The little town that grew up too quickly
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4/23/2009
I've lived in Chandler for 25 years. Initially I loved the small town atmosphere - the population then was 25K spread out of 50 square miles. People began flocking to Arizona and Chandler now has a population of about 250,000 and still growing. I enjoyed Chandler for that small town feel, the slower pace than Chicago where I came from. I enjoyed the agricultural atmosphere with cotton field, orange groves, dairy farms. Little by little the developers came in and bought up all that land, and now we are very urbanized. Hard to get to know others as all the builders install concrete block fences around each and every backyard. Houses are built backwards in my opinion. It's a rare house that has a big front picture window from which you can observe what is going on on your street. Primarily it's bedrooms that are put in the front of the house, whereas the living room or family room faces the back yard, possibly because so many people have in ground pools. People are not quite as friendly here until you make a concerted effort to get to know your neighbors. With May usually starting the 100+ temps lasting through Sept. nobody wants to leave their house and chat outside anyway. So we get into our garaged air conditioned cars, leave for work or whatever, where it is also air conditioned, only to return home, press the button for the garage door to open, pull in, close the garage door, and back you go into your air conditioned house, oftentimes never seeing another living soul on your block. I am fortunate to live in a secluded area where all the houses are on large square cul de sacs that have a little park like area in the center, and it is very quiet. You'd never dream that just 6 blocks away is the hustle and bustle of two of the busiest streets in town and with 3 major freeways no more than 2-3 miles away in each instance and one of the best Mall areas in the entire state. If you can't find what you're looking for there, it probably does not exist. All in all, I like Chandler, but I wholeheartedly miss what we used to have. When I moved here I never saw a mosquito, saw plenty of white flies from the cotton field, but they were no big deal, listened to the crop dusters as they zoomed back and forth over the farm field. People had to 'check their firearms' at the grocery store service desk before they started their shopping. And we did not yet have killer bees that have invaded us to now almost all of our bees are of that african descent. Running in to a bee can be hazardous to some peoples' health and several have died from the vicious attacks of these bees who attack in great numbers if they feel you even come anywhere near what they have claimed as 'their' space. I have no room to complain as I too, just like most others, am a transplant from somewhere I just else. I just wish we were still the little rural town that never grew up.
Andrea | Chandler, AZ