Kingman AZ? Is it really that horrible?

[kdog]

Originally Posted by HonestMom

Ok, let's stick to the facts.

1) Today's trip to the virtual Daily Miner had 20 ads in real estate- most were mobiles, some were for parcels of land, and some were outside of Kingman. I saw TWO in Kingman that weren't mobile homes, and weren't two bedroom (and most of the mobiles were 2 bedroom, btw). See for yourself: Kingman Daily Miner

You need to look again. First of all, you only looked at the first 20 ads, MOST of which is acreage. There are in fact, 100 ads there. Select "Return 100 Ads", instead of 20. I think you'll find that most of the ads are indeed for 3BR homes.

Also, I based my data on actual ads in the print newspaper. Their website is really bad, as I'm sure you realize. Really, please look at the printed newspaper, and you'll see that almost ALL the home rental ads are for 3BR houses. I'm not making this up.

2) My home in Texas was 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath, 1 car garage, 1400 sq ft, brick, nice backyard, nice neighborhood- $39,000. Compare that to the prices in Kingman, and the prices here ARE 3-5 times that.

What town? What year? The City-Data housing stats don't agree with what you're saying.

3) Any day of the week in Texas I could pick up a good, reliable used car for about $500. Not so here. Now, that's mostly due to the population difference- but I felt it was an important piece of information for people to have, in case they needed a car.

Ok, good used cars only cost $500 in Texas. I'll leave that at face value, because it's pointless to argue it.

You know, it sounds like you're comparing past home and car prices in Texas to current prices here in Kingman. I'm pretty sure you'll find that things ain't quite the same in Texas any more as you remember them years ago. Time change.

4) "Mohave County law enforcement officers don't like to be reminded of their infamous former resident, but they're more than willing to confirm that they have a serious meth-lab problem. The county's percentage of meth labs per capita has earned it a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area designation from the federal government." http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200101/meth.asp

The last lab they mentioned was busted in 2001 (which was in the county, and not in Kingman at all). In fact, that entire article was written in 2001. That's over seven years ago. Got anything more recent than that? You said "Meth Labs are being busted all the time". And the most recent one you show is from 2001? Why is that? I'll tell you why, it's because the meth labs are all long gone. The fact is that the production of meth in this county has been outsourced to Mexico, mainly because of the tighter controls that have been put on the common ingredients in meth. Talk to the police, or the prosecutors office if you don't believe me.

Mojave County is in fact making great strides in eliminating meth, so it's galling when people come along and spread ancient history like it's happening today. It ain't.

The other thing is that none of those old labs were in the city of Kingman. They were out in the county. And it's a very large county.

AND "According to a 2006 youth survey, lifetime alcohol use for eight-graders in Arizona is a little more than 50 percent. For Mohave County eighth-graders, it is 64 percent and for Kingman eighth-graders, it is 70.6 percent. In comparison, lifetime methamphetamine use for eighth-graders in Arizona is 2.6 percent. In Mohave County, it is 3.8 percent and in Kingman it is more than 15 percent for eighth-graders." Mohave Daily News: Local

Tragic as it is, what's your point? Kids get their cues from home. If kids come from a home environment that predisposes them to alcohol and drug abuse, it doesn't matter where they live. While I will admit that article implies that the situation is particularly bad here, I'm not the slightest bit worried about my kids being raised here, because they're being raised in a good home.

5) This is one that I can't "prove" unless I were to carry a video camera with me as I sat in a doctor's office.

6) I've seen 127 register on a thermometer in the shade in the summer. Not every day, but yes, it happens.

No, sorry. That doesn't happen. My own observations back up the national weather service on this. It never gets close to being that warm in Kingman. Bullhead City or Havasu, yes. Kingman, no. You need to relocate your thermometer.

