Drive By Shootings in...Olathe?

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by caydriver

CrownVic, I agree with you. Was raised is Desoto and Olathe always had the reputation of being rough as did Bonner Springs. I'm talking 50's and 60's. Still go to Desoto, but Olathe has no appeal to me.

I remember Desoto. My wife had a friend who lived there that we used to visit from time to time. Seemed like a nice little town.

[pioneer88]

Why so defensive??

You are right, you are entitled to your opinion and I never debated that (or wanted to debate what the meaning of rough was), I simply said that I was suprised to hear that and that was my opinion. I just thought I'd let you know that I was sorry to hear you had a bad experience and that we are not all low class hillbillies is all. Sorry if that wasn't how it came across. In regards to the numbers I had, I did not make those up, those numbers came from USA Today rankings of the safest and most dangerous cities last year maybe the year before I believe as well as CNN's take on the top 100 cities to live in America. Why would I bother making up this stuff? I have not lived here my entire life but I have long enough to be familiar with it and personally if you don't like it, that's fine, it doesn't hurt my feelings I was just trying to be informative in a postive way as these forums can often take a negative format more often than positive. Once again, I was just suprised by that response as when most people from outside of JOCO think of Olathe it brings to mind safe suburbia. Maybe we aren't as fancy as Overland Park or Leawood but in my humble opinion when we start complaining too much about how rough it is in Olathe it's almost a slap in the face to people that live in situations where it is truly dangerous on a regular basis. I consider myself lucky to live in a place that is growing, continuing to be more diverse, good schools and most important safe, that is all. To each is own.

Have a nice day,

neer88

[kcmo]

Wow, everybody loves to exaggerate.

Nobody leaves at 4AM to get to work by 8 or 9 unless you are driving 150miles plus each way. Commutes in DC, Chicago, LA, NYC etc SUCK, but most commutes are less than 1 hour. Even if you drove from Baltimore to DC, it won't take 2 hours unless there is a bad wreck or something or unless you live clear on the other side of 10 million people (which happens in mega cities if you change jobs) It's all relative. If you are from Kansas and trying to commute in San Jose, I'm sure it's such a shock that's easy to exaggerate.

Olathe is not a dangerous place. Come on. Even its worst parts are not bad. It has older run down areas and even a FEW minority areas. “Parts” of Olathe are not the best suburban areas. But Olathe is now a good sized city. Any city over 100,000 people is going to have some crime and other things that make the news. But it's a far cry from 99% of East KCMO or most of KCK. Same with Blue Springs. Section 8 housing is in the suburbs too. Don't leave your GPS in your car with the windows down while in Target and you will be fine in Olathe or Blue Springs. By far and large, Olathe is a white suburb and most people that live there won't even go west of 35. It's no wonder people out there can be extremely afraid to go into KCMO. They don't want to drive down Santa Fe too far...

Olathe is also not the 11th best place to live in America. It's a fine midwestern suburb. I don't care where that list came from. If Olathe is the 11th best place to live in America, then America really does suck and we are doomed.

If you ask me, Olathe is one of the ugliest, most boring places a person could ever settle down in. Except parts over by K-10, Cedar Creek etc., it’s flat, there are few trees, traffic can be nasty around all the massive big box retail clusters and on I-35 etc. The topography of Olathe has to be the worst in all of metro KC and most of the houses are as cookie cutter as you can get. Looks like Salina slapped onto the side of metro KC.

But it’s a suburb with decent schools, big cheap houses and it’s on the edge of the metro so people feel safe, till a drive-by happens and everybody packs up and moves to Desoto and Gardner and the vicious cycle starts all over again.

One thing I have noticed about Olathe is the quality of so much of the housing is just horrible. I can't believe what people pay to live in those houses. When driving around you notice that once the homes get over 5 years old, they really start to fall apart and deteriorate much quicker than normal unless the owner puts a ton of money into their home and begins to literally replace the home one project at a time.

Well, you can tell most people can't afford to do that. Lost of homes in Olathe under 10 years old look run down.

But that’s called cheap suburban sprawl and a result of it.

In general Olathe is an ok burb. Not crime ridden, not amazing. Just ok... and cheap. Plus, you get a JO license plate for your new SUV that is parked in front of your 280k home that has that nasty Kansas beige siding that is already falling apart. Try Brick. Something other than beige siding. Go to St Louis or Denver and get some new ideas for housing styles. It's not 1985 anymore.

[CrownVic95]

Wow, everybody loves to exaggerate.

Lol !!!!! You mean like this? .........

Olathe is a white suburb and most people that live there won't even go west of 35. It's no wonder people out there can be extremely afraid to go into KCMO. They don't want to drive down Santa Fe too far...

If you ask me, Olathe is one of the ugliest, most boring places a person could ever settle down in.

The topography of Olathe has to be the worst in all of metro KC

everybody packs up and moves to Desoto and Gardner and the vicious cycle starts all over again.

Plus, you get a JO license plate for your new SUV that is parked in front of your 280k home that has that nasty Kansas beige siding that is already falling apart.

