No casino for Wichita (Haven: work, homes, crime)

[wanderlost]

I'm convinced that the old, native Kansans who run Wichita don't want change or progress...they're afraid of it.
Downtown Wichita is a ghost town, even during the work week. Wichita is not a place that people have to pass through on their way to somewhere else....like Kansas City is, so if there's nothing to attract people...no one will go there at all.
Wichita needs some young, forward thinking people on their city council to come up with fresh ideas about how to improve Wichita...but I doubt that will ever happen. Casino or no casino, there are other ways to attract people to an area. People of Wichita don't want change...if they did, it would happen.

Wichitans should thank God every day for the aircraft industry because if they lose that there will literally be nothing left.

[Mathguy]

Some niche tourism can really help an area out. There is a town in Central Illinois where a guy bought 6 huge old grain silos (concrete, 250feet tall etc.).

He turned them into indoor climbing walls and people come from all over to go there.

Heck, with the aircraft industry there it seems like they could do fantasy flight camps etc. where you pay big money to come get rides in jets etc. You could also do tourism with the rugged beauty of the flint hills.

The Tornado chaser tourism stuff is another example.

[wanderlost]

Those are great ideas! People like you should be on the city council. It doesn't have to be gambling...there are many ways to turn a city around.
If you ever check out the Pennsylvania forum there are similar stories about Scranton...an old coal mining town that was decaying away. People who cared about the city came in and started coming up with ways to turn the place around, and it's apparently working.
You need fresh ideas from people who care about their state to make change happen.

[Fast Dog]

Thought you all might like to hear from someone who owns race dogs in Wichita. Thanks alot to the No voters who have put my friends out of a job.
You simple minded people who claim to know what is best for everyone have turned your backs on your own fellow citizens. You have also affected the lives of thousands in this state who breed and own dogs and horses. Yes I said horses! What do you think is going to happen to Eureka Downs and Anthony. We are not the monsters you think we are. We love our dogs and horses. We are not all perfect, and yes there are a few bad apples out there that don't act in the most humane way but there again you have pastors and priest that don't act in the most christian way either! But dont worry, my dogs will go to Kansas City and then home as my pets when they are done racing.
The best thing anyone could do for us now is to begin writing the Kansas state gaming and racing commission and demand a revote! Sedgwick county tried to pull one over on the voters with their wording of the ballot on proposition #2. It should have said slots at the racetracks! All the cards are on the table now.
Us dog people could use your help.

[LGOG]

I gave up on wichita, it is a backward thinking town run by religous nutbars.
You are on the money when you say down town is a ghost town, I have been there every time of day and nothing much is going on there.
It could be a growing place with a nice big casino that would bring in so much needed money and raise the value of property around it.
Instead the idiots are happy with the 25 churches and all the bums waiting for the hand outs for the day, and the lines of bums at the plasma depot waiting to get their 20 bucks for giving blood.
We gave up a job that paid 12 thousand more than here in arkansas because 1]it was not safe for my wife to walk around wichita
2] The religous nuts want to pump their out dated book [bible] down every ones throat.
3] There is nothing to do there, I went to dunn brothers, one of the only coffee shops in the down town area, and could not sit alone on the internet with out haveing some group of young religous idiots trying to explain to each other what paul ment by one of the stupid insagnificant statements of scripture.
This is a clear example of how religion can not keep to its own house, they seem to never be content with living what they preach they need to make every one else follow their life style.
Wichita is doomed to be an off shoot of the air industry and nothing more.
Kansas city is what could have been for wichita but this city has its head up it rear end.
They seem content with the crime, and boy is there crime in wichita.
Kansas city is booming in a way that wichita can only dream of. But this is mostly due to missouri's letting things grow and progress, Maybe wichita can ban abortion,Gays,repeal the liquor on sunday,and hey ban booze altogeater. then they will have the utopia they want, the only problem is no one will want to live there.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by LGOG

