Overland Park is one of America's Best Places to Grow Up (St. Louis: apartments, rent)
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The old Sun Fresh has been torn out and a new Walgreens Drug Store in going in at that location. (The eternal battle of CVS and Walgreens continues, there is a CVS to the north across 95th.)
This summer the Stonegate Overland Park Swimming pool was rebuild, just to the southeast of that corner.
I grew up in OP in the 60s, 70s & early 80s and though I'm a died in the wool urbanite now (lived downtown KC for ten years before moving to Chicago twelve years ago), I wouldn't trade my youth growing up in OP. This was back when OP was more a bedroom community and not the fortune 500 back office park cluster f**k it is now. We rode our bikes in the woods where the hippies smoked pot and in those same woods, caught crawdads and frogs in Indian Creek, swang on the tree swing that hung over the creek and built forts out of anything we could find and smoked pot in the same forts when we were in junior high. We explored all the houses under construction around 103rd and Antioch, where I grew up, which was the end of the earth back then. People even rode horses down our street from the horse farm at 103rd and Antioch (now Pinehurst Estates). We rode our bikes everywhere all summer long and our parents never worried we were going to be abducted or molested. We waited every afternoon for the "pop-sickle man" and sharpened the sticks into knives on the concrete. We didn't have to be home until the "street lights came on" and always had a friend with their own in ground pool. And when we went back to school, we were constantly reminded that we attended the top five rated public school system in the Nation (my high school was rated number one in the nation the year after I graduated). I'm afraid in this day and age, with all the sprawling strip malls and big box stores and fears about crimes against children, the kids today in OP could never have the same experiences. If I were to have children today, I would offer them the experience of a big city lifestyle or small town life. OP now is just another mega "edge city" that looks like every other one in the nation.
I grew up in OP in the 60s, 70s & early 80s and though I'm a died in the wool urbanite now (lived downtown KC for ten years before moving to Chicago twelve years ago), I wouldn't trade my youth growing up in OP. This was back when OP was more a bedroom community and not the fortune 500 back office park cluster f**k it is now. We rode our bikes in the woods where the hippies smoked pot and in those same woods, caught crawdads and frogs in Indian Creek, swang on the tree swing that hung over the creek and built forts out of anything we could find and smoked pot in the same forts when we were in junior high. We explored all the houses under construction around 103rd and Antioch, where I grew up, which was the end of the earth back then. People even rode horses down our street from the horse farm at 103rd and Antioch (now Pinehurst Estates). We rode our bikes everywhere all summer long and our parents never worried we were going to be abducted or molested. We waited every afternoon for the "pop-sickle man" and sharpened the sticks into knives on the concrete. We didn't have to be home until the "street lights came on" and always had a friend with their own in ground pool. And when we went back to school, we were constantly reminded that we attended the top five rated public school system in the Nation (my high school was rated number one in the nation the year after I graduated). I'm afraid in this day and age, with all the sprawling strip malls and big box stores and fears about crimes against children, the kids today in OP could never have the same experiences. If I were to have children today, I would offer them the experience of a big city lifestyle or small town life. OP now is just another mega "edge city" that looks like every other one in the nation.
I'm afraid in this day and age, with all the sprawling strip malls and big box stores and fears about crimes against children, the kids today in OP could never have the same experiences. If I were to have children today, I would offer them the experience of a big city lifestyle or small town life. OP now is just another mega "edge city" that looks like every other one in the nation.
And this is it, exactly.
I would have enjoyed the community you described. I do not particularly enjoy the community it is today.
I grew up in OP in the 60s, 70s & early 80s and though I'm a died in the wool urbanite now (lived downtown KC for ten years before moving to Chicago twelve years ago), I wouldn't trade my youth growing up in OP. This was back when OP was more a bedroom community and not the fortune 500 back office park cluster f**k it is now. We rode our bikes in the woods where the hippies smoked pot and in those same woods, caught crawdads and frogs in Indian Creek, swang on the tree swing that hung over the creek and built forts out of anything we could find and smoked pot in the same forts when we were in junior high. We explored all the houses under construction around 103rd and Antioch, where I grew up, which was the end of the earth back then. People even rode horses down our street from the horse farm at 103rd and Antioch (now Pinehurst Estates). We rode our bikes everywhere all summer long and our parents never worried we were going to be abducted or molested. We waited every afternoon for the "pop-sickle man" and sharpened the sticks into knives on the concrete. We didn't have to be home until the "street lights came on" and always had a friend with their own in ground pool. And when we went back to school, we were constantly reminded that we attended the top five rated public school system in the Nation (my high school was rated number one in the nation the year after I graduated). I'm afraid in this day and age, with all the sprawling strip malls and big box stores and fears about crimes against children, the kids today in OP could never have the same experiences. If I were to have children today, I would offer them the experience of a big city lifestyle or small town life. OP now is just another mega "edge city" that looks like every other one in the nation.
