Took a trip to San Francisco...some new personal conclusions on Phoenix...

[zox]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

I will (respectfully) disagree there: living in Berkeley would have some of SF's flavor.........especially along Shattuck/Telegraph near UCB and a BART station.

I agree but I don't really consider Berkeley East Bay. It's just an extension of the city. East Bay to me is Walnut Creek and the likes

[snowflake13]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

To be honest, I don't want Phoenix to be too liberal like SF. SF is strong on fiscal liberalism and excessive pro- environmental. In other words, it's one thing to be liberal, it's another thing to be a tree hugger. SF and Portland has that tree hugger liberalism where you are embarrassed to say you bought an SUV or use disposable diapers instead of cloth. You can't admit you ever voted for a Republican or agree with certain Republican ideas without being torched. I do what I can to help the environment but I'm not going to collect feces from my kids diapers to use as compost. And I'm not going to flip out if a guy buys a large truck or SUV. I'm also not going to not order veal in an Italian restaurant. Socially liberal to me is the opposite of what occurs in the South. In the South, people are not tolerant of people of different races, religions and sexual orientation. I feel like Arizona is pretty socially liberal in that sense but yeah, we are not tree hugging granolas. That's fine by me

I feel like Arizona has moved more toward becoming tree hugger-like. I see it with my patients all the time. Phoenix magazine had a naturopath on the cover of Top Docs which is limited to physicians (M.D. or D.O.) An increasing number of my patients see naturopaths, herbalists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and other hoakey liberal feel good practices that is often not tolerated in more conservative areas of the country like Texas, Tennessee and Georgia. As a result, we have so many con artists selling snake oil here like allergy oral drops as a replacement for shots (it doesn't work and it's not been verified by the FDA)

Well said....where I currently live it is nothing but a bunch of dirty, pretentious wanna be hippies. I always have a joke where I say I no longer fit in here as I do vaccinate my children (blows my mind that all these people still believe the ditz Jenny McCarthy that Autism is caused by vaccinations...that study has been discredited stop putting me and my children at risk) anyway...I drive an SUV (since driving in the winter is an off-road experience all in its own as the budget for snow plowing is non-existent this year) and I do not always eat organic. Any of those statements generate a back lash from whom ever you are near, all three combined I am scared we will get hanged.

It makes me happy to see that is not the norm in Phoenix thank God, since we are moving there.

[Steerpike]

Originally Posted by zox

In my opinion, you can't really experience living in SF if you are living in the East Bay. The East Bay is relatively suburban and I prefer the suburbs in Phoenix to the ones in the East Bay. I find the suburbs there to be a little older and less contemporary. In my experience, people didn't choose to live in the East Bay, they settled on it because they couldn't afford to live in SF.

In my case, I moved out of SF after 12 years to get away from the fog, the homeless, and the high density living. I moved to a small-ish town 'Walnut Creek' in the East Bay, and managed to get a beautiful custom home on half an acre with oak trees all around - absolutely gorgeous. Over the past 15 years that I've been in Walnut Creek, it has developed into a fantastic shopping and dining mecca. I walked around the downtown a month ago and counted 48 restaurants/cafes within a 4x4 block area - and only one chain (Chilli's, which has since moved out). That's in addition to the 'new' part of downtown, which has the chains such as CPK, Cheescake Factory, Ruth's Chris, Flemmings, etc. I think Walnut Creek is a real gem of a place, almost on a par with Palo Alto and Burlingame (my other two favorite bay area suburbs). The pace is 'suburban', but you can always jump on BART or drive 25 miles and be in downtown SF.

I've recently moved to Scottsdale, and love it there too - I love the architecture, the colors, the general pace of life, the proximity to lakes and mountains, etc. The biggest challenge for me is the lack of a decent 'downtown' in the entire Phoenix Metro. Scottsdale has the closest thing to it, with a very pleasant and functional downtown, but it's not very big, and does not have the diversity of cuisines we have in Walnut Creek (let alone SF!). Considering that Phoenix metro and SF Bay Area have similar populations (4M+), the Bay Area has at least 10 great downtowns outside of downtown SF (Palo Alto; Burlingame; San Mateo; Petaluma; San Rafael; Walnut Creek; Rockridge (Oakland); Berkeley; Chestnut St/Marina (SF); Clement St (SF); and more.

The other huge issue with Phoenix is, of course, jobs. I happen to have a very good one and that's why I'm here, but God help me if I lost it - there just isn't the job pool that exists in the Bay Area.

Still, I like it in Scottsdale and will probably sell my CA home someday and spend 100% of my time here.