What's going on, everybody? This is Jeff with Living in Arizona, and today we're going to talk
about Los Angeles versus Phoenix. Currently in Los Angeles, I've spent a couple of days
as you know, I was traveling in Australia and New Zealand, and before that I was in
Southeast Asia. So now I come back, I spent a couple of days in Los Angeles, and I've been
here, what, 20 times in my life, maybe more. So I have a lot of experience with Los Angeles
But a lot of you guys want to know, what's the difference between Phoenix and L.A.
Being that I've been here so many times and I just recently came here, I can tell you what it's like right now, the comparison
So the first thing that stands out is the people. The people in Los Angeles, I think they're just overwhelmed
They're dealing with so many people from all over the place that, yes, there's friendly people and there's plenty of friendly people
But for the most part, people are really on edge out here
I mean, they're uppity. They're like they just don't have patience for anything because they're constantly dealing with people, whether it's driving on these freeways where they're just clustered
And in Phoenix, you get just this more laid back kind of vibe and people are more friendly and easygoing and you don't feel like they might bite your head off at any given moment
I mean, that's how it feels in L.A. is that, like I said, there's plenty of friendly people, but it's really high
There's a lot of high anxiety here, I think, is what the best word is
And I could see why so many people are on pharmaceuticals, because when they get in this situation, they're like, what the heck is going on with me
Hey, thanks to the three people who crushed up the likes. What's up, Scott? What's up, Civic
I know it's President's Day. Some of you guys are actually celebrating the holiday, aren't you? I did make a video about Los Angeles on Island Hopper TV
if you guys want to take a look. I just went around to like five of the key places downtown
Downtown Los Angeles, especially towards the east, it's a no-go. It's a no-go. I mean
you've heard of places like, I don't know what they're called, where they have the tent cities
and everything, but here's why it's a no-go. It's unhygienic. It's disgusting. I didn't put
this in the video that I made yesterday, but I did make another video that I'll probably post at a later date, showing you guys just what the conditions are in that part of Los Angeles
I mean, there's human feces right there, right there in the middle of the sidewalk. You're walking by it, there's flies swarming all over it, and it's just sitting there
Like, who did that, like, right there in the middle of the street? Then there's vomit in one corner
There's piss on the other side of the corner, and I apologize for using these strong words
and graphics, but that's how Los Angeles downtown area really is becoming
Phoenix just doesn't have that kind of problem yet. Hopefully it never gets there. But I mean, you'll be walking down the road and you'll see a puddle and that's not water
That's not a leak. That's human. OK. And there was a place I walked through the the just this little area in downtown
And I felt like there was just germs and bacteria in there and there was people who were sleeping in there and you could almost feel the disease like building in there
So it's and I think that's what really stood out to me about Los Angeles is it's like in the event of an outbreak
Like, holy moly, this place is ground zero for just disease. So, you know, it made me appreciate living in Phoenix and being like, man, we're so spread out
And where I live in the suburbs, I mean, you can get suburbs out here in Los Angeles
But I just felt like more secure and more safe knowing that I'm kind of out of it all
But I'm still in Phoenix. So thanks to the nine people who crushed up likes
And we're going to compare more about Phoenix. I just wanted to get that off my chest because that's what really inspired this video was just the anxiety and the disease feeling that you get kind of in this big, massive metropolitan area
And that doesn't even include what's happened to Venice Beach. Venice Beach is the land of, I don't know, you guys who haven't been to Venice Beach, go there and you'll be like, I got to get out of here
That's Venice Beach for you. But there's a lot of people down there. If you want to compare population, Phoenix metro areas, they're about four to five million
Los Angeles Metro is around 13 million. If you just compare Phoenix versus Los Angeles directly
Los Angeles has about 4 million people, Phoenix 1.5 million. So, I mean, all in all, Los Angeles
is two to three times bigger than Phoenix for the most part, even if you include the metro area
And Los Angeles is probably the first real megagopolis city. I mean, this city is huge
in terms of area and landmass. If you really include San Bernardino and even it's probably
connected all the way out to Palm Springs. The thing is, Los Angeles is a place that probably
couldn't take on more people moving here, but more and more people keep moving here. So it keeps on
getting bigger and bigger. Even though people are leaving, it's still growing. You know, it's kind of
weird. But yeah, so and then in terms of cost of living, I mean, it's just so expensive here
You know, you get a house in Los Angeles where you're looking at on the low side, five to seven
hundred thousand for just a regular house whereas in phoenix you get that same house for three
