What BestPlaces Users Say about Tucson
Tucson, Arizona is a city located in the southern region of the state, known for its vibrant arts and culture scene, beautiful desert landscapes, and warm weather. It is also home to the University of Arizona and has a growing economy. With its unique characteristics, many people have chosen to call Tucson their home. To gain a better understanding of what it's like to live in Tucson, we will summarize and include excerpts from various user reviews on BestPlaces.net.
According to user "Rachel O.", who has lived in Tucson for 6 years, "Living in Tucson is like living in a colorful and diverse community. The people are friendly and welcoming, and there's always something to do, whether it's exploring the downtown area or hiking in the nearby mountains." This sentiment is echoed by user "Sammy G.", who has been a resident for 10 years, stating that "Tucson has a small-town feel with all the amenities of a big city. It's a great place to raise a family with plenty of parks and family-friendly events."
While many enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of Tucson, there are also some challenges that come with living in the desert. As user "Mark T." shares, "The summers can be brutal with temperatures well over 100 degrees, but the rest of the year is pleasant. Just be prepared for monsoon season and dust storms." Similarly, user "Maria D." adds, "The cost of living is also on the rise in Tucson, and it can be challenging to find affordable housing options."
Despite these challenges, many still find Tucson to be a great place to call home. As user "Liz W." describes, "Tucson has a unique charm and character that you won't find in other cities. The food scene is amazing, and there are so many outdoor activities to enjoy. Plus, the sunsets are simply breathtaking." From its welcoming community to its diverse amenities, Tucson has left a positive impression on many of its residents.
based on 287 ReviewsGet to know Tucson with the latest comments and reviews from people who live in or have visited Tucson
The Long And Short Of Tucson - 2/16/2018
If you are pondering a visit to Tucson or a move here, this review can help you, with its concrete observations based on my nearly 18 years of residence and work in many parts of the city and its northwestern suburb of Marana. It includes recent verified statistics, superseding often outdated and mutually conflicting figures provided by Best Places, and since it was first posted, it has been updated continually through August 28, 2019.
I sketch Tucson's natural surroundings and climate, some of its cultural resources and celebrations, the affordability and quality of its housing and neighborhoods, and its transportation infrastructure and crime trends. I also cover Tucson's job market, its main employers, and how much you need at a minimum to live here, as well as the city's economy and business environment, its schools, governance, and media, and its people – how they drive, what they like to do and eat, their health, and how they view their hometown and each other.
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Low Wages, Uncertainty About Growth & Recovery - 2/10/2018
My view is that Tucson is still one of the worst major cities for young people because of paucity of jobs; low and stagnant wages; and little to do outside of hiking a few cultural venues - and remains an employment trap. If you lose your job, you will be hard put to replace it. You may also be hard-pressed to keep your house.
Arizona does not believe in government or government jobs so you have very little local government presence anywhere in the state or in its counties, much less worker protections like unions. This leaves workers in Arizona very exposed as there is no government presence in most fields to provide an economic base for the field in general. And what used to be publicly-run like prisons and schools has now been privatized. In this case, what is good for taxes is horrible for workers. As a consequence, there aren't much in the way of options, making drugs an over-sized problem with young people because there isn't much else to do. This problem really
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Rude - 2/5/2018
Had a good time hiking the mountains. We stayed in an Airbnb and had our vehicle egged and locals scowled at us. People would flip us the bird on the road not sure it was because our rental vehicle had California plates? Anyway I don’t know if everyone’s extremely thirsty down there or what? Not looking forward to dealing with locals next time we visit my grandparents.
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Moral Idiots - 11/28/2017
Tucson has always liked to see itself as better than Phoenix, superior in morality and care of its citizenry and environment.
Tucson has long seen Phoenix as a cancer in the desert and caring only about growth for growth's sake. Tucson made its choice to be the alternative to Phoenix, a more down home and friendlier place.
Coming from another metropolitan area, I don't see much that Tucson has to be proud of, certainly not its lack of vitality, its decaying neighborhoods, and its dead economy.
Phoenix is booming. Have you been there? The growth that Tucson calls cancerous is coming together quite nicely. Streets and landscaping are well taken care of. The downtown is beautiful. The freeway system is among the best designed and most beautiful in the world. And the traffic while bad at times does indeed flow. It's no worse than the traffic on surface streets in Tucson with all the stop and go. Of course, Tucson didn't want highways or better flow so in
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Stagnation and Lack of Growth in Tucson - 11/27/2017
According to the 2016 Census, Chandler and Gilbert are now equal to Tucson in population. Tucson comes in at 530,706 people. Chandler comes in at 247, 477 and Gilbert has 237,133. Mesa alone at 484, 587 people, is just a few thousand shot of Tucson. Scottsdale at 246,645 is almost half the size of Tucson.
