Scottsdale | Scottsdale Sucks

Next bows and scrapes before Scottsdale's Masters for permission to open a restaurant

Well, the news story actually said they postponed the meeting, but...

WHY THE HELL DOES A BUSINESS IN A FREE-MARKET CAPITALIST SOCIETY NEED TO BOW AND SCRAPE AND BEG FOR PERMISSION TO EXPAND THEIR BUSINESS?

Oh, wait a minute, we're talking about The People's Republic of Scottsdale here. That's not a free-market capitalist society. How silly of me. It's a "People's Republic" with out-of-control government regulation and cameras on the freeways to keep the Republic's subjects in line.

Scottsdale loses residents as all other Valley cities gain

The U.S. Census reported a loss of 3,625 residents over the past year. This contrasts sharply with every other Valley city, which are all continuing to grow and have gained new residents over the past year.

Is this any surprise? Hey, the truth is out about Scottsdale and it's showing. People aren't getting suckered into moving there by some ex-stripper Scottsdale real estate agent who says it's so "upscale" and "affluent." It's a boring place full of jerks and phonies, and it's ugly to boot - if Scottsdale spent a few bucks on landscaping then maybe they'd be in the black, not the red.

(If you want proof of this, drive west on Shea Blvd starting at Scottsdale Road. It's a depressing stretch of dusty barren road. The instant you see the "Welcome to Phoenix" sign it turns into a lush green wonderland of beautiful landscaping.)

Just look at all the websites in addition to this one that are revealing the truth about Scottsdale. I'm sure normal people who do their research online will quickly learn that Scottsdale is *not* a good place to live. Of course, the phonies of the world will see the truth about Scottsdale and realize they've found their mecca!

PS: To the person who continues to email demanding statistics, these numbers came from the U.S. CENSUS. Get off your ass and start looking this stuff up for yourself.

Oh no... here we go again...

Since I'm far away from Scottsdale and it doesn't piss me off anymore, I need motivation to write this blog, so I clicked over to AZCentral to find that some clown started an "Arizona Beautiful People" dating site, which is only open to "beautiful people."

GIVE ME A BREAK.

This is just another sad attempt by an insecure Scottsdale loser who is trying to perpetuate the myth that Scottsdale is an "affluent" community full of "beautiful people."

Umm ... no ... go and read the previous post. That sums up the truth about Scottsdale's so-called "beautiful people."

This reminds me of when Manross and her corrupt City Council embarrassed themselves trying to pull a publicity stunt by banning the use of helicopters for Scottsdale residents to commute to and from work. Hmm, two thoughts on that:

1. Nobody in Scottsdale can afford a helicopter.
2. The few people in this country who can afford their own helicopters don't have a job to commute to.

Duh.

Reader Comment of the Day!

Wow, this comment is so spot on that I had to make it a full post:

Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale, etc. are all about to have a giant economic enema, courtesy of the housing bubble blowout!

I moved here in the late '90s, and yes, it was a better place because housing was affordable and there wasn't so much anxiety over the lack of real, big-city wages. People weren't trying to be something they were not: rich!

And you didn't have to be rich because things like housing were affordable, and left money to spend on other activities.

Sure, Scottsdale was always supposed to be a "cut above" the other Phoenix suburbs, and high-class, and we could all tolerate a little pretentiousness from that crew now and then.

But a new breed moved in after 2001. Sporting a few chin whiskers, unkept shirts, and walking around in black dress shoes and baggy-jeans--that looked like someone just dropped a load in 'em: the post-modern, wanna-be, nuveaux riche, pastiche dumb-ass.

Now I'm not claiming to be Mr. Cosmopolitan, or sophisticated. I'm a State school MBA for godsakes. However, I can tell a rat when I see one. And the current breed of quick-buck, con artist rat that moved into Scottsdale--possibly because he couldn't afford to live in a real wealthy area, for instance Cupertino, Los Altos, Saratoga or San Francisco--is truly a pathetic creature. [Frank's comments - that's the only reason they move to Scottsdale - they can't hang in a truly affluent community and wouldn't be welcome. Hence Scottsdale, mecca for phonies and rejects of all kinds.]

How many credit cards can a person max out? How many payments can one miss on his Adjustable Rate McMansion Mortgage and Hummer before dude's girlfriend finds out that he's really just a high school dropout, GED-carrying construction guy or roofer posing as a real suburban professional?

Then the scrounge-lizards hit the jackpot: Instead of slapping tiles on a roof in 118 degree temperatures, they discovered that if you could put on some TJ Maxx slacks and a ruffled white shirt, slap some gel on your Carsten haircut, pick up a phone, take a few people out to lunch in a rented BMW then viola! You could transmorgrify from a frog into a prince: a Real Estate Agent or Mortgage Broker.

