Why are Johnson County people unfriendly (Lee's Summit: section 8, transplants, sales)

[hales1985]

I have been living in Johnson County (KC metro- Kansas side) for the last 2 1/2 years and I already want to move again, this time out of state! The locals do not accept people from different states. I grew up in Colorado (as well as west coast) and these people are so closed minded it drives me crazy! My family and I feel like outsiders, especially because we are not religious, we eat super healthy, we travel a lot, and the mother in law lives with us! The day we first moved into our house in Olathe, our neighbors talked to us, just once, just to get information about us. As soon as they heard we moved from out of state they all put a big red X on us and never said hello again! What is wrong with these people! To top it off the crime has gotten so bad in the KC metro area we don't even want to stick out this year! We want to move back to our west coast roots, who actually have personalities and understand us. Why do people have to be so closed minded, personality less to people who have not grown up here. It's so rude!


Am I the only one that thinks this way about Johnson County?

[shorman]

I can't speak about Johnson County, but your experience mirrors mine in Wichita-Sedgwick County. I was born in Los Angeles and spent most of my adult life living in Phoenix. I run a consulting business and accepted a long term contract in the Wichita area. My spouse and I moved to Wichita a little over 2 years ago and have had the same issues you report. Initially the neighbors were friendly but they asked a lot of very personal questions - where do you go to church, etc. Once our neighbors discovered that we don't have children, that we don't attend any of the local evangelical megachurches and that we had no family or connection to the local area beyond my gig, their interest level instantly evaporated. I guess our life was just so different from what they consider normal that they couldn't handle it. My spouse also thinks that the fact that we usually speak Spanish when talking to each other and her slight accent are problems for the people that live in flyover country.

We have already decided that when my contract is up and I am free again, we will be leaving Kansas never to return. The people and the culture are just not something that we can ever get used to. We never thought that the people would be so different in another region of the same country. I really miss the laid back mind your own business lifestyle of Phoenix and the southwest.

[empires228]

Originally Posted by hales1985

I have been living in Johnson County (KC metro- Kansas side) for the last 2 1/2 years and I already want to move again, this time out of state! The locals do not accept people from different states. I grew up in Colorado (as well as west coast) and these people are so closed minded it drives me crazy! My family and I feel like outsiders, especially because we are not religious, we eat super healthy, we travel a lot, and the mother in law lives with us! The day we first moved into our house in Olathe, our neighbors talked to us, just once, just to get information about us. As soon as they heard we moved from out of state they all put a big red X on us and never said hello again! What is wrong with these people! To top it off the crime has gotten so bad in the KC metro area we don't even want to stick out this year! We want to move back to our west coast roots, who actually have personalities and understand us. Why do people have to be so closed minded, personality less to people who have not grown up here. It's so rude!


Am I the only one that thinks this way about Johnson County?

You're not the only one who has expressed this concern, but I can't say that it is a common one. Olathe especially has a lot of out of state residents and even a decent number of residents who moved to KC from foreign countries thanks to Garmin and the more diverse older parts of the cities that are home to Hispanic immigrants who moved to JoCo looking for a better life with good schools. You may just be in an unreasonably snooty neighborhood, but those exist throughout suburbia all over the country. Are you in an area run by an HOA? Those tend to be the worst. The KC Star ran a whole series on negative experiences with HOA in the metro that told horror stores about snooty neighbors and fiscal irresponsibility in JoCo, The Northland, and Lee's Summit. I personally have only ever experienced issues with locals being hostile to outsiders in various small towns around the country (Sault Sainte Marie, MI is especially horrid to out of state residents, and it's a tourist town where 99% of my paternal relatives live!), and then Topeka right here in Kansas.

The perception of overwhelming snobbishness in JoCo seems to date back to the 80's and early 90's when JoCo didn't have blight lining the major roads north of I-435 and lacked diversity. Back then the county was not only the top collector of sales tax receipts in Kansas, but in the entire metro, had three thriving indoor shopping malls, and the area was booming in population and economic growth. With the job and population growth having shifted back to the Missouri side since the recession and with the northern parts of the county now filed with rundown strip malls and underutilized office buildings, as well as (mostly nice and safe in the case of Shawnee) section 8 housing complexes, the stigma doesn't really apply.

