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I am going to address you since you are very civil and respectful. I assure you I am not making any of this up. If I can get my friend to come here and tell her story I will. Yes she is harrassed at work by Christian co-workers for being an atheist. Yeah I know it's hard to believe, I have a harder time believing it's 2014 and this stuff is still going on. I told her to contact HR and I get the feeling she is worried about doing this because she doesn't want to cause problems at work. I have another friend who is atheist and she's had issues as well but because she is the Director at her job, people dare not cross that line with her. I've been told you NEED to get into a church or why don't you have a church home and all that junk but I'm kinda firm with people so they back off.
I am not here to fight with people. I am here to tell the truth and let people know there is a different side than what most of these people here post. If you and everyone else has a problem with that then that is your problem not mine. I stand by what I say..............Kansas City is a great place for families. Those married with kids and those who are conservative Christian or bible thumpers. If you are single and not a Christian you will want to think twice before moving here. Kansas City is like a big small town and it's the native who coined that statement. That should tell you something.
I've met quite a few people who asked me about moving to Atlanta and you know what I do?? I tell them the good and bad. I don't own Atlanta, I didn't build Atlanta and I don't care if people have negative things to say about Atlanta because I can acknowledge the fact that their experience might very well be different. You will not see me flying off the top when someone makes a post or thread about the negative aspects of Atlanta because frankly me dear, I don't give a damn!
I'll bet she works for a small company that may be "under the radar" publicity-wise. That does not make it right. At Hallmark or another large KC employer, that would not be tolerated and it would be dealt with ASAP.
I am going to address you since you are very civil and respectful. I assure you I am not making any of this up. If I can get my friend to come here and tell her story I will. Yes she is harrassed at work by Christian co-workers for being an atheist. Yeah I know it's hard to believe, I have a harder time believing it's 2014 and this stuff is still going on. I told her to contact HR and I get the feeling she is worried about doing this because she doesn't want to cause problems at work. I have another friend who is atheist and she's had issues as well but because she is the Director at her job, people dare not cross that line with her. I've been told you NEED to get into a church or why don't you have a church home and all that junk but I'm kinda firm with people so they back off.
I am not here to fight with people. I am here to tell the truth and let people know there is a different side than what most of these people here post. If you and everyone else has a problem with that then that is your problem not mine. I stand by what I say..............Kansas City is a great place for families. Those married with kids and those who are conservative Christian or bible thumpers. If you are single and not a Christian you will want to think twice before moving here. Kansas City is like a big small town and it's the native who coined that statement. That should tell you something.
I've met quite a few people who asked me about moving to Atlanta and you know what I do?? I tell them the good and bad. I don't own Atlanta, I didn't build Atlanta and I don't care if people have negative things to say about Atlanta because I can acknowledge the fact that their experience might very well be different. You will not see me flying off the top when someone makes a post or thread about the negative aspects of Atlanta because frankly me dear, I don't give a damn!
Nonsense.
I know many atheists in Kansas City and they do just fine, nobody "harasses" them. It is not a hyper-conservative place by any measure. kcmo is right - it's average.
I know conservative cities - I've lived in Mississippi and I now live in Texas.
In the near two decades I lived in KC, NOT ONCE I meet a new person and get asked what church I went to or what religion I am or told that I had to get to a church home. NOT ONCE. My husband is a born native of KC and he says he can't recall such a thing, either.
I don't ever remember meeting small business people who described their business as a part of their ministry outside of people running actual churches or charities in Kansas City.
That's a daily occurrence in the parts of Texas and Mississippi I lived in.
I suspect your friend - and you - have not spent a lot of time outside of a very small portion of town.
Have you ever actually set foot in Westport, for example?
As for your friend - if that is happening, that is blatantly illegal (and it can happen anywhere, not just KC, sheesh) and it should be reported. That could be a lawsuit in the making.
I know conservative cities - I've lived in Mississippi and I now live in Texas.
In the near two decades I lived in KC, NOT ONCE I meet a new person and get asked what church I went to or what religion I am or told that I had to get to a church home. NOT ONCE. My husband is a born native of KC and he says he can't recall such a thing, either.
I've lived in KC for the better part of 45 years, and never once has this happened to me here. I lived in Oklahoma City for 3.5 years, and i was asked numerous times if I'd found a church home yet. But i also felt i was being asked because the person wanted to recommend their church if i was looking for one. Not to be judgmental, just to be friendly.
