The best money-hungry, over popluated, smelliest c
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9/15/2008
I have lived in Phoenix for 10 years and I can honestly say even though I have my jeers AND cheers, I'm not sure if I want to raise a family here. I've found that people either LOVE this city or absolutely despise it. I have lived in many other cities throughout my life and I do not put this one on the top 10. The Phoenix-Metro area is huge...ridiculously huge. You can drive well over 2 hours on freeways alone going 70+ mph and still be within the Phoenix-Metro area. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but the population has doubled since I've moved here and the city can't seem to keep up with explosion of people.
Phoenix is all about quantity and not at ALL about quality. As someone else's review stated, "It's the same stores, restaraunts, and adobe-style houses on every corner." and is what I would consider a "cookie-cutter" city. This is very true especially for all the expansion they're doing to the towns. Everything is the same. If one town builds a marketplace, the rest of them have to build one just like it. It does make for easier commuting to certain popluar stores but it all gets very boring. Maybe I just prefer smaller cities, I don't know.
The air is horrible. The water in most areas is absolutely disgusting, and no one knows how to drive. Everything here is image, style, and money, money, money and I'm tired of it. We cater to citizens here who can't speak a lick of english and so we have to provide other means of communication. People want to live in the U.S. but don't want to learn the language. I don't tolerate that kind of ignorance at all and to me it's a big problem here. I think it's great if they want to speak BOTH english and whatever else they want to use.
There is however some silver lining amongst the clouds of smog that cover the city. I cannot complain about the weather as much as everyone else seems to. Yes it does get pretty warm during the summer but it's DRY. I hate humidity and this is the best state for people who share that opinion. The winters are absolutely beautiful and the cold does cover up a lot of the interesting aromas that the Phoenix-metro area has to offer. There isn't much to say for snow here but Flagstaff is 1.5 hours away which is very nice to visit. The people here really are for the most part very courteous and willing to have a conversation while standing in line at the grocery store. The sunsets are gorgeous and do live up to all the hype people say about them.
I'm really curious to see what this town will be like in another 10 years and I kind of want to stick around to see it. Although if it keeps heading in the direction it is now, I'll gladly move back to the east coast.
Bp | Buckeye, AZ