news:v9Nud.246308$R05.80734@attbi_s53...
I was in Phoenix with my kids hockey team the first weekend of October.
First time I had been there since the mid 70's when I was a kid on a
family trip. I can't for the life of me figure out why anybody would
live there even in the winter, much less the hotter months. If you don't
golf you have absolutely nothing to do.

How could you possibly know what there is to do after only spending a
*weekend* here? What...did you spend 15 minutes thumbing through the
phonebook in your hotel room?

There's a *ton* of stuff to do here! Like any other city, if you know
what you want to do, you can find it pretty easily -- it's not
Timbuktu... all sports, hobbies and other interests and activities are
just as accessible here as they are anywhere else, some moreso; if you
don't already have an idea what you'd like to do, it takes a little time
to find out what there is just by talking to people and hearing about
places to go and things to do. What exactly did you expect to find that
wasn't here?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
Phoenix, on the other hand, is just about the ugliest city I've ever seen.
Dirty, brown, dusty, barren, with lots of street people and wailing
sirens.

And as for you, Jay Honeck, visit any major city in the nation, and tell
me there aren't some areas that people in the really nice parts of the
city wish didn't exist! Ever been to San Francisco? It has some of the
most gorgeous architecture, beautifully-restored Victorian homes to die
for, many historical landmarks, spectacular views, and other things to
see. But don't kid yourself -- there are some districts in San Francisco
(as in any big city) that are crawling with street people, old battered
homes that are barely hanging by a thread, streets littered with raw
garbage and dirty diapers, and areas where you wouldn't *dare* want to
even THINK about getting out of your car.

Point being that it's easy to make these blanket generalizations about
cities that you only see certain parts of. As Jay Beckman said, Phoenix
is no better or worse than any other big city ... certainly not all of
it is "dirty, brown, dusty, or barren" and God knows, saying there's
"absolutely nothing to do" couldn't be further from the truth. Of
course, if you like building snowmen, being on hurricane watch, trapsing
around in the rain for 6 months out of every year, and being bundled up
in layers and layers of warm clothes, you wouldn't be happy in Phoenix.