Tucson is a friendly, rapidly growing city with the advantages of a large metropolis but the neighborhood atmosphere of a smaller town. A mix of Hispanic, Native American, African American, Caucasian, and other ethnic groups underscore its cultural diversity. This diversity is celebrated annually during Tucson Heritage Days, a weekend festival with food booths, crafts, music, dancing and the like. This more formal name replaced the initial name for this festival, which was "Tucson, Meet Yourself". This event is held after the Mariachi festival but before "Rodeo Days." When Dorothy said to her little dog, "Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas [or Cleveland] anyone," she could have been seeing Tucson for the first time.

The city is situated in the Sonoran desert, but the image of sand dunes in the Sahara could not be further from the truth. This desert, called intermediate because of rainfall and 2200 feet altitude, gets twelve inches of rain a year, with alternating wet and dry seasons, and supports a continuous and impressive variety of trees, shrubs, and blooming flowers. The city is ringed by four mountain ranges with all of their geographic and biologic diversity. Skiing and snow sports are available in the winter in these nearby mountains, and fishing, hiking, and camping are favored in the summer. The Tucson valley is also a delight for birders, photographers, artists, and general outdoor enthusiasts. Arizona is home to at least 450 species of birds, and more than 250 species of butterflies are found in just Southeastern Arizona. Plant life is similarly impressive; it is easy to cultivate a garden with vegetables and blooming flowers every month of the year.

Tucson abounds with facilities for golf, tennis, soccer, baseball, horseback riding, and the like. The White Mountains of Northern Arizona, only a morning’s drive away, have broad expanses of pine forests, lakes and trout streams, and the "northwoods" feeling that goes with elevations of 7,000-9,000 feet. On the other hand, a morning’s travel southwest brings one to the warm waters and broad sandy beaches of Puerto Peņasco, Sonora, Mexico, a resort charming town on the Sea of Cortez that bills itself as "Arizona’s Beach."

The cultural and entertainment life of Tucson is remarkable for the city’s size, due in part to the influence of the University of Arizona and its dedication to both the arts and athletics. Tucson also is home to the Arizona Theatre Company, a professional theatre group of great renown, the Arizona Opera Company, which puts on 4 or 5 performances a year, alternating between Tucson and Phoenix, the Tucson Symphony, Arizona Ballet, and a host of other musical, theatrical, and cultural groups. The University of Arizona can claim NCAA championship basketball, softball, and baseball teams in recent years, as well as a top 5 finish for Wildcat football in 1999. Phoenix is 1.5 hours to the north, and this mini-Los Angeles has more culture and entertainment, as well as professional teams in all major sports.

Yes, it gets hot in summer, but as they say, "It’s a dry heat", and the evenings are mild. This heat is followed by the summer rainy season, which then fades into 9 months of remarkably enjoyable fall, winter, and spring weather: There is no snow to shovel, no ice to scrape off your windshield, just pleasant days. However, snow is available at the top of the nearby mountains or with a quick trip to Northern Arizona.

Living and raising a family in Tucson offers several benefits. The school systems are good, the cost of living is quite reasonable, and shopping is made easy by a wide variety of retail businesses, discount stores, and shopping malls. One would not think that the words "desert" and "paradise", could not describe the same spot on the map. But many Tucson residents feel that "desert paradise" exactly describes where they live.

City of Tucson Official Web Site

Tucson On-Line Magazine