Sick of Phoenix, considering OP!! (Kansas City, Overland: best suburbs, crime, how much)

[krishaac]

My husband and I are very seriously considering a move to the Overland Park area. We have three children and currently live in Phoenix.. I admit, I love warm weather.. but I am sick of drive by shootings, drug houses, illegal immigration and being afraid to let my children outside to play. And we live in one of the nicest areas of Phoenix! Arizona is #49 for education and they are still continuously cutting the education budget to make up for the deficit. It is scary. We desperately want tree lined streets, all four seasons (though not extreme) and a safe, family friendly neighborhood/community.
Can anyone please tell me specifics about OP? Weather.. specifically how bad are winters? That is going to be my biggest adjustment, I am used to flip flops year round! Again, we want four seasons but I cannot deal with extreme winters. Schools, jobs, etc. My husband is a Firefighter/Paramedic and I will be attending nursing school.
Any information anyone can offer would be much appreciated.

[kcmo]

You might get winters, but just think, you can go outside in the summer and it won't be 117 degrees! Dry heat or not .

[famusdarlin]

I think you will find what you are looking for in Overland Park; good safe neighborhoods, family friendly, pristine lawns, ect.

However, the trade off is that you will have to put up your flip flops for about 4 months out of the year. In a typical winter we get 3-4 snows, they are fairly mild compared to further north. it's usually about 2-5 inches and it melts within a week. You will find its tough to get around for 1-1 1/2 days and then the roads are cleared. it was not like that this winter, but I think this winter was not typical for anyone in the United States.

Good luck with your decision.

[TabulaRasa]

If you move to the KC area, you won't be able to wear flip flops year-round, but speaking as somebody who relocated from IL, WI and MN, the snow is nothing, for the most part, even in a "bad" winter. Apart from storms, it's a few days' inconvenience at most. In the three winters I've lived here, I've yet to have to buy an actual winter coat. A lightweight wool peacoat style jacket (not a real military issue peacoat, but a Target-type thin model) has been fine

[OneKC]

Our winters are generally fairly mild. We will usually have a big snowstorm in late November/early December, another one just after New Year's, and then a big ice storm in February. Aside from that, its usually 30-40 degrees all winter, with occasional days over 50 and even 60 on rare occasions. By mid-March, its 50-60 degrees out. March and April are usually in the 50s but really rainy. May and June are gorgeous - 70 degrees and sunny all the time. July and August are unbearably hot and humid. September and October are once again gorgeous, November can be a mixed bag, and then its winter again.

This winter was quite the exception with record cold temperatures, record snow and insane month-long stretches of frigid temperatures. It was weird.

I spend some of my childhood in Overland Park. Its a nice, very safe, very bland place to live. It has great schools, although since its Kansas, you will get the occasional "evolution/anti-science" movement interfering in schools. Crime is very low. But overall, it is a perfectly fine place to raise kids, with lots of great amenities for kids - great community centers, a first-class petting zoo, plenty of parks.

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by kcmo

You might get winters, but just think, you can go outside in the summer and it won't be 117 degrees! Dry heat or not .

I'll take 117 degrees in Phoenix over 80 and humid here any day of the week.

I love Phoenix. It was one of my favorite places in the whole country. I would live there over KC anytime. It is one of the places my wife and I have considered moving.

This is the first I have heard about violence down there. I know a few people that live there and love it. They have never mentioned any problems with violence and crime.

[kcmo]

Well, I'm not a fan of Phoenix. To me, it's a giant suburb. It's Johnson County times 4 with some suburban ghetto mixed in. (yea Phoenix has some bad areas, but don't know how much that crime has spread to the suburban areas). I think it has one of the most boring, uninteresting and inactive downtowns in the country. Maybe the new light rail will help, I don't know. It's fine if you like suburban areas and that's why I always recommend places like Johnson County to people from Phoenix that like Phoenix, so in this case, the OP should like Overland Park. Right down to the 8 lane streets and the Legends (which is much like Glendale,sports and "entertainment" in the middle of nowhere), OP looks much like suburban Phoenix, just swap out the a few trees with some palms change some of the demographics from older people and Hispanics to white families.

I love going to Phoenix to follow the Royals around town at all the spring training parks. But have little desire to go there for any other reason. The best part of Phoenix is downtown Tempe, some great mountain hiking trails and Surprise Stadium .

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by kcmo

It's Johnson County times 4 .

That sounds good to me!!!

[kcmo]

What would you do if you were not next to KCMO. I thought half the fun of being in JoCo was to feel good that you don't live east of state line? .

Anyway, if you like suburbia and like luz , than OP is probably one of the best suburbs in the country. The city knows how to be a suburb and does it well.

[northbound74]

Originally Posted by krishaac

but I am sick of drive by shootings, drug houses, illegal immigration and being afraid to let my children outside to play. And we live in one of the nicest areas of Phoenix!

Ok.
You say you live in a good area of Phoenix so I'm going out on a limb to say that Overland Park, as nice as it is, would not be an improvement unless all those problems you mentioned are rampant in your neighborhood.

Kansas City is a cool enough town, but continuously makes those 'top 25 most dangerous cities' lists. You'll see stories of drive-by shootings every day here. Homicides, at least 4-5 times a week somewhere in the metro.

In Overland Park you'll be somewhat insulated from that, but the crime spills over into that part of town from time to time like frequent bank robberies and the occasional car-jacking at the mall. Some of the worst stuff seams to happen in one of the hotels along I-35 for some reason.
It's not enough to worry about by big city standards. The craziest things you hear about in Johnson County (a more general term for OP and it's surroundings because it literally all looks the same) is peeping toms and weirdos who like showing jogging ladys certain items they never wanted to see.

Moving from one big city with big city problems to another big city with big city problems isn't going to solve any of those problems. Sorry.

The biggest change you would notice would be the culture and the weather. Yes, some of us MUCH prefer Kansas City weather to Phoenix's. And yes, since you would be coming from a warm climate, I can assure you that a heavy coat is in order for at least a month or two out of the year. Funny thing is, 20 degree temps don't feel nearly as cold in February as they do in November. You get used to it.