The sad and funny thing is, many unqualified schmucks made a sh-tload of money for bamboozling people who couldn't afford a house, into over-reaching for the American dream.

What's even funnier, is that most of these bozos blew their newfangled cash on Blackjack at the Indian casinos, Adjustable Rate Mortgage payments on a McMansion, a BMW or Hummer and drinks every night in some trendy, fly-by-night Scottsdale bar.

Boy, livin' the large life was good wasn't it? That was a good ride! Ha, ha! The game is over. The great housing crash of 2007+ has begun.

Time, once again, to put on your baggy blue jeans and wrinkled shirt, give back all the toys, and move into your South Phoenix dive apartment with two other dudes, so you can just get by like the roofer that you are and always will be.

Or better yet, go back to Jersey, Ohio, Detroit and Illinois.

Watch how bad real estate is going to get. You aren't going to believe it.

It's gonna' be a royal economic enema of historic proportions. It will clean out all of the Scottsdale trailer trash, that's for sure.

Perhaps the scampering rats will move to Reno or Vegas next.

Who on earth bothers with Scottsdale "nightlife"?

If there's one major disappointment about Scottsdale above all others - well except maybe the rudeness of the people - it's the pathetic, super-dork lame "nightlife."

First of all, men who think Scottsdale women are so "hot" really, and I mean really, need to get out and travel some more. (If those chicks were living here they'd be lucky to get a job waiting tables in Denny's.) And no, Mexico, Vegas, and San Diego don't count as travel. I know, those are the only places Scottsdale people visit, but they really don't count, sorry. If you're going to go to California, at least spend some time in LA.

Are there some cute girls in Scottsdale? Yes, just like there are anywhere. However, go out at night and you'll see a bunch of clones who all look identical and are about a 6 on a 10 scale. Seriously, pull 10 girls out of a Scottsdale club and line them up and I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Even the faces are the same. I saw a true "10" maybe once a month while living there. Pathetic. But I guess you guys who are stuck living there must lie to yourselves and believe the girls are really hot to justify your existence there.

I think my perspective really changed in 2004 when I met some new friends who live in West Hollywood. I went out there for Memorial Day weekend, going out every night on the Sunset Strip, and I was really apprehensive about it - based on everything I'd heard, I thought it would be worse than Scottsdale. To my astonishment, the women in that scene were all very friendly, approachable, and sociable. After that I had no desire to go out in Scottsdale anymore and put up with the bitchy women in those bars (who, by the way, also weren't as hot as the friendly LA girls). Not to mention that many of the women I met in LA were very intelligent and had real careers, unlike Scottsdale where you'll be hard pressed to meet anyone who is not a bartender/waitress/stripper.

(There is nothing inherently wrong with those jobs, however the problem is that in Scottsdale, they're life-long careers ... the "Vegas Syndrome.")

Scottsdale "men"? Haha ... let's not even get started on that one! There are two, and only two, varieties:

1. The insecure 20- and 30-somethings who look like an army of clones marching around in the Scottsdale Uniform: Untucked oversize shirt, oversize jeans, black dress shoes that were never meant for jeans.

2. 40+ alcoholic blowhards in Tommy Bahama shirts who run their mouths incessantly about how rich they are.

There is a third variety surfacing, which is the 40+ blowhard who tries to wear the 20-something uniform and winds up looking like a total dumbass.

I actually know single women who moved out of Scottsdale specifically because the selection of men was so damn pathetic. None have any personality, uniqueness, or attractive qualities (this goes for the women too). When my sister came to visit once, all she said the week she was in town was, "Everyone is exactly the same here."

Wake up, people. If you're not a total vapid wingnut career bartender woman with fake boobs, or if you're a real man with a brain, character, and good qualities, you should not be in Scottsdale. Leave it for the losers and desperados who are forced to live there because they'd get eaten alive in a real city.

Will the housing crash "fix" Scottsdale?

When I moved to Scottsdale in 2000, it wasn't a bad place to be. People were much friendlier and you didn't see the endless freakshow of plastic-altered people that you see today. In addition, the nightlife was actually enjoyable because it was full of young professionals, and not the dirtbags who fill the bars and clubs today. In fact, I moved to Scottsdale from Las Vegas to escape the dirtbag nightlife and actually be around normal people, but today in 2007 the Scottsdale bars are even worse than Vegas.

Will the housing crash flush this crap out and provide a return to normalcy?

