A new national ranking shows what Wichitans have long known: Our city is a great place for families. The 2007 report from Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation concluded that Wichita was the second best place for families to relocate among metropolitan areas between 575,000 and 1.25 million in population (we were edged out only by Knoxville, Tenn.). In addition to considering home and rental prices and taxes, the report also evaluated education and quality-of-life factors such as arts and culture, crime rates, air quality and physicians per capita.
In today’s mobile society in which workers are looking to balance job and family needs, Wichita leaders shouldn’t be shy about sharing our ranking. They should shout it from our very affordable rooftops.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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39 Comments
Of course, one must factor our the gangs, drugs and the sky-high murder rate. After that, it’s all gravy.
It is totally prospective, In many ways Wichita is head and shoulders above other city to live in. I do miss living there from time to time. At one time I lived in a small town in Oklahoma and to watch the local OK city news makes Wichita sound down right peaceful. Daily murders and other major crimes, not just one or two but ten to twenty a day. But yet if the need was there I would have no problem living there.
I can see many problems with Wichita, but then I can see many things that are right about it. I miss living there mainly because the town I live in does have all the basic needs. But above that everything else is more convenience in Wichita.
Its to bad the city does an awful job of supporting or keeping things.like losing the bowling conference and the Wranglers next year,and attractions like Joyland.Wake up Wichita and stop being so wishy-washy.
What’s with the population of 575,000 for the Wichita metropolitan area? Must include dogs, cats and cows.
True, of the factors cited, Wichita does offer lower residential costs, considerable medical services, and several universities and colleges throughout the metropolitan area which in turn bring arts and culture.
I question the crime statistics, air pollution, and tax levels. These are high in Wichita but lower in surrounding cities/communities in 75 mile diameter of Wichita which is what “Worldwide ERC,” whatever that is, must be counting.
Seems to me Pratt, Augusta or Winfield’s statistics, for example, would rank really high in comparison.
I noticed the April 23, 2007 issue of FORBES magazine rates 200 metropolitan areas in U.S. on basis of starting a career and doing business. On this list, Wichita is listed as #153, or in the bottom 25%, just 47 from the bottom.
Sounds like some real work is needed in Wichita … not just spin, weave, duck, flag wave and hide head in sand.
“Of course, one must factor our the gangs, drugs and the sky-high murder rate. After that, it’s all gravy.”
Most of that is confined to 2 areas of the city- a small part of NE Wichita which has always been a hell hole and Planeview which has also never been high on desirable places to live either. 90% of Wichita is safe and clean for the most part. And it is a good place for family living beginning with the fact that it is very affordable.
As for Joyland, it WAS supported for almost 50 years but it just didn’t keep up with the times. I went by there last year and peeked in and saw the same rides and same stuff that was there when I was going there as a little kid! In order to thrive, an amusement park needs to add a new ride every few years that tops the old rides in thrills. Six Flags does this but Joyland never built a new coaster to top the old wooden one that was there for 40 years. And with World’s Of Fun only 3 hours away, they got hurt. I predict Joyland will be torn down in the near future although I hope that they preseve the organ with the clown.
“Its to bad the city does an awful job of supporting or keeping things.like losing the bowling conference and the Wranglers next year,and attractions like Joyland.Wake up Wichita and stop being so wishy-washy.”
The article is right. Wichita has a lousy job market and lousy prospects for educated and skilled employees. That is the main reason I don’t live there anymore. Good jobs in a field other than agriculture or aircraft are very few and hard to come by. That and the horrible weather hurt what is otherwise a good place to live. If I could have the traffic, schools, housing cost and crime in Wichita with the weather and job market in Atlanta, that would be great!
“What’s with the population of 575,000 for the Wichita metropolitan area? Must include dogs, cats and cows. ”
I think it includes all people in Sedgewick and Sumner counties.
