Living here sucks...here's why (Wichita, Minneapolis: apartment complex, home, construction)

[catdad7x]

A city or town cannot be all things to all people, and will certainly not please everyone. Whether a person is happy with where they live or not depends more on what they expect from it, than anything else really. One man's happy place is another man's he!!. I have lived in Wichita more than once, and I now live in a small town of 8,000 pop. My not living there isn't because I dislike Wichita, and I don't bad-mouth it as a city. It has good points, and bad points just like any place has. I don't live there because I simply prefer small town living. That doesn't make it a bad place to live.
That's the nice thing about freedom, if you don't like where you are, you can move someplace else. Or stay and complain.... up to you.

[on3]

Buckle your seat belt Dorthy because Kansas is going BYE BYE

[Alpha_Dog]

So you're saying we should give Kansas it's last rites? RIP Kansas...and please send all donations to the Kansas Chamber of Commerce so they can immediately market the state better.......outside of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, which has a actual OZ Museum, up in Wamego, KS.

With the exception of JoCo, a few areas of Wichita, and maybe Douglas County most of Kansas is survived by rural poverty, low-wage jobs, surprising high property taxes, poorly educated children, out-migration and rural depopulation. The lobbyist-funded legislators seem to have a maniacal hatred of its states youth and underclass who probably dream of living anywhere else. Kansas storied and interesting history was almost ruined by the previous Gov, Sam Brownback and his cast of uninformed minions and they almost replaced Kansas state history with a broken vision of his own poorly planned design and spending cuts.

Kansas' legislative process is among the least transparent in the country, and over the past decade for some strange reason, more than 85 percent of the laws passed by the Kansas Legislature have come from anonymous authors. Kansans often have no way of knowing who is pushing which legislation where and why, which have included abortion, concealed weapons, and decreased school funding. Kansas used to be one of the top 15 states in the country for its quality of life, now it's in the middle of the pack. If you removed JoCo and its 600K residents out of that equation, it would be closer to the bottom 15. IMO the best areas to live in all of KS are around the KS/MO state-line area, and some of the smaller suburbs 5-10 miles to the west of the country club plaza area, add in Manhattan & Lawrence, and a few zip codes around Wichita and you have best of KS list....the rest of the state kinda feels like you're in the twilight zone.

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

Originally Posted by Alpha_Dog

IMO the best areas to live in all of KS are around the KS/MO state-line area, and some of the smaller suburbs 5-10 miles to the west of the country club plaza area, add in Manhattan & Lawrence, and a few zip codes around Wichita and you have best of KS list....the rest of the state kinda feels like you're in the twilight zone.

We've lived here in Riley County since 1992 => we've been forced to the conclusion that "best of KS" would no longer apply in any way, shape or form to Manhattan:

Quality of life issues:

Linear Trail => when the city sought public input re: closure of portions of the trail for other construction projects; my wife asked IF detour routes would be used to connect the remaining portions. NOPE
Portions of the trail have been inundated by flooding in 2019; no effort to clear debris. The Corps has announced plans to restore the levees, meaning the trail sections on the levees will be closed. No mention of trail restoration.
*Odd that the 2019 Q2 issue of mhk business news has a trail article The Path to Prosperity - recreational luxury or economic imperative

Housing => When the city commission passed a LGBTQ renters' protection policy, the conservative portions of the community campaigned to reverse the protections & WON. Landlords can continue to discriminate & be publicly recognized as models of Manhattan values.

Flooding from Wildcat Creek => on the W edge of Manhattan has been exacerbated by several new apartment complexes' rainwater runoff resulting in flooding in the lowest complex the past 2 years. The latest mental-midgets' plan? Erect 18 DAMS (on private property?)

[jbtornado]

Originally Posted by KSinmyrearviewmirror

We've lived here in Riley County since 1992 => we've been forced to the conclusion that "best of KS" would no longer apply in any way, shape or form to Manhattan:

Quality of life issues:

Linear Trail => when the city sought public input re: closure of portions of the trail for other construction projects; my wife asked IF detour routes would be used to connect the remaining portions. NOPE
Portions of the trail have been inundated by flooding in 2019; no effort to clear debris. The Corps has announced plans to restore the levees, meaning the trail sections on the levees will be closed. No mention of trail restoration.
*Odd that the 2019 Q2 issue of mhk business news has a trail article The Path to Prosperity - recreational luxury or economic imperative

Housing => When the city commission passed a LGBTQ renters' protection policy, the conservative portions of the community campaigned to reverse the protections & WON. Landlords can continue to discriminate & be publicly recognized as models of Manhattan values.

Flooding from Wildcat Creek => on the W edge of Manhattan has been exacerbated by several new apartment complexes' rainwater runoff resulting in flooding in the lowest complex the past 2 years. The latest mental-midgets' plan? Erect 18 DAMS (on private property?)

