Gripes about Wichita (Kansas City, Andover: crime rate, high school, casinos)

[janelle144]

Just got back from San Antonio and Dallas. Man am I glad to be home.

Going into these cities is crazy. Traffic jams ten miles long going 30 miles an hour on the highway.

You can get anywhere in Wichita in 15 minutes and no traffic jams to speak of.

We finally gave up going into Dallas and found a 2 way road to get around most of the jam. It took us out of the way but saved our sanity. Being stuck following a truck with fumes coming out the back for miles is not what I call classy. You can keep your huge cities.

[Sco]

Originally Posted by janelle144

Just got back from San Antonio and Dallas. Man am I glad to be home.

Going into these cities is crazy. Traffic jams ten miles long going 30 miles an hour on the highway.

You can get anywhere in Wichita in 15 minutes and no traffic jams to speak of.

We finally gave up going into Dallas and found a 2 way road to get around most of the jam. It took us out of the way but saved our sanity. Being stuck following a truck with fumes coming out the back for miles is not what I call classy. You can keep your huge cities.

These kinds of posts are always unintentionally hilarious. When one of the best things people can say about Wichita is that it is not popular enough as a place to live or visit that it doesn't even have traffic you know you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for good things to say about the city.

[janelle144]

Originally Posted by Sco

These kinds of posts are always unintentionally hilarious. When one of the best things people can say about Wichita is that it is not popular enough as a place to live or visit that it doesn't even have traffic you know you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for good things to say about the city.

That's fine with me. I have been to tourist places and the locals are tearing their hair out and cussing. No thanks. I can live in peace and visit the huge cities when I feel like it.

[BKellyS]

Originally Posted by Modron

It's a simple fact of what remains when the best and brightest move on.

What you fail to recognize is that many of the best and brightest stay right where they grew up, because what's important in life i.e. their family and friends, and pretty much anything else one would need, is there.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by BKellyS

What you fail to recognize is that many of the best and brightest stay right where they grew up, because what's important in life i.e. their family and friends, and pretty much anything else one would need, is there.

Your logic doesn't match with the educational attainment of the metro area. If that were the case, Wichita would have similar statistics to JOCO if we are comparing an area with a brain gain vs drain in the state.

[Sco]

Originally Posted by BKellyS

What you fail to recognize is that many of the best and brightest stay right where they grew up, because what's important in life i.e. their family and friends, and pretty much anything else one would need, is there.

I disagree that "many" of the best and brightest stay, it would be more reasonable to say some or a minority. I know that most of the people that I grew up with in the Wichita area left a long time ago and are not coming back. A lot of them went away for college and never returned or they finished college and left later for better jobs.

However, even if I agreed with you, it still paints a dire picture for Wichita. If your logic is sound and many people stay in Wichita because that is where they grew up, have family, etc. than with each person that doesn't stay the next generation of people that are "locked into" Wichita gets smaller and smaller.

[drjones96]

Originally Posted by Sco

These kinds of posts are always unintentionally hilarious. When one of the best things people can say about Wichita is that it is not popular enough as a place to live or visit that it doesn't even have traffic you know you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for good things to say about the city.

I just got back from DFW (I used to live there 4 years ago). Of course there are things I miss but the stress of getting around there is enough to make one want to move away. I sat in rush hour traffic on friday on my way to Frisco with mean & inconsiderate people who just do not seem to be happy.

I live in Derby....and I couldn't be happier.

[patti890]

I have lived in Wichita for 15 years and work second shift. there is nothing you can do except join a 24 hr gym and even they close the pool at 9 p.m.. I totally agree with you.

Originally Posted by zoebaby

I moved from California to Wichita 4 years ago, and I have at least 2 questions, thing's that are really bothering me, so, here goes . I love to walk and be outdoor's.... One thing that I'm wondering is why the park's are not lit up at night, it is so strange, one day, after work, I went to this park by my house to have a little walk on the track, and it got dark. It was so scary, I have never seen park's like that, with no lighting, it's ridiculous. They say that people need to get up off the couch, get healthier.... With all the money here from the airplane industry, i just really don't understand. So, I'm on the far end side away from my car, it's pitch black, and i'm just in shock. And I'm scared, the perfect oppurtunity to be assaulted, raped, who know's?? The park's in California are lit up, people are out, what is going on here? I love the city here, but some thing's are so far behind it's crazy. Another park, Watson park, closes at 4 p.m., everyday, in the winter, huh??? Watson park is close to my house, but it's closed by the time I get off work, so I have to go home to sit on the couch. And they are telling people on the new's, get up, get fit, get active, watch your cholesterol. How??Another strange thing that I have noticed is that the lifeguard's at the public pool's do not have umbrella's, they even were talking about the risk of cancer, that the lifeguard's have on the new's. It was so strange to see these young people out there, sitting directly in the sun all day with no umbrella's. It's such an easy solution to the problem, most cities use umbrella's at every lifeguard chair, in all of the public pool's. Wichita can't be that backward, come on now, it's 2008 and have these people heard of skin cancer???? I dont know where to write about these thing's, does anyone feel the same as I do, same experiences, frustrations? Like I said, I love Wichita, but I would really like to be able to get out and not feel like after 4 everything is closing and I have to go vegetate!! Where could I write to about these thing's?

[hidigger]

I hated Wichita and it seems to me to be dying a slow death, with the leaving of Boeing and the bankruptcy of other air industry's. One thing, don't do the Ghost Tour, I think there is only one and it was the worst tour I have ever taken. The Lady's could not recite their script the driver hit a stop sign, at some point you have to take away their lip stick and cell phones. It was 18 dollars and I will never get my money or time back. The story's were lousy and the drive kept the heat on instead of the air. It was 95 deg. out. I have had some bad tours but this one is the worst.

[Sco]

Originally Posted by hidigger

I hated Wichita and it seems to me to be dying a slow death, with the leaving of Boeing and the bankruptcy of other air industry's. One thing, don't do the Ghost Tour, I think there is only one and it was the worst tour I have ever taken. The Lady's could not recite their script the driver hit a stop sign, at some point you have to take away their lip stick and cell phones. It was 18 dollars and I will never get my money or time back. The story's were lousy and the drive kept the heat on instead of the air. It was 95 deg. out. I have had some bad tours but this one is the worst.

I agree that Wichita is slowly dying. The downtown core of the city is rotting away, most of the buildings are empty and even the ones that aren't have been neglected to the point that they are crumbling and falling down. Compared to just a decade ago, the decline in downtown Wichita is shocking.

Even outside the downtown core, things look bleak. It seems like the entire infrastructure of the city has just been allowed to fall apart. Crumbling bridges, a water and sewer system on the edge of collapse and just an overall malaise in the appearance and functionality of the entire urban area.

The jobs that kept the city alive and the residents from starving are now gone or on their way out of town and nothing has been done to replace them. The majority of the area population is either impoverished or live hand to mouth on subsistence level service economy wages. Outside the affluent areas or the white flight suburbs, Wichita looks and functions like a Third World Country.

A declining population and tax base combined with extreme right wing politics is only going to make things worse. It has always been hard to attract people or businesses to Kansas and Wichita, but steep cuts in essential government services and things like funding for the arts coupled with leadership that is ready to bring back the creationism in the public schools stupidity again are not helping at all.

IMO, Wichita is going down the same path as other notable Rust Belt failed cities. It is not hard at all to visualize large homes in Eastborough or Vickridge selling for 25k just like the mansions in Detroit.