I agree with Kev about the lack of good career opportunities being a serious problem for Wichita. The weather, however, is actually quite mild. We do not have nearly the heat/humidity of Atlanta in the summer. Nor do we have the extreme cold of Chicago in the winter. I find that there is rarely as long as a month that I cannot open up my windows and air the house. That is not the case with those other cities.
I think that Wichita can and should compete nationwide for ‘knowledge workers’; we can do so. We do NOT need to try to keep young people here from knowing about the rest of the country; we can do the opposite – attract people FROM the rest of the country.
Why is is that everytime someone says (prints) something positive about our city, the CAVE people feel they have to knock it?
The murder rate per 100,000 is lower than Tulsa, KC, OKC and various other cities. There is lots to do if you get off your backside and try them.
Oh well…seems some people are not happy unless they are complaining about soemthing. Enjoy your misery, people!
I especially love the ones that knock us relative newcomers, saying they have lived here all their lives and hate it every day. To those people, I wonder two things..1, if you hate it so much, why stay here? And 2, if you have lived here all your life and haven’t done a thing to improve what you see is wrong, then whose fault is it that you don’t like it here?
CAVE people unite…have a wonderful time knocking our city. You wouldn’t be happy if someone gave you ten million dollars, a private jet and a city of your own.
raptor – as one of those “CAVE people” I would note that not all of us do so. Check my 10:35 post.
I’m not against progress I just don’t think its the government’s job to subsidized businesses or be in the Hotel biz, retail whatever else.
“I agree with Kev about the lack of good career opportunities being a serious problem for Wichita. The weather, however, is actually quite mild. We do not have nearly the heat/humidity of Atlanta in the summer. Nor do we have the extreme cold of Chicago in the winter.”
The weather in Atlanta is hot in the summer- often 85 to 95 degrees but it has not been 100 in about 10 years that I recall nor is it terribly humid like the coast is. This is followed by fairly mild winters with lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s and 60s and no snow. As for Wichita, I recall it being freezing cold and windy from about Thanksgiving to April followed by about 2 weeks of violent storms and wildly varying temperatures followed by 3 months of very high heat and humidlity. During the summers in Wichita I was employed outdoors at Mr Magic Car Wash and I remember well the dog days of summer there and 100 plus degree days. The only time it was mild enough to not run the furnace or AC was in late September and October. On the other extreme Chicago is usually very cold from Thankgiving to June but pretty mild in the summer with a few hot spells. Many people there do not even have air conditioning (which is why about 700 of them died during the great heat storm about 10 years ago). So Chicago has about 5 months of fairly good weather.
Kev – the funny thing here – I was born and raised in DeKalb County. I guess I recall the humidity there a bit more – especially since we did not have AC in my home. I remember winters being just a bit milder than they are here – always praying for snow so we could ditch school.
My Kansas grandfather’s barn had a thermometer on it that read as 112F one hot summer day. Not sure how reliable it was (wooden barn – no metal.) This was in middle 1960s or late 1960s, don’t remember I was still young.
I don’t know what the humidity is here but I do know I sweat alot more in Savannah then I do here in the summer. But it is hot- no mistake about that. I work alot outside too- mainly at cell phone towers and on top buildings and rooftops are REALLY hot!
I grew up in wichita. With the crime, weather and lack of economic oppurtunity, Wichita is a good place to be “from”.
Kev – back when we played valdosta we always said you could recognize people from that part of the state – by their webbed fingers and toes!
But, things have changed, and not or the best either. The Okefenookie is burning much more than past fires and I understand Lanier is about dry. Not going to be good.
I wonder how many of us here are transplants to or from Wichita? I am a transplant to Wichita; have been here just over 20 years.
I moved here in 1995.
Wichita has its good, it has its bad. As far as its city government is concerned, I have a few complaints:
1. The city invests in non-infrastructure “eye candy,” and then doesn’t maintain it.A recent example is the old West Bank Stage. Why was it allowed to deteriorate to the point where it was unsafe and had to be torn down? That was the only outdoor community stage in the city; now, for outdoor staging, civic organizations have to rent portable stages at considerable cost. Meanwhile, the city spent 6 million dollars on “eye candy” at the Keeper of the Plains statue.
