skiahh said:
I'm thinking about applying for a job there, so figured I'd try and get some info on the area before submitting the package.
Anyone from Flagstaff feel like telling me about their city - riding stuff, but other general things about living there, too?
Thanks and I look forward to learning about the city and area!
Making the transition to landlubber, are you? Flagstaff is a good choice for mountain lovers. I would agree that Bend Oregon is an even better choice, with housing prices that dropped nearly as much as they did in Phoenix.
I'll tell you what I know after 16 years in Flagstaff. You will love the trails here, no matter what your riding style. Some are thawed out and ready to ride in March. We saw people riding many of the lower trails a couple weeks back, before we got hit by a couple winter storms. We often are able to ride well into December. The city averages 100" of snow each winter and the ski resort averages 200". We have had winters when the ski resort did not open and we only got about 30" of snow. Years like that are often followed by drought and some restrictions on riding, usualy just after a human caused fire in the area. Flagstaff averages only 3 days above 90 degrees each year. The forest is dense and provides a cool,comfortable riding experience. Evenings can be quite cool during the summer. The upside to not having a river or lakes close to town is that we don't have biting insects or humidity.
Many mountain towns like the ones in Colorado, are almost exclusively filled with weathy homeowners. Service employees have to commute from many miles away to their jobs. Flagstaff is not like that. Sure, if you view the KNAU link and read all the stories under the title of Poverty With A View, you might think this is Aspen, but to be true to my conservative values, anything I hear from public radio I filter, knowing it has to be slanted from a left-wing bias, in order to be funded for broadcast. That being said, Flagstaff is in Coconino County, a county with a high percentage of poor people. That is because we are near the Navajo Indian Reservation. It skews numbers like crime statistics, and medium income, along with rates of alcoholism and diabetes, which are unusually high on the reservation.
NAU is ther largest employer. Flagstaff Medical Center is a large facilty that employs many in high income jobs. Gore is another highly sought after employer. NAU, which once had the saecond highest drop-out rate among universities, has grown in the past few years. It results in a younger demographic in Flagstaff during the school year. It also keeps many bars in business. Some of them offer live music, but depending on what your music interests are, you won't see more than a couple quality acts pass through Flagstaff each year.
Are you applying for a law enforcement position? Just curious. Flagstaff has about 2-3 homicides a year. Most of the crimes are property crimes committed by people using/abusing illegal drugs, primarily meth. With the passage of a new law legalizing medical marijuana ( Flagstaff had the highest percentage of people supporting the new legl status) Flagstaff may see around 20 new marijuana dispensaries. Consequently, there will be a slight increase in the number of hippies, college drop-outs and ne'er-do-wells inflicted on the general population. How it will affect the number of free-riders, we can only speculate.
The average listing price of a home in Flagstaff is currently $389,500. The mediun sales price is $226,500, down 10% in the last year. We had our home on the market most of last year, asking $235k, about $80k less than we have invested on a home purchased in 2006, at the peak of the housing bubble. Is there affordable housing? Absolutely. We lived here for ten years paying under $200 a month for space rent in a manufactured home park, one block from a grocery store. Some buyers are willing to look just outside the city, in Mountainaire and Kachina Village and Belmont, to save some cash. Probably a bad idea long term with fuel prices spiking. Property taxes are ever rising, thanks to our ineptly run school district. More money spent and more failing students. Not that it is unique to Flagstaff.
I don't imagine someone serving in the U.S. Navy (we thank you for your dedicated service), is anxious to settle into such a politically left-leaning community. Don't worry, they may over-spend our tax dollars and defend the rights(?) of criminals invading our state from Mexico, but they are mostly harmless, as the state is still a red one overall.
If you are visiting soon. let me buy you lunch. We have many great restaurants, including several Thai, Indian, Japanese, and a couple of places with adequate BBQ.
I normally send these type of messages on PM, but I want you to see some of our left-leaning brethren respond to some of my comments, so you know what you can expect in the future. Good luck on the new job. Hope they hire you.
