Oregon RN interested in Kansas (Pittsburg, Elk City: layoffs, college, live)

[gwander]

I also found this site, which might be helpful.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Kansas.html

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

I'm a little confused that you are worried about culture shock moving from Portland. What do expect when moving from a metro of 2 million to a town of 30K?

I would strongly recommend Lawrence. It may be a little bigger than what you're looking for, but you could look for a place on it's outskirts - especially if you want some acreage. I think it may best place for an Oregonian culturally, as it is just about the only city in Kansas that doesn't think Creationism should be taught in Science class.

[couragerqd]

I totally agree about Lawrence - it is a great place to raise a family and your options would be limitless. I would love to live there.

There is a forum called allnurses.com that has a breakdown on regions so you could possibly talk with nurses in some of those areas. It might be helpful as well as this awesome forum.

[culater88]

When I was contemplating in relocating to Topeka, I found Lawrence a more progressive town was considering moving there but in the end, the family didn't want to move to KS.

This site provided a lot of information about Lawrence.

Forums

Good luck

[pdxtokc]

My family and I moved from a smaller suburb of portlad to Kansas in mid 2007 and just moved back to Oregon a couple of months ago. We definitely had culture shock. It was very hard to get used to the weather and landscape. Granted, Oregon weather is far from perfect, but it IS mild. We missed the green and mountains (Kansas is flat and very brown).. being able to go for walks without freezing or melting and the sense of 'laid back' that Oregon offers (hope that makes sense). We aren't complete hippies, but missed the notion that people cared about the environment and the availability of organic food. Our opinion was that people were 'midwest nice'. In other words, friendly to your face but not inviting beyond that.
Another dissapointment for us was that we thought cost of living would be greatly lower. Yes, you can buy the same square footage of home for quite a bit less, BUT the quality of workmanship seemed less so we were constantlly sinking money into things like wood rot and roofing damage from the bad weather. Also, heating and cooling costs make up for what you would save in mortgage.
On a positive note, we loved all the neighborhood pools (don't get that in Oregon) and also the lack of traffic. And, the schools were excellent.
Please accept this as only our opinion. There were many people we met that LOVED Kansas and would never leave and it's possible we didn't give it enough time. As for us, we weighed our options and decided to go ahead and come home.
Best in your endevours

[RadioSilence]

I was born and raised in Lawrence, so I will always stand up for my hometown first. Lawrence has a reasonably-sized city hospital, plus the University of Kansas. However, the University of Kansas Hospital is in Kansas City.

I made the drive from Lawrence to Fort Smith, Arkansas, once. I think it took five hours.

Other considerations (driving time to Fayetteville included):

Kansas City metropolitan area (4 hours)

Wichita (4.5 hours)

Pittsburg, KS or Joplin, MO (2 hours)

Tulsa, OK (2 hours)

Springfield, MO (2 hours)

Omaha, NE (6.5 hours)

[gwander]

Portland is a fairly flat city, nestled there in the Willamette River valley. So coming to Kansas should not be such a shock. One can always fly back to Oregon to do some hiking the mountains.
And Oregon can be quite brown in the summers while many parts of Kansas can be very green in the spring and summers, so I don't think the color of the landscape should be much of a shock either.
And as far as people and their religious and/or environmental opinions... well you will find all sorts of people no matter where you go. We sterotype people and think that only liberals live in Oregon and only conservatives live in Kansas. I have some Oregon relatives who are conservative, republican, and ultra religious. And I have some Kansas friends who are ultra liberal, vegetarian and democrats.
I think no matter where you go, you will be able to find what you are looking for. And anyone willing to make a move is probably up for a few changes and adventures anyway. Good luck in your search for a wonderful new place to call home. :-)

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by gwander

And as far as people and their religious and/or environmental opinions... well you will find all sorts of people no matter where you go. We sterotype people and think that only liberals live in Oregon and only conservatives live in Kansas. I have some Oregon relatives who are conservative, republican, and ultra religious. And I have some Kansas friends who are ultra liberal, vegetarian and democrats.

We get the same thing in Washington, where Seattle is presumed to be the whole state: Seattle leans left/organic, rains a lot and had grunge, therefore all of Washington is that way. I live in Washington. Yesterday it was 106 here, with humidity down to about 15% and the possibility of rain roughly equal to my odds of becoming Pope. All the hills around me are covered with sagebrush and sand, and if it weren't for irrigation that's all that would grow here. Later this year our district will send the same Bush-rubber-stamp legislator back to Congress that it has elected with a comfortable margin for I don't know how many terms. And naturally, folk in Yakima, Tri-Cities and Spokane get fatigued of being lumped with Seattle, with which the eastern side of the state is more or less perpetually at odds.

You could write a similar story in eastern Oregon--just plunk down Hermiston, Pendleton and Heppner juxtaposed with Portland. And I don't follow Oregon politics, but I bet if I did, I wouldn't have to listen to many voices from the east to hear similar sentiments of the rural east vs. the big urban area in the west.

Heck, you can get it in Kansas. The west part is significantly drier than the east, and if you asked folks in Hays or Dodge or Liberal about Johnson County, you might get the same sort of things Tri-Citians say about Seattle. In fact, they are all overgeneralizations that can't be taken too far anywhere, as you accurately made clear.

[Alt Dach]

Look into the VA system.

[myranda]

So, I know I'm partial to Manhattan, but it's great. For jobs, check out www.NationJob.com/Manhattan. Our major medical center is Mercy Regional Health Center. There's 50,000 people here. Here's a link for area housing: Manhattan Association of REALTORS