Troostwood/Rockhurst Neighborhood (Harris: 2013, renters, houses)

[dgmdog]

Hello! My spouse and I are considering moving to the Troostwood/Rockhurst area to raise a family. We live in KCMO in the West Plaza area and have lived in Brookside previously, but are now looking to transition from being renters to homeowners. We are both highly educated professionals but find that the skyrocketing home values in the Brookside area (and Coleman Highlands, and Volker, and West Plaza, and Fairway, and so forth and so on) will likely price us out of larger homes in the areas that are deemed most desirable for families. We do want to stay in the city if possible, and we could probably buy in Westport or in Hyde Park, but haven't found anything that feels quite right there. We have looked at Longfellow as well west of Troost, but are wondering if there is anyone on this forum who lives in the neighborhoods around Rockhurst just east of Troost who could give us a real picture of what it's like to live there. We would not be sending our children to the neighborhood schools (but of course, we wouldn't have been doing that in Brookside, either), so schools aren't really an issue.


My real questions are:


1. What are the neighbors like? Who would we be sharing a street with?
2. In that same vein, I know that a lot of the homes are probably rentals inhabited by students. Are there way too many parties to make it a good family neighborhood?
3. Is it safe? This probably the most important question for me. Everyone says that East of Troost is dangerous, but I lived East of Troost in the past (10ish years ago) with very few issues (although I can't say the same for all of my neighbors). I am also not sure that we would be any safer west of Troost in the parts of Brookside we can afford, with a house backing up to Troost. Does anyone have any thoughts on the safety of, say 61st and Harrison vs. 51st and Forest?


Basically I'm just looking for general resident feedback. Any thoughts are much appreciated!


Thank you!

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

I don't live there myself (Hyde Park, here) but my mother-in-law has lived north of Rockhurst for quite some time (I think around 20 years). She loves the area. She has lived alone for much of that time and generally doesn't lock her doors. She feels very safe there.

First off, north and south of Rockhurst are quite different - the north is considerably nicer. The houses and streets are much better kept and you definitely see higher home prices. South of Rockhurst has been improving noticeably over recent years as more homes are being rehabbed, but it still has some way to go to be as nice as the north.

As for the neighbors, that will vary from block to block (and north to south). Being close to the universities, there is definitely a considerable student contingent with higher concentrations on the blocks nearer to Rockhurst. You will also find some professors and university employees. And you will also find a general range of people - young people, families, older people that have lived in the neighborhood for quite some time. I know there definitely are some parties in the area, but I don't think they happen much on my mother-in-law's block (at least I've never heard her complain).

[zeldaE]

I lived near 51st and Virginia (so East of Troost, North of Rockhurst) from 2009-2013, and absolutely loved the neighborhood. We were strongly warned away by friends and family (east of Troost is DANGEROUS, obviously But we literally had ZERO problems the entire time we lived there, we felt quite safe walking our dog around the neighborhood and the two neighboring college campuses. There was a fairly active neighborhood association that had regular meetings and parties, so it was easy to meet other families on the block. The neighbors we had were exceptionally diverse (racial, socio-economic, career etc).
There was a neighborhood garden at the time, that had weekly farmers markets too!

Honestly, I really miss Troostwood and the relationships we made there. I will say, to throw a bone to the fearmongerers, we did (not infrequently) hear gunshots, and our neighbor down the hill had a bullet come through his window in the middle of the night (probably from a rolling gun battle down Paseo that went stray and up the hill). So, don't let my cheery approximation mislead you into thinking Troostwood is Blue Valley. But last time I checked, there's no Go-Chicken-Go in Blue Valley

[dgmdog]

Thanks to both of you! I really appreciate your thoughts!