Tempe, Arizona SperlingViews

I moved to Tempe 6 years ago to attend ASU. Being from the northeast, I wanted to experience warmer winters and less people. Aside from the comfortable winter weather, I was fooled about a lot of things!

First, the population boom is insane! More people are moving to AZ in record numbers than ever before and I would hate to be an urban planner in metro Phoenix. There are going to be more people than they will know what to do with in the next 5-10 years, it's sickening! The traffic problems are a nightmare anywhere in the Valley and I'd rather drive in midtown Manhattan on a friday afternoon than any hour of any day in the Valley.

The people there are not very friendly either. If you don't have a connection to the ASU community, forget about getting to know your neighbors. The majority of people are snobs and think they are better than everyone else. Throw in 100+ degree days from late march until mid october, it's a very unpleasant living environment. The public schools systems have consistantly ranked at the bottom of US states for several consecutive years, I wouldn't send my worst enemies children to school in that state!

I have recently left AZ and do not plan on returning, not even for a vacation. My wife and I are done with big city life and are hapily adapting to the idea of living the small town life for a change.

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