In regards to previous post about my children's grades and my parenting: My children are honor roll students, and my daughters will be attending U of A and NAU this fall. This is in spite of Kingman schools, and due in large part to my extra efforts to educate them at home to make up for what is lacking in the schools. Lots of Kingman parents talking about the poor quality of schools here: "An article on Monday's e-press talked about the shortage of quality teachers in Arizona. I couldn't agree more. I work with the youth in Kingman and to hear the stories coming from them about teachers will floor you.", and "I have complained for the last 4 yrs about these kids bringing home tons of homework that they do not understand, they have all told me that this work has not been gone over in class. I have called and spoke with the teachers on many occasions and was told that they do not go over the homework." What are the teachers teaching?

That was a letter to the editor, not an "article". But I believe it. I've heard nothing but bad things about the White Cliff's Middle School. I don't think I'd send my kids there either. The Kingman Academy would be a much better alternative. What this town needs is a new middle school. There's already a new high school in the works.

I would like to offer a hearty congratulations on the enrollment of your daughters to UofA and NAU!! That's really great, and it puts you as a mom in the small percentage of parents of kids who go on to college from this town. You should be very proud. BTW, are they twins?

I realize every city has crime, every city has it's pluses and minuses, and every city has people that love it and people that don't. Again, I simply presented information from the side of someone who doesn't love Kingman so that people would have both sides of the story so they could make their own informed decision based upon a full picture instead of a rosy, we-have-no-crime-perfect-weather-etc picture that Kingman lovers posted.
'Nuff said.

Ok, let's keep it civil here. Nobody ever said that Kingman was perfect, far from it. I've always maintained that it takes a special kind of person to like a backwards little desert town like this.

There are plenty of legitimate complaints that one can make about the town here, so there's no need to stretch the truth to make your point, as I felt you did in your first posting.

However, I think this post of yours was much more objective, and you did provide some references to your points (and you even added a few new ones. ). While, I still don't agree with everything you said, I think overall, you've presented a much more balanced, contrary opinion of the town. And that's cool.

Best to you,
Kdog

[gman6567]

I currently live in San Antonio, TX and have an interview at the Hospital in Kingman next week. Is it even worth the trip out there or should I just blow it off. What is houseing like,schools,things to do? Anyone have any advice.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by gman6567

I currently live in San Antonio, TX and have an interview at the Hospital in Kingman next week. Is it even worth the trip out there or should I just blow it off. What is houseing like,schools,things to do? Anyone have any advice.

Yeah, you should probably "just blow it off". "Houseing" is pretty bad here, mostly rusted out mobile homes with no windows, nothing to do here, and what's a school?






Alternatively, you could try reading the other 21 pages or so of this thread, where there's a wealth of information on every topic you asked, and much, much more. If you don't want to read every reply, you can use the Search function within this thread with the keyword "schools" for example. If you have any specific questions after that, by all means ask away. And please be specific when you say things like "anything to do there". There's a ton to do here. Maybe you could tell us a little about yourself, what kind of activities you're looking for, and then we can be of more help. Good luck on your interview (if you don't "just blow it off" ).

[drcmao]

Hello all! So I was surfing the internet one night and decided to search my hometown of Kingman Arizona and found this little forum. I have read a good amount of what everyone has been writing and thought I might be of help. Im 25 year old female born and raised here and have my own opinions if anyone is interested. BTW they are mostly positive opinions.

Gman6567: I am currently employed at KRMC. Any questions I can answer?

~drcmao

[kdog]

Originally Posted by drcmao

Im 25 year old female born and raised here and have my own opinions if anyone is interested.

Hello Drcmao! Getting some perspective in this thread from a born-and-bred local would be awesome. I know several folks who were raised here, and they're wonderful people -- educated and successful, and they all have great stories. Please, by all means, tell all.

BTW, is that 'dr' as in Doctor?

[rambrush]

Welcome to the Kingman board drcmao!
My wife also works at KRMC.

[Little J]

I moved to Kingman 10 years ago, feeling moony-eyed, believing it was a nice town...I'm sure it was a better town than it is now.

There is no soul to Kingman. No sense of unity. "For the greater good" was abandoned decades ago. The local politicians have a rape and run mentality to their reign. The local realtors, developers, title insurance owners and chamber of commerce league-types are cut from the same cloth as the politicians and many are in the same orgy of stealing what they can to line their pockets.

Most of the employers treat their employees like poopoo (this would include but not limited to, Frontier Telecommunications, Mohave County, Kingman Regional Medical Center, Kingman Unified School District, Mohave Community College, to name just a few). The employers have this sense of "we own you" mentality and for a small town, they have a very restrictive idea of the work environment, hence making one's job very stressful.

The school district, well, frankly sucks. There are good teachers within the system but they struggle to make it a better place and I have noted they make little headway. The high school(s) is a misery (all kind of violence I can attest to from working at the hospital). The HOSPITAL is a misery to work for and a very unsafe place to find yourself as a patient. The local community college has this "vice grip" idea of education now, which it didn't have when I first attended their school back in the late 90's. It just seems sad and getting worse.

As for the comment about the hispanics moving in in droves - that is true but most of their work is centered around the building boom (carpentry, masonry and the like) and as the real estate boom continues to peter out, they will/are return to Mexico. I'm one of those nasty citizens (70% of Arizona voters) that voted for Proposition 300, so that perhaps our own citizens who are carpenters and masons can continue their craft at a decent rate of pay (what a concept).

We get a lot of "white trash" from where? Much is now home grown in Kingman but I'm guessing some derive from California (can't afford the high cost of living there anymore? I dunno), Oklahoma and other midwestern states and they all manage to own "a ranch" "go to the river" (to indulge their drinking and gambling issues) and claim to be "desert rats" and of course, all either own Harley paraphenallia or claim to love horses.

Which reminds me, if you hate country music, you will hate Kingman.

Wind and heat do come with desert weather but the wind gusts in this town are much higher than those "predicted" by weather.com (25 mph my sweet fanny - more like 45!) The heat in the summer is a misery and for my money, we could use more snow in the winter but winter is short lived. I'd move to Flagstaff but I can't afford their richly priced real estate and their traffic problems rival that of downtown NYC.

Meth problems? Been a problem since I moved here in 1997. But then, those are people who are usually desperate, poor, lonely, have to work for one of the employers in town, socially disturbed or just apt to have an addiction problem, so there you have a large demographic of Kingman. By the way, the "rich" or those who think they are socially affluent in Kingman aren't much better than the "white trash" with ideas that their lives are something out of "Housewives of Orange County" by their snooty demeanor which escapes me - I grew up in the hotbed of snooty, NYC so ya'all ain't got even 1/2 of what it takes to be a snoot. I find these people the strangest of all. This group in Kingman like to think they are better than all the other residents in Kingman (which for my money, isn't really hard to accomplish) - to me it is like living in sewage and pretending you smell like roses.

I have heard on reliable account that Kingman used to be a Mayberry of sorts. However, everything changed after the copper mines closed in the early 80's, changing forever the demographic landscape of Kingman and Mohave county.

I can stay happy as long as I'm "unplugged" in Kingman with my friends and no employer to have to work for. Ignorance is bliss and you need a lot of it here to find happiness.

I do love the quiet desert and I love trains. I also love lonely drives on Rt 66 with little to no traffic.

I used to find Kingman people friendly but unfriendliness seems to be seeping into everyday life here in the last 4 or 5 years.

Stores? We get what I like to call "satellite" stores of the big box variety because they are such a scaled down version of the real thing but we are so starved for them that we don't do too much complaining.

Restaurant Food? It generally sucks. The unspoken truth in Kingman seems to be that if you open a Mom and Pop restaurant and your food is REALLY good, after about a year, you stop caring and the quality of food declines greatly. I suppose that is why Chili's continues to be so popular - their food quality has remained consistently fair, good or great, depending on what you order.

Am I really that unhappy here? When I am at home, no. And yes, I would flee Kingman if only I could convince my family to go - some are quite reluctant due to their long history in this town.

Oh yes, and lest I forget, the average BMI in Kingman, AZ is 32.

[kdog]

So, basically you're saying everyone and everything in town is a loser, except for you?

[sablebaby]

I believe this thread is no longer useful and only causes stress for those involved. It is closed.