hundred thousand dollars food it seemed like like i'd pull out two hundred dollars cash out of the
out of the atm and i felt like that two hundred dollars in los angeles goes faster than really
anywhere else so that stood out to me it was like i was like man that 200 bucks where did it all go
i was just like just hanging out in los angeles is expensive you know venice beach is kind of crazy
um Deliah says not right now thank you okay okay I'm okay no worries that was the housekeeper anyways
um so where was I have you ever been to Virginia because I currently live here in Yorktown on the
financially. Yeah, I went to Virginia. I went to Washington, D.C. and Arlington and all that
just six months ago, five months ago. D.C. is another city. It's funny because D.C. is such a
big political environment with a lot of wealthy people, but right there in the heart of downtown
right where the state or the nation's capital is and the Congress and all that, there's
you know, it's just got all this homeless problem, kind of like what they have in L.A
I mean, it's a tent city all up and down here, right? Let's see here
Okay, so comparing some other things, Phoenix is actually a younger city
So more young people live in Phoenix than they do in Los Angeles
In terms of education system, I mean, there is a pretty good education
There's UCLA out here. I mean, a lot of people want to get their kids educated there
But if you're going to go to college, it's still cheaper to go to school in Arizona than it is to go to school in Phoenix
versus anywhere in the United States. But I think Arizona State University you get a pretty good education there In terms of weather I would say the climate is really good in Los Angeles and that probably not going to go away
I mean, right, I don't know, the climate in Los Angeles, it does get into the hundreds
They basically have two seasons in L.A. They have the rainy season and the dry season, and the rainy season is not a rainy season by any standard of the imagination
And Phoenix, you know, we kind of have a rainy season and a dry season, but we also have a monsoon season
So, I mean, that's kind of good. But the average temperature in Phoenix in the summer is what, 105 to 110
In Los Angeles, it's going to be like 95 to 100, you know. So in terms of the job market, I would say Los Angeles's job market is not that fantastic
I mean, yeah, there's some really good jobs here. And especially if you work in like media, it's probably a good place to be or if you work in showbiz
But outside of that, I mean, the unemployment rate's lower in Phoenix than it is in Phoenix
And in fact, if you look at the future prospects for job growth, Phoenix is set to exceed a lot of, is going to blow right past Los Angeles in terms of future job growth and even the rest of the United States
So if you're looking to grow into a job, Phoenix is probably going to be a better place for you for a career if you can get in the right fit
Because of the way the city is growing, it's growing with the future
So as the future is developing and the new industries and new technologies like Lucid Auto, electric cars, Lucid Motors, which is a competitor of Tesla
you're in the situation where Phoenix is kind of cutting edge. Los Angeles is kind of like so big, it can't even really be cutting edge anymore
So that's a big thing. Also, driving. I mean, to get anywhere in Los Angeles, it's so spread out
I mean, you got to drive so far over here. And yeah, Phoenix is the same way
You got to drive really far to get places. But I don't know, man
It feels like the traffic is crazy in L.A. I mean, crazy, crazy
Let's see. I got some comments. um la has traffic starting at 5 30 until 9 until traffic until 11 on weekends yeah um
my salary is higher here in phoenix than it was in los angeles says scott that's that's
interesting surprise or peoria which is the best to live with a young family both are pretty good
eric but you might consider peoria because it's just a little bit further out of town
and it's close enough to the 101 where you can get anywhere. Surprise is pretty good, though
I mean, it's not my favorite, but, I mean, if you're already set on the West Valley, Peoria probably
Civic says, Virginia is somewhat lackluster for me, just doesn't excite me
like Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Texas, South Carolina. Yeah, Virginia doesn't excite me either
If there was another state that does excite me that's on that list, I don't know
For me, the states that excite me are Florida, Arizona, Texas, Hawaii
But Hawaii is getting kind of out of hand. It's paradise. It's almost becoming a lost paradise, kind of like Los Angeles
Thanks to the 19 people who crushed up the likes. Pete Brown, Central Scottsdale
Yeah, so if you guys have any other questions about my experience here in Los Angeles, if you want to know more, you better ask right now while we're live
or I can try to message you afterwards on a comment. But LA overall, it's just too anxious
It's too much. It's too much life. Even if you go to, like, Beverly Hills, you've got to have big money to be over there
But even then, I mean, it's kind of chill. But that's like such a high-rep district
like good luck trying to live there. And then if you live out in places like the far north and
Santa Clarita or something like that, or the far south over in like Temecula, I mean, you're so far
out of it all. Why even live in California at that point? You might as well just go save money and go
move to Phoenix. Now, granted, people in Phoenix are like, no, don't move here. Don't move here
