Review of Flagstaff Ariz,

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Poverty with a view

- 8/14/2019
I work in Flagstaff and live in Sedona out of necessity, I have the deal of a lifetime for housing in Sedona - couldn't touch an outhouse in Flagstaff for what I am paying in Sedona. Flagstaff housing enormously expensive as well as food. NAU is the largest employer in Flagstaff and due to the wages they give being suppressed in comparasion to ASU and UA I cannot see Flagstaff becoming the " next best place to live " anytime soon. NAU is losing talented professionals YOY because of the enormous pay gap and the product NAU provides has taken a hit. Administrators think there is a bottomless well of talent and I can assure that the well is deeper than most think but inevitably mismangement by this university will cause Flagstaff to remake itself or die. It is unfathomable that over the last decade when the economy has thrived that the University hasn't addressed this issue other than to give it lip service. The hook the university uses is that a person / family cannot make it on a single salary - to make any kind of headway in Flagstaff you need to be a 2 income family - many times both adults are employees of the university at suppressed wages making it difficult to move. They are trapped until they have finally had enough - this town could thrive if only ABOR would understand that COL in Flagstaff is 24% higher than the rest of the State, NAU is the largest employer in town - its ironic that the State of AZ could be resonsible for making Flagstaff untenable for those that need to work and live there - have seen this before. Its a shame
Daniel | Village of Oak Creek (Big Park), AZ