Flagstaff has changed...A LOT (Prescott, Sedona: hotel, deed, subdivisions)

[trouillot]

Did not bring up the President and conspiracy at all. Merely said that Putin is enjoying the political gridlock in UK and US. It has been reported he relishes the turmoil that his intelligence services played a part in fomenting. It's also been widely reported that many Russians take pride in knowing how easy it is to manipulate the American people.

Never had television program content subscription I paid for. My late wife had it for short while when she was going through her cancer regiment. Reading and playing guitar are my pastimes. Only consume news feeds such as Reuters. Never into social media. Never owned a smartphone and get by just fine without one. No Facebook account ever. No tattoos either. Dermatologists loving the revenue removing many of the tattoo mistakes of the masses.

I wasn't suggesting John Bircher's are a good thing, quite the contrary.

I'm not a nationalist in any way, shape or form. I am a veteran. Served overseas. A long time ago.

Agree young people bring fresh outlooks and questioning the older generations thinking has always been thus, and a healthy democracy needs more of this. My ten cents.

[Slater]

With all it's warts, I find Flagstaff a decent enough place to live. Admittedly, I'm only here because my job is here, though.

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by Slater

With all it's warts, I find Flagstaff a decent enough place to live. Admittedly, I'm only here because my job is here, though.

That's how it is with my job also, if it wasn't for that I sure as heck wouldn't live in PV except for maybe the weather. I'd be in Phoenix instead, not much of a fan living in small towns.

[infocyde]

Originally Posted by trouillot

Did not bring up the President and conspiracy at all. Merely said that Putin is enjoying the political gridlock in UK and US. It has been reported he relishes the turmoil that his intelligence services played a part in fomenting. It's also been widely reported that many Russians take pride in knowing how easy it is to manipulate the American people.

Never had television program content subscription I paid for. My late wife had it for short while when she was going through her cancer regiment. Reading and playing guitar are my pastimes. Only consume news feeds such as Reuters. Never into social media. Never owned a smartphone and get by just fine without one. No Facebook account ever. No tattoos either. Dermatologists loving the revenue removing many of the tattoo mistakes of the masses.

I wasn't suggesting John Bircher's are a good thing, quite the contrary.

I'm not a nationalist in any way, shape or form. I am a veteran. Served overseas. A long time ago.

Agree young people bring fresh outlooks and questioning the older generations thinking has always been thus, and a healthy democracy needs more of this. My ten cents.

My bad. Usually those who bring up Russia also believe in the Trump is a Russian agent false narrative, apologies if I put you in that box. Russians have some of the best human intelligence around, but I do get curious as to why people fixate on Russia...almost every country in the world runs influences operations against the USA, and I don't think Russia is even the biggest player.

I was judging John Bircher's pro USA first stance as a good thing, to clarify. I am an America first then worry about everyone else type of guy, just like I worry about my family first then everyone else. I don't believe it is a zero sum game though.

I'm with you on the avoiding the propaganda in a box / TV subscriptions but I would argue Reuters isn't the best news source. I enjoy social media even though it is a maze of junk because in the junk there are gems of information that normally would not be available. It takes some digging but it is there, for now.

I think in person in a chat we would probably agree on a lot more than we disagree even though it doesn't read like that here.

Veterans are often the our best citizens, and I count you as one of those, not that my opinion matters too much. Thank you for your service.

[infocyde]

Originally Posted by Hschlick84

That's how it is with my job also, if it wasn't for that I sure as heck wouldn't live in PV except for maybe the weather. I'd be in Phoenix instead, not much of a fan living in small towns.

Hschlick84 I'm betting you could find equivalent work in Phoenix. I would not let a job hold you back. Not that I'm advocating you move to Phoenix, but just saying.

[TJJT]

I'm a old fan of living and driving around Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.. I'm not surprised at all they are trying to gentrify it.. I'm just curious how they plan on getting water to all that infrastructure...

Does this mean the thirty acres I own above Flagstaff will appreciate before developers pay off politicians to force me off like what happened in Atlanta in the nineties?

[SouthernBound14]

Looks like its the Asheville NC of Arizona.

[Feelin_Groovy]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

I have to say I am a bit disappointed with our recent visit to Flagstaff. Granted, we haven't been up there in a couple of years but...seriously, what happened to this once great town?

There was a HUGE upheaval when Barnes and Noble put in their bookstore and you lost sight of the Peaks for <gasp> half a second. Now there are 6 story "Student Housing" complexes going up? The traffic on the West Side has always been bad but...just..wow. California plates all over the place...understandably with NAU right there but it was like EVERY OTHER CAR. Granted the NAU student population has almost doubled since the 90s but...again...wow.

I guess those are the people buying the $400k boxes in Pinnacle in the Pines? Or rather their parents? Flagstaff has always been "Poverty with a View" and I understand the AZ Housing market is booming but how can a resident actually afford a home up there any more? Median household income in Flagstaff is ~$48k per year.

Where is the water coming from for all these new houses? Last I checked Flagstaff relied on the C-Aquifer (Red Gap Ranch)...has that aquifer shown significant improvement or is the city relying on runoff/surface water and reclamation?

Did they change the recipes at Beaver Street Brewery? Maybe we built up their pizzas too much in our heads...but they were decidedly lower quality than we remember. Mike & Rhonda's was still amazing though

Crazy crazy. On the plus side...we are able to scratch Flagstaff off of our list of possible places to live if we decide to leave Chandler.

I don't know if the OP is still around, but I was surprised to learn that in some of these SW mountain towns, the city councils approve new construction, even entire developments, without doing a hydrology study, first. They're all for anything that creates jobs, and like to support the construction trade to that end, so don't be surprised if there's no connection between water availability and city expansion. Still, you'd think that would've changed by now.

[rip_milton]

I had to make a profile just to comment on this thread. Born in AZ.

Yes, Oregon still doesn't accept Californians nicely. I never thought Flagstaff was that hostile to Californians, but maybe that's changed. It only sucks when they have that bad CA attitude or mindset, but that could be said about any person from anywhere. They're still free to move as they please.

I lived in flag back in 2011, and even in that short time it's changed dramatically. I see NAU as the root problem. They're growing rapidly, very loose on acceptance, and don't seem to care about the impact their population causes to the city. More students need more housing/water/restaurant chains and cause more crime. More housing causing more large developments that don't build enough parking for their own residents. More cars cause more traffic that the city can't handle. And so on.

By the way, attempting to oppose structures like "the hub" that block views, are a giant phoenix-like eyesore, and ruin historic areas is near pointless. There were so many people that opposed that plan for so long and voiced their opinions, only to be told "We're building it either way" with minor compromises. It is now built and awful as expected. Ratio of parking spaces to rooms is 1-to-3.


Despite all this, I would still move back there if I had a job to support it, but as many have mentioned, there are ~3 major companies that pay well enough for you to survive there, and the rest are service jobs.

[TJJT]

Am I confused? I thought this thread was about over-development..

If Northern Arizona is seeing over-development it can happen anywhere.. Just a year ago land was going for $800.00 an acre and now gentrification.. I'm not sure what is causing people to want to live on top of each other and pay a premium for it.. It's happening everywhere.........