Moving from Tampa Bay to Topeka (Kansas City, Shawnee: apartments, foreclosure, crime)

[Writegurl]

My husband has a nice job opportunity to move to Topeka. He is originally from Missouri with his parents and many siblings in the area.
I welcome the chance for my girls, ages 4 and 7 to have aunts, uncles, cousins in their lives. We have one relative on each side in Florida but they are five hours away from us. That, long with a lower cost of living, is the driving factor for us to move.
I have done lots of research in looking for a place to live.
I am finding houses then checking schools on great schools.org.
I am seeking help on areas to reside.
I saw older threads on here that recommended Tecumseh, Shawnee Heights, Wanamaker, Silver Lake, etc. But it was a while ago and neighborhoods fluctuate.
So please help me narrow my search.
Also, are there family-friendly places to visit?
I don't mind driving to nearby areas.
Thanks so much for your responses.

[AnywhereElse]

I can't help with neighborhoods. Have you ever been in KS? It is nothing like FL or any other state I have ever lived in. As far as Topeka, I know that crime has grown there over the years and I am guessing unemployment has grown by the amount of foreclosed homes I am seeing listed there. There are some very nice areas there and if you are looking at the higher end homes, I would think the neighborhoods would be decent. The downtown area has always looked rough to me. My older son lived there for a couple years in the early 2000's. Kansas is cutting a lot of services and the education budget has been hit a couple of times already. What are you looking for when it comes to "family-friendly"? Topeka has a nice history museum, zoo and an air museum. If you drive to Kansas City, there is Worlds of Fun and a water park which I think is part of it - it isn't Disney World! Do you like to hunt, fish or camp? Lots of nice camping areas here.

[Hueffenhardt]

I live in Seaman school district, which is north of Topeka. It is a great public school district mostly outside of the city limits and is mostly semi-rural to rural. I love it here. I'd also recommend living in the Auburn-Wasburn School District which is mostly southwest of Topeka, but some of it is within the city limits, or Shawnee Heights School District, which is mostly southeast of Topeka. Both are great public school districts with nice neighborhoods.

I don't care for the Topeka 501 School District, and so would not live there, which is most of the city of Topeka. However, there are some nice neighborhoods within Topeka 501 if you want to send your kids to one of the great private schools. If you are open to that I could outline where the nice neighborhoods are in Topeka 501.

As for family friendly activities, check out this old post of mine: //www.city-data.com/forum/kansa...ka-kansas.html

And welcome to Topeka!

[geekychick]

I lived my first year up there in Topeka in the Villa West apartments. Then I rented a house. Both were in good neighborhoods.

[PineappleMSW]

I have lived in Topeka pretty much all my life (couple years in grad school away from here). I have watched the city change from a decent place to a crime ridden place. It's horrible. (Yes there might be pockets of good areas, but not really.) Grew up in Potwin area (parents still near there). It's an historic area. As far as schools, there are good ones in Topeka, and I am not sure I agree Washburn or Seaman is any better. (I have done substitute teaching in all the area districts.) My current situation is keeping me in Topeka, but that will be changing within the next year or so, and I am looking forward to leaving.

[Nobody's Home]

Let me tells you something about Kansass, it's a state that you may want to visit once in your lifetime. That Little House on the Prairie *hit is for real! Seriously, do you have to move there???

[Hueffenhardt]

Originally Posted by Nobody's Home

Let me tells you something about Kansass, it's a state that you may want to visit once in your lifetime. That Little House on the Prairie *hit is for real! Seriously, do you have to move there???

Hey, some people would like to live on the prairie.

[augiedogie]

That's right. I live in west Texas. Many people I know don't like having a lot of trees around where they live. They are used to flat open ground. They complain that the trees get in the way, they can't see anything. Different people like different things.

[bernard1966]

I just moved to KS from Florida too and I have been working in Topeka for the last few weeks. When I left FL everyone had a lot of negative things to say about KS (flat,boring,tornadoes etc). Firstly, FL is flat, the Topeka area is very hilly. In fact just west of here you can go to the Flint hills which are really nice, picturesque and nicer than anything inland in FL. I have not been out and about much in Topeka but I am staying in SW Topeka and compared with Tampa and other metro areas in FL this part of town is pretty nice. There seem to be a lot of nice, well kept neighborhoods. I haven't seen a lot of foreclosure signs around here. They have all the usual big box stores that you get on the outskirts of any FL town e.g. Walmart, Target, Home Depot etc. In this part of town all the commercial stuff looks pretty new. The traffic is non existent compared with Tampa and I haven't seen any graffiti, abandoned cars, boarded up buildings etc that are no so prevalent in Orlando and other parts of FL. As of last month, FL has 9% unemployment while Kansas has 6.2%. In Topeka unemployment is at 7.1% compared with Tampa's 8.9%. All stats provided by BLS.gov. So while people here talk of recession and school cuts it is nothing compared with the problems in FL.

[Dr Phill]

Topeka is quite a stomping ground for crime, however, have you found a states capital city that isn't? I've found through my travels that the capital cities are usually the worst, I have no idea why, it just seems so. You couldn't pay me to live in Topeka though.