Why are Johnson County people unfriendly (Kansas City, Springfield: apartment, city hall, house)

[brooksider2brooklyn]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

I also moved here from the west coast but do not find people to be any different than anywhere else. My neighbors are just fine.

These kinds of threads are so ridiculous.

JoCountians can be real arrogant and condensending *holes. I grew up in a nicer home and nicer neighborhood than most of Jo county and people from there would make me feel like I was from the ghetto of kck. Forget them. I'm happy I no longer live so close to them. My brother lives in Lee's summit so I frequent that area now. People are much nicer out there. They don't think they are better because they live in Lee's summit.

[James Bond 007]

In every single regional or city section of this forum I can show you somebody who has complained that, "People in City X/Region X are so unfriendly!" If we were to believe them, then every single city/region in the country would have unfriendly people.

Of course that's all b.s. Some people happen to run into a few people where they live who seem unfriendly, and then they think everybody in that city/state is unfriendly. Which of course is absurd. Nobody in any city is any different from anyone else. If you run into some people who rub you the wrong way, that is just your bad luck, it has nothing to do with the city, county or state you're in.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by empires228

I doubt they're judging you for speaking Spanish in public, but you could just have really awful neighbors. Wichita, KCK, Ulysses, Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, and Emporia all have sizable Hispanic populations with growing populations in Topeka, Junction City, Pratt, Hutchinson, Salina, Hays, Great Bend, Cowley County, and northern JoCo.

I agree. Latino populations of size are fairly common in so-called flyover country. The ag- ag processing-industrial occupations common to the heartland have traditionally been a significant source of employment among Latino populations. I'm not sure where the myth that the Midwest has low Hispanic populations came from, but it isn't accurate.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

In every single regional or city section of this forum I can show you somebody who has complained that, "People in City X/Region X are so unfriendly!" If we were to believe them, then every single city/region in the country would have unfriendly people.

Of course that's all b.s. Some people happen to run into a few people where they live who seem unfriendly, and then they think everybody in that city/state is unfriendly. Which of course is absurd. Nobody in any city is any different from anyone else. If you run into some people who rub you the wrong way, that is just your bad luck, it has nothing to do with the city, county or state you're in.

I also think a lot of it has to do with age. In general, it gets harder to make new friends and establish relationships as you get older. People just get busy with other aspects and life and may not have the time or desire to expand their social circles.

I don't know anything about the OPs age, but I think a lot of the people who complain about city X being much harder to make friends than cities they lived in the past are neglecting the fact that it may just be harder to make friends in your late 30s/40s than 20s/College.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

In every single regional or city section of this forum I can show you somebody who has complained that, "People in City X/Region X are so unfriendly!"

All you have to do is a quick search for the word "unfriendly" in thread titles and you'll see what I mean:

People in northern Virginia are unfriendly:
NoVa Unfriendly?
People in Oregon are unfriendly:
Tired of the constant gray and unfriendly atmosphere
People in Miami are unfriendly:
Is Miami really America's most unfriendly City?
People in Venice, FL are unfriendly:
Venice unfriendly
People in Bend, OR are unfriendly:
Why are people in Bend so unfriendly?
People in Port Aransas, TX are unfriendly:
Port A - so unfriendly!
People in Florence, SC are unfriendly:
florence: unfriendly? race problems? dangerous?
People in Florida are unfriendly:
Florida unfriendly to people wanting to move there?
People in Sacramento are unfriendly:
"Unfriendly People" Is this true???
People in Maui are unfriendly:
Why do people from Maui tend to be "cold" and unfriendly?
New Yorkers are unfriendly:
New Yorkers unfriendly?
Laurel, MD is unfriendly:
Laurel - Most unfriendly place I have ever seen!!

And so on, and so forth. No, there is nothing wrong with the people from all these cities. There is more likely something wrong with some people's expectations of the people around them.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

I also moved here from the west coast but do not find people to be any different than anywhere else. My neighbors are just fine.

These kinds of threads are so ridiculous.

