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Hello, me and my wife are moving to Wichita for work with the intention of buying a house and all that. We are both middle class young professionals in late 20s/early 30s with no kids. We like the outdoors, festivals etc but also don't shy away from cultural events, and pretty much up for anything. I'm looking for some feedback on potential groups, hang out spots, clubs to join in the area just to stay active and make some friends. Also any input on housing, neighborhoods that might fit our lifestyle will be helpful. I appreciate any helpful feedback and please keep any negative feedback to a minimum. Thanks!
I don't know much about your lifestyle...what are you looking for in a home/neighborhood? What part of town will you be working in? How far are you willing to be away from where you will work?
What do you mean by stay active? Exercise? Bike? Run? I recommend looking at the YMCA's if you are looking for somewhere for general fitness. Wichita has excellent YMCA's scattered all around the city. Some of the best I've seen.
Wichita has a pretty decent downtown but not spectacular. They have fairly frequent events. You'll definitely want to check out Final Friday's and Riverfest when it happens (once a year). There are plenty of decent museums downtown. The botanical gardens are a nice place to visit (my wife and I got married in the Pavilion by the pond). The links below are a good place to start. If you like beer, there are several micro breweries around. I liked Wichita Brewing Co quite a bit and they have excellent wood-fired pizza to boot. If you're in Salina, check out Blue Skye Brewing Co (excellent happy hours). https://downtownwichita.org/discover/events https://www.visitwichita.com/events/ https://www.360wichita.com/events
Don't forget to step outside of Wichita. There are all kinds of cool and quirky places to visit within an hour or two.
- Kanopolis Lake is N of Wichita, The upper NE side of the lake has some really cool hiking unlike anything else near town. A little elevation change, sandstone cliffs, etc. If you're into guns, check out Smoky Valley Shooting Sports while you're up there.
- The Kansas Motorcycle Museum is in Marquette. It's close to Lindsborg and on the way to Kanopolis Lake.
- Fall River Lake is 70 miles east of town. Hiking and biking trails. Absolutely a must visit in the fall colors. Not too much else out there.
- The salt mines museum in Hutchinson, KS is a must visit at least once. While you're there, stop in for a meal at Carriage Crossing. Yes, get the pie. If you are into outdoorsy stuff, check out Heartland Outdoors when you're on your way out of town.
- Pawnee Prairie Park is near the airport on the W side of town. It's a nice place for a walk/hike/nature. Pretty decent sized area for being in town.
- The Great Plains Nature Center is on the NE side of town. Also a nice place for a walk but not as big as Pawnee Prairie.
- There's a small Air Force bombing range up near Salina (Smoky Hill ANG Range). They have an open house once a year and if I remember correctly, you can go up there at certain times and watch the jets fly. They commonly have A-10's, F-16's, B-1's flying and even the occasional visit from Whiteman AFB's B-2 Bombers. There's a phone number you can look up if you're interested.
- There are a ton of state parks around and many of them have very affordable cabins for rent (like $40-100/nt) depends on the season. Off season rates are pretty cheap. They're cool places to stay. There are a ton of areas to get outdoors in general. BUY THE STATE PARK PASS if you're going to visit these places. It's even cheaper if you buy it when you register your car. Reservations / State Parks / KDWPT - KDWPT Don't forget to check out the state fishing lakes. Some even offer free primitive camping if you're into that sorta thing.
- The Oz Museum (yes Toto...the Wizard of Oz) is about 2hrs away in Wamego, KS
- There's Big Brutus out by Parsons, KS. You can visit the old quarry lakes while you're out there (Mined Land Wildlife Area). Bring Kayaks if you have them...seemingly endless opportunity to explore. www.bigbrutus.org
And that's just scratching the surface of things to do. The more you dig in and look around, the more you'll find. Let me know what you're looking for in houses and I'll chime in with some input. I don't live in Wichita anymore but I lived there for 9 years (military move). It's one of those places I wouldn't mind moving back to. It's quite a pleasant city.
What an awesome response, and much appreciated! We will definitely check these things out. We are moving from the Appalachian area so there will be quite a change from the mountains to the plains but we are excited.
As far as housing, my work is by Koch Industries, so north side of town and I would like to have a short drive to work. We looked in Andover but since we don't have kids I'm not looking forward to paying high taxes. Just looking for any neighborhoods that might have young professionals to make friends with.
