Moving to the Valley of the Sun (in my 5th Gen)
- Thread starter limamike
- Start date
limamike
New member
Yep! I'm stopping by the shop next week to get some service and pick-up my new rack!
brockeverly
New member
:roadkill:
I lived there and left. This is the perfect example of the Scottsdale types....
El Diablo 82
New member
Well I work in North Scottsdale but live in East Mesa. There are good areas and bad in every city depending on your preferences. I'm an AZ native also with a BP so welcome to the club. If you have any questions just let Brock or I know.
Bay33saw
New member
If you go too far and end up in Vegas, drop me a PM you can crash at my pad. Drive safe
limamike
New member
What's the commute like? I'll be working in Mesa, so I'm curious about how long things take around there. I live in DC now, and going 3 miles can sometimes take an hour, so I think my perception of distance/time is skewed.
El Diablo 82
New member
Well first off forget any time distance estimates you may have in DC as they don't apply in AZ. My company is based in Malvern PA so I travel back there a lot and there is no comparing AZ traffic to Philly, Los Angeles or I'm sure DC. For example I have a 35 mile one way commute to work, and granted I work an East Coast schedule and get to work between 6-6:30 it only takes me 35 minutes door to door. If I worked a more normal schedule it would probably be 45-60 minutes to go the 35. Of course I would still love to have a shorter commute and working in Mesa would be great. Your company wouldn't be in need of a Project Manager/Consultant would they? : )
If your company is based in Mesa depending on what you are looking for I agree with Brock that San Tan is nice, Queen Creek has some good options and even Mesa has a lot of benefits. My only suggestion is if you do go south into San Tan or Queen Creek try and avoid going so far south that you have a lot of four way stop signs to deal with as those can get backed up and take forever. If you can hit a freeway in 5 minutes you are golden to go anywhere in the Valley.
For additional background North Scottsdale and Tempe are nice and may have more "culture" or events. But having lived in both cities one thing that would annoy me was when the big events would come into town and add tons of traffic and congestion making simple tasks like going to the grocery store annoying. Mesa is far more chill.
Since this is a 4runner forum another nice thing about living closer to Mesa is there are a lot of good trails close by. Bulldog Canyon and Butcher Jones that Brock mentioned are 5 to 15 minutes from my house respectively. Within an hour are a ton of more challenging trails in Superior, Florence Junction, Globe and its not too hard to head into Northern AZ on one of the many freeways.
If your company is based in Mesa depending on what you are looking for I agree with Brock that San Tan is nice, Queen Creek has some good options and even Mesa has a lot of benefits. My only suggestion is if you do go south into San Tan or Queen Creek try and avoid going so far south that you have a lot of four way stop signs to deal with as those can get backed up and take forever. If you can hit a freeway in 5 minutes you are golden to go anywhere in the Valley.
For additional background North Scottsdale and Tempe are nice and may have more "culture" or events. But having lived in both cities one thing that would annoy me was when the big events would come into town and add tons of traffic and congestion making simple tasks like going to the grocery store annoying. Mesa is far more chill.
Since this is a 4runner forum another nice thing about living closer to Mesa is there are a lot of good trails close by. Bulldog Canyon and Butcher Jones that Brock mentioned are 5 to 15 minutes from my house respectively. Within an hour are a ton of more challenging trails in Superior, Florence Junction, Globe and its not too hard to head into Northern AZ on one of the many freeways.
stevec5000
New member
Keep in mind that the farther you get away from Phoenix the cheaper everything is. When I couldn't afford to live in Phoenix anymore due to the high prices I moved to Apache Junction, East of Mesa. Property taxes are a lot lower and my car insurance dropped by 50%. You don't want to get into a situation where you have to commute everyday for work though. If you work in Phoenix, Tempe or Mesa and have to drive West in the morning the traffic on Rt. 60 is so bad it's nearly impossible to get anywhere. Then it's just as hard to get home in the evening. Also there are accidents about every other day making it even worse. If I still worked in Phoenix I wouldn't be able to do it.