I gave up on wichita, it is a backward thinking town run by religous nutbars.
You are on the money when you say down town is a ghost town, I have been there every time of day and nothing much is going on there.
It could be a growing place with a nice big casino that would bring in so much needed money and raise the value of property around it.
Instead the idiots are happy with the 25 churches and all the bums waiting for the hand outs for the day, and the lines of bums at the plasma depot waiting to get their 20 bucks for giving blood.
We gave up a job that paid 12 thousand more than here in arkansas because 1]it was not safe for my wife to walk around wichita
2] The religous nuts want to pump their out dated book [bible] down every ones throat.
3] There is nothing to do there, I went to dunn brothers, one of the only coffee shops in the down town area, and could not sit alone on the internet with out haveing some group of young religous idiots trying to explain to each other what paul ment by one of the stupid insagnificant statements of scripture.
This is a clear example of how religion can not keep to its own house, they seem to never be content with living what they preach they need to make every one else follow their life style.
Wichita is doomed to be an off shoot of the air industry and nothing more.
Kansas city is what could have been for wichita but this city has its head up it rear end.
They seem content with the crime, and boy is there crime in wichita.
Kansas city is booming in a way that wichita can only dream of. But this is mostly due to missouri's letting things grow and progress, Maybe wichita can ban abortion,Gays,repeal the liquor on sunday,and hey ban booze altogeater. then they will have the utopia they want, the only problem is no one will want to live there.

Slamming the bible and christians for the actions of a group of extremists is unwarranted. Sounds like their intolerance rubbed off a bit....which is sad.

[Fast Dog]

Thought I would let you know what happened at the Wichita Greyhound Park the night of the vote.
As I sat eating my supper, when the 1st numbers started coming in from the vote at 7pm it looked promising. Within the hour the yes votes were loosing. I couldn't stand sitting and watching the TV so I went to the track. The mood on 2nd floor was reserved but optimistic. Around 8:30 the numbers rebounded and we held a slight lead. This was up to and including the 78% return. I had already found out that Ruffin had announced if the slot vote does not win the track will close. Folks that have been close to the track knew for years this would happen. About 9:30 or so, the 100% came in and there was dead silence in the room.
Someone said--"Oh god we lost".
The girls that normally waitress or do some of those things were in the other room crying. They knew they had just lost their jobs. There were guys wondering around the room saying “what were they thinking?"
A guy came up to me while I was on the phone and said "do you have dogs"? And I said yes and he said --"what are we going to do now?” I said I have no idea.
Ruffin jr. passed me in the hall and asked if I had a dog there and I said yes and he said "send him to Camptown".
I went home in a daze. I was mad, I was hurt, and I felt betrayed. Once again a place that I enjoyed being at and a place that my wife and I could go to relax for a few of hours was gone. I had just purchased my first litter of greyhounds. My dog had only run 2 schooling races at Wichita and was getting close to starting official schooling. Now I would not be able to see him run an official race in Wichita.
The double whammy was thinking about all the dogs in the adoption kennel, and all the time and effort out of love the volunteers have spent. It all seemed so unfair.
I think about all the good hard working people at the track that are trying to make a living. I think about all the vets and people who provide the care and feed. The "NO" people were not thinking about them! The "NO people didn't care; there was nothing in it for them. They were not thinking about the folks in Eureka or Anthony.
I'm mad at Ruffin for not caring. I'm mad at Wichita for not caring about the folks and the animals out there. They have been betrayed.
I'm mad because people chose to not pay attention when the writing was on the wall.
I'm mad about people shoving their self righteous morals on everyone in the name of Christianity. I'm mad at our church, and every other church for stepping over the line and mixing church and state.
I'm mad at the media for taking a side, and their bias reporting and commentaries. They could not tell about the good things at the greyhound park like the $5mm charitable donations or the good food and entertainment that you get for your dollar.
Call me selfish and a sore looser if you want because we lost. At this point nothing else will hurt.
I feel like Wichita will never ever amount to anything other that a town full of churches, eating places and parks. No one came to the rescue of the folks at the track. Where were all these grass root people banning together to help out the guy at Wild West World. No one came to the aid of the Wranglers. No one came to help the Wichita Wind. No one came to help the Wichita Wings. No one came to support all the indoor football teams. Every one of these entertainment entities and many more announced early on, that they needed support or they would close. It’s no wonder Kansas City and Oklahoma City are growing fast.
Everyone seems to want to bicker whenever someone wants to do something in this town that will provide some source of entertainment. And if it does not fit within their morality circle they will gun it down. They would just as soon argue about potholes in the street than to try and not loose another business and put people out of work. If nothing is in it for them, then they are against it no matter who will suffer from their actions.
The people who voted 'NO" worry about crime in Wichita. Well where are they, and why are they not banning together to stop the gangs and drugs? From their TV adds you would think this is some sort of Utopia and everything is just peachy. B.S. And you can bet that now that the casino thing is behind them they will turn their sights back on the new arena and find some way to railroad that project into the ground. Even if it does get built the people that voted "NO" will be the first in line to complain about their taxes going up to help pay for it all. I for one will not have to. I'm moving clear out of Wichita and Sedgwick County. I'll take my dogs somewhere else and we'll be fine. I don't know what will become of the adoption dogs. I'm sure they will be well taken care of. The ones I worry about are the ones in the race kennels. Whether you are for, or are against racing, believe it or not there are some very caring trainers out there that have held on to dogs that are slow, or old, or in need of care, just because they love the dogs. Those dogs are the ones that will NOT be going to other tracks.!
My thoughts and prayers are for them.
May God and St. Francis watch over them.

