Demographics of Flagstaff Arizona
Website design By BotEap.comSo what about the flag? Well, after having been checking the area we find that the Flag is OK. Flagstaff has been growing for quite some time since it got its name from a pine used as a flagpole in 1876 when travelers reached the top of the mountain via the old trail. Although not as fast as the other fast growing parts of Arizona, it has held its own against the growth of other parts of this great nation.
Website design By BotEap.comThe GMP Gross Metropolitan Product grew around 6.3% during the 1990-2000 decade. But real growth has been more recent and is expected to be 3.6% a year. Well, lots of second homes, retirees, and refugees from Metro PHX and Southern CA with Ph.Ds. In fact, there are more PhDs in Flagstaff than in any other city in Arizona.
Website design By BotEap.comhttp://www.flagstaff.az.us
Website design By BotEap.comThere are many freelancers who work from home as consultants. More self-employed people working from home than anywhere else in Arizona and the same as in Sedona. Tourism is down, but only slightly by 2.2% and for tourist areas, less than most other places in the country, mainly due to the need to drive. Everything is scattered, many parks, the Grand Canyon, Indian cities. America West has increased flights. Flag is the starting point for all these sights. We met people here from England, France, China, and many states on our way to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, state parks, as well as PHX and Los Angeles, lots of homebuyers, RV travelers, and vacationers. to be a year around thing. On any given day there are more than 5,000 people traveling and spending money. Lots of people come for the day to shop at the mall or just hang out and go into town from Sedona and we met a great couple from Williams. Many people who live in Los Palos come to the city once or twice a week.
Website design By BotEap.comRecently, tourism has been affected by fuel prices and the rupture of the Kinder Morgan pipeline a month ago. This is because no one could fill gas and drive uphill to escape the heat (only about 2 hours in moderate traffic, at night you can fly if you have the energy). The flag, of course, is between 10 and 15 degrees cooler in summer. And when he hits 115 on PHX, everyone wants to leave. You would not do that? They get into an air-conditioned car for a ride and just end up at Flag? No, just kidding, but it’s the joke in town these days. The cost of living is well above the national average, mainly due to wealthy city dwellers moving up the hill. They usually come to town established and stay for five years and get bored and come back. Except for the dodger cave dweller, who stayed in a cave for 11 years in the state park and got kicked out and told he shouldn’t come back?
Website design By BotEap.comArtificial real estate is causing difficulties for children trying to buy in the city, it absorbs all the apartments along with the University of Northern AZ. They claim to be number 8 in the city for the healthiest places to live, bringing you the Granolas. High schools have one of the lowest dropout rates in the country. Due to secondhand homes, K-3 enrollments are declining, age trends of older populations are occurring.
Website design By BotEap.comFamilies just starting out find it difficult to stay. Some yuppie soccer mom SUV members are moving on, but not as quickly as the crowd of retired or older professionals, who want out of the rat race and can still afford it. This is happening in many similar cities that we have visited.
Website design By BotEap.comMajor employers include WL Gore and Associates, which manufactures medical supplies; Flagstaff Medical Center; Grand Canyon Tourist Railway. Remember the railroad has been there since 1881, NACOG – government training (and they need the training too, don’t they?), SWCAA, Inc. Environmental Products because of the assistance available to all.
Website design By BotEap.comWalgrens Distribution, Distribution and Transportation is doing well there and there are only a ton of hotels and restaurants to cater to the tourist. The telemarketing firm Sturner and Klien recently suffered a great deal of damage, though fortunately they have other avenues. Cat food manufacturers Nestle Purina and it smells like cat food on that side of town, ha ha ha, not really. Famous Lowell Observatory also there.
Website design By BotEap.comThe cleaning industry is very much alive in both pressure washing and car washes. Five Guys Car Wash (HA), Flag Car Wash, Twin Pines Car Wash. Also Flagstaff Pressure Washing, Perkins Power Wash, Tryton Enterprises, Joes Power Washing. Now keep in mind that these are pretty good operators and there are only 57,000 people in the city living all year round. Does not include university students or second homes. They are both big numbers.
Website design By BotEap.comThe service sector is alive and well in Flag. Retail and Hospitality as well. The mall is expanding and currently has about 723 construction workers who are helping the job situation. The retail jobs created by this mall expansion are approximately 240 additional with approximately 48 unrelated supporting jobs in the city. For a complete list of chamber companies. How many jobs are currently available for those who want to work?