Let's face it. Scottsdale was okay up until about 2002-2003 when the Real Estate Cult moved in on the town. Tens of thousands of quick-buck artists looking to make easy money as a flipper, agent, mortgage broker, or what have you, and we all know the easy money quick-buck types are the ones with the fake [fill in the blank], BMW on a 5-year lease, house with 3 mortgages, and so on. In other words, the current population of Scottsdale.

Now that they're all facing foreclosure, repo, and bankruptcy, maybe they'll get flushed out and there will be some degree of normalcy returning to Scottsdale. Maybe. By the looks of it today though, it might be too far gone. Never in my life have I seen a bigger collection of fake, pretentious, phony, bizarre freakshow people than in Scottsdale.

Housing crash and AZ's economy?

There's a discussion happening on HousingPanic about the impact of the housing crash on the Phoenix area economy.

Phoenix, most of us agree, is far more vulnerable to this crash simply because Phoenix is unique in that a majority of its economy is tied to real estate one way or another. Other cities have other industries; for example, Las Vegas is crashing hard, but at least the newly unemployed realtors can fall back on hotel/casino jobs as a last resort. In Phoenix, the economy is real estate, with nothing much else to fall back on.

I'm not just referring to builders and realtors, but to everyone involved: Insurance agents, mortgage brokers, banks, title companies, utilities, furniture stores, home electronics stores, Home Depot, and on and on.

My friends who are still in Scottsdale tell me the Home Depot is empty lately.

The Phoenix area represents the classic Ponzi scheme: All of the money made on real estate depended on more and more people moving in and buying more and more real estate and higher and higher prices. In other words, nothing real was being produced and there were no fundamentals; instead, a bunch of shysters and con-men mortgage brokers just kept pumping it higher and higher, until there were no fools left to con, and the bottom fell out.

The impact can now be felt all over the place: Repo men seen daily in formerly affluent areas such as DC Ranch. 6-month old luxury cars with 'For Sale' signs in the windows. High-end restaurants being shut down or sold off at a rapid pace. Scottsdale's nightlife wiped out and replaced by the Tempe college kids. A city turning to photo radar for revenue because the property taxes are drying up.

And on and on ....

Thoughts?

Thank you, everyone!

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"You need to post more."

I got that email today, and I get it a lot from the few normal people who are trapped in Scottsdale and need an outlet.

To be quite honest though, since leaving Scottsdale, I'm just not angry about the place anymore; in fact I'm very happy and content since leaving that shithole and moving here.

In fact, I had no idea just how crappy Scottsdale really is until I left and moved here! Damn, how did I ever live in that dump as long as I did?

Anyway, my point is, my apologies if I don't post as much as I used to, but now that I'm out of the most disgusting, ugly, corrupt, and snobby place on the face of the earth, I don't have the motivation to bitch about it like I used to.

Living in a place full of happy, successful people really changes your perspective on things. My best advice to everyone who is in Scottsdale and is not satisfied: QUIT WASTING YOUR LIFE IN THAT MISERABLE HELLHOLE AND GET OUT ... FAST!!!  And please ... PLEASE ... don't raise children there! The combination of horrific schools and snobby people will cause the worst imaginable result.

Oh yeah, I see it's already over 110 there ... it's 78 and beautiful here :-)  And I'm still amazed that everyone is so happy and friendly here.

Scottsdale dumps failed photo radar on state

It couldn't have been scripted for a movie any better than this:

Manross and the corrupt People's Republic of Scottsdale invent freeway photo radar. They are adamant about owning and operating it themselves. They wouldn't even remotely entertain the idea of letting the state run the program. After all, there was big money to be made.

The cameras turned on. The tickets went out in the mail.

And ... Scottsdale looked at the books and saw that they were losing big money, fast ... the cameras only brought in one-third the expected revenue, not even enough to cover costs.

Suddenly, the corrupt scum Scottsdale government, that all along insisted that the program was about "safety" and not money, could not get rid of it fast enough. They frantically petitioned the state to take the program over. They said, "Sure, it's losing money, but it's about SAFETY, remember?"

And the dumbass State of Arizona fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

But ... maybe there's a happy ending in sight.

Remember Sen. Dean Martin, who was the fiercest opponent to photo radar in the legislature? Sen. Martin is now known as the Hon. Dean Martin, Arizona State Treasurer.

Let's see how long the ineffective cameras stay funded now. All Arizonans who care about fiscal responsibility, the violation of their Sixth Amendment rights*, and the flawed idea of replacing real live police officers with machines should contact his office, along with the Governor's, and demand that taxpayer money should not be spent on this failed program.

*(For those of you who missed history class, the Sixth Amendment gives all accused the right to confront, question, and cross examine the accuser. This is obviously impossible when your "accuser" is a machine.)