Quality of Life - Not as good as it was and declin
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7/11/2006
I've now live in Phoenix and Scottsdale for almost 27 years (more than half my life) and we're ready to go. After growing up in New York City and moving here in the late '70's it was a definite change of pace and just what I was looking for. Air was clear, population levels low, clean, new, modern and wide open with low cost of living, plentiful job opps and courteous people.
By the mid '90's all was begining to change and not for the better. Phoenix was now being "discovered" and soon became the next new "hot" town. Everyone living in a natural disaster prone area, those without jobs, or people just fed up with bad weather and crime soon began to migrate here.
Problem is, along with good people come bad. All the ills and issues most were seeking to escape soon followed them here. Today, Phoenix is no better than the places most were hoping to escape and in fact has become worse. According to recent studies, the heat island effect and global warming have increased both day and night time temperature and their duration. Pollution and traffic congestion are now as bad as LA or worse. Crime, population density, cost of living have all risen dramatically. Quality of life is now nothing more than quaint memory.
Phoenix has always been a small town whose primary dependence on agriculture, tourism and home building have always been it's ace in the hole. Today, however, these still remain to some extent with agriculture giving way to new home constuction. But it's fundamental assests and industries still persist along with it's major issues. Education, with possible exception of Arizona State is mediocre at best. Industry is mostly restaurants, hotels with scant high tech companies here and there. Biotech has only begun to gain a foothold but has yet to become established and viable.
Overall, low pay jobs worked in the past as the state's economy was good and cost of living low. Unfortunately, due to out of state speculators who have run the price of real estate unreaslistically high through house "flipping" home prices are too high for most who live here. The state's reluctance to establish a real mass transit infrastructure other than a light rail system whose completion is still years away. The real downside is it will run on city streets through busy intersections competing with high congestive traffic. The routing of the system is extremely limited and will offer little to no help for most living outside the city's core. Bus service
Hy | Phoenix, AZ