I may have posted this before, but the best way to judge the religious fervor in an area is to go to the grocery store about 12:30 pm on Sunday. Compare number of people in "church clothes" vs. sweat pants.
I'm not here to argue with anyone so please do not come at me like that. Now, I've lived in a few places in my little life......Birmingham, Jacksonville, Atlanta and DC so I think I can at least chime in here. I'm a black woman with a Master's Degree so living in Kansas City has been quite an experience. It's not the worst city and it's not best. Dating hasn't been fun for me either but again I credit it to my situation. I'm educated and don't come into contact with a lot of educated black men and when I do they are usually married or in relationships. White men and other non-black men don't seem receptive to dating black women. I assume they aren't trying to rock the boat at home or just simply feel like they won't be able to connect with a black woman or something. And yes, whether people want to admit it or not, people do get married young here.
Making home grown friends here is definitely a challenge. People are really nice but they definitely keep you at a distance. All of the friends I've made are newcomers like myself. People here definitely have their tight circles and ain't trying to let anyone in but I guess it makes sense because it is a smaller city. I'm quite active so it's not like I'm sitting at home whining. I'm out in Westport, Crossroads, Power and Light, you name it....this homegirl is there. I can tell people are certainly not used to outsiders but I think as the city grows and becomes less sheltered things will get better.
I think the point that's missed is when you are in fact different and you move to place a like KC where you have no relatives or friends, people really do judge you more and scrutinize you and it is harder to form alliances, friends or whatever you wanna call it vs someone who already has roots here. I hope I'm making sense. Kinda late and I feel like I'm coming down with the flu. So lets say you are a home grown agnostic.....you already have your little circle and you might not get bothered as much as someone who moves here with nothing and is agnostic and trying to make their way into a circle.
I do like some aspects about KC but it sho ain't my thang....lol. I've made some great friends here though. If I met someone who was having thoughts about moving here, I would ask them how they felt about living in a city with a small town feel and then go from there. So that's my lil 50 cent.
I think the point that's missed is when you are in fact different and you move to place a like KC where you have no relatives or friends, people really do judge you more and scrutinize you and it is harder to form alliances, friends or whatever you wanna call it vs someone who already has roots here.
Indeed there is a noticeable clique mentality that exists here. Personal relationships with cliques (whether they be romantic or not) take time and patience. This tends to be the case with metro areas that are very family-oriented.
The main reason people marry early here is because KC is an ideal destination to raise a family, and the city's job market sort of caters to that promise. The sooner you're married, the best jobs become available to you. GraniteStater and a couple others on this forum like to assume it has something to do with alleged "rural culture" bias, but I think that's a bunch of baloney.
Indeed there is a noticeable clique mentality that exists here. Personal relationships with cliques (whether they be romantic or not) take time and patience. This tends to be the case with metro areas that are very family-oriented.
The main reason people marry early here is because KC is an ideal destination to raise a family, and the city's job market sort of caters to that promise. The sooner you're married, the best jobs become available to you. GraniteStater and a couple others on this forum like to assume it has something to do with alleged "rural culture" bias, but I think that's a bunch of baloney.
Cliques also thrive in metropolitan areas that are less economically dynamic and receive a far less percentage of newcomers and transplants so that isn't really surprising at all.
Please clarify and explain this strange point regarding your statement "The sooner you're married, the best jobs become available to you"? And what does that have anything to do with attaining a good paying job whether or not you are a single professional or married person? KC is no more of an ideal place to raise a family than MANY other places in the country, it just happens to have a somewhat lower COL. KC has a social culture and demographics that are more aligned to the cities along the Great Plains with a very young population overall. Omaha, Wichita, Dallas, Sioux Falls, even Omaha all fall into this category. Kansas now has one of the youngest populations in the ENTIRE country yet will likely see lower percentage population growth than the national average. That is a key point of being well outside the mainstream. Kansas now has a higher percentage of its population under age 18 than even border states like California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
^ Oh, please. Kansas City is pretty much the same as everywhere else with the exception that people on the whole are probably friendlier and less pretentious than you might find in CA or New York and maybe have some values - OH NO, IF PEOPLE HAVE VALUES THEY MUST BE RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS!!! - that people other places don't have. I don't understand why people feel like they have to put a label on Kansas City.
