Scottsdale | Scottsdale Sucks

CA: Traffic deaths lowest in 5 years. AZ: Traffic deaths highest ever.

That's not really newsworthy on the surface, until I add this bit of fact:

CA: The cops won't even give you a second look unless you're going at least 85 mph on a freeway.
AZ: The cops will pull you over for doing 66 in a 65, and the cameras will flash you starting at 76 mph.

Hmm, this supports all the factual data that speed does *not* kill. It also shows what happens when a government decides to use the police and traffic laws as a method of generating revenue (taxation without representation, anyone?) instead of their real purpose of safety.

It's also worthy of mention that I haven't seen one single freeway accident since moving to CA five months ago. In AZ I witnessed a freeway accident almost daily.

50% - HALF - of the shops & restaurants at DC Ranch have gone out of business

A full 50% - HALF - of the businesses at DC Ranch marketplace have gone under (pictures soon to follow).

This alone is the biggest proof that north Scottsdale, and DC Ranch in particular, is full of the biggest bunch of phonies and fake rich people to ever walk the earth.

None of them ever had any money or any wealth. All of their spending money came from the "housing ATM" - the practice of taking out home equity loans that need to be paid back in a few years - along with massive credit card debt.

Now that the housing ATM is over and the credit cards are maxed out, north Scottsdale businesses are crashing.

I've been reporting on the recent widespread failures of Scottsdale restaurants, but this is huge. If half of the DC Ranch marketplace shops and restaurants have already gone under, and since the option-ARM mortgages have just begun to adjust, the hard truth is that Scottsdale is in for an economic disaster of massive proportions.

But hey, that's what you get when your "city" is the #1 destination for phonies, quick-buck artists, shysters, and con men in the United States. Perhaps the only place in the world where McDonald's employees and high school dropouts are driving BMWs.

AZ traffic deaths up dramatically while rest of nation declines

The Arizona Republic reports today that traffic fatalities are up dramatically in Arizona, while fatalities in the rest of the country have declined.

Hmm, do you think this could have just a little to do with the fact that some Arizona towns in particular refuse to hire more police officers, and have decided to replace them with cameras instead? Do you just think?

Both the Arizona DOT and DPS reports prior to the installation of Loop 101 photo radar agreed that it would do nothing to make the freeway safer and would actually increase the incidence of rear-end crashes.

Hmm....

Homicide rate skyrockets in Scottsdale

It looks like 2007 is setting a new record for murders in Scottsdale. A big thanks goes to Manross and her corrupt city council for ordering the cops to sit on corners with radar guns, and for spending money on photo radar equipment instead of hiring cops.

Read the full article here

AZ bankruptcies up 58% from last year

I wonder how much higher it would have been without bankruptcy reform? 200%? 300%?

It's a whole lot harder to file for bankruptcy now than it was just a short time ago. And yet Arizona filings are UP 58%, not down.

Hmm, could it have anything to do with all the phonies who "bought" houses on liar's loans and interest-only option-arm scam loans? Who can't make their payments now that they're adjusting? And the free ride housing ATM is over and dead?

Gee, I wonder....

I think the best industry to get into in Arizona right now would be "repo man." Even back before the housing bubble I'd see repo men cruising my neighborhood in north Scottsdale and banging on doors every day going after the BMWs and Lexuses. I could only imagine what it's like now ... in fact, I get regular reports from readers on this blog that in places like DC Ranch and Greyhawk, the repo men are everywhere!!!

Ain't this the truth...

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!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Scottsdale, the truth hurts!

Thanks to war_shu_duck for this bit of wisdom:

This is for those who have never been to Scottsdale Arizona or are pondering moving here. I feel the need to explain some Scottsdale speak used here to help readers who many not believe or completely understand what they are reading.

1) Neighbor- Contrary to what a neighbor may be in your community its not the same in Scottsdale or the greater Phoenix metro area. Your neighbor won't be someone who is friendly or wants to get to know you. Feel no need to keep any eye out for their property because they wont be doing the same for you. Don't worry about disturbing or waking your neighbors because they wont mind disturbing or waking you. If for some reason you ever find yourself assisting your neighbor in some way dont feel that its a mutual situation because it wont be.

