Retired and loving Flagstaff
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5/18/2015
My wife and I retired to Flagstaff in 2012. Our search criterion was for a college town to add culture, good medical facilities, four seasons, within two hours of major airport and low humidity. We vacationed in several cities to get a feel for them. Denver was over crowded, suffered from traffic and polluted while Santa Fe did not inspire us. Flag has very youthful feel with the NAU's 25,000 students, hiking and biking trails abound the Falstaff peaks at 12000 feet above sea level with a ski area. Blues skies most days so we enjoy getting out side. Culture comes in many forms from the Lowell Observatory, Museum of Northern Arizona( native Americans), to a 10 day Science Week that provides an astounding number of events to excite us. Downtown is packed with good restaurants, bars and 5 mini-breweries. Friday Nite Art Walks at the first of every month gets us out for a dinner date and a stroll of the town where music is played on the street and in the many art galleries. During the summer the town square provide performance arts, music, movies each week end. Live theater, ballet, concerts, symphonies entertain us year around. NAU provides arts, theater, music and college level sports. And getting to all these without traffic. For these reasons and more we are living happily in Flagstaff.
The Cons are few but still there. The city must deal with growth and keep the small town atmosphere. Not an easy task. While the crime rate and cost of living are slight about the USA average, we don't notice either. Parking downtown is a problem and creative city bus alternative has not been applied to resolve this. These reason seem minor and certainly have not caused us to regret for one moment moving here. Come and try it out.
David | Flagstaff, AZ