North Scottsdale

The Health Nut
North Scottsdale
85260

If being fit, healthy and beautiful is your No. 1 goal in life, north Scottsdale should be your neighborhood. Live anywhere along Loop 101 between Shea Boulevard and Pinnacle Peak Road, and you’ll have abundant access to walking, hiking, biking and horseback riding trails at McDowell Mountain Park, Pinnacle Peak Park and the Central Arizona Project canal. (Heck, you could even find property to own your own horse.) You’ll also be within throwing distance of several wellness-minded businesses.

The Edge on Wellness, for instance, is a one-stop hub for all your beauty, health and wellness needs, located at 92nd Street and Shea Boulevard. Here you can get a mani-pedi or variety of other salon services, get a quick lift with a Botox injection, enjoy a massage, gain a healthy perspective with a life-coaching session – or a healthy glow with a tanning session – pick up a new pair of sunglasses or consult with a nutritionist. The Edge also is home to CrossFit Scottsdale, which opened in October and already has plans to expand to a larger location due to its popularity. This strength-and-conditioning program offers more personal attention than your average gym class and much more accountability (owner and coach Luke Kayyem may send you a motivational text message if you miss a class).

For roughly $200 to $300 per month, CrossFit “students” train together in small classes and use their bodies and surrounding environment to get through a high-intensity workout. Remember those physical fitness tests you took in grade school? Push-ups, sit-ups, jump rope, etc.? It’s like that, only much, much harder – and much more rewarding.

And in the event that your health takes a turn for the worse, you’ll be surrounded by some of the best health care facilities in the Valley, with Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Hospital and Mayo Clinic Hospital – not to mention scores of doctors’ offices – right in your neighborhood.

Evergreen, Mesa

The Historic Fixer-Upper Type
Evergreen, Mesa
85201

The name says it all. In a Valley filled with neighborhoods whose character is stagnant and hard to define, Mesa’s Evergreen district remains fresh and lively almost 100 years after its born-on date.

One of Mesa’s earliest “subdivisions,” Evergreen was built between 1910 and 1948 just north of the city’s original townsite. Back then, Edwin LeBaron and James Miller Jr., speculators for the Arizona Land Co., saw potential here for life in a “natural park” setting where “only white Americans” could live.

Thankfully, the Civil Rights Act of 1965 changed all that, and Evergreen’s architectural simplicity just added to the area’s charm over time. Today, this family friendly neighborhood boasts expanded bungalow-style homes (think Willo in central Phoenix) on large lots with huge setbacks fronted by mature trees. It begs for a walkabout; driving feels like a crime here.

All of this nostalgia comes with a hefty price tag. But for families with the kind of green that allows them to see what “historic charmer” really means, the rewards of buying in Evergreen can be great, says longtime resident Kizzy Karas.

“If ‘date night’ means a trip to Home Depot, then it’s for you,” says Karas, who is raising a family of six in her second Evergreen home – a 1,500-square-footer from 1935. “These are a lot of work, but it’s worth it. It’s a little piece of history.” Evergreen fans will also like the Robson district next door.


The Power Walker
Old Cross Cut Canal Park, Phoenix
85018

Lace up your walking shoes and pump up those bicycle tires. If you live in the Old Cross Cut Canal Park area, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to pound the pavement.

The paved greenbelt ribbons along 48th Street between Indian School and McDowell roads, flanked by apartment complexes and modest, attractive older homes fringed with venerable old foliage. The linear park links up with canal paths (including the confusingly named Crosscut Canal, which weaves through Papago Park), so you can keep going and going and going…. If you prefer inclines, Camelback Mountain and Papago Park are both a short drive away.

When your quads have had enough, hop in the car – you’re within a 15-minute drive of Scottsdale Fashion Square, Biltmore Fashion Park, and the constellations of great restaurants that surround them. Closer to home, pick up homemade sausages at SW Meats or delightful German fare at the German Sausage Company, or load up on carbs at the charming Italian eatery La Fontanella in preparation for your next power walk.


The Classy Suburbanite
Dobson Ranch, Mesa
85202

Say what you will about Mesa’s infamous medians. They’re an endless left turn. But around Dobson Ranch, they’re a brilliant piece of engineering. You can’t help but see more and more of the place, and the more you do, the more it grows on you.

Originally built in 1973, the ranch is one of Arizona’s first master-planned communities of its size. It covers 2,600 acres near US 60 and Dobson Road that were once homesteaded by the Dobson family, which raised sheep and other livestock.

Today, Dobson Ranch is one of Mesa’s most progressive neighborhoods. Its residents piloted Mesa’s blue-barrel recycling program, its marked bicycle lanes on city streets and, recently, a water-conservation device that reads moisture levels in the air and adjusts your sprinkler schedules accordingly.

The ranch features recreation centers, a library, a golf course and even a “party trailer” that residents can rent for big get-togethers. Yes, there’s an HOA (dues are $37 per month), but it’s the kind of group that organizes garden tours and gives its blessing to an unsanctioned “yacht club” of pontoon boat owners. Any dues-paying family that doesn’t own a pontoon boat gets one hour in the community-owned pontoon boat every other year.

Take that, Mr. Chairman.

“We looked at a lot of great places, but it’s all right back here, believe it or not,” says Terri Lorenzen, 49, who shopped for a new home in Gilbert and Scottsdale but recently chose to live in Dobson Ranch for the third time. “It’s not pretentious. ‘Real’ is the word that comes to my mind.”

And the latest bonus to life on the Ranch? Light rail service is just five minutes away at Sycamore and Main Street. Residents can commute to Tempe, Arizona State University and Downtown.


The Successful Hippie
Alameda, Tempe
85281

It’s no Haight-Ashbury, but if the Valley has a ’hood for upgraded hippies-at-heart, it’s the area just east of Mill Avenue and Alameda Drive. Here, you can sleep comfortably on a well-manicured street secure in the knowledge that you’re not surrounded by a sea of Stepford wives but instead close to that liberal lifeline: the university. The enclave is justifiably popular with professorial types and lifelong learners who take advantage of ASU’s many free programs and concerts. Houses are somewhat older, but several sport a fresh coat of stucco, and a few resemble modern art museums. And Mill Avenue offers plenty of indie hotspots amid the chains. Boho vegetarians caffeinate at Three Roots Cafe, Asia-philes stock up on kimchee at Village Market, and one patchouli-scented whiff of Hippie Gypsy clothing store will transport you back to 1969.