Thoughts on Tucson?

[footdale]

I am going to be graduating from school with a PhD in aerospace engineering this spring so the wife and I are starting to look around for jobs. She is already full time and has a good lead on what seems like a great position for her in Tucson, and there are some potential opportunities for me there as well. Neither of us has been there yet so I wanted to get some thoughts on the city, quality of living, and all that. Just as a background we both grew up in SoCal and have been living in Boulder, Co for the last few years.

Thanks for the insight,
Joe

[Fergie]

I am going to be graduating from school with a PhD in aerospace engineering this spring so the wife and I are starting to look around for jobs. She is already full time and has a good lead on what seems like a great position for her in Tucson, and there are some potential opportunities for me there as well. Neither of us has been there yet so I wanted to get some thoughts on the city, quality of living, and all that. Just as a background we both grew up in SoCal and have been living in Boulder, Co for the last few years.

Thanks for the insight,
Joe

Cost of living will be much cheaper than SoCal or Boulder. You will have some good opportunities with Ratheon, and some other associated higher end businesses of the sort.

Qualty of living is just fine, as long as you pick a good area. The eastside(I'm partial too) is very nice, so is the north east, and north west. Stay away from south, central and west.

Will you be looking to buy a house or rent?

What does she do for a living?

Fergie

[AZRockRunner]

Eastside RULEZ and it is also close to Raytheon. LOL
Agree with Fergie, not to expensive here YET, but getting there. Great as long as you stay on the EAST side....... LOL ( partial also ) and buy as fast as you can.

Besides, we have MO BETTER TRAILS!!!!!!!!

[footdale]

I don't know about the better trails, I think we have it pretty good up here.

The job she is applying for is with the Tucson Citizen newspaper in the marketing department working with their marketing database tools. We would probably rent for a little while to learn the area and see where we'd like to live. Plus, we need to sell the place we're in right now before we could get into another home. I'm teaching a class this semester as well as trying to finish my thesis so trying to schedule the time to look for a new home is probably out of the question.

Aside from wheeling, what else do you guys do out there? How far away is Havasu or other places to take a boat/waverunners?

Thanks for the input.

[XJmania030]

I don't know about the better trails, I think we have it pretty good up here.

The job she is applying for is with the Tucson Citizen newspaper in the marketing department working with their marketing database tools. We would probably rent for a little while to learn the area and see where we'd like to live. Plus, we need to sell the place we're in right now before we could get into another home. I'm teaching a class this semester as well as trying to finish my thesis so trying to schedule the time to look for a new home is probably out of the question.

Aside from wheeling, what else do you guys do out there? How far away is Havasu or other places to take a boat/waverunners?

Thanks for the input.


There are lots of lakes 3-6hrs away. My favorite is Apache which is about 3-4hrs. Really nice.

[footdale]

Just out of curiosity, what is typically considered the boundaries for North/East/South/West Tucson? What is traffic like? We wouldn't mind living 20-30 miles from work as long as it isn't bumper to bumper there and back.

Thanks.

[Fergie]

I consider Golf Links the south boundry, Skyline the North boundry, the interstate west, and houghton east.

I live at Golf Links and Houghton, and have a 20 min drive in on surface streets, and 30 min drive home.

A lot of people live in palces like Sahuarita to the south west, and some in the far North West. I think the highway traffic sucks here, but I dont use it that often.

Glamis isnt too bad of a drive, and there are some nice lakes in the Phoenix area, and smaller ones closer than that.

[AZRockRunner]

Other than wheelin????? :shocked: :shocked: :shocked: I DUNNO!!!!!!!!!!! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

Actually we have alot of things to do. I never get tired of the desert musium, gun shows at the TCC, and so forth. We have alot of hiking trails and awsome places to go camping from waht I have been told.

Tucson, reminds me of a small town atmosphere with big city benefits. (kinda)

[FIREBLADE]

Plus we just got an inch of snow last night. Hasn't happened for like a decade in the city. Every year though the mountain gets a little snow. Tucson is awesome. I grew up here. I've also lived in Phoenix. I like that Phoenix has more freeways but it also never cools down there. It gets hot but cools down nice. Tons of stuff to do (mostly outdoors)

[Darky]

I lived in Tucson throughout high school and loved it. Charouleau Gap is a great trail and Cheeva Falls is a lot of fun. Try to hit that one when the falls are flowing or else the water is stanky and stagnant. The wash is fun for playing in the sand but it may or not be available for too much longer. Idiots like to dump their crap in it. Before we moved out here I was working on organizing a cleanup day in the wash to pull some of that stuff out of there. The NW side was nice, out by Oracle and Magee area but I don't like the high school there, Canyon Del Oro. Lots of rich kid wanna be gangsters when I went there for freshman sophomore years. Amphi was a decent school, that's where I graduated. I had friends who went to Flowing Wells and it actually seems like one of the better schools. I've gotta agree with AZRockRunner about small town feel with big city benefits. I miss Tucson

[footdale]

I've gotta agree with AZRockRunner about small town feel with big city benefits. I miss Tucson

Thanks for the reply, but do you think living in Joshua Tree has anything to do with missing Tucson? :D What brought you out there?

[footdale]

So Raytheon is flying me out the 22-24 (Thurs-Sat) to try and convince me to become an Tucsonite......Tucsonan......Tucsonian. We are finished Friday afternoon at around 2:00 pm, so I have the rest of the day free. Where are the places to go/see? I'm in need for some good mexican food as well so any suggestions are much appreciated.

