Questions about Prairie Village (Overland: live, swimming, activities)

[MoNative34]

Stay away from Kansas City Missouri public schools.

Period.

Students in the KCMSD aren't better off than suburban Johnson county schools.

The OP needs to know this if he's considering moving here and he needs to know the truth and not pc feel good bs.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

Stay away from Kansas City Missouri public schools.

Period.

Students in the KCMSD aren't better off than suburban Johnson county schools.

The OP needs to know this if he's considering moving here and he needs to know the truth and not pc feel good bs.

Uh, yeah. I don't know who on this forum you think you're sparring with, here. We're all on the same page on this one.

[westender]

For kicks and giggles, I looked up the "walkscores" for two houses I know well in Prairie Village.

House #1 rates 78 Walkscore and 56 Bikeable score. This is the large grouping of 1950s homes west of "the Village." Generally the area between 63d and Mission and Tomahawk and Roe. This is a great score and a nice neighborhood. Big families with five or six kids are not unusual here.

House #2 rates 23 Walkscore and 53 Bikeable score. This is the newer 1980s housing along Somerset Avenue headed west from Franklin Park. Not as good a score. Again a nice neighborhood with lots of kids, but perhaps a little more affluent, and there might be just one or two kids per house.

All of Prairie Village is safe and family-oriented.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by westender

For kicks and giggles, I looked up the "walkscores" for two houses I know well in Prairie Village.

House #1 rates 78 Walkscore and 56 Bikeable score. This is the large grouping of 1950s homes west of "the Village." Generally the area between 63d and Mission and Tomahawk and Roe. This is a great score and a nice neighborhood. Big families with five or six kids are not unusual here.

House #2 rates 23 Walkscore and 53 Bikeable score. This is the newer 1980s housing along Somerset Avenue headed west from Franklin Park. Not as good a score. Again a nice neighborhood with lots of kids, but perhaps a little more affluent, and there might be just one or two kids per house.

All of Prairie Village is safe and family-oriented.

The lower street numbered roads in PV certainly have a better walk score overall. I’m not sure where you’re getting your demographic info for PV, but is a mature aging demographic overall with a slightly lower percentage of the population over age 65 than under age 18 according to census data.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

The lower street numbered roads in PV certainly have a better walk score overall. I’m not sure where you’re getting your demographic info for PV, but is a mature aging demographic overall with a slightly lower percentage of the population over age 65 than under age 18 according to census data.

I worked in NE JoCo years back and definitely noticed more older folks than other suburban areas. Curious as to what school enrollment numbers now compare to the 60s and 70s.

There had to be a sharp decline at some point in time.

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

Curious as to what school enrollment numbers now compare to the 60s and 70s.

There had to be a sharp decline at some point in time.

I graduated from Shawnee Mission East in the early 70s. Back then there were no freshman. Our boundary went from 59th Street to 91st, State Line to Nall. Now there are all four grades, and the boundaries go as far north as 47th down to 95th, and in some area all the way west to Metcalf.
https://resources.finalsite.net/imag...ap-2018-19.pdf

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

The lower street numbered roads in PV certainly have a better walk score overall. I’m not sure where you’re getting your demographic info for PV, but is a mature aging demographic overall with a slightly lower percentage of the population over age 65 than under age 18 according to census data.

I think that mature aging demographic is not so true anymore. PV is full of kids and three bigger grade schools have been built to accommodate more kids.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by luzianne

I think that mature aging demographic is not so true anymore. PV is full of kids and three bigger grade schools have been built to accommodate more kids.

This is the current census data, take this as a grain of salt- I wonder if the greater % under 5 relative to the % under 18 is a solid indicator of younger and middle aged people moving to inner ring suburbs instead of immediately heading to the "vinyl village" developments that are at lower price points. PV has certainly seen some RE appreciation, but remains a relative bargain based on its median household income, educational attainment, location etc. 2020 Census Data releases will offer a better overall picture shortly.

Edit, interesting to also note that Overland Park's population demographics are now aging a bit more on the whole as well which makes sense considering the very large land area the city occupies at this point...

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by PittsburghFans

Thank you for the tip! I didn't even think about Reddit.

We were in KS a little over a year ago, but we only had time to drive around PV at night and our first thought was "meh!"... we were unimpressed. We've also been doing some Google views, and we didn't see anybody walking around, not even in the areas close to the PV shops, which makes me think that people just drive there. It's very disappointing because we really wanted to like it .

People just drive almost everywhere in KC, though...not just in the suburbs. It really won't be appreciably different in Brookside, outside of the couple of blocks of shops (which people will still drive to). It is just a highly car oriented city. Brookside does have the trolley track running through it, where a streetcar right of way is reproved into a multi-use trail connecting South Kansas City to the Country Club Plaza. The stretch that runs through Brookside is probably the most heavily used, and even at the rate, usage overall is pretty light.

[westender]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

I graduated from Shawnee Mission East in the early 70s. Back then there were no freshmen. Our boundary went from 59th Street to 91st, State Line to Nall. Now there are all four grades, and the boundaries go as far north as 47th down to 95th, and in some area all the way west to Metcalf.

https://resources.finalsite.net/imag...ap-2018-19.pdf

Interesting map: the boundaries have definitely enlarged since the 1980s and 1990s. My SME debate partner lived in Westwood, and Coach Eley (SM North) would often comment that he should really be at North. Eley was peeved when we qualified for Nationals -- this is back when Kansas could only send six teams total. Our coach (Larry Brown) just smiled.

The boundaries _for a long time_ were from US56 (Shawnee Mission Parkway) to 95th Street (couple of places only to 91st), and State Line to Lamar. Historically, all of Prairie Village has been included in the SME catchment, even that apartment complex exclave just west of Lamar.