2. City Council is less accessible than the state Legislature. It’s easier for me to get an appointment with a state Senator than a councilperson. Forget talking to the City Manager – Sunflower Community Action had to harass him at home to get any response.
3. The City and County are both far too willing to use eminent domain for private development. A process that’s supposed to be used for things like roads and other public works has been turned into a free-for-all that ends up with private developers making millions of the fruits of the former owner’s losses. It’s a damned shame.
I’m not even going to start complaining about the climate. I’ve lived in several places around the nation, and I’ll tell you, every place has its weather nasties.
And the people? Pretty much the same as anywhere else. Except the far-far-right-wing nasties; they’re nastier here than most places I’ve been. There are reasons for that, of course, but I’ll save that conversation for other threads ;)
I don’t mean to be overly personal, Tom, but as a gay man, how do you feel Wichita measures up in terms of quality of life for gays? For obvious reasons, I have no understanding, but I would think that Wichita must rank relatively low, thanks to the Terry Fox and Joe Wright types.
If this is an inappropriate question, feel free to say so. I think you know that I support gay rights, but it never hurts to reiterate that fact.
WS,
It depends on how you define “quality of life.”
In our circumstance, I don’t think we could have afforded to raise our daughter the way we did if we’d stayed on the west coast. Moving to Kansas gave me the opportunity to work part-time from home (writing custom software), and always be here for our daughter. The cost of living out west is so high, we would have both had to continue to work outside the home just to pay our bills.
We live openly in our neighborhood. It hasn’t caused too many problems. One of our neighbors couldn’t contain her homophobia, though, and tried to have my partner and I banned from attending Jr ROTC events with our daughter (we were some sort of danger to the boys in the program). When I was called in to speak with the Principal, the most amazing thing happened: The Lt. Colonel and First Sergeant in charge of the Jr ROTC program supported our family, and told the Principal that we had the same rights as any other parents and wouldn’t have any part of banning us from activities.
As far as Joe Wright and Terry Fox and the other wingers are concerned…they’re everywhere. Kansas doesn’t have a monopoly on idiots. Anyway, I had a front-row seat to Fox’s meltdown in August. You have no idea the entertainment value all the rumors about his departure from Immanuel had :)
I could go on about the good and the bad that Kansas gays and lesbians face, but you get the picture. The good and bad are here, but the good and bad are everywhere. Kansas, and Wichita, can always be improved. That’s part of what I do every day :)
I am glad that you and your partner can and do live openly, Tom. It may sound wrong in some manner, but the more people are exposed (bad word?) to gays and lesbians in everyday life, the more likely they are to support gay rights and less likely to support restrictions like a ban on gay marriage.
I hope that sounded supportive and not just gibberish.
Anyway, more power to you and your family, and all the best to your daughter and her career.
You and your partner have much to be proud of. Congratulations on a fine job by all three of you. Raising children is undoubtedly the most difficult yet most rewarding job one can have.
We moved to Wichita in 88, then relocated out of state in 03. As with any city Wichita has its pros and cons.
Pros include low housing costs and property taxes, easy commutes, decent schools, good arts and culture scene, and the Sedgwick County Zoo.
Cons are that the economy is too dependent on a single cyclical industry (aviation), there’s a lack of higher paying tech jobs (although there isn’t a big enough pool of available tech workers to attract these types of employers anyway), and urban sprawl.
And compared to other cities, Wichita has a lack of parks and trails (and even resists them), outdated convention facilities, and a comatose downtown.
Overall I always thought Wichita was more of big town than the medium sized city it really is — until Wichita gets over it’s inferiority complex and satisfaction with the status quo, it’ll always be just a big town. But maybe that’s the way most Wichitans want it.
