Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Having lived in both NY and AZ...I'll take NY summers over AZ summers. It's all well and good to yammer about humidity, but over the last 4 decades, Phoenix (and Tucson both) have had pretty significant increases in humidity, as more and more people relocate to the area and bring their idea of "tolerable" with them, planting green lawns of grass, building pools, and so on. In fact, the heat island of Phoenix is now so great that the lovely summer monsoons (incorrectly named, but..) that we used to get, reliably, almost every afternoon during the worst of the summer heat are now a memory. We get SOME summer storms, but nothing like we used to. And yes, that was in my lifetime; I experienced them myself.
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We have A/C these days, and it's on 24/7 throughout the year. That's less a manner of temperature than particulate control. The A/C has an air filter function that's a necessity. The SO is asthmatic, and her serious problems appear to date from 9/11 and the toxins spewed into the air as the WTC went down. NYC's Health Department has special programs for those so afflicted as a cost savings measure. It's cheaper to take steps to keep people from needing hospital visits.
We also get air quality alerts, and there are days the SO simply doesn't leave the house because she likes to be able to breathe.
Alamogordo had some of what you describe when I was there, and an interesting set of local politics. One faction wanted to improve the local economy and was lobbying for major carrier service into the airport. Another faction was retirees who moved to a small town with warm climate on retirement, and wanted it to
stay a quiet small town. I wondered what they would do down the road. They were still young enough to care for themselves, but what happened when they needed assisted living? Young folks growing up in Alamogordo all left as soon as they could, because there were no local opportunities for them.
Meanwhile, I was bemused at people who wanted verdant lawns and swimming pools in a desert area, and never mind where the water would come from. That was someone
else's problem...
I'm a confirmed big city boy, so small town living isn't what I'd do deliberately, but if I found myself in someplace like that, I'd adapt to the climate instead of trying to adapt it to me.
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Dennis