I do not like much of anything about Arizona. The people are cold. The weather is too damn hot and now has humidity added to the triple digits from June to September due to people thinking they need to bring plants when they migrate, that hold water and release humidity into our air, (like palm trees--tropical plant not desert plant).
I do not like the police, especially in Maricopa County, whom I would love to drop into Chicago or New York for just 15 minutes so they could find out what it is like to be a real cop. I actually had the Tempe police tell me that my name was not my own, because I was demanding that they enforce a harassment complaint.
I do not like Arizona because it is a prison state and has more over crowding than any state in the Union. I find the Sheriff, Joe Araipo, of Maricopa County akin to the Worm at the bottom of a Mescal Tequila Bottle.
The education quality standards are 2nd only to Tennessee for being the worst in the United States.
There are only two classes of people it seems to me in Arizona. The old money and the working poor. Oh, make that three. The homeless (most of them are working too). Cost of living is high, wages are low, and the law looks the other way when old money employs illegal immigrants at a fraction of the pay for any American citizen, keeping our wages low, and the poor as well as the illegal immigrants in extreme poverty. This is a right to work state.
Arizona state government offices I have found to be as efficient and competent as a male pig with tits.
If you have enough money to buy the law in Arizona, then you've got it made, otherwise you may as well kiss your butt good-bye.
Why do I stay here? I cannot afford to leave, plus I have two children who were born here and taking them out of state will get me incarcerated.
This city was built on blood and a lot of it ~ I wish I could not feel the pain of hundreds of years coming through every sidewalk crack and tract housing addition built on sacred ground.
What good can I say about the State of Arizona? The winters are mild, the Native American Reservations are a refuge for all and the desert is really beautiful in full bloom in the spring, which we see from mid-February to March.
They have some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, and I have lived in many states across this great continent. There are a lot of wide-open spaces and federal reserves that keep most of the pristine desert intact.
The stars are brighter, because everything is spread out in an urban sprawl of conurbation instead of being jamb packed on a small piece of real estate. The Moon seems closer, why I cannot determine a logical explanation for this, but it does seem brighter and closer to the earth to me.
The pine trees in Flagstaff remind me of Utah and Phoenix has one of the best outdoor concert halls I have ever been too, Desert Sky Pavilion. (Now Cricket Pavilion, I believe)
There is the Grand Canyon that humbles a soul and reminds us humans of how small we really are in comparison, and if you can see them through the smog of brown skies, the mountains, though not majestic are awe inspiring.
There are also the cultural arts that are finally starting to develop in Arizona, with our Poetry Jam Teams making it into the finalists nationally.
The artist communities that support the artist, weather musician, poet, painter, sculpture, etc.; all are beginning to be recognized, sponsored and supported locally so that we have some actual cultural events in this state that does not include a violent or dangerous sport or a cowboy museum. (nothing against cowboys, just need a bit more diversity).
All of this however, is only mine own humble opinion. Welcome to Arizona, the state that many things enter but very little leaves.