WS,
Thanks for your kind words. Gay men don’t become parents by accident, and raising a child has been the most rewarding part of our lives. She’s away at college now, and we miss her, but we’re not suffering “empty nest” syndrome. She’ll always be our little girl, but we’re glad she’s grown and off creating her own life now ;)
You know what I cannot figure is this: we have 5 million people here now and they are coming at the rate of about 1000 new residents a day. Projections have us at 12 to 15 million in 20 years. We are out of water and choking on air pollution and traffic NOW. How the HELL are we going to be in 20 years? We can only water the lawn on Saturday now. I guess in 20 years, it will be only one a day a month! And the fires are horrible- we have a constant haze of smoke over the city all the time from them. Some days it is so bad you cannot see the tops of buildings.
“Kev – back when we played valdosta we always said you could recognize people from that part of the state – by their webbed fingers and toes!
But, things have changed, and not or the best either. The Okefenookie is burning much more than past fires and I understand Lanier is about dry. Not going to be good.”
“
I am a transplant FROM Wichita. I was born there in 1958 and raised there. Lived in differing parts of town but mainly the East High area. Attended Sunnyside Elementary, Roosevelt Jr High and East High. Left in 1978. Lived in Seattle (military) and then Dallas (2 years), Chicago (13 years) and here in Atlanta (now 11 years).
“I wonder how many of us here are transplants to or from Wichita? I am a transplant to Wichita; have been here just over 20 years.”
Many people don’t recall but Wichita was the second city after Miami to pass Gay Rights laws that banned discrimination in employment, housing and public acomodations. Unfortunately Anita Bryant came to town amd made sure it got voted out as she did in Florida. I am proud to say I supported it though.
I lived in Wichita for 15+ years, right after graduation from HS in Oregon, to study at WSU.
Wow, look at all the Georgians!!! Me too! After living in Athens and Atlanta for 20 years, I’ll take the summers here any day: don’t forget that it doesn;t get really hot until late June, and it cools off almost immediately in September.
But the reason I wanted to post here is to complain about the schools. Like most everything in Wichita, tyhey are depressingly average. There son;t seem to be any really terrible ones, but there aren’t any very good ones either. In fact, of Newsweek’s rankings of the public high schools from the last 5 years, only East has made any appearance in the top 1,200 ranked schools (usually in the middle range of that). In fact, most of Kansas has the same problem–only five schools made the rankings each year, with the other four all in the KC area.
Delsol: Who or which publication ranks high schools in the U.S.? I am curious what upper and lower school population figures are used?
Without seeing the list, I presume the other four Kansas high schools ranked are: 1) One of the Shawnee Mission high schools (East?), 2) One of the Blue Valley high schools (I believe there are two), 3) One of the Olathe high schools and 4) Desoto High School.
Of course, the rater could have selected two high schools in one of those four school districts.
Here in Wichita’s USD 259 school district, East High School is the largest with some 2,500 students, divided about equally according to cultures. Because of its size, East High does offer many options such as the International Baccalaureate program, music, arts, sports. It is a great high school.
Of course all USD 259 high schools offer various specialties. Some that come to mind are North High offers TV and automotive classes. West High offers both engineering and nursing training, Northeast Magnet offers special areas of interest, one of which is pre-engineering as I recall.
As usual, school is what the individual student makes of it. Any student that is not challenged by USD 259 high schools has only himself to blame.
When I was attending East, the school with all the “brain” was considered to be Southeast High- and they were our biggest rivals too!
High school is so much better these days. When I went to high school there were no “magnet” programs and no specialties. It did not matter where you went- they all pretty much taught the same thing. Things are really better today. When I go to my daughter’s school, I always tell her that she is spoiled. She goes to a school that specializes in music and arts and she is in both band and orchestra. Back in the 70s, you went to regular high school or Metro Willard if you didn’t dig the rigors of regular school (my brother went there).
Kev: Where was the “Metro-Willard” school located in Wichita?
Wichita USD 259 currently has three metro high schools — Metro-Meridian, Metro-Boulevard and Metro-Midtown — for high school students who want/need a more independent style of study, “at their own pace.” Of course, they have to be motivated to succeed in that situation.
