Originally Posted by elchivito

I've had family in Phoenix since before statehood, and personally remember it from the 50s. It's not grown up in a particularly nice way as far as I'm concerned. Maybe part of the problem is it seems that lots of folks moved there not for the valley itself, but for economic reasons. As a result there's no real identity to the place.
If for some inexplicable reason I had to live in an AZ town, Tucson would be my choice I believe. Older. More sense of place.