The best places to live in the Phoenix, Arizona area


Since I live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and have for a long time (longer than I would care to admit, in fact!) and I love living there, I'm always happy to make recommendations for people who might be interested in moving here. I'm fascinated with the history of Phoenix, which for me includes right now, and even the future. I call it "time-traveling".

Anyway, I always start by doing the most logical thing for me, which is recommend where I live, which in a suburb of Phoenix called Glendale, right on the border of another suburb, Peoria. I've known people who live in places that they dislike, which seems sad, but rest assured that I love it here. I always wanted to live in suburbia, always wanted to buy a house, I like peace and quiet, but still good access to downtown, so this is perfect for me. I sound like a real estate agent now, sorry about that!

Anyway, I've seen what's perfect for me look just awful to other people, so if you have no interest in suburbia, and would rather have easy access to all of the places where I never go, like downtown, or sporting events, or nightlife, etc., I recommend looking for a place along the Light Rail. In just the past few years quite a lot has sprung up along there. Take a look at a map of Phoenix and you'll be surprised just how extensive the Light Rail is, going to just a few miles east of where I am to waaaay out there, in Mesa. Many people who live along the Light Rail don't own a car, and really don't need one.

Of course, if you want even more space around you than I have here in Glendale, you can live along the edges of Phoenix. You'll need a car, and you might even be a truck person, and you'll be fine. There are big properties around here which are zoned for horses. And chickens, and pigs, and whatever you like.

If you have a ton of bucks, and like to show it off, take a look at the Scottsdale area. You won't feel self-conscious there driving your Lamborghini, and you'd be wise to find a place to get away in the summer. It gets unpleasantly hot in the Phoenix area, and a lot of people like to have a little getaway cabin in the mountains, near Flagstaff. People with enough money don't stay in the Phoenix area in the summertime - it's simply not done!

Phoenix isn't really known as a place with a lot of crime, but if you're a criminal I'm sure that you can find a place that will suit you. I would prefer that you stay away from my neighborhood, and if the types of crimes that you prefer to do aren't really that harmful, like loitering, or returning library books late, you'll probably be fine. If you'd like to commit more serious crimes, Arizona has historically been a bad place to do it, as law enforcement can be pretty strict.

And before I forget, I would like to include the trailer parks of the Phoenix area, which are now called mobile home communities. There are a LOT of them, and many are for people who are over 55, but they cater to all types of people. Some of them can be fairly swanky, with swimming pools, etc., and some are just places that don't cost a lot.

I hope this helps! Welcome to Phoenix! 

If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more