Flagstaff Arizona Demographics
So 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 tree used as a flagpole in 1876 when travelers came to the top of the mountain on the old trail. Although not as fast as the other high-growing parts of Arizona, it has held its own against the growth of other parts of this great nation.
The GMP Gross Metropolitan Product grew around 6.3% during the decade 1990-2000. But the actual growth has been more recent and is expected to be 3.6% per year. Well, lots of second homes, retirees and refugees from Metro PHX and southern CA with PhDs. In fact, there are more doctorates in Flagstaff than in any other city in Arizona.
http://www.flagstaff.az.us
There 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 at 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 attractions. We met people here from England, France, China, and many states on the way to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the state parks, as well as PHX and Los Angeles, lots of home buyers, 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 in 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. A lot of people who live in the sticks come to town once or twice a week.
Tourism recently took a hit from fuel prices and the Kinder Morgan pipeline rupture a month ago. This is because no one could gas up and drive uphill to escape the heat (only about 2 hours with moderate traffic, at night you can fly if you have the power). The flag, of course, is between 10 and 15 degrees cooler in summer. And when he gets to 115 in PHX, everyone wants to leave. You would not do that? Do they get into an air-conditioned car for a drive 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. Usually they 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 wasn’t supposed to come back?
Artificial real estate is causing hardship for kids trying to buy in the city, they absorb all the apartments along with the University of Northern AZ. They claim to be the number 8 healthiest places to live in the city, 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.
Families just starting out find it hard to stick around. Some members of yuppie soccer mom SUVs do move on, but not as fast as the crowd of retired or older professionals, who want to get out of the rat race and can still afford it. This is happening in many similar cities we have visited.
Major employers include WL Gore and Associates, which makes medical supplies; Flagstaff Medical Center; Grand Canyon Tourist Railroad. Remember the railroad has been there since 1881, NACOG – government training (and they need the training too right?), SWCAA, Inc. Environmental Products because of the assistance available to all.
Walgrens Distribution, Distribution and Transportation is doing well there and there are just a ton of hotels and restaurants to cater to the tourist. The telemarketing firm Sturner and Klien recently suffered a lot of damage, although fortunately they have other avenues. Cat food makers Nestle Purina and it smells like cat food on that side of town ha ha ha, not really. Famous Lowell Observatory also there.
The cleaning industry is very much alive in both pressure washing and car washes. Five Guys (HA) Car Wash, 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 year round. Does not include university students or second homes. Both are big numbers.
The service sector is alive and well in Flag. Retail and Hospitality too. The mall is expanding and currently has about 723 construction workers who are helping the employment situation. The retail jobs created by this mall expansion are an additional approximately 240 with approximately 48 unrelated support jobs in the city. For a complete list of chamber companies. How many jobs are currently available for those who want to work?
Various 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 commercial district. The Economic Development folks are hard at work on workforce retention, expansion and training, 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 down the hill complain about the traffic and want to flag their way home.
Telecommunications is a big problem and now they 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 running through a day, some people complain but the railway is part of the landscape and has been since 1894 when it was incorporated.
Flag also has a distribution center along I-40 and a corporate area and a huge truck stop. The airport technology park has just increased by 11 hectares. The University has special projects in renewable energy, 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 workforce and technology as well. Flagstaff just came out of a level two drought and you will most likely have to be careful with water resources as it expands, this is a major issue for us in Flagstaff. Golf courses, central dividers, urban landscaping and careful cities with the use of gray water.
There have been watering restrictions in times of drought, and they were happy to see that we were low water users for car washing, 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 unable to meet the demand through the referrals you get, it’s that kind of city and the demand for service is high and we see incredible growth in that sector.
Unemployment is low at 4.9%. There are 11.3% American Indians, 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 accounts for 30% of the population, but the 45-65 age group is increasing rapidly. The tiger files predict 70,000 for 2010, I disagree, all things being equal I expect that number to be more like 85,000. Annual population growth is 3%, so it’s really high, but it seems to be sustainable for some time, just re-issue water supplies.
One 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 over a huge chunk of that 6980 ft above city from sea. Annual precipitation was about 21 inches, but lately it has been much less. Snowfall is good to 100 inches and they need it for the water to soak up and collect. It rarely gets above 90 degrees in the summer, but the winters can be quite cold and very beautiful with all the snow, attracting tourism year-round. Being along I-40, it’s also a good stopping point for weary travelers, and thus picks up quite a bit of your cash flow without easily slipping away. 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 down the hill to buy new cars. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been good for that auto sector, however, the new money inflows have also helped sales, so perhaps the impact isn’t too bad. A hotel owner from the Patel family complained about the 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 cities have hotel taxes too, but Winslow, AZ doesn’t, Williams does. So it’s a draw. There is some agriculture in Flagstaff and the farmers markets do quite well and there are some nice things to buy here.
Today agriculture is rather small, with only about 60 people employed in that sector and they are not large 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 building new facilities.
We were also excited to find that NAU had an employment office for students to find work, a good source of manpower, the phone number is (928)-523-9463. The work of Arthur Base was also good.
We have noticed that the crime rate is not that bad, but substance abuse is a problem. Alcohol and drug problems still persist, but overall crime has dropped somewhat over the years, even with the increase in population. Overall 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 sector is as good as gold in the City of Pine Tree Flag Pole.