We don't need California to come kill off our state too. We don't need Californians. But I'm
saying that if you're one of those types of people who understand what the Arizona mentality is and
and you're okay with just kind of chilling out and getting in sync with the Arizona rhythm
you'll probably enjoy it. And that's who I'm talking to here, not these people who are trying to bring Los Angeles problems over to Phoenix, right
Because no one wants that. And I'm saying that's the big complaint
So when will Phoenix Metro become expensive like LA area? There is limited land in Phoenix Metro for growth
That's not true at all, man. And Phoenix Metro has so much room to grow. We could grow
Phoenix can grow all the way towards Wickenburg, which is out past Peoria
It can also grow past Buckeye, and it can also grow south towards Casa Grande
So this whole idea that Phoenix Metro doesn't have room to grow, who said that? I'm not trying to put you down, Steakburger Master
I'm just curious where you got that idea because have you been towards Casa Grande
There's that whole area from Maricopa, Cassie Grant, Southeast Phoenix. There's nothing but even where I live out in Santan Valley
I mean, there's nothing but room to grow out towards the superstition. So we're not even close to that problem
And then Buckeye, where Bill Gates is building that smart city. I mean, there's tons of room to grow out there
Tons. I wouldn't want to live out there. But I mean, if you want to move out towards Buckeye, go for it
Thousand Oaks, Ventura County and Orange County are very nice, affluent places to live in SoCal with great amenities and a job market
Beautiful, too. It's not all L.A. Yeah, I mean, north. Yeah, you're talking Ventura. Yeah, I like it up there
Even towards Santa Barbara, Malibu. All nice. High rent district. I mean, you're still going to be paying two times more for a home, two to three times more for a home to live up there than you would even maybe even Scottsdale
uh rachel says i live in thousand oaks and it used to be nice there are too many people now
yeah it's getting a steak burger master i drove all around az i agree there's a lot of land but
i'm talking about most of az land being federally owned yeah there's a point it's it's so you're
talking phoenix because arizona has a lot of native american indian reservations so those are
more or less like we have the most indian reservations in all than any other state right
And Phoenix if you look off to the east you have towards Scottsdale you have Fort McDowell you have the Talking Stick Indian Reservation that area over there And then you have the Gila River Indian Reservation to the south So you have Fort McDowell You have the what is it
Not the Tohono Odom. I can't even remember all the Indian Reservations
But they were even talking about they're going to start developing that area of Scottsdale
So if you're driving up the 101, if you look east or if you look west towards Camelback Mountain, that's Scottsdale, right
We're talking 101 north just past, like, I don't know, from Shea Boulevard south to the 202
But if you look to the right, remember, you're heading north. It says empty land
You see Talking Stick Casino. You see the aquarium. But it's all just flat land undeveloped
Well, that's because that's Native American land. And they don't develop it because it's all reservation
Well, they're having a conversation about possibly continuing to develop that because what they've what happens is just like how big companies go offshore to get immunity from over taxation or over like too many laws
These these companies are wanting to build on Indian reservations because just like how they can build a casino over there, even though Arizona doesn't have doesn't allow legalized gambling, they can go to a reservation and build a casino there
So what they're doing is they're talking about doing some of these things like that's why they built the aquarium there, because, you know, PETA is so aggressive and and all these animal rights activists and stuff
And, you know, they had a problem with trying to build a marine mammal aquarium in the desert
That was like a big thing. So they built it on the Native American Indian Reservation to kind of, you know, stay clear of all of the the groups that could be coming towards them
so uh yeah i i see what you're saying man steak burger master
how do you how do taxes offer maricopa versus penile county oh i'd have to really dive into that details i don't really know yet i know that where i live
in penile county we don't even have rural metro rural metro is the fire department so
so even though you might pay less in taxes you're still getting hit with something because
it's like rural metro is like, do you want us to come to your house in the event of a fire? If you
do sign up for this extra. So I noticed that you might be thinking that you're saving money, but
then all of a sudden here comes rural metro. Then here comes the Pinal County Sheriff's Department
asking if you want protection and pay them something too. So it's like half a dozen, you know
it's like you might think you're saving money, but you're getting the choice. So you can decline
rural metro to come save your house from a fire and not have to pay them. But, you know
it's one of those things. All right. Pelham says, Hey, just join the chat. Maybe you already
answered this, but how does downtown Phoenix compare to downtown LA? So downtown LA has a
