Best place for family in Tucson area (Phoenix, Mesa: apartments, low crime)

[justanothermama]

Hi. My husband is considering taking a job in Tucson. I read it is very high crime, bad CPS, extreme heat. I am a Christian mother home schooling. I think the home school laws are okay. I also do not vaccinate. Don't want any comments, but I understand there are exemptions.


I am wondering if there are very safe, low crime, areas that are good for families. No CPS taking kids issues, more conservative. No corruption, drugs. I don't really mind the weather. Will just go out in late night or whatever. Are there lots of parks, good apartments, any amusement places? We love nature and walking, so I'm sure that's fine. Lots of grocery stores-equivalent of Walmart?


Thanks much.


And if you would recommend any other Arizona cities, that would be great too.

[grmi66]

Much of what you think is the city of Tucson is in actuality unincorporated Pima County. From my house to the Tucson city line is almost ten miles and a solid line of subdivisions and houses. Pull up a map and look outside of the Tucson city limits.

I live a stone's throw away from Oro Valley and while we are quite diverse in a good way (it's a solid upper middle class neighborhood, our median income is double that of most zip codes in Tucson) it also leans conservative. Bear in mind that conservatism in Arizona is generally a Libertarian leave me alone conservatism and not religious conservatism like you find in the midwest or the the south. My neighbors include a lot of retired military and more than a few Raytheon employees. Raytheon makes missiles for the military and if you are helping to build missiles you tend to lean one direction politically.

[PartIrish]

Tucson on the whole is a liberal, Democratic city (Pima County went 60-40 for Biden in the 2020 election, and that includes some much more conservative areas outside the city. The city of Tucson voted even more heavily Democratic.) The summer heat has gotten worse over the past 20-30 years, and with the decrease in rainfall, the summers are prolonged (5-6 months of heat) and much drier than they used to be. Temps will still be very high at 10:00 p.m. during the summer. If your kids are on a swim team, that is at least one thing they can do during the day. Property crime is high in Tucson, but that is true for many cities across the country. There is more poverty in Tucson, so there is also more property crime. If you get out to the Foothills or Oro Valley area, you will see much less crime.

I can't speak to the CPS issue, as we never interfaced with the agency when raising our kids. The CPS thing seems like an odd concern--have you had trouble with child protective service agencies in the past?

Since you asked for other recommendations, you may want to look at Mesa, AZ, which is much more conservative.

[justanothermama]

grmi66-Thank you. I find the conservatism issue interesting. When I think conservative, I think- believes strongly in family, pro life, some libertarian ideals, those kinds of things. I guess that is more religious. mainly it's about being family oriented, that's most important to me. I will certainly look to living on the outskirts. Not sure my husband would love the drive, but we'll see. I personally don't mind the ”leave me alone” stuff. I'm an introvert, so I prefer that, but want to be surrounded by families anyway. Kids have playmates at parks etc.

PartIrish-Can you tell me about water rationing? Will I still be able to cook lots (like soups) and wash clothes. As a busy family, I need that. We tend not to waste water. Turn off while applying shampoo, but we can still use water, right? I remember driving through AZ years ago, and hotels had signs to ration water. Is it still like that? Do they actually turn off your water?

About bugs- I imagine its mostly scorpions and such or are there are there household pests? Do they get inside apartments?

No issues with CPS. Where I am there are horror stories that if someone doesn't like you they report you to CPS and when they investigate they make up something just to take your kids and sell them into slavery. Believe it or not, it happens a lot in TX and other places. Horror stories about foster parents being 10 times worse than original family. These things gives parents nightmares. Wonderful parents but if someone doesn't like you, and they report you , your life becomes instant nightmare, so I just want to make sure there is not that level of corruption, child trafficking there in AZ especially being so close to the border. TX and AZ are rated some of the top states for this kind of corruption and crime. Unfortunately, there are many who believe one is a child abuser if they don't vaccinate and home school. My children are very educated. They are smart and love to learn and outperform their public school friends to the extreme. Vaccination is another issue, but this isn't abuse, but unfortunately some get a lot of trouble for private health decisions.

Thanks for mentioning Mesa. I will look into it.

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by justanothermama

grmi66-Thank you. I find the conservatism issue interesting. When I think conservative, I think- believes strongly in family, pro life, some libertarian ideals, those kinds of things. I guess that is more religious. mainly it's about being family oriented, that's most important to me. I will certainly look to living on the outskirts. Not sure my husband would love the drive, but we'll see. I personally don't mind the ”leave me alone” stuff. I'm an introvert, so I prefer that, but want to be surrounded by families anyway. Kids have playmates at parks etc.

