything is brown with sand storns blowing in your face. When they actually move here they realize it is a valley surrounded by mountains, but I think that idea is still foreign to them on some level because of their preconceived notion of this place being anything but a valley. Thus, these people are not comfortable calling Phoenix a valley even though it is one.

[Valley Native]

I don't really mind the "east Valley" & "west Valley" labels. What I never liked, however, is how most everything here has to be called ARIZONA this and ARIZONA that. A few examples: Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Arizona Republic.

The Republic is the nation's largest newspaper that doesn't have a city name attached to it. Can't a major newspaper at least carry the Phoenix name? And just because the Cardinals play in Glendale doesn't mean it can't be named after Phoenix. After all, a few other teams in the nation play in suburban stadiums, but they're not always named after the state. Naming most everything after Arizona gives recognition to the state, but takes away identity from Phoenix. The nation's fifth largest city should have much more name recognition than it does.

[sierraAZ]

Actually, the word "valley" IS used too much and certainly not only as an attempt to distinguish East & West. It annoys me, too. As if the city has no name. Reminds me of the "valley" girls in Cali...

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

I don't really mind the "east Valley" & "west Valley" labels. What I never liked, however, is how most everything here has to be called ARIZONA this and ARIZONA that. A few examples: Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Arizona Republic.

The Republic is the nation's largest newspaper that doesn't have a city name attached to it. Can't a major newspaper at least carry the Phoenix name? And just because the Cardinals play in Glendale doesn't mean it can't be named after Phoenix. After all, a few other teams in the nation play in suburban stadiums, but they're not always named after the state. Naming most everything after Arizona gives recognition to the state, but takes away identity from Phoenix. The nation's fifth largest city should have much more name recognition than it does.

I completely agree. This is a pet peeve of mine. In this naive attempt to unite the state and provide state pride, the city of Phoenix loses it's identity. We are the 5th largest city yet we can't call the Cardinals the Phoenix Cardinals or the Diamonbacks the Phoenix Diamonbacks. Good post. Everything has to be Arizona this or Arizona that.

If I one day purchase the Cardinals, I'm renaming it the Phoenix Cardinals... Actually, I'll rename it Phoenix something and come up with a better mascot but nothing obviously desert-like such as the Coyotes or Diamondbacks. I think Phoenix Fire has a nice ring

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

I don't really mind the "east Valley" & "west Valley" labels. What I never liked, however, is how most everything here has to be called ARIZONA this and ARIZONA that. A few examples: Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Arizona Republic.

LOL, we don't particularly like the term "Arizona housing market" lately, either, but such is life...