And the award for least relevance to topic....

Try Brick. Something other than beige siding. Go to St Louis or Denver and get some new ideas for housing styles. It's not 1985 anymore.

[thriftylefty]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Wow, everybody loves to exaggerate.

Nobody leaves at 4AM to get to work by 8 or 9 unless you are driving 150miles plus each way. Commutes in DC, Chicago, LA, NYC etc SUCK, but most commutes are less than 1 hour. Even if you drove from Baltimore to DC, it won't take 2 hours unless there is a bad wreck or something or unless you live clear on the other side of 10 million people (which happens in mega cities if you change jobs) It's all relative. If you are from Kansas and trying to commute in San Jose, I'm sure it's such a shock that's easy to exaggerate.

Maybe when you work the DC or LA area you can afford $120-150.00 motels . I can't, I spend 9 months a year working picking up my own expenses. I drive in from Hagerstown ,Manassas, Dumfries, or Fredrick, to get a decent price room, there is a Cheap Motel 6 In the city for around $70.00 Plus tax, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I have many personal friends who are business travelers that have no ideal what a week or two in DC or Chicago really cost . Most of the service workers (SEIU) who work in those cities are getting up 4:00 am because they can't afford the high rent in the one hour commute to the White house. I got on the beltway in Baltimore last year just to get off at the next exit and it was 45 minutes to my destination. If you get in your car a leave a parking space in New York city you won't find a place to put your car for at least 40 minutes, I sat at the GW Bridge 55 Minutes in September waiting to cross on a Saturday. I was with a Kansas City guy who was freaking out like there had been a wreck, I expected the traffic, If you have experienced those cities as a tourist, its nothing like having to be some where by 8:00 am to keep from being chewed out.

With all due respect it could be you who might be accused of exaggerating particularly in extolling the virtues of your beloved cow town that I spent spent over twenty years in. When I travel To real cities I simply take the advice of the service worker at the motel desk on when to be in traffic, it has always worked.

[cp1969]

It's a pity all those poor misinformed folks who plopped down good money for a house in Olathe didn't talk to kcmo first.

They could've been living in paradise in cow-town with their kids attending that nationally-"recognized" KCMO school district.

[pioneer88]

I agree that there are probably (definately) 11 other cities that I would like better than Olathe in this country, the point was that if CNN/Money magazine takes the time to rank them that high, it must have something going for it. Regardless of it's lack of urbanity for you grid. Suburbia has it's ups and it's downs such is life.

[kcmo]

haha, I tell it like it is. Sorry.

Olathe is not dangerous, but it's also not one of the best suburbs in the nation. There are at least 4-5 much nicer suburbs in JoCo alone than Olathe, not to mention the rest of the KC area. Not to mention the rest of the country. You can buy a giant home in Olathe for under 300k. It's a cheap place to live if you want suburbia, but it does have a lot of run down housing stock. Even much of what was built in the 80's and 90's seems to have seen better days. There is NOTHING worse than an outer belt suburb that has signs of decay and blight and KC has a few of them, Grandview, Blue Springs etc.

Thrifty, sorry, I was not thinking of what it's like to live in a city like that on a small income. Yea, that can be tough. I have spent plenty of time and lived short term and had to commute in cities with extreme cost of living and traffic. I have found that even if you live way out (50 miles plus) you can typically get into the city center in less than 1.5 hours. Of course that all depends on available transit etc. There are people that have 2 hour commutes but it's pretty rare. Most people have 30-60 minute commutes. The difference is the commute will be about 100 times more intense faster paced than anything in KC. People in KC drive like they are driving to the park on Sunday during rush hour. They are in no hurry and that's what causes traffic in KC, not mass traffic volumes.

You guys are right though. Olathe is an amazing place that is one of the most desirable places in the nation to live. 11th best city in the nation to live, even with the drive by shootings. Seriously, I can't even type that without falling out of my chair.

By the way, my brother lived west of 35 for five years in what people in Olathe consider ghetto. They recently moved to Platte County, but I did frequent the area when he lived there and he is the one that says people don’t like going west of 35.

One more thing. Olathe is the biggest reason JoCo will never cooperate in any way with the MO side. Even though OP, Leawood, Lenexa etc have tried to be more progressive when it comes to regional cooperation, Olathe always has the people that do everything in their power to stop any kind of cooperation dead at both the county and state levels. And their residents tend to follow suit. Now that the city of Olathe is so large, they are able to cancel out the positives that tend to come out of NE JOCO and even places like south OP, Leawood etc that are much more willing to give regional cooperation a try. Now Olathe is even giving Overland Park a taste of its own medicine by luring companies from OP to Olathe with tax breaks.

So, no. Overall, I’m not fond of Olathe in the least. But a dangerous place it is not.

I consider Olathe a stepping stone from rural midwest to big city suburban. It seems to be the suburb of choice for those moving to the KC area from small rural towns.

[KsStorm]

I was really shocked the last time I went to Olathe. The whole west side seemed like Little Mexico,& reallly run down.