If you need high speed internet access the situation isn't good in lots of places and gets worse the farther out you go unless it's in a new neighborhood. Most places only have 50 yr. old phone lines from Qwest so the only option is dial-up or DSL at 1.5mb if you can get it. Most places the Central office is too far away for DSL. I wasn't able to get any sort of broadband at my house for 10 years until Qwest finally put in a new fiber network close enough to my house that I was able to connect to it. If you are considering a place check with Qwest first, now called Century Link, to see if service is even available. If you can get Cox cable that's usually good but expensive and it doesn't extend East past the border of Mesa. There are a lot of crooks in the area that advertise high speed internet service, other cable companies and wireless companies but none of them actually work and they will take your money even though they can't provide service.
limamike
New member
Awesome! Thanks for all the info. I hadn't even thought about the Internet issue since it's so prevalent here on the east coast. I'm guessing if I lived anywhere east of Mesa I'd have to take 60 to get to my office on S Alma School Rd.
brockeverly
New member
My wife gets to work in Phoenix in about 45 minutes from our house during rush hour. Internet is not an issue where we are, I have a 25+mbps connection and Verizon 4G. We have some family in Gold Canyon with high-speed internet as well so I am not sure where the issues are.
LM, when you get out here I have a buddy that works for cox that will set you up.
LM, when you get out here I have a buddy that works for cox that will set you up.
stevec5000
New member
To get to work in Phoenix in 45 minutes she would have to leave before 5:30 AM because the freeway is getting filled up by 6:00. Also it has taken me 1-2 hrs to get home lots of times in the evening and it's no fun sitting at a stand still when it's over 125 degrees on the highway unless you have really good A/C.
Gold Canyon is fairly new and should have fast internet access using DSL but here in A.J. where the phone lines are over 50 yrs old and the phone company's C.O. is over a mile away internet is a problem. Century Link just put in a fiber optic line down along Broadway Rd. last year and I was able to get DSL for the first time since I moved here. Before that nothing was available except the wi-fi at McDonalds. The cable company here is called Mediacom and they offer internet service but in the 2 yrs that I tried it they never could get it to work more than a day or 2 at a time then it would be down for a week.
Also, cell service is petty spotty out this way too. 2G and 3G is pretty much available everywhere but 4G all but stops at the East end of Mesa. There's an awesome website called opensignalmaps.com that shows all the areas of coverage and where the cell towers are. They also have an Android app that shows where the towers are around you on Google maps.
Last edited:
brockeverly
New member
She leaves around 7:15-7:30 and takes US60 out to the 101 then out to Mill area. She is not downtown or anything. This is neither here nor there though as the OP is not commuting to that area. Where he is commuting to he should have little to no problems. I used to commute to Greenfield and McKellips area in around 45 minutes as well. Now, coming from the Hunt Highway side of STV, eff that.
As for the cell maps, I work for Verizon so I have access to plenty
As for the cell maps, I work for Verizon so I have access to plenty
stevec5000
New member
Well most of the traffic is starting to taper off by 7:30.She leaves around 7:15-7:30 and takes US60 out to the 101 then out to Mill area. She is not downtown or anything. This is neither here nor there though as the OP is not commuting to that area. Where he is commuting to he should have little to no problems. I used to commute to Greenfield and McKellips area in around 45 minutes as well. Now, coming from the Hunt Highway side of STV, eff that.
As for the cell maps, I work for Verizon so I have access to plenty
I used to live in N. Phoenix and got a job with Motorola in Tempe by Diablo Stadium so I had to drive down I-17 through Phoenix to get to Tempe every morning. It wasn't bad if I left early enough but I-17 is the only way and there was an accident every week and then it would take 2-3 hrs. to get to work so I would be late. I tried taking the surface streets but that also took 2-3 hrs. due to the hundreds of stop lights so I would still be late. I started listening to the traffic report first thing when I woke up in the morning and if there was an accident I would call in sick and go back to bed!
limamike
New member
Update since I know you guys have been wondering and thinking non-stop. I'm officially out here and started the new job today. Currently living in Scottsdale and driving a Nissan Altima while I find a place. I'm mostly concentrating my search in the south near Gilbert and Chandler, but I'm keeping my options open in Scottsdale, Phoenix proper, and further east toward San Tan Valley.
I'll be back in DC in a couple of weeks to attend the group get together (I'm fairly certain that qualifies me as the guy traveling the furthest to participate - what's my prize!?) at the Cove. Then I'll be making my cross-country trip with the truck shortly thereafter. That'll be three trips traversing the country in one year!
I'll be back in DC in a couple of weeks to attend the group get together (I'm fairly certain that qualifies me as the guy traveling the furthest to participate - what's my prize!?) at the Cove. Then I'll be making my cross-country trip with the truck shortly thereafter. That'll be three trips traversing the country in one year!
brockeverly
New member
Welcome! We must have a BBQ to welcome you here!