Appalachian area eh, KS has chiggers (tiny mites) which gather @ your waistband, sock line, etc. & leave an itching bite; found in higher grass, like unmowed ditches, although for the first time in 20 years, we have them in our mowed yard. They are seasonal, May - July, mostly. Flowers of Sulphur can be sprinkled in a pair of socks, kept for the purpose of avoiding chiggers. Repellants containing DEET sprayed @ ankles, pant legs. Wife recently met a neighbor who had never had chigger bites (likely limited summer outdoor activities?)!
Kansans tend to be demur about sharing their activity interests/locales. Share your interests & likely someone can connect you with the KS offering/alternative. We have X-country skis & snowshoes; there was snow on the ground in the Flint Hills from Jan-Mar in 1979. A 3-4 inch snow will permit X-country skiing on mowed park areas.
What an awesome response, and much appreciated! We will definitely check these things out. We are moving from the Appalachian area so there will be quite a change from the mountains to the plains but we are excited.
As far as housing, my work is by Koch Industries, so north side of town and I would like to have a short drive to work. We looked in Andover but since we don't have kids I'm not looking forward to paying high taxes. Just looking for any neighborhoods that might have young professionals to make friends with.
Thanks again for your input.
We're looking at moving out to the Appalachians in another 5 years or so...maybe ETN or WNC. Beautiful area but full of its own issues for sure. The fall colors in Kansas will be disappointing comparatively speaking.
Working at Koch, I think you might be well served living somewhere along the K96 corridor between I-135 and I-35. The area around K96/Rock Rd/Greenwich Rd has a lot of amenities but I would avoid living in an area that caused you to drive on Rock Rd a lot during peak hours. You could also go to I-235 in the west but you'll deal with a little more traffic in the evenings going that way, mainly at the 135/235 interchange. I'm not too familiar with the neighborhoods around that way but there were plenty of nice areas.
Andover is ok but I felt like it was pretty overrated and opted not to move there. It supposedly has good schools but there isn't much else in town. As you mentioned, it has higher taxes but they are not that much higher. It's not like you got that much more out of paying those taxes either though. You could always "cheat" and live in the area just west of Andover city limits in the area between K96 and 159th Ave (A large portion of Andover city limits rides along 159th Ave going north/south). Plenty of nice neighborhoods. We lived on the SE side of Wichita about 1 mile east of Andover city limits but south of US 400. We could get pretty much anything we needed within a 10 min drive. I did prefer to grocery shop in Andover because the Dillons there was very nice and wasn't too far from where we lived. They have one of the better YMCAs there too.
If you're worried about taxes, you'll also want to watch out for "Special" taxes. Many houses that are newer than 10-15 years old will owe specials and it can almost double your yearly taxes until they're paid off. If I remember correctly, special taxes were incentives to home builders where the city fronted the infrastructure costs (sewage, roads, etc) and levied the cost to the home owners as taxes. It will be dependent on the subdivision and individual house. Many houses will be advertised as having the specials paid off. It simply means that the assessment has been paid in full, either by age (10-15yrs of payments) or the previous owner paid it off in advance. Being in Kansas instead of Appalachia, your home insurance rates will probably be considerably higher as well. Lots of storm damage claims to pay for.
[quote=Storm27m;5230084
Working at Koch, I think you might be well served living somewhere along the K96 corridor between I-135 and I-35. The area around K96/Rock Rd/Greenwich Rd has a lot of amenities but I would avoid living in an area that caused you to drive on Rock Rd a lot during peak hours. You could also go to I-235 in the west but you'll deal with [/QUOTE] the rising/setting sun in your eyes a good part of the year.
Lots of good info in Storm27m's post. I'm an Andover native, and visited frequently until 2010. Was there for a funeral last Friday; also thru Derby, Mulvane & Rose Hill. They all have the strip malls along major road attractions. The 'burbs around Wichita grew as folks fled higher Wichita taxes. Now their little town has outgrown all the infrastructure & taxes must rise to meet expectations.
Koch is done with people by age 40. New college hotshots are half-price.
Rest of the churches, causes, volunteering, BUSINESS NETWORKING and social stuff on Meetup.com is predator network & can even get you fired white collar the bite from the snake is so bad. Better to just stay to work and a few social contacts you meet who are not trying to push a church on you...The Catholics are a sane lot here but the protestants are a nut farm covering up a lot of Mr. Cosby type of stuff while still attacking on the victims after 20 years even & their families...