[Mattks]

Joco has a reputation for snobbish people. But, a large percentage of the population is from out of state or from other parts of Kansas so I'd be very surprised they don't accept non locals. I have family in JOCO and they are snobbish, but they are not locals. JOCO is a nice place, but it has a very strong keeping up with the Jones mentality. Compared to similar cities/suburbs it's quite conservative and religious, which is going to be good or bad based on ones own beliefs.

[MoNative34]

The tone of the op (like how great they eat and how well travelled they are) makes me think there's more to this story...

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Mattks

Joco has a reputation for snobbish people. But, a large percentage of the population is from out of state or from other parts of Kansas so I'd be very surprised they don't accept non locals. I have family in JOCO and they are snobbish, but they are not locals. JOCO is a nice place, but it has a very strong keeping up with the Jones mentality. Compared to similar cities/suburbs it's quite conservative and religious, which is going to be good or bad based on ones own beliefs.

This has always cracked me up. Other than having nice homes (of which you can find just as nice in other part of metro KC), the people in JoCo just “think” they are playing the part of being rich and snobby. I know many that actually like being labeled as snobby because it makes them feel wealthy and successful. The reason this is so funny is simply because JoCo is just not all that upscale or special and is certainly not all that sophisticated or modern. It’s still Kansas. It’s the “big city” in Kansas and the people there are the affluent snobby people to Kansas, but in reality compared to most other major metros, they are just trying to be something they just are not. Even west county St Louis has a more sophisticated, affluent big city affluent feel to it than JoCo and west county is nothing like the coasts.

Also, JoCo is not nearly as diverse with people from out of state as people think it is. Sure, lots of people move to JoCo from CA, CO etc, but it’s still a small amount compared to the people that move there from the rural Midwest.

JoCo is mostly just white people, with the same Midwest/rural culture you see in NE, OK, IA, AR etc (obsessed with college sports, anti-urban etc) that run from one 1980’s strip mall to the next buying stuff. Most of the people are nothing like people in affluent suburbs of big coastal cities. JoCo is also much more religious and conservative than people there will admit, although for Kansas, thy are a bunch of liberals.

Northern VA, Montgomery County, MD etc around DC have a COMPLETELY different vibe than JoCo. But a lot of people in JoCo think that’s what they are. They try too hard. If I had a dollar for every time somebody from there told me that JoCo was the richest county in the country, I would be rich.

You get a lot of house for your money in JoCo compared to the affluent suburbs on the coasts. That's why people from the coast move there. Not because it's the same as Bethesda or Bel Air.

For the record, the people in the affluent MO side suburbs are the same (nothing like the coasts), but without the "I live in Johnson County" attitude. They don't care near as much about that as JoCo people do.

Okay JoCo people, you can start hating me now for this post. I'm hated by Kansans anyway, so not that it matters.

PS, Before Tabula chimes in and says she is not like this nor is her neighborhood, let me reiterate, this is not everybody. But enough to notice. Just like everybody that lives in KCMO is not living in a ghetto neighborhood and is not a thug...

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

First off, OP, I'm sorry about your negative experience in Olathe. That sucks.

Now to start with a defense of JoCo: Olathe is not representative of all of JoCo (and even less so of all of the KC Metro). NE JoCo is quite difference from SW. It wasn't that long ago that Olathe was more of a small town, somewhat disconnected from the KC Metro. While the sprawl has made Olathe more of a seamless part of the metro, it still seems to retain a more small town/rural vibe and it tends to attract people who are looking for that atmosphere. (I'm curious, why did you choose to move to Olathe?).

Unfortunately, you don't seem to be alone in your experience. It seems like 9 times out of 10, when I hear a story about someone who has relocated to the KC Metro and has a hard time adapting or fitting in socially, they are living in south JoCo. I think if you had lived in the city, or somewhere closer, you would have had a different experience. The many transplants I know who have settled in the city have a very different story to tell than you.

[Scottiegal]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

The tone of the op (like how great they eat and how well travelled they are) makes me think there's more to this story...

All he said was they eat healthy and like to travel? Am I missing a bad tone?

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by Scottiegal

All he said was they eat healthy and like to travel? Am I missing a bad tone?

Claim to feel like outsiders because they eat super healthy and travel a lot.

What a load of fabricated nonsense....

[lovekcmo]

Johnson County IS the most diverse part of the KC metro and of Kansas. All regions, races, nationalities, transplants and language are concentrated there. People that reside there also value family, faith and country. Makes a great place to live and cherish.