Website design By BotEap.comVarious school improvement construction work is underway, as well as a downtown revitalization. Multi-million dollar project of 6 blocks in the center. Multi-level parking structure and shopping district. The folks at Economic Development are working hard on retaining, expanding and training the workforce, trying to increase the number of good paying jobs in the area to keep families in town and doing well. Many of the families moving downhill complain about traffic and want to get home safely.
Website design By BotEap.comTelecommunications is a big deal and they now have a great fiber optic line from PHX, to provide excellent service. Satellite broadband is available through two providers. The area is also great for distribution companies with 80 trains passing through a day, some people complain, but the railway is part of the landscape and has been since 1894 when it was incorporated.
Website design By BotEap.comFlag also has a distribution center along I-40 and a business zone and huge truck stop. The technology park of the airport has just increased by 11 hectares. The University has special projects in renewable energies, energy and engineering. The Solar Project is cutting edge similar to the work of the Tempe University Center. In town is Southwest Wind power, manufacturing benefits from special projects college labor and technology as well. Flagstaff just came out of a level two drought and will most likely have to watch out for water resources as it expands, this is a major issue for us in Flagstaff. Golf courses, central dividers, urban landscaping and cities that are careful with the use of gray water.
Website design By BotEap.comThere have been watering restrictions in times of drought, and they were happy to see that we were low water users for car washes, they like the idea and think this is valuable. We found that the service sector is overwhelmed and if you provide great service you will be overwhelmed with work and therefore not able to serve the demand through the referrals you get it is that kind of city and the demand for service is high and we see incredible growth in that sector.
Website design By BotEap.comUnemployment is low at 4.9%. There is 11.3% American Indian, who are a great source of labor and really get along and add a lot to the environment and heritage of the town/city (still in the middle). The largest age group is rapidly changing and moving upwards. Currently, the 25-40 age group represents 30% of the population, but the 45-65 age group is increasing rapidly. The tiger files predict 70,000 by 2010, I disagree, all things being equal, I’d expect that number to be more like 85,000. Annual population growth is 3% so that’s really high, but it seems to be sustainable for some time, it’ll just re-issue water supplies.
Website design By BotEap.comOne time it didn’t rain for 140 days, then President Bush showed up to give a speech and it rained, needless to say compassionate conservatism took on a whole new meaning as it won a huge chunk of that 6980ft above sea level city from sea. Annual rainfall was about 21 inches, but lately it has been much less. Snowfall is good at 100 inches and you need it for the water to absorb and accumulate. It rarely exceeds 90 degrees in the summer, but the winters can be quite cold and very beautiful with all the snow, attracting tourism throughout the year. Being along I-40, it’s also a good stopping point for weary travelers, and thus scoops up quite a bit of your cash flow without it slipping away easily. In July, the sales tax went up to 8.125%, and that’s the 1.54% city tax, the 0.8125% county tax, and the state sales tax. This has promoted many to drive downhill to buy new cars. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been good for that auto sector, however, the new money inflows have also helped sales, so maybe the impact isn’t too bad. A Patel family hotel owner complained about room tax increases, but said “it’s okay, because now they have to listen to my wife when she goes down to city hall because we’re funding the place.” I laughed then thought he was right, luckily the other nearby towns have hotel taxes as well, but Winslow, AZ doesn’t, Williams does. So it’s a giveaway. There is some agriculture in Flagstaff and the farmers markets do quite well and there are some nice things to buy here.
Website design By BotEap.comToday agriculture is somewhat small with only about 60 people employed in that sector and they are not big users of water. The service sector employs just over 16,000 people and is growing rapidly. We were very interested in the projects and job growth and the construction of new facilities.
Website design By BotEap.comWe were also excited to discover that NAU had a job center for students to find jobs, a good source of labor, the phone number is (928)-523-9463. The work of Arthur Base was also good.
Website design By BotEap.comWe have noticed that the crime rate is not that bad, but substance abuse is a problem. Alcohol and drug problems still continue, but overall crime has gone down somewhat over the years, even with the increase in population. In general, we really like it here and we think there is a lot of potential. Judging by the competition and their busy schedules, a company committed to service in almost any service industry is as good as gold on the Pine Tree Flag Pole.