Joplin=yuck-olo

[wishiwasuber]

This thread upsets me as someone who has lived in Joplin all my life. Yes this is a conservitive area you should have guessed that before you moved.
There are bad and good neiborhoods here, head south twords leewood or west twords Cecil Floyed or the old Historic Homes but you wouldnt know anything about that you just look at stuff down off of 4 street. There are several good contract commpanies around here that will help you renevate your house but whats more rewarding then doing it your self, even removing wall paper, though not hard is rewarding. The Schools are some of the best in the area. Teachers dont teach for the pay or there wouldnt be a need for techers just people who care about the kids. St. Johns is one of the top 100 hospitals in the country and Freemen West isnt far behind. Semi Traffic is Busy becouse of CFI/Conway just off of I-44 which produces good solid jobs. Lead is not that bad, ive been playing in chat piles for as long as I can remember most of it is gone including Snowball which if you didnt know (which you probably dont) was one of the biggest chat piles around. There are only two wal-marts here and there are plenty of other places to shop if you pay attention. The "scrap yard" is there for a reason and is being moved scince you didnt know that. As for your masters you could put it to good use fixing the towns "problems" they are looking for someone to be on the board. If you lost power during the ice storms for a week consider your self blessed, a lot of people spent almost a month with out power during the coldest time of the year. If you knew where to go there would be plenty to do. And theres plenty of individualy owned eaterys that are real good.

It seems like outside your two blocks of Heaven you arent really going out to see the real Joplin

No Place Is perfect but its not as bad as you say.

[20yrsinBranson]

Like any location, Joplin has good points and bad. (By the way I love the "rented mule" comment!) LOL

Personally, I think that Joplin has one of the nicest downtown areas for a town of it's size in Missouri.

20yrsinBranson

[Okie_Dokie!]

Originally Posted by MNdad

We have been here 6 years now. If you are from the North, West, or East it is going to be a CULTURE SHOCK. Evangelicals are EVERYWHERE (this is the buckle of the BILBE BELT). We are Catholic and it is the kind of place that thinks Catholics are not christians.

Meth cookers are all over the place. The education system stinks. We just put our kids in private school because of them.

School programs had that unforgetable mixed odor of alcohol/tobacco (smoked and chewed)/ and lack of soap for a long time. And our kid was at a "good" school.

I have done some real estate investing here. There ARE bad neighborhoods: Most of them. This is a town of have and have nots. Most folks her are poor and then the ones who are not live either on "Snob Hill" (an area where the rich mining people used to live, but is now professionals that love their old houses) or in the new developments with $300K+ houses. There is little in between.

Renovate a house? You better be handy. No one will do anything around here once they have enough money for rent/truck payment/beer/ and chew for the month. I did 80% of the work on everything I renovated.

Also, the houses are cheap, but most of the cheap ones are in VERY POOR REPAIR. Lots of knob and tube wiring, FUSE boxes, plumbing with no cut offs and next to no insulation. People also have an unnatural love of wallpaper down here. Get ready to steam it off.

Teaching pay is poor. Nursing pay is poor. If you are not a far right conservative people think you do not belong here.

Semi traffic is VERY busy on I-44.

Summer is hot and humid and winter is rainy and cold (far worse that snowy and cold in my book). I almost forgot the beauty of ICE STORMS, which are much worse than a blizzard.

Don't forget all the lead contamination from the mining days. We have culligan water because the city water is full of all kind of junk. It is also hard to find a decent dentist or doctor. There is only one (new) guy that can even do a root cannal here.

Also, the locals deny having a souther accent, but they do. When they can't understand what you said they said this stupid phrase: "Do what?" Just like every state, they think the state just south of them is the start of "the south". Trouble is, Arkansas is less than an hour from here....

Walmart (we have THREE Supercenters) is about the only place to shop, and it is pack on weekends, late at night, all the time. Packed with dirty 300+ pound people with 8th grade educations.

If my mother in law who is in Springfield didn't have a serious illness, we would have been out of here over a year ago. This isn't the worst place in Missouri, but it is right down there.

Well, All I have to say to that is...

How is your mother-in law...
After six years?
And....
Is there an "Exorcist" in the house!!!"
LOL!!!

[kyjimbo]

I was born and grew up in the Joplin area before moving away in the 1980's.
In the early 1900's Joplin was one of the largest and fastest growing areas in the country but when the lead and zinc mines began to play out, the areas economy played out too. I guess that is part of todays mind set in Joplin. If they can't BE big they will pretend to be. Just look at the graphics on the Joplin Airport web site. That map of the us shows about 40 destinations from Joplin. Really? Nope, that is a map of Kansas Cities destinations but it sure looks impressive and as we all know, image is everything! Of course if they showed a map of Joplin's destinations it would have, well, no arrows or dots. No service till Sept and then only service to Kansas City.
They city of Joplin would sell it's founding fathers souls into eternal damnation for any big new retail development but not before bulldozing every living thing to the ground in order to accommodate it.
One of the most bizare things to come from the city is the "daytime population" numbers. Years ago the city hired a consulting firm to count vehicles coming into Joplin during a 24 hour period, multiplied that by a average number of occupants per vehicle and then added that to Joplin's official population. Viola! Joplin is suddenly much bigger because, well, it just HAS to be.
Joplin is an OK town. It seem a little desperate in it's self promotion and is VERY conservative in nature.
One very bright spot is the renovation of some downtown buildings. Joplin has a large inventory of sizable buildings along Main St and it's nice to see them being recognized as an asset. Too bad so many residents see this as a waste of space and money.
My regular visits often leave me feeling uncomfortable and a little depressed which is why I don't live there. I'm sure the locals will be cheering my decision.

[Okie_Dokie!]

Very well put,kyjimbo
I am not from Joplin, originally (I am from Branson.) but I have lived here for about 37 years. My problem is with, the people. Very unfriendly and rude.
When I meet a nice and polite person in Joplin, the first thing I ask is..."Your not from here,are you?
They say "no", most of the time.
LOL!!