Scam city?
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10/22/2006
Honestly, I don't get it. Family needs caused me to HAVE to live there for 5 years (1998-2003) during which time I experienced the following.
1. Lots of jobs? If you like making Slurpees. Despite the supposed statistics, I found Phoenix to have an appalling business climate and very low saleries. For a city of it's size, there is no visible means of support other than the housing and real estate development industry, which blatantly runs the show. The few corporations headquartered in Phoenix (few corporate headquarters, lots of telemarketing call centers) are nearly invisible and support very few "smart" or "brain" industries. You don't want to be in a "creative" industry in Phoenix. There's no such thing. I firmly believe that most of the job ads posted in and for Phoenix are faked to lure people there from the "rust belt".
2. The climate is ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL! Can't be under-emphasized! Brutal!
3. The environment can be described as "Desert-raped". Endless half-empty beige, brown, and brown-beige stripmalls with "here today-gone later today" businesses, roasting under a dusty brown sky and high-tension power lines. Endless "Taco Bell" cookie-cutter housing tracts where nobody knows, or wants to know, a neighbor because they'll be moving on elsewhere real soon-when the money they made selling their house in California runs out.
4. No culture other than the "Valley Fever" spores in the air. This is not a place for people who read, appreciate art or music, or wish to be around diverse views and opinions. Phoenix is an intellectual desert, too.
5. Despite it's amazing and unfathomable growth, a common statistic batted around the area is that for every 3 people who move to Phoenix, 2 people leave. Think about it.
6. It's REALLY FAR to get anywhere else. REALLY FAR!
scott | Hilton Head Island, SC