Challenging Witchita Assumptions (Wichita, Kansas City, Lawrence: best cities, sales, real estate)

[ejecteject]

I'm an aero engineer looking for a job, possibly outside the war machine. But I'm as apprehensive about Wichita as committing suicide under the gray clouds of Seattle...

I've been to Kansas - Royals game, Leavanworth, Lawrence, Fort Scott (too desolate there). You have some hot summers, nasty winters; more like MA where I grew up than CA where I've lived for 17 years, with a few twists(ers). You've also got down-to-earth, unpretentious human beings. But I did not get to visit Wichita.

1) I am 38, single, and looking to move on. I've read the singles "scene" in Wichita is horrid: 5 bachelors for every woman. If this isn't true, I am curious where the "scene" really is.

Is there one outside of church, where the women aren't all young enough to be my daughter, because the 30-somethings bolted for somewhere else?

2) What constitutes "church" - and the political tide - out there? I have an RC upbringing: I went to mass, didn't sing, came home. My family back east is on course to marry-in two Jews. We're not crazy about Iraq.

By contrast, in my area on the "left coast," new-age Protestant evangelism dominates. Many are wonderful to their neighbors - as long as you join their church. They are so Focused on their Family, they don't ponder events in a world that soon won't matter to them, and dare not question their Pastor-in-Chief in his pre-emptive War on Terror. I'm not anti-military, or anti-faith: I'd just like a gal who uses her own God-given brain and doesn't let her parents push her into marraige.

2) If you're not set on kids as a couple, you need to keep busy. So what besides building planes and church do people in Wichita enjoy? Hiking? Fishing? Any museums? Anything?!

Thanx - CN

[jbdallas]

Not that I can tell you much about the singles scene here, since I'm married. From what I've seen there are quite a few cute women here, only problem is I'd guess they are mostly too young for you.
It is a city of 300k or so people, the available women are not that wide spread. If you are looking to move someplace with both good job opps and good dating opps, I'd guess Wichita may not be your best choice.
It is pretty conservative here, all the representatives are Republican as far as I know. Though the Governor is not, go figure.
Museum here is small, nice but small. Hiking...eh not so much. Fishing, yeah quite a bit.
weather..you like the wind right?

Good luck in your search.

[midwest456]

If it is anything like KC, the singles scene is smaller than a lot of other places,and the available women are young. People seem to marry relatively young here. There was a period a few years ago where all the papers in Kansas City investigated the singles scene after Forbes magazine rated it at the bottom of the "best cities for singles" list. The nearest major city that rated highly for singles scene was Denver. although I'm guessing in your profession, most of the jobs in Colorado would be around Colorado Springs instead of Denver. Colorado itself has become more liberal, even in the Springs area, possibly due to a lot of Californians moving there due to the difference in housing prices.
Politically and religiously, Wichita is very right wing. It attracted a lot of the religious right activists 15 years ago because it is home to one of the few clinics in the midwest that will perform controversial third-trimester abortions. When they were arrested en masse in Randall Terry's "Summer of Mercy" protests, they realized that they needed to get politically organized and change the laws, and that was the start of the religious right takeover. You've probably also heard of how the state board of education keeps flipping back and forth on the issue of how public schools should address evolution. Currently the anti-evolution crowd is out of power for the 2nd time.
What liberal presence does exist in Wichita was concentrated around the College Hill area back when I visited in the 90s. I don't know if that is still true.
Going by the last election, that dominance may be ending now but I think Wichita is still more conservative than Kansas overall, maybe almost to the extent that Lawrence is more liberal than the state.

[restofstory]

you need to visit wichita,not a bad town ,any bigger and it would not be as good.

[Ellie C.]

They are so Focused on their Family, they don't ponder events in a world that soon won't matter to them, and dare not question their Pastor-in-Chief in his pre-emptive War on Terror.

You just described most of Wichita. You know that 30% of America that still approves of the job that Bush is doing? You're sure to meet quite a few of them in Wichita.

Based on what you wrote, you're going to find your views challenged there - a lot. I have no problem with an intelligent debate, but good luck finding many intelligent people to have that debate with. I often found my political views challenged by someone who would ultimately confess to not reading the newspaper or watching the news.

Oh, and you're Catholic? Good luck there too. I was told that's one step above paganism because Catholics worship saints. I guess that includes St. Peter, the guy Jesus left in charge (Matthew 16:18 if anyone cares to look it up), and the first Pope.

These aren't uneducated rubes I'm referring to here, either. They're "educated" people - doctors, nurses, teachers...