This is dissapointing on all fronts.. I lived a few years in Manhattan for my college days.. Don't go back much but I remember one summer many heavy rains fell and it was obvious areas of Western Manhattan were rather flood prone.. I always thought much of the city had a mentality that it was larger (for Kansas) but was a collection of mostly smaller town Kansans in a larger city and it seemed more conservative as a result

[Alpha_Dog]

Originally Posted by KSinmyrearviewmirror

We've lived here in Riley County since 1992 => we've been forced to the conclusion that "best of KS" would no longer apply in any way, shape or form to Manhattan:

Quality of life issues:

Linear Trail => when the city sought public input re: closure of portions of the trail for other construction projects; my wife asked IF detour routes would be used to connect the remaining portions. NOPE
Portions of the trail have been inundated by flooding in 2019; no effort to clear debris. The Corps has announced plans to restore the levees, meaning the trail sections on the levees will be closed. No mention of trail restoration.
*Odd that the 2019 Q2 issue of mhk business news has a trail article The Path to Prosperity - recreational luxury or economic imperative

Housing => When the city commission passed a LGBTQ renters' protection policy, the conservative portions of the community campaigned to reverse the protections & WON. Landlords can continue to discriminate & be publicly recognized as models of Manhattan values.

Flooding from Wildcat Creek => on the W edge of Manhattan has been exacerbated by several new apartment complexes' rainwater runoff resulting in flooding in the lowest complex the past 2 years. The latest mental-midgets' plan? Erect 18 DAMS (on private property?)

Many thanks for sharing your insight here. I had set up a visit with a local Manhattan realtor to come out to the area at the end of June to look at several (sub 170k) area homes as potential investment property purchases, all on the west side of town. The realtor informed me that several of these homes had been recently discounted because of recent flood damage from heavy rains and runoff from late May through the middle of June this year, just a few months back. I told her, I would look to reschedule my trip out to Manhattan in early October when the weather is usually just about perfect, now I see no reason to make the trip with the regressive discrimination trends you've mentioned, and the unpredictable and expensive flooding issues.

[miquel_westano]

Originally Posted by Fin36

I have been in Wichita for many years due to family circumstances. Previously, I lived in large coastal cities.

Typical coastal/big city attitude. Moves somewhere, doesn't like it and runs it down. Did it ever occur to you that the people who live there might like it the way it is? Maybe they don't like the coastal environment and that's why they don't live on the coast.

Originally Posted by Fin36

1 - There is not much here in the way of things to do. No major league sports, limited shopping and dining, very few cultural opportunities. You'll have to drive to Kansas City or Oklahoma City if you want to attend a popular concert.

A lot of people don't care for sports. I am one of them. What percent of cities in America have a professional sports team? Maybe a percent or two. Doubtful even that if you are talking major league teams. If you need sports and concerts, take a weekend and go somewhere. Stuck or not, I bet you can travel for a weekend.

Originally Posted by Fin36

2 - People tend to be conservative, narrow minded, and not motivated to do much about changing point 1 above. They seem perfectly content with what little is here, or they are OK with making road trips to get those things.

So they are narrow minded for not changing things they like to what you like? Wow, that smacks of snobbery.

Originally Posted by Fin36

3 - Speaking of road trips, the closest "real" city, Kansas City, is two and a half hours away. Between here and there is a whole lot of nothing.

That's a morning commute for most coastal city dwellers. I am not buying a couple of hours as a big hassle for someone who wants to live in any major coastal city that has pro sports teams.

Originally Posted by Fin36

6 - Most people here are from here originally, or moved to Wichita from even smaller towns, and they are not very interested in making new friends as they are often busy with their local families and the friends they grew up with. Moving here, you will always be an outsider. And if you don't care about KU or K-State, you won't have anything to talk with them about anyway.

LOL, I can see why they have no interest in making friends with someone who holds them in such disdain.

[WoundedSpirit]

I grew up in San Diego, and lived most of my life in Denver. We moved to my husband's home town in Southeast Kansas 4 years ago. Here are my reasons (and my opinion only) as to why living in Kansas does NOT suck:

No traffic jams
No huge crowds
Fresh air
Quiet
Friendly people
Open space as far as the eye can see
You actually know your neighbors
Affordable housing



I am 63 years old, hate sports, no longer go to concerts, and am retired. If I need to travel to another small town for something we don't have here, it still takes less time than going for the same thing in the city. I would much rather see cattle, cornfields and an open sky than strip malls, apartment complexes and skyscrapers.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by miquel_westano

Typical coastal/big city attitude. Moves somewhere, doesn't like it and runs it down. Did it ever occur to you that the people who live there might like it the way it is? Maybe they don't like the coastal environment and that's why they don't live on the coast.

The statist attitude of "not liking change" is very toxic for larger metro areas that have a sizable economy. If your city isn't competing well with other similarly sized cities, it is going to decline in relative terms or experience additional out-migration of residents. This has described the Wichita metro area for a sizable number of years.

[Marv95]

What is wrong with slow and steady growth? What's wrong with not being another overpopulated mess that's infested with crime like certain other cities nearby? City proper is approaching 400K with a metro of over 600K. A 2% growth since the 2010 Census. Not bad compared to some Northeastern cities.