St. Joseph area questions (Oak Grove, Savannah: for sale, crime, house)

[BangoBill]

Hi all our family is entertaining a move to the St. Joseph area for a job. We are a youngish family with 3 kids. We would be moving from Cedar Rapids, Ia (bonus points if you are familiar with both cites to compare them)

How are the schools in the area? My oldest will be in 6th grade and the youngest preschool. I'd like to send the to public school.


Are there lots of activities for kids? sports, extra education, out door activites? My kids are into basketball, soccer, biking, swimming.


Are there any good local restaurants? I know KC isn't too far but how is the local scene? I'd prefer some non chain types.

We were looking at the Northeast section of town, how is the housing market? I don't see a lot for sale.

I have lived in KC for a bit but never got up to St. Joseph so was wondering what people thought of it?

[MLSFan]

The few times I've been there, it's a dead town :S It creeps along to me

I mean, the only people I know up there are working at the jail or hospital. The rest of the town are smaller (non-chain) stores. They break even or turn a small profit. But nothing seems to be growing.

School system had the scandal... Missouri Auditor Says Scandal-Plagued St. Joseph School District Making Progress | KCUR

it might be better to live near kc north of river or liberty. I'd say Leavenworth too but well, I wouldn't want to grow up there as a kid myself. This puts the drive a bit out of the way, 45 minutes or so... not great, worse in winter :S

I like the chicken place, galvin?, and the BBQ place (I forget name) up there. There is a Bob Evans too and other generic chains.

[GraniteStater]

Platte County has far better demographics overall, more comparable to what you are used to (a bit more of a mix between metro and smaller city/town. St. Joseph will be a culture shock to you coming from Cedar Rapids (quite familiar with that area, stretching down to Iowa City). RE appreciation long-term will be better in Platte County compared to Buchanan County. Overall educational attainment is markedly better in the former. Best to visit and decide for yourselves..
St. Joseph is like a southern whiter version of Waterloo with significant issues with poverty, drugs, blight, etc. St. Joseph historically had a more significant manufacturing and blue collar industries that have declined with education and healthcare likely being the largest employers there. It is an old river city, lots of historic architecture and buildings, though.

[BangoBill]

Hey thanks for the answers so far! Keep them coming. Cedar Rapids isn't very vibrant, the big cities we go to are Chicago-4 hours and Des Moines-2 hours. If anyone could tell me more about the schools, that would be great. We are kind of pin pointing Oak Groove Elementary or Ellison Elementary, which feed to Bode Middle then to Central High.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by BangoBill

Hey thanks for the answers so far! Keep them coming. Cedar Rapids isn't very vibrant, the big cities we go to are Chicago-4 hours and Des Moines-2 hours. If anyone could tell me more about the schools, that would be great. We are kind of pin pointing Oak Groove Elementary or Ellison Elementary, which feed to Bode Middle then to Central High.

Are you only looking at living in St. Joseph city limits? That appears to be a "newer" area. I haven't been there in a few years, so I'm not very familiar with that side of town. I would recommend visiting first to get some more familiarity with the area. Yes, there will be culture shock coming from Cedar Rapids area as surprising as that sounds.

[BangoBill]

Yeah the job would be in St. Joe and I'd need to be close. We will visit for sure. Cedar Rapids is nicknamed the city of 5 smells... how does St. Joe smell?

[BangoBill]

They have broadband internet? I am seeing Sudenlink offers service, can anyone speak to their service and speeds?

[lance93]

BangoBill,

We are also looking at living in St Jo for a job relocation and have visited several times. I wanted to jump in here as most of the St Jo threads on City-Data amount to "do not live in St Jo, go someplace else."

Some of the co-workers that I am looking at working with live in St Jo and some live in Platte City.

Those that live in Platte city consider the 35-40 min commute (30+ miles) to be fine as they were coming from places where they had an hour commute. They also wanted to live closer to the big city amenities, felt the future re-sale or rentability of their house would be better closer to the metro area and Leavenworth. They also felt the schools were better because the demographics were more upper-middle class (St Jo the districts capture a wide spectrum of demographics/incomes).

Those that live in St Jo wanted a short commute, and felt having KC 45 minutes away was fine. They also liked the character of St Jo which I would agree with some comments here is a blue color (down to earth), historic town that had its golden age a long time ago. They also felt there were some good schools in the district. St Jo also has plenty of parks, greenway trails, has a minor league (college off-season really) baseball team the Mustangs, Western MO for college, and a new YMCA up by the movie theater off Village Drive.

My future co-workers living in St Jo said that Oak Grove (seems to be the best and newest - a coworker's kids go there and they rave about the teachers), Field, and Ellison elementary schools were the best. Neighborhoods east of I-29 are popular (Carriage Oaks, Wilshire, Greystone, Corinth, Stonecrest). Check out the boundary maps (Parents / Home) to help you pinpoint housing near the schools you want. I would be concerned about re-sale - the market seems somewhat flat where you cannot expect much appreciation or a quick transaction.

I would take a look at the crime data (Crime Analysis) to give you a better idea, but if you go to Chicago (and I would not be caught dead in Chicago) than I would think St Jo would be cake (traffic and crime). Culture shock? I do not know. If you are from the midwest (like we are) it just seemed like a normal midwestern town to us with midwestern people and after living in the "South" we are ready to get back.

No idea on Suddenlink quality. I do not recall St Jo having a smell. Check out Yelp for some local restaurants - there is a good gyro place (near Hobby Lobby), and some nice local pizza places (Geneo's downtown has good calzones).

Hope this helps. Appreciate you posting anything you find out as well.

Lance

[BangoBill]

Hey that is great Lance! Thanks a lot for that info.

I grew up in KC but never made it to St. Joseph, we still have some family in the area. So it will be nice to be 45 minutes rather than the 5.5 hours we are now.

We will be visiting this month to get a feel for it. Where we are living now in Cedar Rapids is fairly blue collar as well. The school look ok from what we see on great schools We will need to be in the city to be close to work, so we would probably live in or close to St. Joseph.

Just looking on zillow there are properties with a bit more land north of the city in the Savannah schools. Does anyone know anything about Savannah? I think that would be close enough for the job.

[Okey Dokie]

I have never seen a Missouri native ever refer to it as St. Jo - always St. Joe.