Texas Mom (Wichita, Lawrence, Garden City: crime, houses, employment)

[Texas Mom]

My daughter is thinking of going to Garden City Junior College can anyone tell something about it. we are from Austin,TX so we are use to a pretty liberal way of life. What is the weather like,any jobs for kids etc?

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Texas Mom

My daughter is thinking of going to Garden City Junior College can anyone tell something about it. we are from Austin,TX so we are use to a pretty liberal way of life. What is the weather like,any jobs for kids etc?

The weather in Garden City is probably drier than eastern KS, hot summers and relatively cold winters. Last time I was there, it was quite windy. Similar climate to Amarillo/TX panhandle.

GC has a significant Hispanic and Vietnamese population, so rather diverse for small town KS. Although it isn't that "small town". I don't know the population, but it's not like a little town where everybody knows everybody's business. I doubt it's very liberal at all, being in KS. The only liberal city in KS is Lawrence, where the Univ. of KS is located.

Oh, GC also boasts the world's biggest public swimming pool, I believe. I've been to it and it is very big. Overall, the city is rather isolated. The closest actual cities are Denver and Wichita, both several hours by car.

[chele123]

Liberal way of life? I'm not sure I know what you mean by that?
I think Garden City is probably just like most other small cities. I've heard GCCC is a good school but I don't know from experience. There is quite a bit of shopping and fast food, so there should be plenty of employment opportunities. Just like any town there are good areas and bad areas, but overall I don't hear a lot about crime in GC. Weather is crazy in Kansas. We can have a 70 degree day in January and the next day the high will be in the 20's. It is usually pretty windy in GC too. It is an interesting mix of rural and city, with a feedlot practically in the middle of town! As denverian said, there is a large population of latinos, but I haven't really noticed very many Vietnamese. One of the packing houses burned down several years ago and it seems like a lot of Vietnamese moved on about then? I could be wrong, but I don't think they ever rebuilt that packing house. Overall I don't think GC is too bad. I wouldn't ever live there, it's too big of a town for me!

[nvared]

Is she thinking about going there because of sports? If not or even if so, there would have to be many, many other better places to go to school. I would think there's not too much part-time work available as well. Garden City is very unlike Austin-it would be like night and day in comparison and I'm not just talking about the population difference. It's isolated, there's very little cultural things going on and Western Kansas is not a good place for a young person to grow. She should never think about going sight unseen-that would be a big mistake.

[texasinkansas]

You want to know what it's like here? Ok i will tell you since i have lived here for years it's ok the wind is bad, it never goes under 10 miles an hour but it's a good place. The people are nice. You want to know what the night life is like i can tell you i dj some of the college nights here, it doesn't get that crazy.