Phoenix Arizona

[MrCoffee]

Does anybody have any pictures of Phoenix, Arizona? As I understand it, it's among the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S., but I don't see anything on these forums written about it. Is there any info? Also, I am wondering what happened to the pictures of Salt Lake City. Can any be posted?

MrCoffee

[colin]

Selected Downtown Phoenix pics (not very good):

Downtown tunnel, where I-10 runs under a park:

Two slideshows of Phoenix-area pics:

Slideshow 1

Slideshow 2 (just ignore the chicken pictures)

I personally really dislike Phoenix, but go up there a lot for various reasons. I was up this last weekend for a concert. It's hot, humid and crowded. I just feel like it's counter-intuitive to move to the desert and live in a huge city, especially since Phoenix is probably now the fifth largest in the country.

Hope that helps you.

[MrCoffee]

It appears that Phoenix doesn't have a skyline. There apparently is a lot of low-density development that stretches over a considerable distance. What really amazes me, though, is the fact that there was farmland at one time in those areas being developed. I liked the photo of the expressway too, and didn't really expect a tunnel like that in Phoenix. Thanks for the photos, Colin!

MrCoffee

[wolfdawg54]

Pheonix is a very interesting city. I visited there last summer and there isn't much of a downtown but a ton a suburbs like Scottsdale that are the reason for its major growth. It almost looks like a foreign planet to someone from Florida, like myself.

[colin]

That stretch of I-10 where the tunnel exists wasn't built until the mid-90's because of opposition. Phoenix was a very anti-freeway city until about that time, when a huge influx of people, mainly from CA, IL and OH, caused the city to boom. At that point, there were only five freeways, now there are about ten, dependent upon how you look at it.

The Phoenix skyline isn't much, but it's dramatic because there's little else but three- and four-story buildings in the surrounding area. There is another commercial center with some buildings just to the north of Downtown which can also be seen as a skyline.

Phoenix is very spread out though. If you go to the West Valley, there are many areas where tract housing sits right next to farms. Even the new stadium on the west side is in the middle of farms with no development around it. That's an interesting site. The East Valley has also spread out quite a bit, but has almost hit its limit because of various government land ownership (forest, indian reservation, BLM).

Link of interest

More pictures (professional)

And one more picture from about.com: