considering moving to Kingman (employment, living in, safety)

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by cookiedough

I have to laugh about comments on "hot" and "cold" in every forum I read, wherever it may be in the country. Hot and cold are such completely relative terms. People complaining about how absolutely frigid Kingman or Albuquerque is. I lived for years in Utah and Colorado and thought I knew what cold was until I moved to Nebraska! Yet, there are two more states and a whole country farther north!

I was looking at the possibility of relocating to Kingman but the guy with cockroaches has scared me off! Are cockroaches a pretty common problem there?

Cannot comment on the roach thing; but, having lived in the Wash DC area, Kingman weather ain't nothing

[kdog]

Originally Posted by cookiedough

Are cockroaches a pretty common problem there?

No, I don't know anybody who has a major problem with them. The guy who posted about the problem in this thread moved into and old house that was vacant for a year. You do see them, but they don't appear to be the kind of roaches that you find in cities which multiply by the thousands and have free run of your home after dark. The only ones I've seen here are infrequent individual ones. They're big, slow moving and usually dying when I've see them. We do use a pest control service, and that I would recommend. There are all sorts of desert bugs that will make their way into your home otherwise. Millipedes as the only ones that give me the creeps.

[rambrush]

No cockroach problem that I have heard of either, get a cat and they will take care of the bugs.

[g-mondy]

I'm trying to buy in Kingman and I find the town kind of quiet. I'm retired and don't need much drama. the town I live in now has grown quite a bit and the traffic is getting bad. My hobby is working on older cars, hopefully there a good auto parts and /or a junk yard. No one has mentioned the crime rate. If the town rolls up at 8 pm can't be to much to worry about with plenty cops around.
looking forward to becoming a local.

[rambrush]

Well now days calling a junk yard a junk yard is not proper. They are higher class for some reason and most are now auto salvage yards.

As for crime rate you can monitor this link to see how much action actually occurs. As for police there is not enough coverage in my opinion spread pretty thin due to budget constraints.

[g-mondy]

thanks for info and correction on junk yards. I guess I showd my age
is there an area of kingman I should stay out of?

[rambrush]

There is a section that has Bird names that is a difficult area. But I know people that live there and have no problems.
yes I grew up with Junk Yards also its hard to change.

[Cyber Surfer]

Originally Posted by g-mondy

I'm trying to buy in Kingman and I find the town kind of quiet. I'm retired and don't need much drama. the town I live in now has grown quite a bit and the traffic is getting bad. My hobby is working on older cars, hopefully there a good auto parts and /or a junk yard. No one has mentioned the crime rate. If the town rolls up at 8 pm can't be to much to worry about with plenty cops around.
looking forward to becoming a local.

Kingman caters to the retired community, lot's of old fashioned 50-60's nostalgia downtown. We do have our share of traffic mainly on Stockton Hill Rd. near KRMC (Hospital) and Wal-Mart where it's congested up until the evenings. You shouldn't have a problem finding auto parts, but they'll probably be in bad shape if you're going to restore anything. Crime rate... it's not too bad. We have occasional meth-heads and drunkards but they mainly stay around the bad parts of town. Best bet is to steer clear of convenience stores at night just to be safe. We have our fair share of horrible drivers though... ours drive too slow, and forget how to use blinkers, or understand the concept of "right of way". Not really much shootings or robberies which is rather rare. Most of Kingman's crime is pure, shameless tom-foolery. We get some dumb criminals that's good for a larf, like this one lady scammed an old couple out of a few grand and donated half of it to a church that refused to give it back (if memory serves me). Another woman just recently got another slap on the wrist for nearly ODing on meth while her three kids ran around the neighborhood asking for help.

[ladyhawke777]

When we move to Kingman this year, the only things that would freak me out would be the snakes and a scorpian. We have a cat but even she would want to chase it, but I doubt that she would kill it. She's such a wose. Oh well. From this forum it sounds like Kingman for the most part is a safe town. I'm not going to say a totally safe town because any town is open up for all kinds of crimes. As citizens, one must keep their ears and eyes open at all times and lock the doors. Coming from back east and now living in California, I lock my doors all the time even when I am on a farm. One never knows.......

[kdog]

I just discovered to my horror this morning that I'd left my car parked in the driveway all night unlocked with all sorts of expensive stuff inside: GPS (which you could see from the street), expensive camera, radar detector, even my garage remote. Fortunately, not a thing was touched. Phew! I did that once when I lived in CA and got cleaned-out. I do agree with ladyhawke, one must be vigilant no matter where you live (unlike me last night.)

Snakes and scorpions are generally no problem if you live anywhere in the city of Kingman. You'll probably never see either. Once you get outside of the city and into the desert, you need to watch for snakes first thing in the morning or in the evenings when the sun goes down. That's when they're most active. Rattlesnakes will give you plenty of warning before they strike though. You're not food, so normally they don't want to mess with you. They'll only attack you in self-defense and then only after rattling at you. The sound is loud and distinctive. I've heard it in my Jeep with the windows rolled up, AC and stereo on, while driving past a snake on a Jeep trail in the desert. Silly thing was trying to scare my Jeep away. Scorpions are rarely seen in Kingman. You'll probably never see one.

A cat in the city will probably have no problem. A cat in the desert would be food for any number of predators including hawks and coyotes.