Hays, KS Pros and Cons? (Kansas City, Topeka: apartments, insurance, crime rate)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't eat meat, so that will definitely be appreciated!
Apart from the pollutants and odors produced by the plants - which are no joke - big meatpacking operations have a tendency to degrade their communities. Many of the jobs are among the very worst in America and they attract the least skilled and most desperate people imaginable (who do often happen to be immigrants, though I don't think that's really relevant).
I would take Hays over a meatpacking town any day of the week.
Many of the jobs are among the very worst in America and they attract the least skilled and most desperate people imaginable (who do often happen to be immigrants, though I don't think that's really relevant).
BTW, I really appreciate the way you put that.
I have heard Hays is a wonderful place to raise a family, given its low crime rate and relatively stable economy. I do wish there were more going on culturally, but we I guess we can't all be NYC or New Orleans...
Some of the other larger towns in western Kansas have a meatpacking industry that has drawn an incredible amount of poor Mexicans and even poor immigrants from southeast Asia and Somalia from what I hear on this board. So what has happened is Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal have become majority non-white and, while I've never been out there, probably look more like Mexico now than the small-town Americana they used to be. Hays, on the other hand, is 93% white and unaffected.
And people wonder why KC people have a reputation for beign snobby . If you have never been to a place then don't judge it. Just so you know hays has a rapid and ignored teen alcoholism problem that is widely ignored by the cops any everyone else and a good chunk of the town is rundown rentals and trailers owned by slum lords and driven even further into the ground by the college students and white trash who live in them. Walmart runs the retail economy and the mall is failing pretty hard so you will have to go to Denver/Salina/Wichita/KC to do most decent shopping. I was told by an economics teacher in another town that this is because too much of Hays trade area overlaps with Hutchinson, Salina, and Garden City. A few places in town recently closed like The Village Inn and Mr Goodcents and a few more might fallow by the looks of it.
I'm not saying Hays is a bad place to live, raise a family or be from I'm just saying people give it way to much credit especially with how much just gets pushed under the rug and ignored like the rapes and the Pizza Hut stabbing.
There ARE nice people and kids there who want (and to an extend do) make it a nice community and frontier park is a beautiful city park and so is the walking trail, but in my experience many of the adults and high school children are closed minded and prejudice about other races.
On another note I was told by a substatue teacher that the alcohol problems are so bad that they almost had to shutdown the schools for October Fest because of a lack of teacher showing up for work. I've also known a few teachers who quit their jobs at Hays High School because of how disrespectful the kids can be.
As I said before Hays many some strong points and is in no way the worst place to live in Kansas, I am just tired of it getting more credit then it deserves and people ignoring the problems that only new residents and outsiders can seem to pick out. If the cops would get their acts together and start busting the underage parties and if Hays could get some more retail business so people didn't have to leave town all the time I think it would be an awesome place to live instead of just an ok.
PS to all the people taking about poverty rates in SW Kansas I will dig up some census facts for you from other similar sized Kansas towns.
Hays Families: 5.7% Percentage of Pop:15.6%
Garden City Families: 7.1% Percentage of Pop: 12.3%
Dodge City Families:14.5% Percentage of Pop: 17.1%
Liberal Families: 15.4% of families Percentage of Pop: 18.2%
Emporia Families: 12.0% Percentage of Pop: 22.2%
Pittsburg Families: 13.6% Percentage of Pop: 22.5%
Great Bend Families:12.1% Percentage of Pop: 15.7%
You can blame it on the college, but G.C. Isn't much of a College town and Great Bend isn't a college town or a packing town.
as a person who was born and raised in hays, I can tell you that it is very expensive, and not being catholic or german, I have always been considered an outsider. Rent and house purchasing is way too high, the taxes are high also. for a 1600 square foot house expect to pay around 180k with around 2k property tax. I also work at the university, tell your wife to expect alot of useless politics and behind the back talking.
for places to eat, with the most bang for the buck I would suggest. san juans mexican in russell, lamatoes or gambinos for pizza. jd's chicken.
Empires228- I was merely stating facts. But it's interesting to hear Kansas City is thought of as snobby - and I don't doubt that's true, but it's all relative. BTW, I've stated facts plenty about KC that people don't like to hear. KC is an absolute mess with its social issues, as many old industrial cities are. We have a huge population whose economy (jobs) has left them stranded. Funny thing is I'm told KC doesn't suffer as much as cities further east in regard to fall of industrial jobs and that many think of KC as a "new economy" city. Hardly, try Denver and Minneapolis. But I'd hate to experience those other cities further east consdiering I'm told KC doesn't have it that bad in comparison.
