Posted: 10/12/2010 12:36:12 PM EDT
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Looking at a job prospect in Tucson. What should I know about the area? Good school district, crime, etc.? Got two kids aged 12 and 10. So school district is important. How is the housing market there now?
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It depends on the job.
Best school, Salpointe Catholic(90% go to University), Best Public schools University-Rincon High (70% go to a 4 year College) Catalina Foothills H s, and Cienega High in Vail. All of those schools have great success rates for University level acceptance. In Tucson you will find a lot of Liberals, but many of them are gun owners and CCW holders because a 2 square mile area in South Tucson may as well be part of Mexico City. Liberalism ends when shooting starts. The Great Desert University is there along with a nice Junior College. Some great restaurants, good shoping, and a beautiful Mountain vies. Personally I live in Sierra Vista which has a good H S in Buena which places more students in military academies than any other AZ school. (Ft. Huachuca  )
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There is a depressed housing situation, so it is a buyers market. High foreclosure rate, you can buy off a foreclosure offer before even going to auction if you have the capital.
TUSD is a poor representation of a school district. Google all about it, and then keep you kids out of it. Not the most commuter friendly city since everything is surface streets with only the aviation freeway developed. So, you should consider location to employer. |
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I like living here but the city government has its collective head up its ass. They can't manage their money let alone their own council meetings. Which brings us to crime, crime isn't bad IMO for a town close to the most active illegal border crossing point, but you should know TPD is pretty understaffed and looking at more cuts. I don't recall the exact numbers but I believe they're down 150-200 sworn officer positions from what they're authorized to have due to budget issues. Despite this all my experiences with TPD officers have been very positive, so they're working with what they have, but you can only do so much with limited manpower.
As stated above where your job is may have a big effect on where you live unless you like maddening commutes with terrible drivers. Catalina Foothills is one of the better districts as a whole, but the area is more expensive and one of the furthest from interstate access. IIRC I was told that we had something like a 95% "higher education" rate for my class ('04). |
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Given the easy freeway access to your location I would consider living out of town in either Vail to the east on I10 or Sahuarita to the south on I19. Either would get you to work in about 20 minutes and get you into a lower crime area and better schools. I have been a paramedic in the South Tucson area for a few years and I would recommend getting out of South Tucson city limits for sure (that area made my job very interesting to say the least), but out of Tucson city limits overall is even better still. The East side near Sabino canyon is quite nice, but there is no highway access into town, only surface streets, so your commute can get long.
ETA: The 2x2 mile zone of death is the city of South Tucson. It is actually a seperate, incorporated city within Tucson itself, and is infamous for it's high crime and drug usage. It is located just off of the I10/I19 interchange. During the day it is a fairly normal business district, nothing to worry about really, but the residential area is something to avoid at night, unless you are crazy like me 
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| When I was in college in the 60's I was a Fuller Brush man in that area. Later after I retruned from SE/Asia I did student teaching at Ochoa school. My son just left after 2 years with the Sunnyside district. That said, there are some top folks in that area, Bobby DeBerry the head wrestling coach at Sunnyside, and Chuck Jerz an assistant principal at Sunnyside. |