Would just save my money...Enjoy the cheap events you want. The events don't bite. (Might find someone verbally abusing you at events...This can even happen well employed in Wichita and literally, just had to stay home and only go shopping as needed. See why many got second property as best investment in Wichita and spend weekends away...Say anything rude back to someone barking insults like this, can get you ruined at work...Have to ignore the barking dogs, many from churches who cannot leave after taking a look at wrong church.If this happens, is sign your workplace is wrong and probably need to leave. The aviation does this HARD to their people and really bad for single female...Can be better to shop in groups if you see this stuff or group of people harassing people at restaurants. Churches teach their people to go out and do this to people...Will get a white collar fired to get started in this so if you see this crap at work or socializing, you are near wrong people and need to quickly leave without saying anything. These try to get more people in trouble to join the barking dog networks even bothering our own Mr. Cosby victims, ex-wives, left wrong jobs, unwilling mistresses, sex abuse, critical of church, activists...Can see why a lot of people don't discuss anything private in public and even better NOT to discuss where you work or write checks to strangers/neighbors/CHURCHES as it gets theft started & checking cleaned out to motivate church stalking participation...)
Most use up their retirement money for staying here and quickly fine NOTHING will pay enough to house you unless you are medical + another higher white collar. Business networking ruins people who did nothing to deserve it. As soon as you change jobs, I'm pretty sure you will want to leave...Wichita is VERY economically depressed with HORRIBLE business failure rate due to the dirty business & dirty church networks so DON'T THINk ABOUT STARTING BUSINESS HERE UNLESS TOLD TO BUY OUT SOMEONE THEY RUINED. Lots of the work is screwing people too so a change of employment may really motivate a move away. Corp headquarters, except Koch, left Wichita in 1990s...
Also good to know, Wichita ALMOST always ruins older professionals so best investment is purchase of another property to spend your weekends on and skip the churches. Get to know the locals. So, when things finally bite you too badly in Wichita, you will have another place that will take you...Without a second property, can be VERY hard to move once you stayed in Wichita a while and will be run away from everywhere you try to relocate to ESPECIALLY ALONE AND FEMALE, even told you will be harmed for remaining. Have to move away where you know locals or stay with family/friends...Area here is a bit of curse...
Housing has gotten so dicey in Wichita due to REPEAT violent crime covered up by cops even in good enough areas can only recommend small College Hill rentals but also know professional females attacked in their BIG homes in that area these due to personal/work problems. Nice enough looking apartments along Rock, Woodlawn, Webb/Harry, Pawnee/Rock have a LOT of violence and scare away a lot of renters even though it looks goods, gangs and drugs are hidden but very active. Andover, Goddard, Maize, Haysville, Kechi, Colwich, Benton are nice spots...Farther El Dorado, Douglas, Winfield, Augusta (but regular bad floods due to ruined flood control)...Some of the other suburbs are a really bad scammer trap. Wichita public schools are forcing kids into magnet schools with no instruction in math/reading. Some of the Catholic schools are following suit with this...Will ruin kids without a lot of parental monitoring to make sure it ain't a grade your own papers and cheap type of dead-beat kind of teacher who makes kids learn 5th grade+ math from book alone.
Colleges almost unfit to try if you are on the outs or left a bad job. Pay cash for 1-2 classes in subject you want and make sure the instructors respect the students and equipment..Butler is particularly bad but all colleges have some instructors who will ruin a second time student (in area with LOTS of regular layoffs) and screw the victim out almost finish so TONS of debt and not allowed to work in anything that will support you here.
Business networking will ruin you if they find you at any nat'l conventions later. Even ruin someone out of secretary job in Wichita after they attacked her for whisteblowing on big boss/ruined in her field, just trying to get by in survival work later as MRS.. JUST LEFT WRONG JOB. Get work references from Wichita in writing and Linkedin only...The people that remained will have their heads spin around, red eye balls and spit fire at you if you call a Wichita boss again for a reference after you leave Wichita...They only spit and curse about a good, long term worker and Mr. Koch doesn't respect anyone anyway.
KC will have better options for you when you leave. Tulsa is well off financially but seeing some REALLY scary stuff out of church networking there. Most leave for Texas...Hear good things about Indiana, boring and just let's people alone to work.
Wichita has lots of rentals after Boeing's people left. Would RENT house only and choose the suburbs. WPD is too soft on crime and NO HELP so no need to call unless you have dead body or you need insurance claim as all is gone from burglar. Worked out best to keep the belongings and electronic goodies to minimum due to repeat burglaries in some places (even if you move over and over) or whole house full of stuff starts malfunctioning...Money in bank or vacations away are best $$$. Less crap to move later.
Lots don't even have a spouse working in Wichita as I described the schooling situation...May only get in trouble. It's a personal call on this for female as discrimination and sex harassment are TERRIBLE and lots of work is just checking out new low paid females and ruining someone without unemployment every 2-4 months. Will go broke in the retail work with horrible pay and VERY expensive clothing encouraged to get credit card to pay to be manequinn...Office work is no longer paying enough to survive...Only work worth trying is online self employment...WSU Small Business development is ruining some who try it there so I recommend the Small Business Administration classes and some coaching from their service...
