Opinion of Arizona

[Suburbia]

What is your opinion of the Western state?

[ChainsawJedis]

Obviously HS.

[retromike22]

FS

It's like Southern California circa 1975.

[Goldwater]

Obvious FS.

[Mr. Smith]

Lean FS just because of the Four Corners, Grand Canyon and Show Low areas...the rest is virtually worthless.

FS

It's like Southern California circa 1975.

How's that a good thing?

[Türkisblau]

Horrible State (New Mexican)

[RR1997]

Obviously HS.

[Torie]

1. Phoenix area = HP
2. AZ ex Phoenix = FP

1 + 2 = ?S

[Grumpier Than Thou]

The West Coast's Florida.

[Zioneer]

Makes Utah look good, so FS.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The West Coast's Florida.

Arizona is not on the West Coast.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Sunshine and cactus, what's not to love?

[TDAS04]

Horrible State.

[traininthedistance]

The worst state.  With the exception of Flagstaff and the Native areas, unfit for human habitation.

[bedstuy]

I have a love/hate relationship with Arizona.

Good parts of Arizona:

Beautiful landscape, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Chiricahua mountains, White Mountains, Lake Mead, Lake Powell, etc. 

Phoenix has some nice parts and cool stuff going on.  Scottsdale, Tempe near ASU, etc.  Sure, I'll agree it's a terrible city.  But, in a city that large, you can seek out the good parts.

Tucson and Flagstaff are nice, sleepy, liberal college towns.  Kind of shabby chic and ugly like much of Los Angeles, sure.  But, if you like the outdoors and relaxed community, they're fine. 

Good weather from late October to April.  It's basically 60-80 and sunny every day. 

It's cheap and you can raise a family with a big house without being rich.

Bad parts of Arizona:

The reservations are terrible obviously, and Yuma, and many Phoenix suburbs, and Globe, and Kingman and Bullhead City, and Colorado City, and Casa Grande, and the border towns.

It's kind of a cultural wasteland full of boring transplants who were too boring for Chicago or California so they moved somewhere cheaper and more boring.  Arizona doesn't have its own culture like New England or Minnesota because it was built up so recently. 

The summers are terrible.

Too many old people.

Too many Republicans.

Ugly southwestern architecture and the fact that everything was built in 1950s to today, a terrible period for American design.

The lack of dynamism or intelligence in the people.

Arizona myths:

Arizona is racist: Arizona is not as racist as people think.  It's a Republican state so Republicans screw things up and pass crazy laws.  That's not necessarily indicative of the racism of most people.  People in Phoenix or Tucson are not significantly more racist than people in Albuquerque, Salt Lake City or Denver.   Everywhere in the world has some degree of racism anyway.  White liberals who live in white neighborhoods just don't see it and think they want to think they're immune from it.

Arizona is dominated by a conservative, American south-like culture:  Just not true.  Arizona is a weird mix of hippy, West coast bro-dude, outdoorsy and boring midwesterner.  And, people are from all over America so it feels like anywhere else in America.

[Goldwater]

Sunshine and cactus, what's not to love?

FF.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Racist tea party hellhole in a sweltering desert climate unfit for humanity.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Has some cool looking rocks.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

FS: The Deserts are basically run by Bill Walton and his hippie friends.

Almost completely agree with bedstuy's beautiful analysis minus the Republicans and Southwestern architecture on the negatives, particularly the latter - the Phoenix area is pretty ugly looking (the Luhrs Building stands out as a decently nice place but the rest of it is terrible almost trying to imitate other cities but it fails miserably due to the surroundings. There's a lot of other flaws, but I won't detail extraneously.) However, some of the giant houses as you head north are some of the best-designed in the nation and the towns are pleasing as well. Plus, I'm sure it's not what you were referring to with that comment, but Chapel of the Holy Cross is without doubt one of most beautiful churches in America.

I don't know where that second myth even comes from on this site because this is literally the only place I know that seems to think in those terms. It is not even remotely close to having a cultural connection with the American South. I'm starting to think it may be because it's the state of anti-CRA Goldwater and the only other states he won were the South. People really should take a step back from the maps or something because Sedona and Flagstaff are two of the nicest places in the whole country. Those alone make it a top 5 state in my book. Even if the people are meh, no state can touch the natural rock/vegetation and manmade beauty that adorn such a large part of it.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Sunshine and cactus, what's not to love?

Cactus, what's not to hate?