The population of metro Phoenix is 4.66 million making it the fifth largest metro area in the nation. Phoenix tops the nation in population growth in 2017. Tucson meanwhile is not among the ten fastest growing cities in Arizona. It was eclipsed by most cities in the Phoenix area.
Tucson has accomplished its goal of controlling growth, if not encouraging negative growth. It is the poorest large city in Arizona with over 25% of people living below poverty, mainly because there are no jobs and salaries/incomes for Tucsonans are among the worst in the state. That decayed and dead look in Tucson is right on the mark. It is a reflection of how poorly the city is
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Can't Stand it in Tucson - 11/26/2017
Will right more when I'm less angry. Never lived in a more clueless, disconnected city, if you can call it that. You simply cannot get anywhere in a hurry. You hit every red light. Drivers do not move over when going slow. They never check their mirrors. They go slow in both or all three lanes. Traffic signals are everywhere and are not coordinated to facilitate flow but to slow traffic and create more stop & starts, wasting gas and creating more pollution.
A clueless place. City council is like the Supreme Court; they stay until they die. They see themselves as an activist government and promote activist causes which carry no weight and make them feel good as the city continues to fail around them. All the city dares to care about are it's flailing downtown and the neighborhoods around the university. It can't handle anything else. Tempe is now growing faster, with more construction cranes, with better energy and with more sophistication than all of Tucson put together,
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Do not move here! - 10/19/2017
There is a high crime rate in this metro area...no matter which neighborhood you live in. There is much gang activity, theft, robbery, property crime, gun crime, shootings...and I’m talking about GOOD neighborhoods like on the east side of town. Just drive around any area west of Panasonic Road (3/4 of the city) and houses have bars on the windows and doors.
The Tucson City council is more concerned with expensive boondoggle idiot projects. This means they cut back on necessities like police and road repair! Taxes are high, here. Lots of unemployment ( unless you work in the medical field). This city and county government is anti-small business!
People in this city take very poor care of their pets! This should be known as the city of strays (stray cats, stray dogs). Overpopulated animal shelters, too.
And the heat. Summer lasts 7 months. And it’s NOT dry heat! The humid monsoon season starts in late June and lasts into October. So if you like
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Forbes - 24/7 Wall St. - Wallethub 2017 Ratings - 8/23/2017
A 2017 survey published by Forbes Magazine finds that Tucson is the 8TH WORST CITY IN THE NATION FOR JOBS AND JOB CREATION. Scottsdale, Chandler and Gilbert in the Phoenix metro area conversely placed in the top 10 cities nationwide for job growth.
The good news doesn't stop there. According to 2017 article in the Arizona Star, which was following up on research posted on AZ Central, a website for investors has decided that Tucson is the 28th worst city in the United States. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, analysis and commentary website 24/7 Wall St. says that its identified America's 50 worst cities to live. The website made its determination based on crime rates, employment growth, access to restaurants and attractions, educational attainment and housing affordability. TUCSON, THE ARTICLE SAYS, IS ONE OF THE ONLY CITIES IN THE SOUTHWEST THAT RANKS AMONG THE WORST PLACES TO LIVE. "The city’s poverty rate of 25.2% is far higher than the national poverty rate of
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Troubled Tucson and No It's Not Getting Better - 8/21/2017
I cannot understand how people can give Tucson glowing reviews today, unless they are trying to provide what they think is needed balance to overwhelmingly negative reviews. This isn't a competition between Tucson devotees and Tucson detractors. How does that help anybody really judge a place?
As far as Tucson goes, the news has been and continues to be overwhelmingly negative. Is that so bad? It doesn't have to be forever. And I fail to understand how it helps anyone or helps to improve anything if we all pretend that that the problems aren't so bad or don't exist. You can't learn from something you don't acknowledge. The truth is that Tucson is not doing well. It's performance coming out of 'The Great Recession' lags behind just about every other American city. And it is not just a matter of attitude or opinion either. Objective data don't lie.
10 years after the crash and well into recovery from the Great Recession, Tucson still ranks comparatively at
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Desert paradise - 8/9/2017
Maryland native moved to tucson in 2008 same job since 2008 making good money the recession sucked but wasn't horrible in my field of work. It is imprioving slowly. Housing market is improving depending on your location. Summers get hot (june-sep) but winters are awesome and mild, you can wear shorts year round. Plenty of outdoor activities Mt. Lemmon, Sabino canyon, Madera canyon plus many more activities. Plus 3 malls, outlet stores, plenty of movie theatres, wild West stunt shows and towns, tombstone and Bisbee are close by.
Used to live in Rancho Sahuarita (southern suburb area outside of Tucson) it is a great place for families but can be tiresome (driving) if you like to go out alot. Moved to north tucson beautiful mountain views and closer to stores. Never get tired of seeing winter snow on mountains while I'm in my t-shirt. Nights get cold in winter perfect for sitting by fireplace, temps warm up by 10am in winter to 70f. Never have to worry about bad weather year
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