It works for some students. In fact some thrive in the metro schools. I happened to attend three graduations week before last. The Metro-Meridian graduation was smallest with perhaps 60 to 70 graduates and probably the most personal for the students because of the closeness of the faculty to the successful graduates.
Tom
I think the liberals & conservative elitist politicians in both parties like to endlessly debate the gay rights & abortion issues to avoid discussing the corruption in Nola Foulston’s office and the gangster-like illegal acts by the Dem. & GOP district court judges, attorneys and SRS investigators. These elitist good old boy judges and senior trial attorneys and the nasty, power hungry women in family law court system and DA’s office routinely take away many parents’ constitutional right to due process to force the parents to pump more money in to the evil family law and juvenile court systems. The multi-generational aristocracies that control the Wichita Bar Association, the district attorney’s office and the district court judgeships must force parents to pay legal fees, case managers, forensic psychologists, child support fees for several non-profit child advocacy agencies (the Farm, Wichita Children’s Home, DECA, Youthville) whose budgets are dependent on the SRS and the juvenile courts taking children away their parents through dishonest acts.
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren is a close friend of Sen. Brownback (who is representing Kansans’ interests by advocating against civil rights abuses in 3rd world countries), I don’t expect Melgren to investigate the routine civil rights violations by Nola Foulston and the district court judges because Melgren will have to return to work with in the Wichita legal Mafia that is dominated by attorenys from the DA’s office and attorneys from Foulston Siefkin, Hinkle Elkouri and Hite Fanning). Thankfully there are US Senators in other states that are aware of the abuses in Nola Foulston’s office. Too bad the Eagle will not investigate the story until it is too late.
Out of state pressure is starting to build up to expose the dishoensty in Nola Foulston’s office. I predict that withi n the next 3 months there will be a corruption investigation of Nola Foulston’s office by AG Paul Morrision followed by a more thorough investigation by the FBI & IRS.
I’m telling my conservative friends that they should prepare themselves for the likely appointment by President Hillary Clinton of Raj Goyle as US Attorney for Kansas. I hope that Raj will understand that if he wants to be Kansas’s version of Eliott Spitzer he will need to fight government corruption on a bi-partisan basis and shoudl be loyal to the Dockings or the corrupt Wichita legal establishment.
After making a name for himself, Hillary can appopint Raj to the federal bench as the corruption busting US attorney for Kansas. It’s never too early for the Democrats to start grooming candidates to become the next generation of liberal activist federal judges.
In my opinion, Goyle’s future is on the federal bench as he does not have any future running for a state-wide or federal office. Yes Kansas is a great place to raise a family if you are a foster parent looking to make a lot of money from the juvenile courts or a carpetbagger from Washington DC.
“Kev: Where was the “Metro-Willard” school located in Wichita? ”
That would probably be what you now call “Metro Boulevard” I would guess because the school was on Geo Washington Blvd and it used to be Willard Elementary school before it was Metro Willard. I guess it is just Metro Boulevard now.
I have to say the other thing that drives me crazy here is the constant bitching about having to pay for anything. Apparently no one in Kansas realizes that a. they pay far lower than the average in city/county/state taxes; b. the reason they have mediocre schools and universities and a one-dimensional economy are realted to this problem (refusal to support state institutions and refusal to support development of top-notch amenities).
Wichita put’s more effort into being a nice community than any other I’ve ever seen. We don’t have a huge gold rush of revenue to work with, like the Chicago suburb I used to live in had. We have attractions, art, culture.
The main problem I see with Wichita is too many people who frankly do not give a sh*t about education/staying in school, being a productive contributing member of society in general. Their is NOTHING any community leader could EVER do to correct this problem.
Of course, Wichita is several different towns, you have the West side, where people want to appear to be something they are not, living paycheck to paycheck with $2,000 mortage payments, and using check cashers to get gas money for their boat before the weekend. You have the East side, those people do genuinely have “real” money. The North is gang banger blacks, and the south is the white trash. LOL
Well, freedomfreak, you got the second half of your name right.