And why get off topic, GS, by throwing in the last three sentences? This thread is about Kansas City, not Kansas.
Cliques also thrive in metropolitan areas that are less economically dynamic and receive a far less percentage of newcomers and transplants so that isn't really surprising at all.
KC has a social culture and demographics that are more aligned to, Wichita, Dallas, Sioux Falls .
Your first point is based on a the incorrect notion that Kc doesn't receive a significant percentage of newcomers and transplants. It does:
And your second assertion, that KC is most closely likened in socio-cultural and demographic terms to Dallas, Sioux Falls and Wichita is laughably and demonstrably false by those, and indeed, most other metrics. But keep, trying, kiddo. Grind your little ax, everybody is laughing at you by now. I mean, Dallas? Jesus. A city that's 45% Hispanic with a minority non-hispanic white population that's tripled in size since 1950 and is the center of a 6+ million person metro? Is like KC, with it's majority African American urban core, it's 10% Hispanic population, and its 2 million person slow-growth metro? Or Sioux Falls? A metro smaller than the urban core of KC?
Please clarify and explain this strange point regarding your statement "The sooner you're married, the best jobs become available to you"? And what does that have anything to do with attaining a good paying job whether or not you are a single professional or married person?
There are companies that require not only years of job experience, but the amount of work ethic to prove yourself. Having an impressive resume is one thing, but being married and having a family can prove how hard you worked in previous jobs to support it all. I'm not saying it's the only way to find a decent job here, but it can be a plus depending on what kind of job you're looking for. The last job I worked at, most of the employees were married and/or had families and few of them were adult singles (like myself).
The majority of KC residents that work in successful jobs tend to live in suburban areas and raise families; KC's job market sort of panders to that demographic. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons why KC also has so many suburban office parks (state line job poaching is another factor).
Quote:
Originally Posted by GraniteStater
KC is no more of an ideal place to raise a family than MANY other places in the country, it just happens to have a somewhat lower COL.
Can't argue with that. Aside from people who are looking for work with a low COL, KC having that identity of being an ideal place to raise a family is one of the key reasons why people move here.
Last edited by MidWestCityNative; 01-12-2014 at 06:47 PM..
Your first point is based on a the incorrect notion that Kc doesn't receive a significant percentage of newcomers and transplants. It does:
And your second assertion, that KC is most closely likened in socio-cultural and demographic terms to Dallas, Sioux Falls and Wichita is laughably and demonstrably false by those, and indeed, most other metrics. But keep, trying, kiddo. Grind your little ax, everybody is laughing at you by now. I mean, Dallas? Jesus. A city that's 45% Hispanic with a minority non-hispanic white population that's tripled in size since 1950 and is the center of a 6+ million person metro? Is like KC, with it's majority African American urban core, it's 10% Hispanic population, and its 2 million person slow-growth metro? Or Sioux Falls? A metro smaller than the urban core of KC?
You're silly as hell.
The population pyramid age structure of the population does indeed align with those metros I mentioned, regardless of size or amount of diversity of different ethnicities and races present. Missouri is demographically aligned with the rest of the US from an age demographic standpoint while Kansas is definitely not aligned at all. Johnson and Wyandotte counties bolster the demographic realities of the state. The KC metro as a whole leans more toward the Kansas population age pyramid demographic realities than the Missouri ones. St. Louis, and some areas of rural Missouri tip the scales in the other direction. In/Out migration numbers are coming close to even near the end of the chart so it will be interesting to see what happens with the next few years of data. Missouri is seeing a bit less out-migration while Kansas is seeing more out-migration so perhaps the data points will be somewhat similar.
Regardless of the migration flows, KC has an insular social culture overall outside of a few parts of the city that does not change very much.
Kansas, outside of Johnson County, thrives on a business model that thrives on a large supply of low cost labor and the demographic realities reflect this fact. The agriculture (with huge subsidies from the federal government) and commodities related bubbles have increased incomes in some counties. Subsidies to the largest landowners have to be curtailed. Irrigation derived agriculture, on the other hand, is on the way out due to short-sighted idiocy and greed in SW Kansas but that is a topic for another thread. All of those center pivot irrigation circles you see on Google will not last more than a few more decades at the most. The model of corn for feed grown in semi-arid conditions to supply the commercial ag complex with a larger supply of immigrant labor is not sustainable at all in the longer term in that region.
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