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| *Travel Tips>>>Phoenix Travel Tips |
Phoenix, Arizona vs San Jose, California? |
Travel Info I would like to know how both of them compare in terms of 1) Public Transportation - assume I don't have a car, don't know how to drive and cannot ask anybody for rides. How dependable is the public transportation for day to day commuting? 2) Salaries - for Technology jobs 3) Cost of Living 4) Weather Travel Tips I live in Phoenix so I can give you info about here. Public transportation- we have a bus system. No trains, no subway but there is a light rail system currently in construction. Depending on what part of the valley you live in, most mainline buses run every 15-30 minutes weekdays and every 30-60 minutes on weekends. They start as early as 5am and run until 10pm or so- there are no 24 hour runs. Phoenix streets are laid out like a grid so in some cases you may only need 1 bus to get where you're going, sometimes you may need 3. They are crowded and dirty and if you live in the far north valley or the west valley, you're out of luck- no buses at all. Technology is booming out here. We have all the major banks, airlines,dot coms- Go Daddy, and tons of opportunity for technology jobs all over the valley. Most entry level jobs can start at 30-45k a year and with experience, you can start at more. I landed an entry level tech job with a major bank starting me at 50k. Cost of living is good. Houses run the gammet of 200,000.00 and up depending on area. The west valley has the cheaper housing, but the central or east valley has more job opportunity-especially importat if you don't have a car. Gas is pricy- getting up to 3.00 a gallon, oh and bus fare runs about 1.50. Food has no tax and there's many stores to get the best deals from. Rent typically runs 800.00-1400.00 for a nicer (luxury) 1 bedroom apartment, but there are cheaper complexes. Weather- not gonna lie-hot as hell 6 months out of the year. But it's not humid. Our hottest months are May-August and it starts to cool in September. Utilities can get expensive- up to 200.00 a month in electricity for those months but 50.00 bills in the fall and winter. But the fall and winter are gorgeous- upper 50's and 60's- no need for heavy winter layering or coats. And if you really want to play in the snow, Flagstaff and Prescott are a 1.5-3 hour drive away. We do have some wicked monsoons in the summer. Hope that helps. Others Cost of living? San Jose is one of the most expensive places in the country to live. Housing prices are insane. Probably double the average in Phoenix...so consider that you'll need twice the salary that you do in Phoenix. I've have one cousin and two friends that used to live in San Jose. They have all since moved away because it was just too expensive to live there. Here's what I know... 1) buses are always available and all my friends use them...they recently have produced new buses that are really nice...and there is a light rail system being built :/ I'm moving out of here anyways 2) The salaries depend on the company 3) Because of illegal immigration taxes have gone up a bit and they aren't getting better considering we have a horrible governor who is a democrat 4) During summer its REALLY hot!!! It gets up to 110 all summer until the monsoons which are real humid. The winter gets down to about 30 to 40 degrees at the lowest and up to 70 or so, it actually snowed this winter one day in northern phoenix and it was amazing! Void,,, Az. it has no way of good there all bad if you don't know how to drive, then you ride our bus sytem. i think the light rail that's being built in downtown phoenix will be finished in december of 2008.the traffic gets a little ugly on freeways and main streets. i'm just 13 years old so i don't know about salaries and cost of living, but the weather is around 40-60 degrees in the winter and 100-120 in the summer and it rains about 4-5 times a year. you get used to it though. by the way, yes i agree it has no way of living in most places, but we livein scottsdale and you see new escalades, navigators, mercedes everywhere and there are lots of shopping malls/ areas and resturants. just avoid mesa, some parst of chandler and phoenix, and the bad areas of glendale. 1) Live in the cities of Phoenix/Mesa/Tempe..public transportation in the out lying areas is not good. 2) Salaries for tech jobs tend to be about 20-30% less than the bay area. 3) Cost of living, housing is much cheaper, you can rent a 2 bedroom apt between 700-1200 a month. Electric is VERY high during summer. And food is about the same. 4) Well, hot in the 100's May-Sept...a little rain, nothing like bay area. 80's-60's for the rest of the year. Hope this helps, I am a bay area transplant myself and love it here! 1. Unless you live and work in downtown phoenix, you will NEED a car -- bus and mass transit sucks here. You can find it, but need to drive to it. We are improving, but it will be a long time. 2. Salaries are less (for technology jobs) here, but the cost (3) of living is less than San Jose. 4. Well, San Jose probably has better weather (I live in Scottsdale, and lived in San Jose and San Fran) year round; and yeah, our summers suck (specially June-Sept). |
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