WICHITA STATE SHOCKERS
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@wrwlumpy Thanks for the Wichita travelog. I am now informed about what a non-descript boring city it must be.
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I live in Wichita and while it is definitely not a college town, it is a decent place to live. Anyone who has problems finding good restaurants, hotels, or bars either got done bum advice on which establishments to frequent, is overly biased, or just lazy.
There’s a lot of cool things to do here. Independent league baseball, indoor stems football, and my favorite: minor league hockey.
A few years ago they opened the new Intrust Bank Arena and that attracts lots of cool events such as concerts and if I’m not mistaken they were finally able to attract the NCAA to use it as a future site for 2nd & 3rd round games.
As a parent, I can say Wichita offers a lot more than any other city in Kansas. Zoos, exploration place, parks, youth sporting leagues, YMCAs, etc.
Wichita also offers a lot more blue collar employment opportunities than any other city in the state. Hard working residents are able to earn a decent living here.
Again, Wichita is not a college town, so from a student perspective KU & Lawrence are better hands down. But as an adult in my mid 30s with a 6 year old son, you wouldn’t be able to get me to move up to Lawrence (unless you offered me season tickets to men’s bball
)
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@icthawkfan316 I like wichita too. It’s an easy drive and lots of places to shop and eat. I mainly go to the west side, it’s grown so much.
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@icthawkfan316 I knew I might step on some toes with that comment. My opinion was based on visits from 1973 to 1987. I’m sure some things have improved and of course I said nothing bad about the people there. KU’s campus is great. WSU’s at the time left me flat.
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@icthawkfan316 curious why you wouldn’t live in Lawrence?
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@Crimsonorblue22 I wouldn’t live in Lawrence because there isn’t as much to do for my son. Not that I don’t imagine Lawrence is a fine placed to raise children, but straight up I’d choose Wichita.
I live on the west side. Definitely prefer it to the east side, although it has its advantages too.
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@JayhawkRock78 campus-wise it’s still no contest - KU all day every day. No disagreement there.
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@Lulufulu Woooooah, cool the jets there buddy. Wichita is actually a pretty nice city. Have you ever even been there? “Entrance to the underworld” is just wrong on so many levels. Wichita actually has one of the lowest crime rates in the US for cities its size. Not to be rude, but don’t sound so ignorant please.
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@icthawkfan316 where have you been? Don’t be a stranger!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Well my computer has been on the fritz so I have to post from my phone, which I don’t really like. I’ve still been reading and liking posts occasionally.
Also, some of the rhetoric has gotten a little tired, particularly the blaming of Self for the team going into a 3pt shooting slump because he said fools gold seems ridiculous to me, but since I can’t argue my point as effectively as I’d like (again, because of the computer/phone issue) I’ve kinda limited my exposure to this site.
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@icthawkfan316 I know! I use my iPad. Agree 100%!
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I agree with the other posters that indicated Wichita is a nice city. I go there occasionally and I find it to be a pretty decent city, particularly when compared to those crime infested big cities on both coasts.
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@JayHawkFanToo all a matter of perspective I guess.
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But also a matter of first hand experience and not relying on second hand accounts. I get to Wichita about once a year, most recently two week ago, and I have seen the change over the last 20-25 years. How often do you go there and when is the last time you were there?
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@JayHawkFanToo When was the last time you were in any city on the east or west coast? Are you really arguing about this? Really?
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I have family on the East Coast Washington DC area ( I used to live there) and Florida and I get there at least once a year, went to undergrad school in Ohio and because of work, I traveled to California almost every other week, I was in the LA area two weeks ago, I also periodically get to Chicago in the North and Dallas and Houston in the South.
FWIW, here is Facebook map that shows the states I have been in…and yes, I have traveled quite a bit and am very familiar with a lot of cities in the country…I have even been to North Dakota 3 times in the last 6 months alone
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Seems to me that @Lulufulu was having a bit of fun, too. WSU is located in the city of Wichita, and they are our next opponent. Not worthy of getting the third degree.
To be very precise, the area around WSU is a crap hole. No area like that in Overland Park, Olathe, or Lawrence. If you don’t think so, go spend some time there, just to the west of campus. Getto.
Just for fun, I looked at crime stats. Violent crime was higher in Wichita by a 2-1 ratio than the rest of Kansas per 100,000 residents. That was in 2013 – Wichita crime.
Of course, anyone who has been to Wichita knows there are just some very rough areas. Areas that are the stereotypical “hood.” But there are some really nice areas, too. And the nice areas far outweigh the crap.
As for sports, most Lawrence teams of any quality come and play in the KC/Johnson County area. Many more sports opportunities here for Lawrence teams, than in Wichita for Wichita teams.
I might be a little biased on my general distaste for Wichita, though. A friend of mine from college was kidnapped and murdered by a couple of gang members there in 1996. He had just watched KU beat Arizona in the 1996 tourney in the Old Town area. After the game, he was forced to get in the trunk of a car, driven to another location and was shot and killed.
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@HighEliteMajor Very sorry about your friend. That is horrible. Unfortunately cities of any substantial size develop ghettos/hoods.
Which if you’re going to annex Kansas city/Johnson county to your pros column for Lawrence I think it only fair to include the levels of crime in that area, which without looking is surely substantial.
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I really didn’t want to start another thread so I’ll put this here where people are reading currently. This is pretty funny, make sure you watch the video embedded in the article, that’s the good part.
By the way we have a 2 game losing streak (at least in my memory) to MVC in the tourney, Bradley and then UNI. So there’s no way we lose three in a row, right?
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I really don’t think is fair to name Overland Park or Olathe without mentioning the KC Metro area, of which they are an integral part. There are many areas in the KC Metro area that I just would not go after dark or even before dark unless I have Police escort. By the way, the crime rate in some areas in West Olathe is starting to go up since it has become a stopover in the drug traffic from Mexico; nothing huge, mind you, but it could get worse.
Compared to Kansas at large just about every city is going to have a much higher crime rate since it is low crime rate state; however, if you compare Wichita to other comparable cities on both coast or other urban areas, I bet the crime rate would be substantially lower.
I am not saying that Wichita is a great city but it is not as bad as it seems some people think it is.
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KU is favored by 1.5 pts tomorrow.
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WVU and Maryland even…
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@JayHawkFanToo It may not be “fair” to not include the KC Metro in crime, but I was comparing Wichita to Lawrence, OP, and Olathe as far as crime. That’s all. I referenced the KC Metro area re: sports. KCMo is far worse than Wichita crime wise, and so is KCK in my opinion.
But yes, I’d take Wichita over many other bigger cities for sure.
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Agreed.
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We forgot BTK, Dennis rader. Also known for the Carr brothers murders. Also had some pretty good fb and bb players from collegiate, mo Evans? I think and ??? It was his cousin, deangelo evans? Not sure