I was told more than once: "If you hate it so much, why don't you leave?", so eventually I did. I used to encourage people to move to Wichita, hoping someday that there would be enough people of varying viewpoints that the place would balance out, but I don't think I'll live to see it. They chase out anyone they can brand as an intellectual or a liberal, even if you're just a little left-of-center politically.

I mean, where do you go when someone tells you that dinosaurs were invented by liberal scientists, and that despite all common sense and evidence to the contrary, that the earth was created in six days and it's about 5,000 years old?

Don't do it. There have got to be aerospace jobs somewhere else besides the Land of the Bushpods.

[Mathguy]

Dude, if you are unattached....I'd even consider looking over seas?

Based upon your description....I'd stick with Seattle.

P.S. Ever thought of doing something else for a living? Black & Veach (spelling?) is in Kansas City....might be time to try another line of engineering?
I think you'd love the KC area.

I was an aero major at U of IL for one full year but decided I'd rather be an actuary.

[Zkema]

re: Oh, and you're Catholic? Good luck there too. I was told that's one step above paganism because Catholics worship saints. I guess that includes St. Peter, the guy Jesus left in charge (Matthew 16:18 if anyone cares to look it up), and the first Pope.


LOL no, we Catholics don't worship saints. I don't know how these silly ideas get around. We ask the saints for their intercession, just like you might ask a friend to pray for your sick grandmother, ie. two people praying is better than one.

[rubarb]

I lived in Wichita and still have family there
I can tell you the strait poop. First off there is a lot of crime in the city, most people who post here do not live in Wichita proper, they live in one of the bedroom town like derby or Andover
As for what is there to do in Wichita, I can tell you NOTHING AT ALL. If you do not go to church and I am an atheist so I did not, there is nothing to do, I shoot and collect guns, There was no gun ranges except for a couple of indoor ones. the nearest range was 30 miles north of Wichita. The taxes are very high for what you get there. Appx. 4 times higher than Missouri and Arkansas, and those states are much nicer places to live The religious dogma of the area try's to control what every one does, they keep out anything that they feel is a "vice" which to these Christians is everything but prayer books.
They lost the battle to keep Sunday a dry "no booze sales" out, now that they have won the fight to keep out casinos and slots from the dog park, the dog park is going bye bye. And I have talked to my brother in Wichita and they religion nuts are gearing up to try to repeal the sales of booze on Sunday.
The only thing to do for non religo nuts is to go to old town and hit a couple of the bars there. This would shut them down
I have seen many people praying openly in front of customers in coffee houses and other places.
If you are a "born again nut bar" you will fit right in, but this town is not going to progress as the rest of the county is because of its lack of vision.
If the town ever looses its air industry or the airforce base closes by derby, Wichita will only be used for filming when Hollywood needs a ghost town.They could not even keep a theme park open for more than two months, the owners blamed the rain in the spring. What a load. I can tell you one more thing, Real-estate in Wichita does not sell very well.
I have been involved in several real estate deals in this town, and things do not sell well, the DOM are appx. 9 to 13 months. Andover is a bit better, as no one who works in Wichita wants to live in Wichita. every one of the real-estate agents I worked with told me to never buy in Wichita,as it is dangerous and will not sell well, when I insisted to look at a couple of homes there, I was told if I did buy to put in a good security system. it is not if you get broken into but when.

[kcmo]

I don't see how anybody from a big city on the coast (and likes living there) can even consider living in Kansas. Most can get by in the Kansas suburbs in the KC area just fine, although again, if you are from another big city, the MO side of KC will be more fitting. If you have a family or what not, there are suburbs on both sides of the state line that would work. The KC area offers plenty of culture, entertainment, nightlife, museums, sports, casinos, festivals, concerts, amusement parks etc. You have a major airport too so you can get to other parts of the country easily. (It is all on the MO side though, but suburban kansans claim these kcmo assets as their own without having to shell out funding for them)

But anyplace else in Kansas? The only thing to do in Kansas is worship the jayhawks or wildcats (college sports) and drive to KCMO, St Louis, Lake of the Ozarks or Colorado for the weekend.

Some people like living in small town midwest. But if you are form a big coastal city and like living there and you may have to possibly move to the midwest, then you better make sure you move to a major metro area like KC, StLouis, Chicago, Minneapolis etc or you will be sorry.

[Fiddlefeet]

Wow, Wichita sounds like my kind of town. I've had a gutful of East Coast Liberal thinking. If you can call it thinking. I'd love to live somewhere there's enough moral fiber to ban casinos and dog tracks.