Thanks to Wolf for this very accurate description of life in Scottsdale and vicinity. I personally experienced similar crap while living in three different areas of the Valley:
- South Scottsdale, off Hayden and Indian School (the dirtiest and most crime-ridden area of the Valley I've ever been)
- So-called "affluent" and "wealthy" north Scottsdale, off Happy Valley & Pima, near Troon ... yep, he's right when he says that even spending a million bucks on a house will not insulate you from the garbage.
- Arcadia off Camelback and 44th St.
The only area where I didn't have to put up with this was in north-central Phoenix off Central & Northern, but the tradeoff is the sound of gunshots most nights just a mile or two away in Sunnyslope.
Let's dance the Phoenix jitterbug.
Neighbor moves in, crams all his crap into the garage, parks his car against the traffic and woila closes the front door and you will never see him again, if you are lucky. If you are very lucky he will be quiet, if not (the norm) he will play drums in the garage, a bass, a booming thumping stereo, have his 500 white or Mexican trash friends over for a party every weekend. His kids will drive mini bikes with no muffler for hours on the street followed by dad in his unlicensed quad or even dune buggy, destroying your front lawn and the neighborhood. If you are smart, you call the police on them and forget about it because nothing will change, if you are stupid you ask your “neighbor” to quiet it down and your car, house or (put whatever you like here) will be damaged or you end up threatened and fear for your life and family.
There will be no friends in the neighborhood, either they can't speak a word of English or if you have the chance talking to a English speaking person, they will look at you like a deer in the headlight because they have no clue what you talking about.
If you are lucky, they ONLY will dump a couple of stolen cars right on your street, if you are unlucky, they will dump the car and burn it with a body inside.
The balkanization in Phoenix (add any AZ city you like here) is almost complete and the only thing left to do is to find someone to pull the lever and flush this shit down the toilet.
I never hated a place so much like I do the larger Phoenix area. Dumb shysters everywhere, Mexican trash, white trash, black trash, rapist, murderers, drive-by shooters, meth heads, child abusers, woman beaters, two strikers from California, identity thief's, and people in general who don't give a shit about anything, will live right beside you and your kids. And if you have the dream of moving here and you think you are living in a “high class” neighborhood, where house are over 700-800k and you are immune against this, wake up and smell the roses, because it doesn't matter. Just try it. HAAAA
Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is a letter I wrote after a "wonderful" review appeared in th Arizona Republic about our "great" development. I took the name of the developer\development and the builder out because I am afraid being sued. Am I paranoid? You bet your ass I am. If you think I am a chicken and this is a country of free speech please send me money for my defense fund and I put the names back in.
As a xxxxxx home owner I should be delighted by your free propaganda but I am not. We moved to xxxxxx 5 month ago, fleeing a investor, drug dealer, section 8 infested (brand new) 2 year old neighborhood in Goodyear. For us xxxxxx is the last attempt to make a home in this so called city and it is a rude awakening. Even in this supposedly “high class” neighborhood is infested with speculators, trashy renters and people who do not have a pot to piss in.
Your paper last week was complaining about the sub prime lending, no money down deals and people buying houses they cannot afford. Do you know how many people here have 700k adjustable mortgages, zero down, balloon seconds and so on.
Well guess what, this is still merrily going on in our “wonderful” community, where people are friendly, sitting at their porch and great each other. Yeah, my ass. All you have here is a clique of people blowing the xxx and xxxxx horn and some of the most ardent proponents and loud mouthes have their ass kicked out in less then 2 month because of foreclosure. They always blow hot steam, constantly talking about what a great “community” it is here and will verbally attack people on the message board who express a different opinion and address the issues we have here in xxxxxx.
Of course there are nice people living here, I think I met all 6 of them in the last 5 month, the rest are complete buffoons, the most unneighborly people we ever lived with, barely open their mouth when you met them on the street walking or sitting on the wonderful porch and will not acknowledge you when you walk by and say good evening!
I tell you, they have no clue and constantly have to reassure themselves how great and wonderful of a community we have.
Let me give you a quote from a sales person from one of the builders I know:
xxxx is getting completely on our nerves, they are always pushing us to sell for any price and all these idiotic events they have are totally geared towards getting people in here to buy and has nothing to do with the community. The result is that you get trashy people here who have no intention to buy on these weekends destroying the model homes and leave trash all over the place.......
How come you never hear anything bad about xxxxxx in the news, neither the West Valley View nor your paper? We had a violent SWAT take down 3 weeks ago right in front our house during the day with 10 heavy armed officers. We had a SWAT and ICE raid on a house on Main street two weeks ago. We have burglaries and attempted burglaries with residents inside. What about the break-ins into mailboxes and identity theft? What about that you cant even leave a bike or children toy on your front porch with out it being stolen? (going on almost every day).
