Moving to Arizona

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I am most likely going to be moving to Arizona after the summer to work and finish my schooling. I need some advice on where to live. I have been thinking either Tucson or Phoenix. I dont want to live downtown in either of those, but would prefer a smaller suburb. I have been looking at apartments and schools, but I dont have any idea what any of the towns I read about are really like. So, If some of you have any idea's for a suburb of one of those cities that is nice, but not too expensive and has a college let me know... O and a nice gun range in the area is a real big plus also. Thanx!!!

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I don't think there's a shortage of gun ranges anywhere in the two metro areas, although many of us prefer to simply go out in the desert for our plinking.

As far as suburbs.... the cities here aren't really set up like a lot of places. I live on the far east edge of the valley. I can leave my house and drive surface streets to the far northwest edge of the valley (70-some miles away) and pass through 5-6 cities without ever knowing I left one. You don't really have a central core with surrounding suburbs; you just have one large urban sprawl with some arbitrary boundaries deciding when you're in a different tax zone.

Colleges are everywhere; the Maricopa Community College system (or whatever it's correctly called) encompasses Mesa Community College (~27,000 students), Scottsdale Community College, and several others. Of course, there's also ASU, U of A, and about a million University of Phoenix campuses.

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Tucson area... Marana, Avra Valley, Picture Rocks.

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Honestly, unless you need to live in the Phoenix metro area or the Tucson metro area for employment reasons, I'd consider some of the more rural areas (Northern AZ--Prescott, Flagstaff, Kingman, etc; Eastern AZ--Globe, Payson, etc).

Personally, I feel the climate is nicer, housing is cheaper, and you are out of the metro-mess.

Now, Sonora Rebel does lives in a real nice area--as long as you can handle cactus and 1 bazillion degree heat in the summer.

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AZkopper wrote:

<SNIP> Now, Sonora Rebel does lives in a real nice area--as long as you can handle cactus and 1 bazillion degree heat in the summer

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But, it's a DRY heat!

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I agree on the Prescott Valley thing. Very nice weather and not rural enough to where you have to drive 20 miles for groceries.

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GWbiker wrote:

AZkopper wrote:

<SNIP> Now, Sonora Rebel does lives in a real nice area--as long as you can handle cactus and 1 bazillion degree heat in the summer

Click to expand...

But, it's a DRY heat!

Click to expand...

I used to work for Rural/Metro out here in Tucson. There was one firefighter who had just moved here from NYC. Came up to me one day and says,

"How do you deal with this heat? If you f#$#!$ tell me 'it's a dry heat' I'll f#$#!$ rip yer f#$#!$ arms off!"

He later had a t-shirt made with a skeleton laying up against a Saguaro Cactus... underneath it the words:

"... but it's a dry heat!"

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AZkopper wrote:

Honestly, unless you need to live in the Phoenix metro area or the Tucson metro area for employment reasons, I'd consider some of the more rural areas (Northern AZ--Prescott, Flagstaff, Kingman, etc; Eastern AZ--Globe, Payson, etc).

Personally, I feel the climate is nicer, housing is cheaper, and you are out of the metro-mess.

Now, Sonora Rebel does lives in a real nice area--as long as you can handle cactus and 1 bazillion degree heat in the summer.

Click to expand...

Aw... only half a bazillion. 'Got as high as 124 tho... 'couple times. Ya know it when yer eyeballs sizzle when ya open the door.... 'n the coyotes are runnin' tip-toe. Cactus is... everywhere. Actually... I wouldn't mind bein' further out in Avra Valley... or down Tombstone(not Sorry Vista).