Graduate students in Tucson? (Phoenix, Oro Valley: apartment, to rent, townhouse)

[nomad74]

Would love to hear from any current University of Arizona graduate students about living in Tucson. My wife and I are considering moving to Tucson and we would like to know where graduate students live and what rent is like for a decent two-bedroom apartment/house that is convenient to campus and safe.

Also wondering about the ‘feel’ of Tucson. For example, does it feel mostly suburban or are there areas where you feel a sense of community and are able to walk/bike to grocery stores, restaurants, cafes etc.?

[Meeko32198]

My husband is a graduate student at the UofA and we moved out to Tucson this past August. We currently live in Oro Valley, which is about 30 minutes north of campus. Moving from out of state we were told a bunch of horror stories about the areas near campus and took the safer northern part of the city instead. One thing I suggest is to come visit and drive around the neighborhoods. What is scary to one person is not to another.

After being here for about 8 months I can say that the city has grown on me. There are some nicer areas near campus, in the Sam Hughes, and Blenman Elm neighborhoods. Again though it depends on the biking as to which area you choose. Some it's safe, while others I wouldn't recommend even though I have seen people on bikes. For the most part Tucson is a pretty bike friendly community, with large bike lanes around town.

The job market though is something else to look at. I don't know if you are both going to be graduate students or if your wife will be looking for a new job. I've been searching for a fulltime position since we moved here. Also, check your department to see about their funding situation. The UofA just went through a massive budget cut and several departments are going to be dissolved or shoved into other ones in Fall. They haven't made final decisions yet on some of them.

[miamiman]

Originally Posted by nomad74

Would love to hear from any current University of Arizona graduate students about living in Tucson. My wife and I are considering moving to Tucson and we would like to know where graduate students live and what rent is like for a decent two-bedroom apartment/house that is convenient to campus and safe.

Also wondering about the ‘feel’ of Tucson. For example, does it feel mostly suburban or are there areas where you feel a sense of community and are able to walk/bike to grocery stores, restaurants, cafes etc.?

I am not a student, but I have been on a campus tour given by a friend of mine. There is a graduate housing complex on campus called La Aldea. It look very nice and new from the outside, with numerous balconies. Many students live directly north of campus in single-family homes, many of which, especially off of Mountain Avenue, are quite attractive. Once you get north of Glenn Street, the houses are less attractive, and the neighborhoods are sketchier. There are also several multi-unit apartment buildings off of Park Avenue that are pretty cheap.

As one previous poster said, Blenman-Elm and Sam Hughes are attractive neighborhoods close to campus. Sam Hughes is directly east of campus and features very nice single-family homes with well-landscape lawns and plenty of trees. 3rd Street leads right to the east of campus, and has traffic restrictions to significantly limit vehicular traffic on the street. 3rd Street is arguably, IMO, the most attractive residential street in the city of Tucson. Blenman-Elm is northeast of campus and is similar to Sam Hughes in look and feel, but would be quite a walk or bike ride to the university.

The majority of coffee shops near the university are west of campus, along University Boulevard or 4th Avenue. However, if you live on any side of campus reaching either University or 4th by bicycle would be very painless. Grocery stores are a different story, with the closest stores being a Safeway on Broadway/Campbell or Fry's on 1st Avenue/Grant. Both of those would require a car, unless you don't mind carrying groceries in a backpack while you're on a bike.

Tucson is a quirky city with a very strong community feel. It's stuck in a grey area between deciding if it's a large small city or a small large city. The city is laid out in a suburban manner, with single-family homes, low-rise apartment buildings, and townhomes accounting for almost 100% of housing in Tucson. As a result, the city in car-dependent. The exceptions are the areas around the university, nearby 4th Avenue, and Downtown. However, for logistical purposes, a car would be very helpful no matter what neighborhood you live in. Tucson is a VERY bike friendly city, with bike lanes all over the place. Mountain Avenue, which I mentioned earlier, has very nice bike lanes. 3rd Street in Sam Hughes is heavily utilized by bicyclists because of the limited vehicular traffic. So, if either you or your wife are hardcore bikers, you might be able to live car-free.

Tucson is home to a lot of colorful characters, has a strong artist community, has an extremely vocal environmentalist population, has many thriving local businesses and is a Democractic stronghold in a Republican state. There are a lot of community activities to take part in on any given weekend. Tucson tries to be the antithesis of Phoenix, and thus has a very different look or feel than Phoenix.

[nomad74]

Thanks for the very detailed responses. My wife and I just returned from visiting Tucson and, based on what I saw on our short visit, your have both provided very accurate descriptions of the city. We visited a student who is renting a single-family house just off of Mountain. It was nice and within biking distance of the university. We actually stayed with another graduate student that rents a house in Marana. It was also very nice but obviously quite a bit further from campus. I had done quite a bit of research about the city before our visit and it was pretty much as I expected. 4th avenue was a bit of a disappointment as I expected it to be livelier and to have a higher density of bars and restaurants. Overall, Tucson seems like a rather quiet town and we were surprised to see so little pedestrian traffic...of course, that is probably because everything is so spread out and people rely on cars to get from point to point. If we were to move to Tucson we would probably look to rent an apartment or townhouse north of campus. There seemed to be a lot of nice places up by River Rd and Campbell although that would require a car to get to campus. Sam Hughes is very nice but more expensive. I must say that Tucson couldn't be more different than our other option which is Washington DC.

[bellringer]

The River Road/Campbell area is very nice. I worked at that intersection in Joesler Village for a time.