little bit taller buildings than downtown Los Angeles. Like you have a U S bank building in LA
which is one of the tallest buildings in America. Phoenix doesn't have tall skyscrapers. You'll
notice that there's not very many tall ones. And one of the reasons they say is because it right
there in the flight path of sky harbor if you fly into sky harbor especially from the west you'll see
you fly right over downtown and so that's why they say that was the one reason why they say we don't
have high-rise number two is they don't really need high-rises in phoenix because they just grow
you know in all different directions so you don't need a city center like you have an hong kong
or tokyo where you need to build up these tall city uh towers because you need city centers
You know, another area that's getting a downtown, like a second downtown in Phoenix is Tempe by Mill Avenue down by Tempe Town Lake
They're starting to build a lot more skyscrapers. But in terms of like livability, both are not very good downtown areas
They're not like the financial district of Phoenix and the financial district of Los Angeles are not very livable
Neither of them. Um, there's much more of a homeless concentration in the Los Angeles around the Los Angeles downtown area than there is around downtown Phoenix
Uh, they're both, I would say at the end of the day, neither of them are livable
I mean, it's not like Austin, Texas downtown where you want to live in downtown Austin
It's not like downtown San Francisco where you live down there. Although San Francisco has a major homeless problem also
Um, even San Diego has got a really nice downtown. If you're looking for a good downtown, like if you were to compare Phoenix to San Diego, San Diego's got Phoenix beat by a long shot
But yeah, Pete Brown says Tempe looks booming. Yeah, Tempe just keeps growing and growing and growing
I've been gone for two months. I'm sure if I, even if I'm being gone for two months from Tempe, I'll come back and I'll be like, wow, Tempe just grew some more
Whereas downtown Phoenix isn't having that gentrification or that growth or that development taking place like Tempe's having
So Tempe all in all is a really good place to live. The closer you are to Tempe, the better off you're going to be
You don't really want to live too close to downtown LA. You don't really want to live too close to downtown Phoenix
You want to be closer to like Beverly Hills or Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles or Hollywood even
I don't know about Hollywood, but in Phoenix, you want to be closer to Tempe
so that that being close to tempe includes scottsdale um chandler awatuki mesa maybe
gilbert gilbert's a good place too tempe does have a lot of homeless every downtown area is
going to have homeless in america it's not like new zealand where there's no homeless okay it's
not like australia like you don't want homeless go to australia go to new zealand they don't have
homelessness like they don't have this pooping and peeing on the side of the street with drug
addicts and syringes and stuff on the side of the road they don't have that there well they do they
might and like a it's you you can go there and you won't see it in america the first thing that
these japanese tourists say or these chinese tourists or anyone from australia or something
is whoa that's dangerous in la like there's countless times i've heard people say la is
dangerous we're talking japanese tourists people who come here and they say la is dangerous
and it's there's not too many cities on earth that have that kind of reputation like maybe
Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles. Those are cities that have that kind of reputation
But Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, they don't have that reputation of being very dangerous places
like Los Angeles. So it's kind of and even if you talk to the locals about that particular issue of
why Los Angeles has this reputation and being so dangerous, they don't like it. They don't like
being a part of a city that's so dangerous. Or it's a national embarrassment in a way
to a lot of people who live here. Thank you Anna Anna says welcome back Jeff I moving to Phoenix area in six years when I retired Do you think Southeast Valley is going to be the hot area All of Phoenix is going to be about the same temperature
I don't know where in Southeast Valley you're going to retire, but I'd imagine you're talking about sun lakes
Sun lakes is the 55 plus retirement community. In Southeast Phoenix, there's also Encantara, which is far East Phoenix
And then there's these, uh, are you going to be in a mobile home park? There's a lot of mobile home parks where you get like one to two bedroom houses that are pretty nice in these really cool communities and like Mesa and whatnot
So, I mean, Southeast Valley is going to be no hotter or colder than Sun City
OK. Michael says, or you can just go to Scottsdale. They don't have any to have any homeless
Yeah. Scottsdale is really trying to eradicate the homeless problem. That's why they don't want to build the light rail up there because the second they put in mass transit, because along those mass transit lines, the bus routes and the light rail, that's where the homeless people kind of set up their tents is because they can get around
They don't want to have to walk way up and down. Another thing that Scottsdale did is they put up a sign where it says, do not feed the homeless
If you want to give to the homeless, give to a nonprofit who's helping homeless people