A neighbor in Scottsdale is probably nothing like what you have in the current state your living in. Its a carpetbagger who will know the value of everything except peace and quiet. They will stick around for about 2 years and then put the for sale sign in their yard when they think their home has gone up 20-50 thousand in value. Having the same neighbor here for 5 years is like having the same neighbor for 15-20 years anywhere else. There is little to no sense of community.

2) A good neighborhood- A good neighborhood here has nothing to do with good people, stable home values, quality of life or well built homes. A good neighborhood in Scottsdale Arizona means the most recently plowed up piece of desert with well advertised stucco and chicken wire shacks for sale to the highest bidder. You would be a nobody if you dont buy a home here (until next month when they finish the ones a miles up the road).lol

3) A hot chick- What many people classify as a "Hottie" in Scottsdale has little or nothing to do with a woman being attractive. A "Scottsdale Hottie" wont be the kind of woman you want to marry or even bring home to mom. Very few of these women have an attractive or pleasant face. Its more about a female who has all the accoutrements of whoredom: Bitchy attitude, fake breasts, tattoo above her ass, thinks its vogue to claim to be bisexual, and has the class and loyalty of an alley cat.

4) Career- a career in Scottsdale or the entire state of Arizona for that matter means any job you hold for 2-3 years. Dont expect to get paid anymore than about 32-38 thousand a year if your just moving here and dont plan to work anywhere any longer than 5 years. Its a right to work state and your employer can and will fire you to hire a cheaper employee at any give time.

5) Friendship- Dont expect to make any real friends. Finding someone who can grasp the concept of friendship in Arizona will happen to you about as frequently as winning the lotto. Its probably not going to happen. What you will find are preditors who want something you have or who see your kindness as weakness. If you dare to make any friendships be prepared to be the host to the preditor!!! Just being a decent human being isn't enough there has to be something in it for the average Scottsdale resident.

6) Relationships- These are not your traditional relationships here. Being in a relationship beyond 3 months is quite an accomplishment. I do not recommend getting involved with 99.9% of the people here. Much like the friendships are preditor/host so too are the relationships with more dire consequences. I know more than a handful of guys who have got involved with a "Scottsdale Hottie" and ended up in financial ruin. I gather there are females who can report equally destructive experiences as well.

7) Aspirations- In most communities people aspire to aim high, to have goals, hopes, dreams, travel the world, to have a family, ect ect. In Scottsdale thats not the case. They aspire to be Mr or Ms/miss Scottsdale as describe here in this website.

Thanks for listening and good luck!!!

Reader Comment of the Day

I think I may just turn this site into a message board with all the great comments lately:

What's with the Scottsdalian "weiner dude" attitude? I think they've been sucking on too many Der Weinerschnitzel hot dogs to even bother to say hi to their neigbors.

If you want social interaction in Scottsdale, it's limited to one of several garden variety nightspots (i.e. cheap clubs) where the drinks are anything but cheap.

Sure, you might find a hot chick or two to talk to you--after you're stone ass drunk--but once they find out you're really a roofer or a tile layer or construction worker, you're toast (but not before leading you on and suckering you in to buy them a few more brewskis on your maxed out credit card).

So there you have it! In order to socialize you've got to hang out at some dumb-ass Scottsdale bar and fork over your hard earned minimun-wage-and-a-half hourly salary for some drinks to impress the loose chicks, who are only out to shake you down for free drinks and lead you on...to nowhere!

Watch the way they scam and sheist you, then move on to the next sucker. They fall down with their legs up so you can see their panties: 40 something MILF wannabes baring their pendulous breasts & ample silicone cleave in fading hopes of scoring a real rich dude.

Hint: no real rich guy with an ounce of class or self-respect is going to fork over the bucks for drinks to get a crack at your fake, wilted flower bosoms...trust me!

That brings me probably to one of the biggest issues of Scottsdale that people either avoid outright or try to brush under the rug: CLASS!

Scottsdale prides itself on being the best biggest little city, the jewel of the desert, magnate to the rich and desirable, home of the beautiful, but it has no class!

You're going to tell me because a B- chain Chinese food restaurant on Scottsdale blvd., named P.F. Changs, is high class because it has two giant plaster 20 ft. Stallion horses, posted as centurians at the gate of the restaurant, that this makes it friggen' high class? By the way, the new P.F. Changs near the Fasion Square Mall in old Scottsdale just shut its doors (see my comments about fleeting restaurants below).

People from any relatively sophisticated or cosmopolitan city, say New York, Chicago or San Francisco will laugh in your face!