Wow, I grew up right in that same area by Indian Creek! You must have lived on top of my old stomping grounds. The neighborhood I spent most of my childhood in was Wycliff, right off Antioch and 103 street. Yes, Overland Park has changed greatly over the past 20-30 years and the quality of life has unfortunately gone down quite a bit. I agree completely with your point that it is just another "corporate edge city" with most new neighborhoods lacking any character at all. I believe Overland Park was a great place to grow up in that time frame you mentioned (60s through 80s). The sprawl hadn't gone much past 103rd street during that time period at all. In fact, the city actually lost population a few years during the 70s and 80s. When the 90s hit the attitude was strictly pro-business at all costs, and new residential construction growth at all costs as well. Overland Park made me appreciate smaller towns and cities again to a great degree. That was the positive outcome that resulted, and I wouldn't trade my rural location now for anything.
Last edited by GraniteStater; 09-13-2009 at 08:27 PM..
I have a bit of a contrarian view of the suburbs and "Edge Cities". I like them.
I know it is not a urbane and sophisticated view. To put on that face you must ***** and **** on just about everything except the cluster f*k of a concrete canyon you wallow in.
I grew up in a supposedly idyllic small town in southwestern Missouri and it is not all that you would imagine. Very limited opportunities for growth, education and recreation.
I don't regret growing up there (very much), but I am very glad my son has had the opportunities available to him growing up in Overland Park and would do it all again here in OP if I was starting over.
I have a bit of a contrarian view of the suburbs and "Edge Cities". I like them.
I know it is not a urbane and sophisticated view. To put on that face you must ***** and **** on just about everything except the cluster f*k of a concrete canyon you wallow in.
I grew up in a supposedly idyllic small town in southwestern Missouri and it is not all that you would imagine. Very limited opportunities for growth, education and recreation.
I don't regret growing up there (very much), but I am very glad my son has had the opportunities available to him growing up in Overland Park and would do it all again here in OP if I was starting over.
I think the point is, many people realize that places like Overland Park just aren't as great as they're made out to be. Kind of like small towns. The difference being that most people who grow up in small towns are well aware of their limitations and problems, unlike too many people who grow up in places like OP thinking that they already have everything, and it's all figured out, and no bad stuff is ever supposed to happen to me or anyone I know.
That stuff's just for the 10 o'clock news.
To have parents that over-shelter their kids is one thing. To have an entire large city to do it is just weird.
The feeling of safety is a false one, however.
The perception of good schools is true, but a bit overblown.
There's those intangible problems one encounters with the life-in-a-bubble culture. Many who grow up in such a place don't realize how the world really is, and have many varied problems associated with that.
Urbanism isn't going to fix everything, and the issues aren't necessarily the existence of suburbs. A lot of the issues pertain to the way in which suburbs are planned and carried out.
I believe it's one of the reasons people don't know each other very well anymore.
We can go from our homes to our work, and hardly breath one breath of fresh outside air. We build tall fences so we don't have to look at or deal with our neighbors. We don't sit out on the front porch and visit, because there usually isn't one. We buy all kinds of gadgetry so our children never have to leave the house to entertain themselves.
Yes, I suppose one could have those problems in the urban core, too, and small towns are basically becoming suburbs detached from any big city.
There are other reasons for the problems we have today, not just suburbia. Personally, I'm not advocating everybody raise their kids in a downtown loft (although I'm sure many people could successfully do that), so don't get me wrong.
Everybody has different ways in which they want to raise their children, and that's great.
My ideal would be on a farm in New England, but not everyone is meant to be farmers, and that's okay.
My problem with suburbs like Overland Park, and most new developments anywhere really, is that they don't promote interaction with other people. Some places are realizing that terrible fault, and are doing things different now. Others stubbornly cling to that old-fashioned ideal of 50's suburbia.
What we seem to be doing is unlearning ourselves in how to deal with people, and that scares me.
Last edited by northbound74; 09-13-2009 at 07:17 PM..
... We build tall fences so we don't have to look at or deal with our neighbors. ...
So? Why is having an association with someone who just happens to be living next to you necessarily "a good thing". There are many examples throughout history that show examples of trouble that comes from geographical proximity
In a large metro area there are many opportunities for voluntary associations, and the internet can leverage that to an even greater extent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by northbound74
... many people realize that places like Overland Park just aren't as great as they're made out to be ...
No place is perfect, but some places are more perfect than others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by northbound74
... What we seem to be doing is unlearning ourselves in how to deal with people, and that scares me. ...
Or are we just learning new ways? Welcome to the 21st century.
...for some...and not for others, of course. Right?
I am the Snowball, goo goo g'joob.
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