mjmphx

13th goes from ASU at the east end to Priest at the west. In between are a lot of low, slump-block houses rented to students, and apartments. There are no businesses off 13th, but just a bit south at Broadway there are quite a few. 13th is mostly useful as a shortcut to ASU, either from Priest, Hardy, Broadway, or sometimes University (if traffic is really bad). As a result, there are a good number of speed bumps. If you need to get to the music school or Gammage auditorium on any kind of regular basis, it's likely you will get to know 13th.

My brother lived on Indianola, right around 12th St, and the little neighborhood there is working to establish itself. There are a wide variety of ages represented, and people maintain their houses and yards pretty well. A few of the older residents bought the houses new in the '40s and '50s, and are some of the nicest people there. A lot of 30something professionals are in the area, and a good number of families with kids. There's a park just around the corner, adjacent to an elementary school. You have to go up to Camelback to get shopping done, but it's not far. The light rail is within biking distance, too.

This is the sort of street that you should have bought on in 1975. It's got lots of tall trees, spacious lots, and well-built houses. The golf course clubhouse has a restaurant I can't afford to eat at, but have heard good things about. The residents are largely Arizona veterans, who have seen the valley grow up around them, but have maintained a really relaxed feel to the area. If you have any reason to drive down this street, or into the surrounding neighborhoods, take the opportunity. It's a beautiful part of Scottsdale.

Via de Ventura stretches from the Loop 101 on the east to Scottsdale Road on the West, and in between is one of the upscale business districts of central Scottsdale. Lots of small, attractive office buildings, and one of the greenest roads in the desert. If you can ignore the obviously excessive use of water on non-native landscaping, it's quite pretty. At McClintock there is a business/shopping center with a few restauruants, and there are more restauruants at Scottsdale. There aren't many single-family residences along here, but there are a lot of high-rent apartments and upscale condos. I'm sure it's a very nice place to work.

Don't exceed the speed limit on this one! The residents have money and clout, and the police are very happy to have a photo van here almost every day. Other than that, this street is attractive. It runs from Scottsdale Road on the east end, all the way to Tatum on the west. At Scottsdale, there is a little shopping center, and my wife says the Thai restaurant is very tasty.

Of particular note is the Soleri gallery, just to the east of Invergordon, on the south side of the road. Mr. Soleri is a sculptor/artisan, and operates his own forge to create some of his work. It's open to the public, though I am not sure of the hours (it's his home, too).

West of Invergordon you get to the Camelback Golf Course, but this has no impact on traffic since the carts have a tunnel under the road. There are nice houses all along the road, and it's a pleasant drive.

I lived a little south of Broadway on 31st St in Mesa, and I really enjoyed the older homes with mature vegetation, and all the remnants of farm life that still hang around out there. People were generally nice and pretty good at keeping up their yards, though there were some kids that weren't particularly savory. The lots are all big, a number of people have outbuildings, and the neighborhood is very quiet. It's close to an elementary school, and there's a shopping center just down the road at Lindsey. Also, at Gilbert and Broadway, there's a really excellent mechanic (Bryan's Auto).

Kyrene starts in central Tempe, at a railroad crossing, and goes south from there. Between Baseline and Guadalupe there is an industrial district on the east and residential on the west. The industrial area contains a steel foundry, which should be avoided when they are melting (evenings during the summer, mornings & afternoons during the winter). It's mostly commercial for the next two miles or so. There is an ice rink just a little bit south of Guadalupe, and some pretty alright restaurants at Eliot. Take a right past the Sonic, and there's a YC's and a good sushi place. A friend tells me that the kebab restaruant is good, too. Kyrene eventually leads into Chandler, and becomes a suburban arterial, with lots of shopping malls, subdivisions, etc. Kyrene in Tempe is a pretty much a plain vanilla light commercial/industrial area.

Take a drive on E Lincoln between SR-51 and Tatum, and enjoy one of the nicest parts of central Phoenix. Lincoln winds past resorts, the entrance to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve (with good hiking up Squaw Peak), through nice homes and churches, and into the south end of Paradise Valley. It's a nice Sunday drive, and worth the trip. Also, it passes very close to some good restaurants, including a sushi place at 32nd St & Camelback, which I really like.

Invergordon is a mini-arterial in Paradise Valley, running continuously from Mockingbird to Shea (where it turns into 64th St). The lots adjoining the street are mostly all 1-acre parcels, with a lot of '60s-'70s-'80s houses, low slung slump block structures, on a slab, with a flat roof and a fair bit of native vegetation. Through the boom years, 2002-2007, a lot of those houses were bulldozed for foam-and-stucco mansions, but enough still remain that it still looks like a quiet desert road.

The road is 35mph, and has curbs for some of its length. A median was added in 2006-2007, and can make it hard to access some of the houses (not all the cutouts match up with the driveways). A four-way stop at Doubletree Ranch is the only significant traffic control feature.

I have seen kids playing around the road, and it's kind of at that tipping point between being a quiet residential street and a real road. I would feel comfortable jogging or bicycling there, even at night.

In order to get to any businesses or restaurants, though, you have to go at least a mile. I think all of the street is in the Chaparral HS district, which is very good, and there is a Jewish school not far away.

There are a lot of cross-sections you can take of E Osborn, from the country club at 12th St, the decent apartments at 16th St (where I lived), and the wide variety of small businesses, residences, apartments, and two elementary schools. Osborn is part of downtown at Central, and was a semi-suburb in the '70s, to judge from the tract housing.

It's not too loud, or too busy, though it can be hard to get through lights at 16th and 24th St. There are apartments scattered all along the length of E Osborn, at varying rents. There is a old-Phoenix feel around 34th St, where the houses are on larger lots with mature vegetation, and a much more urbanized feel further west.