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Tell me about Portland, OR

lbE08

Stegosaurus are bush league
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Might be moving that way. Tell me everything you know about it. Kthnxbye.
 
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it's a dry heat. whatever that means.
 
A friend of mine lives out there and she loves it. Don't get a DWI there though, she spent a week in tent city.
 
All the streets are on grids, which makes it easy to get around. Summer is hotter than hell, tough to even play golf in that type of heat. Downtown Phoenix is meh, but Scottsdale has everything you would ever want.
 
Lots of golf courses and lots of spring training events. Oh, and lots of old (white) retired people.
 
Pretty awesome for 8 months out of the year. Spring training in Phoenix might be my favorite sporting "event." Old people everywhere. Speeding cameras galore.
 
InTheKnow, can you tell me about...
-Public Transportation
-Traffic in general
-Does the city feel 'safe'?
-For all the old people, do you feel like there are good opportunities for people in the 25-30 range (career-wise)?
 
Just moved to Scottsdale this week for a job.

No issues with traffic, but I haven't experienced rush hour yet. Everything is easy to get around though on the grid.

Public transit seems lacking - bus routes that end early making it inconvenient for night life. I'm about a mile from Old Town and haven't gone out drinking heavily yet but it seems like a 20 minute walk to Old Town, $5 cab ride back. Heard lots of stories about making sure not to get a DWI though and I've noticed there are cops everywhere out here so I'd rather not risk it.

I definitely feel safe in my complex. When I was looking, I was told to stay north of McPhillips, and the farther you can get from the 101/202 area, the better. I'm about a mile from the 101 and it seems very safe so far though.

Plenty of young people around Scottsdale, but was surprised when going out to dinner this past week and Old Town wasn't that busy (I'm comparing it to Uptown Minneapolis). Plenty of good bars/restaurants though - I've been impressed by the variety and quality so far.
 
Safety: I have lived in Mesa, downtown Phoenix, and downtown Scottsdale. Guess which felt most unsafe? Living in the suburbs in Mesa (in fact, I lived with my sister in her home at first and there have been 2 attempted kidnappings in her hood in the last month). Plenty of police in Phoenix & Scottsdale. Dare say apartment is safer then a home.

Careers: Ugh, haven't looked for a job in years so I can't answer.

Hope this helps, and if you end up out here I'd love to take you out for a drink.

I drove through Mesa the other day and was not that impressed...glad I chose to live in Scottsdale instead. Tempe just seemed too close to ASU and the flight path to Sky Harbor - now that I'm three years out from Wake, I didn't really want to deal with college kids partying until 3 a.m. when I've got to work at 9, and the thought of Sky Harbor being right there was not too appealing to me...the only thing that was appealing was the possibility of walking to work, but a 5 mile drive each way sounds reasonable enough.

I know my new company has been doing a lot of hiring of late - I start on Monday with a few other people in my department and they had a lot of of jobs posted. Took about six weeks to go through the process from interviews to FAA background checks, etc. to when I'm starting.
 
If you like fake tits and fake people then Scottsdale is for you! I used to travel there 4-5 times a year and usually had fun, but was always ready to leave. It seemed a little like LA lite.
 
I was there at a business conference several years ago. I turned on the TV in my room and a gardening show came on. It was about how to plant a cactus in your yard. I couldn't help but think that it was the only gardening show ever produced in AZ. What the hell else are you going to plant in your yard? Everything is Brown or tan or a strange shade of orange. I was excited about visiting that area but it wasn't for me at all.
 
thanks mersk/intheknow!
This is great info to go off; if we end up out there you can expect some PMs grilling you for more details :)
 
This thread actually got me to register, as the boards were very helpful when I was moving to AZ (thanks InTheKnow!), and I felt I should give some back.

The others have covered it pretty well- I don't think public transportation is that bad, but its not always convenient, especially at non-rush hours. The light rail is very clean. Traffic is great, especially if you can use the HOV lanes, nothing like traffic in the RDU area. All the roads are well maintained. Very safe if you use common sense, and stay away from some areas (basically, just like any other big city).

As a more personal comment- you guys are both very active outdoorsy people. I have friends who go rock climbing almost every weekend. There are tons of hiking/camping opportunities, and while it gets hot in the valley during the summer, the mountains are only a short (less than 2 hr) drive away.
 
Thanks for the feedback!
Another question- How far is it from Scottsdale to Chandler? (I found a job out there I'm going to apply for in case he gets the Paradise Valley position... but want to see what kind of commute I could be getting myself into).
 
Some cool outdoor things near Prescott.

NOLS SW is based in Tuscon, and they do extensive thing in the Tonto National Forest - especially the Mazatzal wilderness. So there's a lot of good hiking, climbing within 2 hours of Scottsdale.
 
Really depends. Good news is that in the morning the traffic on the 101 is worse north bound then it is south, so you would be reverse commuting. The traffic is worse headed towards downtown Phoenix then it is headed from it.

True. I live in Chandler right now (moved away from the students/noise in Tempe), so I commute every morning from Chandler to northern Tempe. Paradise Valley is only a few miles further away. Depending on where you live in Paradise Valley, and where you are working in Chandler, it shouldn't be more than 15-20 miles. You DO have a reverse commute, I have rarely seen traffic bad on the 101 southbound. 101 northbound is worse in the mornings, but only in short sections of slow traffic. I love the traffic here.
 
I moved there right after graduation and just moved back to NC. Was there for 3.5 years.

As for young people - there are plenty; mostly all transplants. I very rarely met young people who were Phoenix natives. Scottsdale will not be your scene at all though.

You'll enjoy the outdoor aspects of Arizona. I'm not a very "outdoorsy" person, but did enjoy hiking the many mountains around the city. They were close enough that even though I lived in midtown, I could hike them in the morning before work.

Public transportation sucks though - it's urban sprawl at its finest.

It's a huge change in environment and culture from NC, but over my time there, I truly loved it.

I'll be glad to answer more questions if you have them.
 
True. I live in Chandler right now (moved away from the students/noise in Tempe), so I commute every morning from Chandler to northern Tempe. Paradise Valley is only a few miles further away. Depending on where you live in Paradise Valley, and where you are working in Chandler, it shouldn't be more than 15-20 miles. You DO have a reverse commute, I have rarely seen traffic bad on the 101 southbound. 101 northbound is worse in the mornings, but only in short sections of slow traffic. I love the traffic here.

I take the 101 South from Scottsdale to the 202 to Tempe daily (well, since I started work on Monday). The 101 at 745a has been smooth sailing for those 2-3 miles; the 202 can back up a little bit but not horrible - it's about a 12 minute commute for me.

Going home at 5 pm it's been even better - no issues on the 202, the 101 backs up getting on it due to lane merges but if you're coming up from Tempe/Chandler you zoom right by.
 
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