Ahhh, but beating up on JoCo is the KC forum's favorite sport and it's been a while since we've seen a new one of these. Given the enormous pent-up demand, you can just imagine how many emotional prostrations were prevented herein by providing a release outlet just in time.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

I agree. Latino populations of size are fairly common in so-called flyover country. The ag- ag processing-industrial occupations common to the heartland have traditionally been a significant source of employment among Latino populations. I'm not sure where the myth that the Midwest has low Hispanic populations came from, but it isn't accurate.

Most of the Upper Midwest and eastern Great Lakes region outside of the larger metro areas have very low Latino populations in percentage terms, often 1-2%. Cleveland has a sizable Puerto Rican contingent, similar to larger eastern metros.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by WiseOwlSaysHoot

I also think a lot of it has to do with age. In general, it gets harder to make new friends and establish relationships as you get older. People just get busy with other aspects and life and may not have the time or desire to expand their social circles.

I don't know anything about the OPs age, but I think a lot of the people who complain about city X being much harder to make friends than cities they lived in the past are neglecting the fact that it may just be harder to make friends in your late 30s/40s than 20s/College.

And this is the case whether you live in affluent suburbia or some tiny rural community in the hinterlands. Older adults with established lifestyles and routines and circles of acquaintances make new friends more slowly than their young adult counterparts. I guarantee that newcomers my same age to my rural midwestern hometown would likely say that it seems insular and unfriendly. It's not a "JoCo" thing.

I think, in general, too, that it's much like the popular [fill in the blank with city name] is the worst city for being single!!! claim, which essentially every city has had made about it...by people who are not having success dating and want to be successful dating. When stuff doesn't, anecdotally, happen to be panning out for you the way you think it should, it's easy to overgeneralize and misattribute.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Most of the Upper Midwest and eastern Great Lakes region outside of the larger metro areas have very low Latino populations in percentage terms, often 1-2%. Cleveland has a sizable Puerto Rican contingent, similar to larger eastern metros.

You really think that the Kansas side of the KC metro is bereft of Hispanic presence and influence? I'm not particularly concerned with the regions you mention, for the purposes of this discussion (and I doubt the OP is, either, though I couldn't say for certain). The term "Flyover Country" is fairly ill-defined, and encompasses a pretty broad cross section of the country. More than just the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes region (where I'm from, FWIW, from a small, agricultural hometown that as of the 2010 census, was fully one quarter Hispanic/Latino, any race...not a "very low" population by any measure).

I don't think it's an accurate assumption at all that Spanish-speaking is looked askance at in the KC metro, overall. There are not-insignificant swaths where Spanish-speaking is common. I'm just not buying that, if your neighbors are looking at you like you have three heads, it's likely because you're speaking Spanish. It's not some sort of bizarre, never-experienced thing, here. Despite what you'd think on either coast, cities in the Midwest aren't places where people don't expect to hear other languages being spoken.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

You really think that the Kansas side of the KC metro is bereft of Hispanic presence and influence? I'm not particularly concerned with the regions you mention, for the purposes of this discussion (and I doubt the OP is, either, though I couldn't say for certain). The term "Flyover Country" is fairly ill-defined, and encompasses a pretty broad cross section of the country. More than just the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes region (where I'm from, FWIW, from a small, agricultural hometown that as of the 2010 census, was fully one quarter Hispanic/Latino, any race...not a "very low" population by any measure).

I don't think it's an accurate assumption at all that Spanish-speaking is looked askance at in the KC metro, overall. There are not-insignificant swaths where Spanish-speaking is common. I'm just not buying that, if your neighbors are looking at you like you have three heads, it's likely because you're speaking Spanish. It's not some sort of bizarre, never-experienced thing, here. Despite what you'd think on either coast, cities in the Midwest aren't places where people don't expect to hear other languages being spoken.

There is a strong influence, and Hispanic/Latino populations in KC are likely 2nd in percentage terms after Chicago in the "Midwest." Wyandotte county remains the most diverse county in the metro area.