Checking out Wichita's bigger protestant churches could be HORRIBLE mistake too as these got thrown out of their denomination for wrongdoing in multiple situations ... May not be able to work again if these didn't like you or you decided church was not for you...Won't be hired again near those churches.
Last edited by piedpiker101; 07-31-2018 at 05:56 AM..
On the plus side, is lots of nice hiking to enjoy that isn't too strenuous. Elk City Lake, Toronto Lake, Flint Hills Prairie Preserve, Kanapolis, Kansa Prairie, Wilson Lake, Cedar Lake, Winfield Lake are LOVELY. Better to ride bike through Wichita's hiking for own safety and go as couple at least due to crime cops never bother breaking up...Running from 30 people and prostitution zones in bushes don't thrill...Sidewalk is safer any more.
Boating is great but landowners own the river in Kansas so can be facing down a shot-gun except on Arkansas River.
Campers in storage are cannibalized locally. If you want a camper, MUST keep it on property or can be subjected to all mechanicals ruined over and over at different storage places...plus obviously it is vandalisms. If you have ANY vandalisms at home or this stuff,,,tent camp or rent a cabin. AS ALWAYS keep the belongings to minimum so you don't go broke.
Final Friday, Free Saturday at Wichita Art Museum, Free Gallery at Mark Arts are stellar. The Bradley Faire art show in September should not be missed...Botanica is always special. Cow Town is worth a look during holidays - Christmas and Halloween are special.
Great art classes of City Arts, Wichita Parks and Recreation and Mark Arts.
Hockey is awesome here...Have college sports, short of football. Is really nasty crowd...Disappointing kind of thing. DON'T TRY TO GET SEASON TICKETS NEW AS THUNDER SCREWS PEOPLE SOMETIMES SO JUST GO GAME BY GAME OR TRY THEIR GROUPON DEAL TO SEE WHAT'S UP...
Wichita Community Theater is stellar for price! College symphony, jazz and theater departments cannot be beat!
The Kansas Star Casino has GREAT sound system in auditorium and cheap seats are great...However all the slots don't pay a thing and will steal your money. Third Thursday is $10 buffet (surprisingly good really) and $10 credit...That's only time worthwhile to look at poorly paying casino after you add $1-2 of own money to get something out of slots. (Hartman Arena north of town has sound system only fit for sports BTW...Don't pay much for this...STINKING BAD SHOUTING BANDS/SINGERS.)
Local YMCA steals off people and regularly hosts vandalisms of vehicles. Looks great but it's only temporary ... When someone says something rude to you, at least you were warned you are no longer welcome and kids will rob you...So go over to Planet Fitness for $10/month...Wife will want a partner as the clientele is a little rougher in these locales sometimes so cooperate...Wichita makes so VERY VERY large adults due to common insomnia, bad mental care covering up our Mr. Cosby, neighborhoods you might not want to walk any more and YMCA scam...
I actually went up to KC repeatedly to use their Meetup.com groups for travel, outdoors and some concerts. OUTSTANDING! No funny stuff, all professionals and really fun culture. Cannot afford to live there due to personal reasons or I would be gone in a second. (Females told we have to pick up local male or will be killed even in the nicest suburban apartments I can afford. Cops cover it up in spots...This is NORMAL for Wichita women who try to leave so need to go back where they know you or move in with family/friends to be left alone even in 'nice' areas as Wichita's problems stick for decade sometimes. I AM WELL EMPLOYED **IMMEDIATELY** AND THIS IS JUST HOW IT IS.)
Some really good Wichita restaurants are hole in wall - Sit&Thai Bistro, Picaso Pizza, Passage to India, LeMonde, DeFazios, Angelos, and N&J Bakery are long running and friendly establishments while affordable. Can find some really neat bar Happy Hours but after a few sex harassments off work, see no point to meeting worse at the bars. I just go with the group of friends/coworkers for events as 40 yo married female...Area has some REALLY PREDATORS AND SCAMS, I've seen enough close up and NO ATTORNEYS/COURT THAT WILL KEEP IT AWAY WHEN YOU LEAVE.
Last edited by piedpiker101; 07-31-2018 at 05:54 AM..
Purchase property in another town/state and spend weekends there. Get to know locals well. If you run into problems in Wichita, you will need another place to go where they know you. But, this doesn't guarantee you will be accepted after a Wichita screwing...Some weekend spots are later ruining the people that tried to retire there and threw out Wichitas.
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