So in Scottsdale, they have signs on the side of the road saying, do not give directly to the homeless
You might be like, oh, that's so evil, that's so rude. Well, what they're saying is what's happening is these homeless people, you give them five bucks, they go out and they buy more drugs
And then when they buy more drugs, that creates more of a problem. So whereas if you give it to a charity that's helping out homeless people, assuming it's not a corrupt one that's just pocketing 75 percent of its revenues, because we heard about that, right
You know, it's better to just give to someone who already is helping homeless
um so at one point richmond virginia was the murder capital of the u.s a civic
lexus kind of guy yeah i mean i was even talking to uber driver he said that
if you think los angeles is dangerous now you should have seen it in the 80s and the 90s remember
back when the rodney king riots happened remember the riots of la back in the early 90s i mean
los angeles has never really been a safe place and even if you look at most cities in america
America's never really been a safe, safe place. I mean, it's never really been the case
And truth be told, we're probably the safest that we've ever been in the last 20 to 30 years
I mean, it's not like the 50s or the 40s back when, you know, you could leave your house unlocked right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles or something
Keenan says, I'm moving to Tucson in a few months. I've taken public transportation for the last 15 years, but or should I buy a car
I heard that. Oh, if you're moving to Tucson, there is no doubt you need a car. there is no doubt about it you need a car unless you really want to suffer if you're moving to
tucson you absolutely 100 need a car this whole idea that you can live in tucson without a car
unless you're just going to be going to the university are you going to be in the university
i mean i guess that's cool but if you're moving to tucson yeah you need a car if you're moving
to phoenix you're going to need a car phoenix and tucson are car cities even even los angeles
This is a car city. Eric says, which suburb can you get the most bang for your buck as far as living lifestyle growth
Well, Santan Valley is pretty good, but it doesn't have the best lifestyle
Buckeye, you can get a lot of bang for your buck, but not the best lifestyle
If you're looking for the best lifestyle, probably I always say Ahwatukee
And it's funny because I say Ahwatukee on this channel so many times. I think it goes in one ear and out the other
Or people are like, well, he just told me where the best bank for your buck is. I'm not going to check there
Because of the name. Everyone hears the name Ahwatukee and they're just like, I think they're even going to change the name of Ahwatukee
There's some sort of merging that's happening between, it's like Tukedale or something like that
They're going to change the name. But Ahwatukee, in my opinion, is number one in the Phoenix metro area in terms of price affordability, location, all that
so if you haven't already checked out awatuki i recommend it and here's the thing it's just
off the fringe of chandler and tempe but it's up against the mountain so you get this like mountain
like you can like you get like hiking right there and then you get like right next to the freeway
and pretty nice quality homes i mean it's getting older like a lot of the homes that they built
right there are starting to age but like in the 80s and the 90s i mean that was the real true hidden
gem like drummer said bang for buck anywhere close to 101 and 60 access
entertainment areas Scottsdale Tempe Phoenix no I don't know Scott I saw there's some sort
of merger happening with like no it was Levine I'm sorry it was
Levine and and it was one of the it was one of the cities they're
building like this new city and they're gonna they're gonna merge it between like
the old city name or the two cities and they're going to like half them. I don't remember. I saw
it like, and I was just like, it was a terrible name. Anything you try to half with Awatuki
is just not going to work. Um, Jubilee says, is Buckeye really bad? Buckeye is not terrible
It's brand new. I mean, Buckeye used to be the armpit of Phoenix, but they built a whole bunch
of homes out there, like 15 to 20,000 new people came out there with all these homes. So it all
of a sudden became kind of nice, just a modern area, but there's still not a lot of things out
there but it's a slingshot ride down the i-10 to get to anything and it's hot and buckeye buckeye
just feels like five to ten degrees hotter it's right there at the in the basin of like the gila
river valley you know it's just right there on the gila river and it's dry the gila river is dry
was looking at scottsdale but would be nice and safe place as far as west as possible i need to
be closer to San Diego, even if it's by 30 minutes. Thank you. Um, I don't know, Greg
check out all with two key. Yeah. Crime is really everywhere. Anyways, guys, thanks to the, uh
35 people who crushed up the likes. Do you guys want me to keep going or, or you guys all done
with your questions? Cause I'm going to go get some breakfast anyways, guys. Yeah. I'll see you
guys later. Um, I'll see you on the next one. I'm headed home to Phoenix. So I was gone for two
months. If you haven't already seen my video of Los Angeles on Island Hopper TV, I made a video
of Los Angeles, uh, walking around downtown. You guys can check it out. So we'll see you guys later