tucson: What areas would be good to live in where you can find a lot of conveniences clustered together like fast food, grocery, department stores? Basically where you can see the light and not even think you are living on a desert.|||No! I think Phoenix is a lot nicer then Tucson. If you want an area that makes you forget that you are in the desert, Tucson only has a few. North Central Phoenix always makes me forget I'm in the desert, and so does the Arrowhead area in Glendale. The East Valley has a lot of little communities to. Tucson is so dry looking compared to Phoenix because there are more water restrictions there. Phoenix has so many new communities, and with new communities come the Shops and restaurants. I hardly ever have to leave the North West Valley because I have everything I need there.|||Thanks! I don't know where you are from, but in Phoenix you have the international airport, so when you get home sick, it's easy and cheap to hop on a plane an fly home for a weekend, well, at least for right now. With fuel prices, who knows now. Good luck on your decision. Report Abuse |||Tucson has everything that Phoenix has, except a lot smaller in size and population and certainly a lot less of the fast food places, department stores and groceries, etc. Tucson is overall a nicer place to live than Phoenix as it is smaller, requires less time commuting (but has a lot fewer jobs), much of the city is spread out and in sight of the desert which what the people want. Whereas Phoenix is a city with little view of the desert until you get out of the city. Tucson, pardon the pun, is a city with a light restriction in effect at night to keep the telescopes in the mountains from getting light polluted. So the skies in Tucson are a lot darker from an airplane that Phoenix would be. Mpho|||Phoenix area is way better in every way.|||Phx is way nicer than Tucson