Help us pick the right town to move to in Kansas

[cp1969]

Originally Posted by tinkmom3

... I agree with an above statement that small Kansas towns are great to visit and stop by when traveling but can be extremely hard to move into and be included. They can be VERY tight knit and do not readily welcome anyone in who doesn't have the correct last name or family in that town. I have experienced exactly this and know it to be true of all small towns around the area, too. ...

The flip side of this is to be a third or fourth generation resident of a small town and have outsiders move in and attempt to make the place exactly like the town they left. They come in, run for school board, run for town council, get some big bond issue passed, then--Poof! The next thing you know, they move away and are replaced by yet another set of newbies who are determined to be the big fish in a little pond, bringing their big-city ways with them, all to show the rubes 'how it's done'.

In my little town (where I'm at least 4th generation, but will be the last) the most affluent portion of town is, not surprisingly, the most newly constructed. Yet, it is like a gypsy camp with, at any given time, a For Sale sign in one third to one half of the ritzy homes' yards. These people are migrants....here today, gone tomorrow, no roots anywhere. How do you get to know people like that? I have no objection to getting to know the newcomers but there is little permanency in these relationships. You yourself state that you are heading out after 12 years, which is a lot longer than some I've known, but in the overall scheme of things, it isn't much.

[bmj]

Please , give me any information you know about, Garnett, Kansas.
my family is considering moving to Garnett , Kansas 66032 area. we are of mixed race
African American & Indian. is this a good place for persons of color? also how is the job market
for , teachers and human services persons.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by bmj

Please , give me any information you know about, Garnett, Kansas.
my family is considering moving to Garnett , Kansas 66032 area. we are of mixed race
African American & Indian. is this a good place for persons of color? also how is the job market
for , teachers and human services persons.

Garnett is a very small, but significant town. It has a small core of very nice historic houses, which indicates there was once (or still is) wealth there, though it's so small it may have been because it was merely the county seat. The rural setting is pretty nice, with hills in the area. Garnett never grew - there is no suburban development surrounding a country club like in other small Kansas towns. It appears to have always been about the same size since establishment. It's well over 90% white and most of those folks probably have a long history there. I'm not sure, but I'd assume the town was settled by Germans and is primarily Lutheran. Garnett is probably unique in the fact that it's stayed so intact, physically and socially. If you don't know anybody there and don't have a connection to the community, I must say it would be an interesting choice to move to a place like that. It seems like kind of a "private" town to some degree. Though in all reality I don't know much about the place from personal experience except having driven through many times. It looks like a nice community and is pretty isolated, though a close enough drive to several larger towns for things like Walmary, grocery stores, malls, etc. I do believe Garnett has a grocery store, Country Mart last I saw. You should search google for Garnett, KS and go through all the sites.

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by bmj

Please , give me any information you know about, Garnett, Kansas.
my family is considering moving to Garnett , Kansas 66032 area. we are of mixed race
African American & Indian. is this a good place for persons of color? also how is the job market
for , teachers and human services persons.

Unless you and your family are specifically seeking a small town or have a job offer in Garnett I would suggest you instead consider Olathe, Shawnee, or Lawrence. I think you may be more comfortable with the diversity and opportunities in those metropolitan areas rather than in heavily German/Swede area of rural Kansas.

Link & info. on Garnett:

//www.city-data.com/city/Garnett-Kansas.html

White alone - 2,979 (93.2%)
Two or more races - 200 (6.3%)
Asian alone - 11 (0.3%)
American alone - 6 (0.2%)

http://www.garnettks.net/

[GraniteStater]

I can't say I would recommend Garnett and I really don't care for the social culture of the town at all. I woudl agree with LifelongMOgal and look at opportunities in Johnson County. That is the only place where younger people tend to stay in KS and the job market is far more diverse with easy access to Kansas City, MO. Garnett is a pretty closed off insular place from what I remember about it.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Unless you and your family are specifically seeking a small town or have a job offer in Garnett I would suggest you instead consider Olathe, Shawnee, or Lawrence. I think you may be more comfortable with the diversity and opportunities in those metropolitan areas rather than in heavily German/Swede area of rural Kansas.

Link & info. on Garnett:

//www.city-data.com/city/Garnett-Kansas.html

White alone - 2,979 (93.2%)
Two or more races - 200 (6.3%)
Asian alone - 11 (0.3%)
American alone - 6 (0.2%)

Garnett, Kansas

Here is the data from the Census Bureau for Anderson County as a whole.

Row one= Anderson County
Row two= state of KS average
"White persons, percent, 2010 (a)

96.8%

83.8%





Black persons, percent, 2010 (a)

0.5%

5.9%





American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2010 (a)

0.5%

1.0%





Asian persons, percent, 2010 (a)

0.5%

2.4%





Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2010 (a)

Z

0.1%





Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2010

1.2%

3.0%





Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2010 (b)

1.5%

10.5%





White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2010"

[lovefranki]

Lawrence may not have any openings for teachers, but a lot of people live here and commute to Topeka and Kansas City for work. It's a nice town a little large, but with lots of small town charm. We have a very active down town with local shops, bars, and restaurants. People always lump Lawrence into the KC Metro which is technically true but we are far enough out that we don't have all the hustle of the city (or the traffic! haha)
And I haven't had any problems with anyone being unfriendly here. There is the University of Kansas here so there are a lot of college students. They can be a pain sometimes, but for the most part stay close to the university. The community ("townies") are really involved in a lot of things. We are very liberal here we are the dot of blue in the sea of red that is Kansas.
But I hope you find what you are looking for. I've lived in Kansas most of my life and it's pretty good here.
Good luck!