Empires228- I was merely stating facts. But it's interesting to hear Kansas City is thought of as snobby - and I don't doubt that's true, but it's all relative. BTW, I've stated facts plenty about KC that people don't like to hear. KC is an absolute mess with its social issues, as many old industrial cities are. We have a huge population whose economy (jobs) has left them stranded. Funny thing is I'm told KC doesn't suffer as much as cities further east in regard to fall of industrial jobs and that many think of KC as a "new economy" city. Hardly, try Denver and Minneapolis. But I'd hate to experience those other cities further east consdiering I'm told KC doesn't have it that bad in comparison.
Having grown up in JoCo, I know that it's been considered to be "snobbish" since at least the '80s. I had never known anyone outside of Johnson County until I returned to Kansas in 1992 to attend KU. Then I found out that most people from small town Kansas immediately stereotyped me as a snob when they found out I was from JoCo.
Having grown up in JoCo, I know that it's been considered to be "snobbish" since at least the '80s. I had never known anyone outside of Johnson County until I returned to Kansas in 1992 to attend KU. Then I found out that most people from small town Kansas immediately stereotyped me as a snob when they found out I was from JoCo.
Well, that makes perfect sense being that JoCo was where the rising nuevo-middle class (read: semi-professional/educated/white-collar) originally clustered, corresponding with the rise of the corporate suburb, middle-class flight to the suburbs (aka white flight), and the wealthy already having been established in JC Nichol's developments. The '80s seems to have been the rise of the yuppie era and when the more well-to-do (new college graduates) really uprooted and distanced themselves from more humble neighborhoods and their more working-class roots. The word yuppie is still thrown around by many blue-collar/working-class types. I take it as that cultural shift took place (rise of yuppies/nuevo-middle class), those who weren't part of it thought of those who were as snobby, etc. and probably felt the way some folks do on a college campus do about frat/sorority types. And I don't doubt many folks were a bit pretentious and distancing in their new-found way of life. (This kind of makes me think of Darcy on Married With Children. Haha.)
That's my take on what JoCo's snob factor is rooted in and how I've put together what was a major cultural change. But then I'm only 25, so wasn't really around to see it.
Well, that makes perfect sense being that JoCo was where the rising nuevo-middle class (read: semi-professional/educated/white-collar) originally clustered, corresponding with the rise of the corporate suburb, middle-class flight to the suburbs (aka white flight), and the wealthy already having been established in JC Nichol's developments. The '80s seems to have been the rise of the yuppie era and when the more well-to-do (new college graduates) really uprooted and distanced themselves from more humble neighborhoods and their more working-class roots. The word yuppie is still thrown around by many blue-collar/working-class types. I take it as that cultural shift took place (rise of yuppies/nuevo-middle class), those who weren't part of it thought of those who were as snobby, etc. and probably felt the way some folks do on a college campus do about frat/sorority types. And I don't doubt many folks were a bit pretentious and distancing in their new-found way of life. (This kind of makes me think of Darcy on Married With Children. Haha.)
That's my take on what JoCo's snob factor is rooted in and how I've put together what was a major cultural change. But then I'm only 25, so wasn't really around to see it.
Marcy Darcy lol! Your take is fairly accurate. JoCo in the '80s was about 98% white, mostly middle to upper middle and upper class people, with very few "working class" neighborhoods in NE JoCo. I even remember there being a sort of hierarchy within the SM School District with North being considered the "poor" school, South and East considered the "rich" schools, and West/Northwest somewhere in between. But then I knew that people in the rest of the metro area considered all the schools to be "rich and snobby".
But on my visits to JoCo in the past decade, I've noticed how much racial diversity there is, and how really, most of it is middle class with plenty of lower-middle class areas (especially older apartment complexes), so I would think the whole yuppie/snob label might be wearing off. There might still be the urban vs. rural rivalry going on. I never have had much interaction with rural Kansans, having grown up in JoCo. We had no family out in rural areas, so when I left Kansas, I always found it odd when people would assume I grew up on a farm. I don't think I've ever been on a farm in my life lol!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. If you have never been to a place then don't judge it. Just so you know hays has a rapid and ignored teen alcoholism problem that is widely ignored by the cops any everyone else and a good chunk of the town is rundown rentals and trailers owned by slum lords and driven even further into the ground by the college students and white trash who live in them. Walmart runs the retail economy and the mall is failing pretty hard so you will have to go to Denver/Salina/Wichita/KC to do most decent shopping. I was told by an economics teacher in another town that this is because too much of Hays trade area overlaps with Hutchinson, Salina, and Garden City. A few places in town recently closed like The Village Inn and Mr Goodcents and a few more might fallow by the looks of it.
