Why are Johnson County people unfriendly

[KC_Sleuth]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

Here’s a real life example of east coast thinking regarding the midwest. It’s old, but I imagine it’s still a prevalent thought.

My parents both grew up on the east coast (New Jersey and Baltimore). They got married in 1944, and when my Dad got out of the army in 1946, for whatever reason he decided he did not want to go to college on the GI bill but just “start life.” So they decided to move to the midwest where “people weren’t as smart and a person without a college degree wouldn’t be At a disadvantage.” That’s a direct quote from my mother, may she rest in peace.

Who knows, maybe they were right. My father ended up having a very successful career with a well known Kansas City company.

As a person who's from the Northeast, I come from a family with a very East Coast mentality - some of them are resistant to even leaving the State of New York or the Northeast in general, unless it's to go to Cali, Las Vegas, or some resort destination. Trust me, these people are anything but deep thinkers. They just don't realize how provincial they really are. I have met so many smart people who live in KC...from engineers to social workers to finance people to vetrinarians to cowboys. The whole "East Coast" sophistication is largely a myth...propped up mostly by people impressed by wealth, material items, and flashiness (and clothes), and not real substance.

I've found most people in Metro DC are decent folks...not sure where the "sophistication" is - mostly guys like my Uncle in Rockville who worked for the government for eons on the federal "get rich slow" program. Pretty down to earth guy...goes to Redskins and UM games and hangs out in the suburbs most of the time. The guy wears a pig snout to football games...not exactly the kind of sophistication that KCMO might be referring to.

[DallastoChicagotoKC]

I actually laughed out loud when I read the title to this post, and then shook my head as a I read the rest. As someone who has lived in 6 states and in both urban and suburban environments, my experience has been that JoCo is no more or less friendly than anywhere else. When we moved to Naperville, IL, we had almost the exact same experience we had in OP. People in our neighborhood said hi, but definitely didn't go out of their way to include us. We met people through our kids at preschool. You have to put some effort into making friends. People have their lives going on, and may not feel there's room for more friends to keep track of. You have to take the initiative.

As for the snobbery -- there is some in JoCo. But it's really only in the truly upper-end neighborhoods. It still isn't as bad as some of the snobbery I saw in suburban Chicago or suburban Dallas. There are snobs everywhere.

Also, there are indeed a ton of people from out of state in JoCo. Sure, some are from nearby smaller towns. But in our close group of friends, we know people from California, Texas, New York, Washington D.C. and Columbus. I'm sure there are others. But those immediately come to mind. Plus, there are a lot of people from KC who move away for 10 or 20 years and then move back. Also, it's worth mentioning that the schools our kids go to actually have quite a bit of diversity. It's not black/hispanic diversity (for the most part), but there are still non-white kids and kids who speak English as a second language.

Look, there's nothing particularly special or snobbish or amazing or crappy about JoCo. It's just like 100s or even 1000s of other suburban areas across the United States. My experience has been that it's actually less snobby than similar areas of larger metros and about the same in terms of hospitality. It's typical suburban middle America and people in both KS and MO spend far too much time thinking about and trying to define JoCo.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by DallastoChicagotoKC

When we moved to Naperville, IL, we had almost the exact same experience we had in OP.

It's funny; having grown up in northern IL, lived in Chicago, and having half my family now live in the western burbs, including Naperville, OP has always been the Naperville of KC, to me.

Look, there's nothing particularly special or snobbish or amazing or crappy about JoCo. It's just like 100s or even 1000s of other suburban areas across the United States. My experience has been that it's actually less snobby than similar areas of larger metros and about the same in terms of hospitality. It's typical suburban middle America and people in both KS and MO spend far too much time thinking about and trying to define JoCo.

Yep, my experience, too.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by DallastoChicagotoKC

Look, there's nothing particularly special or snobbish or amazing or crappy about JoCo. It's just like 100s or even 1000s of other suburban areas across the United States. My experience has been that it's actually less snobby than similar areas of larger metros and about the same in terms of hospitality. It's typical suburban middle America and people in both KS and MO spend far too much time thinking about and trying to define JoCo.

That's been my point all along. I don't find JoCo to be all that snobby or unfriendly, I just have always gotten the impression that people there "think" it's more amazing than it is. JoCo has just never impressed me at all. There is just nothing there to write home about. It's average typical middle class suburbia.

I personally find areas of West County St Louis more attractive. At least the topography is interesting. And my original post about "sophisticated" or whatever still stands. JoCo is a typical middle class, midwestern and very "white" suburb with a very dated 1980's built environment of single family subdivisions and office parks. Yes, you can find similar suburbs with a similar demographics and similar built environment in any metro in the united states.

But many cities also have suburbs that are much more affluent and more urban, much more diverse, better recreation, transit etc with more active residents. Those are the kinds of suburbs I actually like. JoCo to me could not be more "bland" and boring. It's relatively new, it's relatively affluent in parts, but it's bland as hell and offers very little to those not looking for a cul-de-sac and strip mall lifestyle.

What is seriously ironic about JoCo while people there think it's one the wealthiest places on earth, EVERYTHING built in the county is subsidized. I mean everything. Star bonds, tiffs, overlay sales taxes, property tax breaks etc. Nobody will build anything there without some pretty aggressive incentives. You would think it was Gary Ind or something. You will find more projects being built in urban KCMO without incentives than in JoCo. And JoCo has to poach from KCMO to get jobs. And the county has basically benefited by hiding behind state line from issues that normally affect bigger counties of a major metro such as school desegregation, funding of regional attractions etc. Not to mention the underground real estate industry of the county basically kept blacks out till as recent as the 1990's. So, yea, it's a fake. The entire JoCo "thing" is nothing but a mirage.

And the government leaders and business community of JoCo is such a thorn in the side of the metro when it comes to regional cooperation. This bland suburban county has done nothing but harm the progress of metro KC for their own short term gain. Nobody in JoCo will ever agree with me, but the faster JoCo starts to be the next Raytown or Grandview (less desirable dated suburbia), the faster the KC metro as a whole will actually rise back up and actually start growing again and competing with other growing metros.

It's no coincidence that the the entire KC metro area has slipped so far and started slipping about the time JoCo started to boom and siphon the economic life out of the rest of the metro. Now that JoCo is not the only part of the metro growing mostly at the expense of KCMO and KCK, the entire metro (including the urban core) is starting to show signs of prosperity again.

JoCo could co-exisit with KCMO and the MO suburbs (and KCK) and be a great part of a great metro. But they choose not to. JoCo spends way too much time competing and poaching and doing whatever they can for themselves only as if the entire metro was all and only about JoCo. It has only hurt them in the long run.

[ben Shunamit]

I don't participate in threads populated by people who use the phrase "flyover country," except to say that I don't participate in threads populated by people who use the phrase "flyover country."

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

It's funny; having grown up in northern IL, lived in Chicago, and having half my family now live in the western burbs, including Naperville, OP has always been the Naperville of KC, to me.



Yep, my experience, too.

Before I retired, I worked in an office with many transferees. Nearly all the transferees lived in JoCo, and if they came from or moved to Chicago, it was always Naperville.