Overland Park (live, stores, Hispanic)

[Victorian on Gladstone]

Call a good Historic Realtor and look in Midtown or the Northeast part of Kansas City. great people. You can become part of a changing area and get involved and know your neighboors as freinds. Thanks Yuri I

[kcspirit]

We lived in OP for about 5 years and currently live in Liberty, MO. I know that the Blue Valley School District is touted as "all that" but I can't tell you how glad I was to leave it. Although there is money for many different programs, their basic curriculum for the three "R's" (Reading, Writing & Arithmetic) have something to be desired!!! I've even had teachers tell me when my kids were in school how concerned they were regarding the curriculum. When questioning the principal of one of my kid's schools about some english basics...grammar, writing in complete sentences...that type of thing...his response to me was that they didn't want to stifle the children's creativity. It didn't matter to him that the kids didn't know what a complete sentence was or that they didn't know what a verb was (in 7th grade) as long as they were creative!!!! When pushed on the fact that the kids aren't learning basic english and math, his response to me was that they had good test scores. The BV School district does not care about if the children actually learn anything. They only care about how the "schools" are rated. And just so you know, my kids do well in school but it took them, at minimum, 1 year to catch up to their peers when we moved to the Liberty School District. I am not a person who is supportive of the BV School District. It has not been my experience that the District is supportive of the kids. Dollars are the only thing they are concerned with...they move kids around a lot from one school to another as they juggle the growing population. Us moms use to sit out at the pool and talk about the kids and the various areas they were struggling with in school. The thing I found interesting is that all of our kids were struggling in the same areas...math and english. There are basic flaws in the curriculum. It is my personal opinion that the reason the test scores are so high is that this area basically has a higher income population who are also educated and who put the additional effort into their kids so that they do well...like myself...I took my children to outside programs to make up for the school district's deficiencies. If you chose to move to OP, just make sure you stay on top of your kids education...always oversee what is being taught and make sure to use outside sources to fill in where the school district lacks. As far as racial prejudice goes, I didn't see that...I agree with one of the other people...it's all about the dollar! Not just OP but the whole KC Metro area is a best kept secret on where to live and raise a family. We're from California and have lived here for 11 years and just love the area.

[kcmo]

I posted this in another thread, but it seems to fit this one too:


If you are asking about "kansas city" this should be under "Missouri" not kansas. After reading through a handful of threads on this website, I can honestly say that you will get nothing but ridiculous comments about "KC" from Kansans.

The area around the speedway is a joke, unless you are 12, are buying a couch or need a fishing rod. The Tbones are not an "attraction" they are little bus league team that Kansans for some ungodly reason love. Sad thing is, outside of the speedway area of KCK, there really is nothing on the Kansas side except suburban homes and typical suburban shopping. Both of which you can find in MO suburbs. You can also buy the same home in the MO suburbs for much less the KS suburbs.

People from Overland Park don't know this, or don't want to admit it, but the Northland of KCMO is just as nice as Overland Park. The schools are similar, the shopping is similar, yet downtown, the airport and just about everything else is closer to the Northland than Overland Park or Olathe. And the people don't think they are better than the rest of the metro area either. Some people actually like living close to downtown, crossroads, crown center, plaza etc, plust the traffic in Johnson County is worse than anything in downtown KC or the MO suburbs.

To answer your question without trying to push you clear to Lawrence, the KC area offers any living style anybody could ever want.

From rural to suburban to urban condos and lofts. You can find it all and you can do it all in Missouri where you can actually be a part of the metro area rather than a freeloading hater who avoids crossing into MO at all costs till it's time to fly, go to a game, a museum, an amusement park a zoo, a festival, a concert, a nightclub etc.

So please if you like suburban living, consider a MO suburb. I would highly recommend the I-29 or 152 corridors of KCMO's northland, the Liberty area, the areas around Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Independence are nice as well all along the I-470 corridor or even out south in Cass County.

But allow me to say that KCMO's urban core is quite a nice place as well. KCK is not. KCK is crap all the way across, then it turns rural, then you are out by the speedway.

KCMO has many very nice, historic neighborhoods with low crime, mature trees and amazing access to big city culture, nightlife etc.

KCMO has bad areas for sure, the east side and the far southeast side are having issues, but anywhere in the core of the city from the River Market, through Downtown, The Crossroads, Crown Center, Union Hill, Hyde Park, Valentine, Midtown, Volker, Westport, Plaza, all the way out to Brookside, Waldo, Red Bridge and even Martin City is nice.

So many museums, art galleries, festivals etc. You have transit if you need or want to use it, you have wonderful parks like Pen Valley, Loose and Mill Creek.

I can go on and on. City living in KCMO is as good as any city out there. Just don't ask people from Overland Park about KCMO, they will tell you to buy a gun.

But again, if you do have kids and don't want to live in the city where urban schools are a challenge, the MO side offer even more good school districts than the KS side does. They wrap around the city in all directions.

Don't listen to Kansans that say stay out of MO where the school districts are bad. I say stay out of KS where they can't even keep science and religion separate.

GO KC!

[pioneer88]

Did I miss something? Where was there anything negative said about KC or MO in this thread? You seem to have a serious vendetta against the Kansas side. I realize there are some that may warrant this reaction, but the majority of people don't.

Go KC!! That means the half in Missouri AND the half in Kansas

[skrazzle]

While OP is the most boring cookie cutter of all places in the KC metro (and I think the northland suburbs are much better if you want to be in the burbs and the schools are just as good)... I don't think your kids will experience any problems at all...

Racial tension doesn't exist much in the burbs, at least in schools... and mostly the only time people think anything bad of hispanic people are those who don't speak much english...

I didn't realize this thread was so old... lol

[pioneer88]

ooops, me either. Oh well. haha

[luzianne]

No racial tension; your kids will be fine. It is really not that diverse racially. By that, I mean that most of the kids are Caucasian. But that being said, there ARE kids of every other race and if anything, those kids tend to be popular from what I have seen. My kids grew up in Johnson County and they have black friends, Chinese friends, Japanese friends, Hispanc friends and Arab friends. The kids really do not look down on kids of other races.

If you want nice, safe, good place to raise kids and newer/upscale housing, southern Overland Park/Blue Valley schools is what you are looking for.

[kittycarmel]

I looking for advice before moving to Overland Park,KS. How are the schools and the people.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by kittycarmel

I looking for advice before moving to Overland Park,KS. How are the schools and the people.

I could really provide you with a lot of info if you are only considering Overland Park or are more open to other areas of the KC metro.

[Johnny Bananas]

Originally Posted by kittycarmel

I looking for advice before moving to Overland Park,KS. How are the schools and the people.

Schools: If you're going to live in Overland Park then you'll probably be attending the Blue Valley School district. The schools are pretty good from what I hear (education wise) but can tend to be snobbish and clique'ish'.

People: Like I said a lot of people can be snobbish. I work in retail and run into all kinds of people. However, I do come across plenty of pleasant people. It's a middle to high class area.

There is plenty to do around here with tons of restaurants, stores, movie theatres, shopping centres, etc. You wouldn't get bored (depending on your age).

If you're single then good luck. It's very hard to find a single person since a lot of the population is already married by the time they are 30 or even 25.

You may want to look into Shawnee (great schools), Leawood, Lenexa, Mission, etc. I am "ehh" with Olathe because I haven't had a good experience with some of their schools.

Good luck!