UNK and Kearney questions (Omaha, Lincoln: apartment complexes, rentals, homes)

[ogre]

Greetings, Nebraskans. I've been on city-data since last summer, and have been a regular user on several forums. For about as long as I've been here at c-d I have been researching graduate schools. I'm planning to start possibly as early as fall '08, definitely by fall '09. I'm dropping into the NE forum because I'm looking at UNK as one of a number of possibilities for grad schools that might work for me.

The most important question I have is how workable it would be to live in Kearney while attending UNK without a car, as I do not expect to own one during grad school, at least for some time at the beginning. Some points to keep in mind: 1) I'm older than the typical student, even many graduate students, so I would want to be in an area without a lot of noise associated with a large student population. 2) I'm physically active and don't mind a good walk. Living a mile, or even a couple of miles, from campus would be fine. However, if I lived this far from campus I would prefer to have many of the everyday needs closer than this, so I would not spend too much time out of the day walking everywhere. 3) I'd be happy to consider the campus apartments as long as they weren't noisy. Is this a quiet area with more mature students, or a place I might want to avoid? 4) What's the best way out of town at break times and the like? I would be heading east in most cases, so a flight from Kearney to Denver, then from Denver back to the east, would be prohibitively expensive. From the research I've done, it appears that maybe the best bet would be to take the Eppley bus to Omaha, and catch a flight from there. How does this sound? Any other suggestions?

A couple of more questions:

How's the political climate in Kearney and at UNK? I know many college towns lean to the left, and I'm sort of mainstream conservative, give or take. A place that is kind of liberal is fine, as long as people would genuinely accept my right to my own views, but I'd prefer to avoid places that are intolerant of anyone who does not go far to the left politically.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with UNK about how they treat their students. I once had a rough time at a school that treated its students very badly, and would really like to avoid anything like that again. I've heard good things about UNK, but the more information from those really in the know, the better.

Anything else someone should know about the area?

Thanks for any answers people can provide.

[tpabes]

Well life would be a lot easier with a car, especially in the winter, but I suppose it could be done. Kearney isn't big enough to have large public transit system, so it is pretty much regulated to a taxi service. In fact, years ago the city bought two trolleys to use for public transport and their just wasn't enough business, so now they just available to rent for weddings and such. There are alot of rentals near the college, older homes and people renting out basements. The closer to the college, you'll probably have a better chance of loud neighbors. If you could find a rental closer to the intersection of Hwy 30 and 2nd ave, that would be ideal as you would have a grocery store, Walgreens, downtown and the college less than a mile away. There are also some apartments downtown above the business'. Otherwise there are alot of apartment complexes in Kearney, most on the north side. Most of the retail (Wal-mart, Target, Mall) is on this side of town. The best time to find a rental near the college is going to be summer, the other complexes you should be able to find one year round. The best place to look is in the newspaper:
Kearney Hub - Home - Home
Couldn't tell you about campus apartments, other than they are brand new this year and they are looking to build more. As far as the college, I haven't heard anything about students being mistreated. I have known several people who have gone there, and they don't really have anything bad to say about their experience.
I'd say Kearney is still conservative, but with the college is less conservative than other parts of Nebraska, if that makes sense. As far as getting out of here, you're best bet right now is to go to Omaha or Lincoln if you want to fly east. However, Grand Island (40 miles east) is getting better air service, and they are going to be offering flights to Kansas City. There is a service in Kearney, called Eppley Express that you can get transportation to Omaha. If you have any more ?'s just ask.

[ogre]

Thanks Tpabes. Your response has a lot of good info. One more question I do have for anyone familiar with renting in Kearney is what are typical rents. Judging from the ads in the newspaper link Tpabes provided, it appears that rents might typically run about 400-500, maybe up to 600 on the high end, and maybe as low as 300 or so if you find an apartment that is somewhat of a bargain. There were only a few ads in that issue of the paper, however, so I don't know whether they were representative. What would be the usual rent for an apartment (ballpark figure)? Thanks to anyone with info.

[tpabes]

Actually you hit it on the head with the price range. I also should mention there is a couple apartment complexes west of campus but you would be farther from shopping amenities.

[ogre]

Thanks a lot. You've provided some good info.