What about the constant stop sign running, extreme speeding even on residential streets? A special trade often conducted by California rejects flocking into this state after selling their dump for a fortune and now hard at work to turn this neighborhood into the same dump they created in California.
xxxx is lying, the builders are lying. Until a day before they announced the pullout of the resort developer xxxx employees and builder sales people where telling people nothing about it. It was never mentioned that the resort developer had an “Option” to develop, no, it was written in stone that the resort will be build and not to be given this information a a home buyer is disgusting. If I where a paranoid person, I would think that someone is doing something to keep negative information out of the news and someone is on the take.
I could go on and on with examples, but hey, maybe this is normal in AZ and xxxxxxx and we are just all wrong.
See, there is always two sides to a story.
Posted by: wolf | July 13, 2007 at 04:10 PM
Ditto! My white trash neighbor in DC Ranch has tin foil on his windows and just installed a satilite dish looking over our back wall, even thought he knew if was in violation of the HOA. Headed to talk to my lawyer on Monday. Going to sue his pants off for reducing my property value. We are trying to sell our house. We will never get out of here with white trash neighbors like these. And all of this in a neighborhood of $800 homes. SH@T!
Posted by: Small Hat | July 14, 2007 at 09:27 AM
Small hat - just an FYI - a Federal law is in place that protects satellite dishes and makes it illegal for an HOA to attempt to regulate or ban them. When I lived in N Scottsdale my HOA gave me crap about it so I filed the paperwork with the FCC to force them to cease & desist.
Posted by: Frank Rumbauskas | July 14, 2007 at 03:36 PM
Frank, your right they can't regulate or ban them, yet they can tell a homeowner where they can and cannot put them. Met with my attorney yesterday. He is ready to file suit if the guy doesn't move it in compliance with the HOA's standards. I'm hoping we do end up suing him, it would be such the Scottsdale thing to do. Don't you think? God what I would give for nice neighbors.
Posted by: Small Hat | July 17, 2007 at 06:52 AM
Hey Small Hat, I feel for you buddy! Isn't the developer DMB in DC Ranch? Now thats a suprise...haaaa
Lucky you that you "only" have to deal with a satellite dish. Wait until your other neighbor gets a dog, 2 3 4 dogs (another Arizona past time) and that puppy\s will be left out 24/7 in the back yard and barks incessant to lull you into your sleep and the HOA will do nothing and hide behind some laws YOU can never find written anywhere!
I told my wife, when we move and I want to ever again buy a house in this kind of communities to hit me over the head with a 2x4!!!
Posted by: Wolf | July 18, 2007 at 08:56 AM
Wolf, it is the worst, by the way my neighbor does have a huge dog...and never picks up after it...the flies were so bad this spring, because we were living next to their breeding ground.
Right now I would rather be hit over the head by a 2x4 than live here.
Posted by: Small Hat | July 19, 2007 at 09:46 AM
Oh my god Small Hat.. I think his brother lives two houses down from me. This idiotic young couple got a Beagle and daily the let their puppy shit on the patch they call lawn here and he never pick it up, just lets it dry. My next door neighbor is loosing it, flies all over and stink. Man, aren't we a high class state? Where do they breed this garbage?
Posted by: Wolf | July 19, 2007 at 01:08 PM
Wolf, guess it could be worse...they could be promoting dog fighting! Can't wait to hear my neighbor scream tomorrow...my attorney is mailing the letter and complaint today. Wonder if he will stop by to discuss it, I hope not, I would hate to have to call the cops on him.
Posted by: Small Hat | July 23, 2007 at 04:26 PM
We got out . . . alive . . . nine months ago. I'm almost ready to talk about it here. Not quite, but almost. The shock of surviving Scottsdale living has not quite worn off.
I must say, the comments and blogs here are accurate according to my experience.
Never in my entire life, since birth in Arizona, have I experienced such a cold social climate and threatening environment.
Someday, I'll talk about it.
Posted by: MMac | August 15, 2007 at 12:34 PM
My spouse and I lived in three different Scottsdale locations.
Funny thing about a newly constructed gated community: Once the gate is closed by the association, residents are trapped inside with a volatile demographic mix.
Within months, investors fill the units with polygamous groups who pool their disability income to get in. That's when a homeowner who resides there finds out how earnest the association is in the matters of parking, trash, litter, and theft. The dazzling dental veneers we saw so much of earlier, vanished behind sour lemon lips.
In the early aging of the complex, investors flip the homes and the fun begins.
We popped out as fast as a summertime watermelon seed from a 10-year-old at a seed spitting contest. Our private parting comment to each other as the gate wobbled and ground its way shut behind us for the last time was: "Bye-bye trash!"
With the stucco canyon behind us, we put away our posessions in Scottsdale residence #2/3.
Posted by: MMac | August 17, 2007 at 11:52 AM