You think a few fake Olympic fire torches in front of your faux Greek restaurant with paper mache Doric Columns or fluted arches makes your joint classy and Mediterranean? How about cheesy?

Which brings me to another point: CHEESE! Scottsdale slaps up these cheesy, fly-by-night, trendy restaurants that fade into bankruptcy once the shallow people get easily bored with it and move on to another dive for brief folly and entertainment.

So, the pressure is on to scam as much money from your customers as possible, while amusing them into thinking their having a good time, before you have to fold your Beduin tent and pack it up for somewhere else in the desert!

In the Bay Area, you've at least got restaurants that are handed down to the next generation! Fiore de Italia in San Fran. has been there since the 1800s.

Just more proof that this is a boom and bust city getting ready for the collapse of the overinflated, Adjustable Rate Mortgage, McMansion housing bubble fiasco.

I'll have more to say in future posts, believe me.

Another reader writes in and says Scottsdale Sucks!

I moved here from Seattle about a year ago and thought at first it was okay, but now absolutely hate it here. I can't imagine anyone wanting to live in this hell hole. I find the people here extremely rude. No one talks to anyone here. We were in Starbucks and were surprised when someone actually talked to us. Guess where they were from, Seattle! I think Seattle people are far more friendly and outgoing than everyone here. This really surprises me since most people are not from here in the first place. I can't wait to get out of this hell hole and say good bye to all the dust and dirt! I miss the culture of Seattle and the great restaurants. It seems all they have here are Mexican restaurants. I love Mexican food, but jeez not on every street corner. They are abundant here like Starbucks are in Seattle.

I would rather have the rain in Seattle to the dirt ugly look of this desert!

Hmm, you're right, no one is from Scottsdale and yet they all turn into rude arrogant jerks. I think that happens for a couple of reasons:

People who move to Scottsdale from somewhere else are in the honeymoon stage for the first several months, or even year. The constant sunshine is a stimulant and doesn't exist outside of the Southwest, so that makes people really happy. Let's face it, newness and moving to a new city are always fun.

Then, over time, reality sets in. Once the novelty wears off, newbies really start to notice how rude everyone is, how angry people drive, how no one is social and talkative unless it's either to brag about themselves or to sell something, and so on. More time passes and they find out that all those people who looked so rich at first are actually in massive debt and have little or no disposable income. It all goes to the sub-prime mortgage company and BMW leasing. Finally, the newbie gets fed up with all the snobbery and rudeness and starts to fight back with it. He or she becomes unhappy and angry about being surrounded by jerks all the time, and becomes a jerk himself. Many get sucked into Scottsdale's "keep up with the Joneses" game and lease a car they can't afford and put a Rolex on the credit card just to get people to stop turning up their noses at them. Then the bills come in and they can barely afford to pay, hence more unhappiness and anger and rudeness. It's a nasty downward spiral.

The other side of why Scottsdale is full of such horrible people is because it seems to be a magnet for shysters, con artists, get-rich-quick schemers, and all other kinds of shady characters. I lived in Las Vegas for a few years, and even *that* city didn't have as many ripoff artist sleazeballs as Scottsdale does.

Go back to Seattle. I personally don't like it because I can't handle rain and clouds, but hey, that's all you're going to have in Arizona for the next 6 weeks thanks to monsoon season, so you might as well go where it's 80 degrees now instead of 115!

Oh yeah, and you're not kidding about people being closed off and no one talking to you. I lived in Scottsdale/Phoenix for 7 years. I've now been gone for 4 months, and am still caught off guard when people actually talk to me, say hi in public, and so on! And my girlfriend and I are still glowing about the fact that we've each made more friends in 4 months here than in 7 years in Scottsdale! Instead of being bored all the time and asking, "What are we going to do tonight," it's more like, "Geez, two different friends invited us over for barbecues, which one will we go to?"

Hey Scottsdale, how's the weather?

With my apologies to the few good people living in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area:

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sure, it's amusing to me to see news of a heat wave when the high temperature was 84 today, and pleasantly dry, but 115+?

If you still believe that rich people actually choose to live in Scottsdale with weather like that, I've got some nice bridges for sale.

I see the t-storms are forecasted to start next week. Oh, how I don't miss monsoon season. 115 + humidity = hell. Enjoy it, Scottsdale, you've earned it!!