[GraniteStater]

The voting down of the casino for Wichita is typical behavior for Kansas

This sounds like more proof of some of the points mentioned in the book "What's The Matter With Kansas."

Often times the people of this state do not vote for their own economic self interests.

As another poster mentioned many are hypocrites for voting down the casino because they will likely go to the casinos in Oklahoma.

Wichita is definitely part of the bible belt and it seems like the religious right want to vote down something like a casino even though it would mean more jobs for people who need them.

The Kansas City metro area will always be much more progressive than the Wichita metro area. I see the SG stickers all the time when I drive around the KC area. Either a lot of people from Wichita visit KC often or a lot of them are moving to the KC metro!

[Ellie C.]

I don't like casinos. They're smoky and noisy. I hate gambling (because I always lose!). It's a worthless waste of money.

You know what I do about it? I don't go. The only time I've spent in casinos is when a friend talks me into going.

Why is it that a certain group of people think that EVERYONE has to live by their rules? It's not my business if you want to throw your money away gambling.

And what about the lottery? I don't see anybody getting all uptight about that. You could just as easily throw $50 a week away on lottery tickets and bingo as you could on a slot machine. So what's the difference?

I also think it's ridiculous that some of these churches demand that you tithe a certain percentage of you salary, even demanding to see your income tax returns. But hey, if you want to throw your money away so some preacher can buy a nicer car and a more expensive suit with your hard earned money, then have at it. Who am I to judge?

Yet those people feel like they're entitled to judge everyone else. Strange.

[voltar]

I moved from Kansas because of the so called Moral majority slamming Christianity down every ones throat.
You try to remove their brand of religion from being thought in school, and they scream as if you were burning their pope at the stake.
But they have no problem in telling every one else how to live.
Kansas is a leader in this area, The casino and slots are just the latest round of this stupidity,the churches lead this fight.
Religion is a crutch for the weak minded,, I was told something once that made a great deal of since to me, if you see a bum holding an old shoe and talking to god through it, you call him crazy, I see no reason to think it less crazy if you remove the shoe.
I have no problem with anyone going to church, it is your right, I have no problem if you want to let the church extort money from you in the form of a a tenth of your income.
I have no problem if you want to believe you are going to a nice place after death, if you believe that dinosaurs walked the earth the same time as man, that a woman who was a virgin got impregnated by "god" and gave birth to a man that was gods son or god [which ever way you believe] and had to die to save us for being imperfect and "sinners", or that a fish swallowed one of gods servants because he did not want to go to a town. Or that lott having sex with his daughters was "necessary" because it was to much to walk to the town a few miles away, or that David was a "man after gods own heart even though he had sex with one of his men's wives then sent the man to be killed in battle. then god punishes him by killing the child of the union, nice god.
This is your right to believe in this silliness, but then the same people who say they just want to practice their belief system are the first in a picket line to stop an abortion clinic, kill a Dr who does abortions in the name of god, try's to get casinos voted down that the same idiots will drive 40 miles or more to go to themselves.
Kansas is known for its putting creation myths back in schools to be thought as sudofact.
Wichita seems to be a magnet for the people who say they just want to practice their religion but want to shove it down the throat of those who just want to live with out having "your" brand of morality put down their throats.
I have a novel idea, why don't all you religious nuts keep your ideas at the pulpit?
Just associate with those you agree with, preach your morality from your church and let people who want it go to you and you can lead by example instead of by force?
Kansas especially Wichita will never progress very far, and as we all know if the air industry stubs its toe, The city will slide into a bad place.
The housing is already slipping bad in Wichita.
I left a job in the banking industry and it was not a job that was because of Wichita growing, it was expanding its foreclosures on homes.
Many in Wichita wonder why people do not want to visit Wichita, duh, Unless you are speaking in toungs there is nothing to do, it is not a place people want to be or go, crime is high. Then look at KC, people flood to live there, home prices are twice as high as Wichita, but you know it is a fun town, it is also run by a state that is not scared to progress.