I’ve been writing on Xomba for the past year, encouraging the world not to move to Phoenix in search of a job, and now The Arizona Republic, and Money magazine now backs me up!

It’s good to have some credibility at last!

None of Arizona cities made this year’s list of Best Places to Live in Money’s annually published list, although they’ve made it ever year previously!

Money weighs economic factors heavily when considering cities for the list.  Because Phoenix’s economic boom has been construction, due to the increase in population service jobs such as  construction, retail, real estate, cosmetology, etc. had been growing.  We here in Phoenix have been basically living off each other.

Well, now with the housing, and commercial construction faltering the bottom has dropped out of the employment sector.

Hey, even Tom Rex, from Arizona State’s University WP Carey School of Business agrees with me.  Imagine that. I graduated from ASU School of Business, so no wonder we think alike!

Tom Rex, states “Because you’re growing fast, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re growing more prosperous. We here in Arizona are in a very deep recession, so that's going to just shoot us out of the water in terms of the list.”

It seems that laid off people in the last decade would read a blurb about Phoenix’s growth and job market, and move here.  According to the The Arizona Republic, 300 hundred people move into Phoenix a day, and 100 people leave a day who couldn’t find employment.  Nobody bothered to research before they moved that the jobs were public service jobs, and engineers would move here by the dozens only to learn that there was no work for them. One engineering job in the classified would net over 300 well qualified applicants each competing with one another. Phoenix has always been an employer’s market.

And of course with rising population crime-incidents would rise.  The Best Places Average listed in the book Best Places to Raise Your Family, First Edition (Rated) lists 1 personal-crime incident per 1,000 people as average. Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix had 3 personal crime incidents per 1,000, Gilbert had 1/1,000, Peoria 2/1,000, and Scottsdale had 2/1,000 also.

Of course, according to The Arizona Republic’s , July 10, 2009 article, “Arizona Cities Miss Best Places List,” people move here for more than economic reasons.  People like the weather, no snow.  Scottsdale is an upscale retirement community, and Mesa a low scale retirement community. Also relatives came here to be close to family. Grandma wanted to retire here, and everyone else moved along. And that blurb on the national TV news of Phoenix being the kidnapping hot spot of the nation that of course was way overblown. The people being kidnapped were involved in the drug or illegal immigrant smuggling trade. I don’t go around losing sleep over the possibility that I will be kidnapped. Of course, there have been situations where drug cartels have had drive-by shootings and innocent people would get caught in the crossfire.

So the bottom line is although it is hot as hell, 115° F. plus 14% humidity in July, my family is here and I don’t intend to move. But if you are thinking of moving here for any other reason other than family, I wouldn’t recommend it!

Buy now from L Wagen's Bookstore an Amazon-Affliate Store. Click on the link below.

Best Places to Raise Your Family, First Edition (Rated)