[Fergie]

Rosa's on Campbell and Glenn is good.

Take a drive up Mt. Lemmon.

Walk around 4th Ave.

[XJ20]

Pima Air Museum since you’re an ae. Best place to go anyway. Make sure you have plenty of time and get to hanger b and c.

Mi Nidito on s. 4th av where clinton ate. Most authentic you’ll find here.

Drive through mid-tucson and check out a real third world city in the makings. Look out for the anchor babies.

http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

[Fergie]

Pima Air Museum since you’re an ae. Best place to go anyway. Make sure you have plenty of time and get to hanger b and c.

Mi Nidito on s. 4th av where clinton ate. Most authentic you’ll find here.

Drive through mid-tucson and check out a real third world city in the makings. Look out for the anchor babies.

http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif
Anchor babies?

X2 on the Mi Nidtos. Bring a bodyguard just in case...oh wait, they have armed security in the parking lot.

PAM is awesome, so is the Sonoran Desert Museum.

[Mdub]

Pima Air Museum since you’re an ae. Best place to go anyway. Make sure you have plenty of time and get to hanger b and c.

Mi Nidito on s. 4th av where clinton ate. Most authentic you’ll find here.

Drive through mid-tucson and check out a real third world city in the makings. Look out for the anchor babies.

http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

Yeah dude, not a big fan of Tucson. Raytheon either. They pay well, but be careful of being pigeon-holed. You may work on an electronics box for 5 years. Don't everyone from Tucson freak out at me, but most of Tucson is kind of junky. Not a lot of new business either. HOWEVER, I have 2 buds that work at Raytheon and they really like Tucson. I think Raytheon puts something in the water !

[Fergie]

Yeah dude, not a big fan of Tucson. Raytheon either. They pay well, but be careful of being pigeon-holed. You may work on an electronics box for 5 years. Don't everyone from Tucson freak out at me, but most of Tucson is kind of junky. Not a lot of new business either. HOWEVER, I have 2 buds that work at Raytheon and they really like Tucson. I think Raytheon puts something in the water !
No worries, I have always thought of PHX as the Armpit of Hell, then again, both towns suck compared to Flag.

All in the POV.

[sjkimmel99]

Tucson has sensibly (for a city in the middle of the desert) discouraged large green lawns. There's lots of desert landscaping and a larger proportion of the housing base is 20-30-40+ years old so it could, to the untrained eye, look different from wetter parts of the country.

If you go over to the Pima Air Museum don't forget to check out the AMARC, otherwise known as the boneyard. It's pretty much on both sides of Kolb and on the south side of Irvington. Last time I was there was before 9-11 so I don't know if they care if you park along the fence and look but they didn't used to. I believe there are tours of it starting at the Air Museum - call ahead or check the museum's web site. More impressive, to me, than the museum.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=tucson,+az&ie=UTF8&z=14&ll=32.162753,-110.835142&spn=0.030008,0.08317&om=1

[jchevy]

So Raytheon is flying me out the 22-24 (Thurs-Sat) to try and convince me to become an Tucsonite......Tucsonan......Tucsonian. We are finished Friday afternoon at around 2:00 pm, so I have the rest of the day free. Where are the places to go/see? I'm in need for some good mexican food as well so any suggestions are much appreciated.

Raytheon is good company to work for. My father and I both work there and like it. Every other friday off is awesome! Also have a christmas shut down every year between Christmas and New Year. In march each year as long as the company has done well you get profit sharing. This year its 3.6% of you base salary, so thats a nice bonus.

I just like to eat the cheap fast Mexican food so I usually go to Nico's, Viva Burrito, or Los Betos. Its kind of like eating from a lunch truck when you go to one of those places, but their servings are big.

Just take some time and explore the city to see if you like it. Doesnt matter where you live in Tucson you are going to have bumper to bumper traffic. I live on the NW side and come down I-10 to I-19 everyday. Usually backs up pretty good in the afternoon. They are starting a widening project on I-10 so we will see how bad it gets.


One cool place to go is "A" Mountain. Its directly west of Downtown and it overlooks most of Tucson.

[Mdub]

No worries, I have always thought of PHX as the Armpit of Hell, then again, both towns suck compared to Flag.

All in the POV.

I hear that. I spent 4 years in Flag. One of the best towns in the country !

[vwkaferman]

Eastside RULEZ and it is also close to Raytheon. LOL
Agree with Fergie, not to expensive here YET, but getting there. Great as long as you stay on the EAST side....... LOL ( partial also ) and buy as fast as you can.

Besides, we have MO BETTER TRAILS!!!!!!!!

I spent some of my younger years on the East side of Tucson. Went to Dunham Elementary & Secrist middle. I remember the days when you could DRIVE up the Rincon Mts. We used to camp up there, shoot, etc...Too bad the greenies got ahold of that one.

James

[Fergie]

I spent some of my younger years on the East side of Tucson. Went to Dunham Elementary & Secrist middle. I remember the days when you could DRIVE up the Rincon Mts. We used to camp up there, shoot, etc...Too bad the greenies got ahold of that one.

James
Secrist is about half a mile away from my place.

My Dad grew up in Tucson, and when he came to visit our house, he made note that "This area is where we used to drag race on Fridays, and that area over there by the Pantano had some good dove hunting."

Then again, I remember when there was no Wal-Mart in Flagstaff, and Woodlands Village Blvd was a Forest Service logging road.