Glendale, Arizona, is a big suburb of Phoenix. The two cities run length-wise next to each other for dozens of miles, but it’s Phoenix which contains the downtown and centralized business districts, while Glendale is mostly residential neighborhoods and strip malls. That being said, since the mid 2000’s, Glendale has begun to come into its own, now the home of the Westgate shopping center and a business hub on Bell Road.
Here are the pros and cons of Glendale, Arizona moving companies know full well about.
Positives of Glendale, AZ
- Outdoors activities – Golf and hiking are popular past times in Glendale. The city has plenty of courses and is close to wide open, mountainous desert. It’s also only 20 minutes away from Lake Pleasant, a large, cool lake in the middle of the desert.
- Westgate – Westgate is a relatively new entertainment center that includes upper-class shopping and dining, bars, a movie theater, and, most notably of all, the Arizona Cardinals’ football stadium, which is routinely home to Super Bowls and the Fiesta Bowl and attracts hundreds of thousands to the area each year.
- Driving – Driving in Glendale is a necessity, but, fortunately, there are a lot of wide roads to do it on. The average road in Glendale is six lanes (three on each side), and the 101 and the 17 both curve through the city, giving residents good highway options.
- Affordable – Glendale is growing quickly, and at its outer reaches are very affordable homes and apartments. However, even where the city borders Phoenix, it’s filled with affordable housing.
Negatives of Glendale, AZ
- Strip malls & parking lots – Glendale exemplifies urban sprawl. The city has grown incredibly fast, leaving no time for dense development. Strip malls and neighborhoods is pretty much all you’ll see.
- Unwalkable – Because it is so spread out, the city is pretty much unwalkable. For those who live in a neighborhood, the nearest store of any kind is probably at least a mile away, let alone the store that you want to go to. Worse, the city relies on a bus system that is tediously slow. It can take up to two hours simply to get from western Glendale to central Phoenix (~20 minute drive).
- Poor selection – Glendale has all the fast food options you can want. Beyond that, though, good luck. The city does not have many good, local spots, and those it does have often don’t survive very long. Even Westgate is full of big, commercial spots, the Margaritavilles of the world, rather than locally-owned places.
Check out some Glendale, AZ movers today.
