Welcome to Scottsdale: How the City Fits Together

Each November the Arizona Canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront lights up for Canal Convergence, Scottsdale Arts' free ten-night public art event, now in its fifteenth year. The cool months are a good moment to arrive. Scottsdale is also marking 75 years since it incorporated, and the city's anniversary program, Celebrate 75, has been filling library rooms and the Civic Center with local history all year.

Whether you have just unpacked or have lived here for decades, here is a practical introduction to how the city fits together.

Where Scottsdale sits

Scottsdale lies in the Sonoran Desert at the foot of the McDowell Mountains. By the city's own description, Phoenix borders it on the west, the Tonto National Forest on the north, the McDowell Mountains on the east and the Salt River on the south. The city covers 184.5 square miles and runs 31 miles from south to north, climbing from about 1,150 feet to 4,877 feet along the way. The city puts its population at 243,050.

That long, narrow shape explains a lot. The southern end grew first, around the 640 acres Army chaplain Winfield Scott and his wife, Helen, bought in 1888. The town that incorporated on June 25, 1951 held 2,032 people on about half a square mile. Everything north of that came later, and the far north still feels like open desert.

How the city is laid out

Start with Old Town, a walkable center of just over a square mile. Experience Scottsdale, the city's visitor bureau, divides it into districts, among them the Arts District along Main Street and Marshall Way, the Fifth Avenue shops, Historic Old Town, the Waterfront along the canal, and the 21-acre Scottsdale Civic Center, a park lined with public art that holds the performing arts center, the contemporary art museum and Scottsdale Stadium.

East of Old Town, the Indian Bend Wash greenbelt runs north and south through the middle of the city. Begun in 1973 after voters approved a bond and finished in 1985, it turned a flood channel into a chain of parks, lakes, paths and golf courses that still carry stormwater when needed. Beside it, McCormick Ranch, started in the early 1970s, was the city's first master-planned community. Farther north are the Scottsdale Airpark employment area and, beyond it, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Most people drive, and the Loop 101 Pima Freeway, completed through Scottsdale in 2001, is the main north-south artery. The Scottsdale Trolley is free: three routes, 68th/Camelback, Miller/Hayden and Mustang, run about every 20 minutes on weekdays and connect with Valley Metro buses.

A year on desert time

The city counts an average of 314 sunny days and 7.66 inches of rain a year, and daily life bends around the heat. October is when the city wakes up. The Old Town Scottsdale Farmers Market runs Saturdays from October through June, and this season it moved, with more than 100 growers and food producers, to the City Hall lot while the Brown Avenue parking structure it used for more than a decade is expanded. In June it opens earlier in the morning to beat the heat, and it takes July through September off.

Guided hikes in the preserve resume in October, and the popular Brown's Ranch Trailhead reopened October 30 after improvements that rerouted five trails. Winter brings Western Week and the Parada del Sol parade in late January, then spring training at Scottsdale Stadium, where the San Francisco Giants have trained since 1982. In summer, people hike at dawn, and the city warns against bringing dogs onto trails once temperatures pass 90 degrees.

Places that define the city

The McDowell Sonoran Preserve covers more than 30,500 acres with over 230 miles of shared trails and eleven trailheads. Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the McDowell foothills, is a World Heritage site that offers guided tours by reservation. In Old Town, Thursday ArtWalk has kept Main Street and Marshall Way galleries open in the evening since 1975, and Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West stays open late on Thursdays from November through April.

Something new this year: in August the city opened Thompson Peak Dog Park, a 3.5-acre off-leash park near Hayden Road and Thompson Peak Parkway with three fenced play areas and art panels by Scottsdale artist Shachi Kale.

First stops for newcomers

Every new neighborhood needs a few regular places. In Old Town, Cartel Roasting Co. pours its own roasted coffee on Fifth Avenue every day of the week. In south Scottsdale, Renegade Coffee Company, a family-run shop that opened in 2018 at Granite Reef and McDonald, has a drive-thru window for school-run mornings.

Up at Northsight Crossing, Butters Pancakes & Cafe serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week, a handy meeting spot for anyone working near the Airpark. Nearby on Redfield Road, Bella Shanti Yoga & Pilates teaches Pilates and yoga on the reformer, with private sessions in the studio or online.

City services, the library and local news

The City of Scottsdale's website is the front door for services. Scottsdale EZ is the city's tool for reporting a problem or making a request, the weekly Scottsdale Update roundup covers meetings, programs and things to do, and free Neighborhood College classes explain how city services and neighborhood groups work. Scottsdale Public Library has four branches: Civic Center, which opened in 1968, Mustang, Arabian and Appaloosa. A Pony Express locker station on Granite Reef Road lets you pick up holds around the clock. For local reporting, the Scottsdale Progress covers the city every week, and the library's Scottsdale Heritage Connection is the place to start digging into local history.

Give it one cool season of Saturday markets, Thursday art walks and early-morning trails, and Scottsdale starts to feel like home.