COMMUNITY
Singled out Dating in Maricopa is impossible, single ladies say. Here’s why BY MONICA D. SPENCER
are like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. Good luck.’” Geographically undesirable. This whole thing sounds very “long- distance relationship” when at issue are merely 15 or so miles between Maricopa and Chandler or Phoenix. But, unless you meet your boo in Maricopa, long-distance is about the best you can ask for, said Dani Brown, 56, a Glennwilde resident who works from home. “I don’t want to leave Maricopa during the week,” she said, citing traffic, “and nobody wants to come into Maricopa if we meet on Facebook dating. Or they’ll be like, ‘Maricopa? Where the hell is that?’” Ouch. In an unscientific InMaricopa.com poll last month, about 1 in 4 Maricopans were single. More than 95% of the 331 single Maricopans polled said they were having no success dating. Just come over, baby If there’s one word Nikita Prasad would use to describe trying to date in Maricopa, it’s this: “Exhausting.” “It’s exhausting to date here because there’s nothing to do to meet people,” she said. “There’s not that nightlife aspect to work with.” The 22-year-old Senita resident said after returning recently to Maricopa from college life in California, she has struggled to meet other young adults in town. “If you want anything that would encourage a good date, the closest thing is in Chandler,” she said. The number of bars to meet someone in Maricopa? Four, and they’re all restaurants, primarily. Spots for an activity-based date? None of the four singles we interviewed could conjure any. How about the number of restaurants for a nice first or second date? Maybe five, if you’re liberal with your use of the signifier, “nice.” And nightlife? Forget about it. After spending all week driving up and down SR 347, Prasad said the last thing she wants to leave town for is a date that, statistically, probably won’t go anywhere. So, she doesn’t. “Why spend money on gas and a fancier
Glennwilde residents Susan and Dani talk about their dating lives.
date, when you could probably go to Slim Chickens or something?” she pondered. “People will automatically default to, ‘There’s nothing to do here, why don’t you just come over?’ As if that would make for a better first date.” ‘You’re dating the town’ At 56, Glennwilde work-from-homer Brown said she hasn’t given up just yet on finding Mr. Right. “I don’t want to be hasty on anything. I prayed and told God I don’t want a relationship so bad that I’ll jump into this [dating] pool with no floaties,” she said. “This pool may be no good and I don’t want that anymore.” The problem is the dating pool here is tiny, she said, despite eye-popping population growth. U.S. Census Bureau data bears this out, showing more than two-thirds of new arrivals in the city are married adults. “Most of the people here are families,” Brown said. “They’re empty nesters, retirees and couples. You just don’t have the dating pool here.” Prasad agreed. “If something doesn’t work out, it is still a pretty small town — you’re going to see people
HOW’S THE DATING MARKET IN MARICOPA?
It’s not great, if you were to ask just about any single person in the city. An unscientific InMaricopa.com poll of 331 readers that ended Feb. 2 all but verified our suspicions. Just four of the singles polled said they had found some degree of success dating while living in Maricopa. Deysi Calvo, a Casa Grande resident who works in Maricopa and reads InMaricopa , described her dating life in one word: “Struggling.” Calvo, a local nail tech, was in the quarter of people polled who were single and struggling to find a connection. And while the other three-fourths said they were not on the market, Palo Brea resident Davee Raganit, a Maricopa real estate agent, said: “It’s horrible — too many married people in the dating lane.”
you have a history with,” she said. “You’re going to see the person you went out with or hooked up with if you go to the grocery store or work locally.” It’s a sentiment Maricopa-based relationship and behavior coach Christian Huskins said she often hears from her clients. “It still feels like a small town, so everybody knows everybody,” she said. “When you’re dating someone in Maricopa, you’re dating the town. Truthfully, that’s how a lot of my clients feel, so people are searching outside of Maricopa because if things end, they’re still here. They’re still around.” You’re going to see the person you went out with or hooked up with if you go to the grocery store or work locally.” NIKITA PRASAD
Glennwilde resident Dani Brown
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But who would have ever thought a state highway would interfere with someone’s dating life — or destroy it altogether? “You know, I often tell people who are even remotely interested in dating me that I am geographically undesirable,” said 58-year-old Susan, a single woman living in Glennwilde. “And after thinking about it, about 75% of them
TATE ROUTE 347 RULES THE LIVES of many Maricopans. We’ve all heard the seemingly endless complaints: being late
for work or school, worrying about the car overheating while stuck in traffic and the endless hours wasted begging bureaucrats to do anything about it.
InMaricopa.com | March 2025
March 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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