Some people I've met that moved to Arizona expected the same type of religious conservatism prevalent in the south or the midwest. It's definitely more of the leave me alone and don't ask what we do behind closed doors along with let me have lots of guns (not that guns are bad). Even the local Planned Parenthood chapter in the Phoenix area was launched by Barry Goldwater's wife.

The area is quite spread out, so where you live is dependent on where you work. It's faster for me to drive to the outskirts of Phoenix than it is for me to drive to my parent's house on the east side of Tucson.

As far as critters go, again it depends on where you live. In central Tucson the chances of seeing a rattlesnake or scorpion are almost zero. But at my house I see scorpions on a fairly regular basis and encounter 1-2 snakes in my yard along with seeing another dozen out hiking/running per year.

[PartIrish]

Lake Mead and Lake Powell levels are at their lowest levels since they were created and filled in the 1930s (Mead) and the 1980s (Powell). If the long term drought doesn't reverse itself, Arizona could see at a reduction in its water allotment of 20 percent by 2023. We share that water with several other states.

It's not about how much you use in the shower, it's about what water will cost everyone (a lot), and whether it will impact future growth (very likely). Those changes will happen sooner rather than later.

[Saguarogirl507]

Originally Posted by PartIrish

Lake Mead and Lake Powell levels are at their lowest levels since they were created and filled in the 1930s (Mead) and the 1980s (Powell). If the long term drought doesn't reverse itself, Arizona could see at a reduction in its water allotment of 20 percent by 2023. We share that water with several other states.

It's not about how much you use in the shower, it's about what water will cost everyone (a lot), and whether it will impact future growth (very likely). Those changes will happen sooner rather than later.

I have been thinking about that a lot lately. I think we all may end up climate refugees sooner rather than later.

[eddie gein]

The crime stats in Tucson are highly skewed because it just includes the city of Tucson and not the half of the community that is in the county. The "county" part of Tucson is almost all suburban growth with the exception of the near northwest side. Any part of the "county" part of Tucson is going to be fine. And if you home school the school district isn't an issue.

I'd recommend making your husband's job location a consideration as commutes in Tucson can be rather arduous in terms of time spent getting to and from work. But there are great areas of town in all directions if you are willing to go far enough out. Shopping, accessibility to downtown and the UofA as well as to the mountains will vary depending on what direction you go.

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

The crime stats in Tucson are highly skewed because it just includes the city of Tucson and not the half of the community that is in the county. The "county" part of Tucson is almost all suburban growth with the exception of the near northwest side. Any part of the "county" part of Tucson is going to be fine. And if you home school the school district isn't an issue.

The Pima County/City of Tucson divide still confuses about half my neighbors. I live almost 10 miles north of the Tucson city limits and I have a few neighbors that don't understand that we live in the county and simply have a Tucson mailing address provided by USPS. If you drove north of River Road to my house it will be 10 miles of houses and strip malls. You'd have no idea that you just left the city.

[wildflowers27]

Originally Posted by PartIrish

Lake Mead and Lake Powell levels are at their lowest levels since they were created and filled in the 1930s (Mead) and the 1980s (Powell). If the long term drought doesn't reverse itself, Arizona could see at a reduction in its water allotment of 20 percent by 2023. We share that water with several other states.

It's not about how much you use in the shower, it's about what water will cost everyone (a lot), and whether it will impact future growth (very likely). Those changes will happen sooner rather than later.

PartIrish, your post got my attention and I thought of it just now when I read this Arizona Republic article. I think there's a tendency to push aside shortages as a problem for another day. But it looks like that day might actually be coming. Hopefully American ingenuity will somehow prevail, but we can't just wish away this drought.

"With the Colorado River’s largest reservoir just 38% full and declining toward the threshold of a first-ever shortage, Arizona water officials convened an online meeting this week to outline how the state will deal with water cutbacks, saying the reductions will be “painful” but plans are in place to lessen the blow for affected farmers next year.
Lake Mead’s decline is expected to trigger substantial reductions in water deliveries in 2022 for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. The largest of those cuts will affect Arizona, slashing its Colorado River supplies by 512,000 acre-feet, about a fifth of its total entitlement."

"Next year, the reservoir is set to slip into what’s called a Tier 1 shortage, which will bring the largest reductions to date."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ht/7401706002/