Poverty with a view
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1/24/2019
I've lived here since 1998. This town is very beautiful with the scenery and the community. But it's literally the "poverty with a view" town. NAU had been taking over the town by building and buying new buildings for the students, the town is very crowded and it makes it difficult to find jobs because of the college students.
The cost of living is outrageous. Theres loopholes the real estate and property management that they raise rent or price of a home as soon as someone moves out or renews a lease. I know people who have 3 jobs just to make it here.
The town in split because of the minimum wage increase. Half the people are relieved to make a decent living and not have to struggle paycheck to paycheck as much. The other half is worried about price hikes of everything, in business and cost of living. So the town is torn whether to barely afford anything getting paid less or living moderately comfortable and paying a bit more.
As there are many community get-togethers from live music, movies at the square, hullapalooza, farmers markets, art shows and fundraisers, to distract us from the bills we pay.
The destruction the college students cause on the town is higher than menial pranks. They dirty and deface downtown and are hard to work with as they constantly need time off for everything. I had friends that live downtown who have to shoo off passed out college students from their front and back yards. I'm all about people getting education but NAU is very close to beating ASU with being the highest party problem. In every college housing that is built there are constant complaints from other students about noise, destruction of the housing development and violence. The city is making a lot of money from NAU, so the locals are SOL.
Transients are also a problem. But all towns have people that panhandle right?
I grew up in this town and finally am able to prepare to move because my parents struggled as much as i am to just pay the bills. I wish i had better tongs to say but this town that takes roughly 30 minutes to drive from one side to another is over crowded.
Rebekah | Flagstaff, AZ