Do skilled people hate living in the Valley? (AZCentral.com)

Interesting articles from The Arizona Republic/AZCentral.com:

• Arizona's choice: Lead or follow
  
• Does quality of life fall short?
• Opportunities essential for drawing 'knowledge workers'

Various snippets from the articles:

• "The cost of living is cheaper here than in Chicago," Tim Baker said. "But in terms of quality of life, Phoenix isn't a bargain."
• "In the summer of 2004, the Maricopa Regional Arts and Culture Task Force released a report that found the Valley ranked last or close to the bottom in nearly every standard used to measure the strength of a region's arts and culture sector. Measured against nine economic competitors (Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, N.C., Denver, Indianapolis, Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City, San Diego and Seattle), Phoenix spent the least money on arts, culture and humanities organizations. Phoenix also had the fewest number of museums, performing arts companies, and other arts and culture establishments."
• "Housing accounts for at least $1 in every $3 that is generated in metropolitan Phoenix."

My thoughts:
Except for a few certain areas (i.e. Chandler), the Phoenix metro area is lagging big time in so many areas (income, culture, education, infrastructure, etc.).

At least the food scene is decent. =)

On a related topic, this month's issue of Travel + Leisure has an interesting article about the "25 top urban destinations in the U.S.". Visitors and residents alike scored Phoenix low in almost all categories.

See the article here.