Tucson Local Custom Tips by matcrazy1 Top 5 Page for this destination

Tucson or youth slang? Tucson's Cultural Influences Review

In this area there are at least two cultures mixed: Hispanic (Mexican) and Native Americans.
Haha, I tried to speak with these two young smiling people on my picture in ITL Coffee Shop. I must admit that I coudn't understand them although they were talking in English. They could understand me but I coudn't them :-(((. Did they use youth or Tucson slang?

It seems that the pronunciation of many words is quite different in Tucson. For example the word "saguaro" is pronaunced sah-WAH-row.

Turn your speakers on and follow the link below :-))

Why do they smile? Tucson's Cultural Influences Review

All people we talked to in Tucson were smiling haha. They smiled when we asked them for a road, when we looked at them and they looked at us, when I took them picture (enlarge my picture), when I ordered coffee etc., etc.

Hmm... sunny weather, happy population or they just accepted the world around them whatever it was?

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From my friend LINDA (lmkluque) from San Diego, California:
When you see people smiling all over the place it is usually for one of two reasons. One, because they are happy people. Two, because the business they work for INSIST that they smile at customers. Of course, after one gets used to smiling everytime they see someone, it becomes a habit. :-)

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They drive alone Cars in Tucson Review

Most drivers drive alone in their cars. Does it mean that each person has/use its own car?

Hmmm... they support driving with at least 2 persons (including a driver) inside a car - as I remeber they built special lane on I-10 (only in greater urban areas like in Phoenix) called "carpool" on a freeway just for such cars. But sometimes my car was the only one on this lane.

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From my friend Chris (balfor) from Atlanta, Georgia:
Americans like their independence and that is reflected in our commuting habits as well. We don't want to carpool to work because we might want to go somewhere else after work. We won't 95% of the time, but we MIGHT want to.

And yes, typically if you have 2 adults in a house (husband and wife) then there will be at least 2 cars. Perhaps even 3 or 4 vehicles. (for example - you both have a car to commute to work, you have a pickup truck for any projects or work that you might need and a convertible for the weekends in the summer. 4 cars for 2 people. Quite a lot different than in Europe.) Oh, and you will frequently find the carpool lanes are also called HOV lanes (for high occupancy vehicles) and are reserved for vehicles like busses, carpools (even if it's only 2 people), cars with alternate fuels like natural gas and motorcycles.
Thank you Chris.

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What is outside a downtown? General city Information Review

OK, the world looks quite different outside a downtown - there are huge residential areas mixed with many business areas.
In Tucson they take a lot of area - you can just drive and drive and look at never ending houses along loooong streets.
Most (almost all) houses are 1-floor (don't they like stairs?) and have usually medium size (in European sense) or big size yards (frontyard and backyard, what about "sideyard"? :-)... as I know they don't have gardens, gardens are at palaces hehe.

So maybe it would be better to LIVE in Tucson and to VISIT European old cities hehe.

What is a downtown? General city Information Review

American cities I visited including Tucson look quite different than old European ones and they don't have a city center (centre), they have a downtown - usually it's located really down but not always hehe.

Don't look for numerous lovely, picturesque, small streets (usually closed to traffic) full of small shops oops... stores, cafes, restaurants with tables outside and with lovely yards.
Look for high buildings (skyscrapers), a few streets with buildings not quite as tall full of restaurants of various kinds (mainly American and Spanish/Mexican) located one by one (Congress Street) plus shopping mall and convention center somewhere close. It's just an American typical downtown - small in area but big in height usually.

Maybe it's more practical (like most things in the USA) but does it look more beautiful? I don't think so.

Street names - Tucson chaos?

In many (but not all) American modern cities, including Tucson, streets are named by numbers: there is 1st, 2nd, 3rd STREET etc. etc. till sometimes 200th or more. I wonder in which American city is the largest number street hehe (1000th?).

FROM my friend Palo_Verde:
The street where I work is 20480th Street -:))

Usually streets are parallel to each other. Avenues are perpendicular to streets and named the same way: 1st, 2nd AVENUE etc.
Usually the main streets/avenues are those of lower numbers (often 1st street/avenue). In many cities (especially in smaller towns) they name the main street just Main Street.

In bigger cities including Tucson (800,000 citizens in the area) the streets/avenues sometimes are numbered seperately west/east or north/south of the one (main) street/avenue and distnguished by added "direction" letter: N/S or W/E (north/south or west/east). So you can find: 22nd W Street (22nd W St.) and 22nd E Street - be careful (= read the address correctly) they are surely not close one to each other.

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In TUCSON there is some chaos with numbering streets. There are streets and avenues with "normal names" among streets numbered as described above. Hmm... a little chaotic and funny. Am I wrong?

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Official plant of Tucson?

Saguaro cactus is an official flower of Arizona.

It seems that each USA state has its own official flower, bird and... what else? Btw I love that idea - I just think which bird and flower could it be in Poland :-).
Shouldn't be these beautiful palms as you can see on my picture official plant of Tucson? Any other ideas?

From my friend Nat:(b1bob):
That depends on each state. Some just have a motto, flower, and bird. Others have the motto, flower and bird plus fish, insects, and even an official snack (Illinois: popcorn).
Thank you Nat.

Right in Tucson, wrong in Europe Cars in Tucson Review

Can they park their cars right in Tucson? Hmm... in my (Polish and/or European) mind not at all. They just have so much space on streets and parking lots that - as you can see on my picture - they are not forced to park a car exactly and very close to a curb not mentioning "bumper-to-bumper" parking. Quite comfortable for me as a driver!

At some streets in Europe the driver of that car on my picture could even get a ticket for wrong parking (too far from a curb hehe).

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From my friend LINDA (lmkluque) from San Diego, California:
The maximum distance from the curb that we can park (in California) is 18 inches. More than that and we can be ticketed.
Thank you Linda.

Hmm... 18 inches = 45.72 cm - almost half a meter. Can you imagine what would happen in Paris for example when...

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For disabled drivers

Like in many (I think) European countries they have special parking places for disabled persons in public parking lots in Tucson. They are always marked by well known sign: blue square with white wheel-chair. As you can see on my picture (enlarge) the signs are painted on a parking surface.

Is there any law obligation about it? I mean about such places in usual public parking lots?

They drive older cars than in... Poland Cars in Tucson Review

Some folks think that in such powerful country like the USA people drive new cars only. Nothing more wrong. I could see a lot of old cars driving in Tucson.

It's a car country. So a car is a car = vehicle used to drive from one place to another, nothing more.
Like in most well developed countries they don't mind (hmm... at least not so much) whether they drive 3, 5 or 15 years old car, it just to be a little comfortable and never must been repaired.

In Europe it depends on a country: in Germany Switzerland, Austria they never (OK, very rarely) drive older cars (except fashionable old timers). They just love to change often their cars, every 3-4 years, I suppose. On the other hand, a surprise: in very well developed Sweden/ Norway I saw quite a lot of older cars in use hehe. Am I wrong?

I was very surprised when I read in a car magazine once that the average age of a car in use was larger in the USA (over 10 years!) than in Poland hehe.