<p>Anyone ever lived there? Lived near there? Been there?</p>
<p>Live near there, been there once. Why, do you want to be a Gorilla?</p>
<p>Ha, I had to look that up! As much as I’d love to be a Gorilla (or just a gorilla), actually I just heard about a job opportunity there and wonder what people think of it. I know it’s two hours from Tulsa, Kansas City, Springfield, MO, and Fayetteville, AR. Does that mean it’s in the middle of nowhere? Or is it an interesting, fun, or at least nice place?</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, I did some consulting in the area for about a year. It’s a fairly conservative area. Very nice people. Pittsburg has a state university. There’s a good NPR station out of Pittsburg. You will find most everything you need for your day-to-day needs. (For needs beyond that, go to Kansas City—it’s a straight shot 2-2 1/2 north on US 69. It’s a relatively easy drive and you’ll first come to the KC suburbs (e.g., Overland Park), where you might find what you need (e.g., shopping, restaurants, etc.) without going all the way into the city. KC offers additional amenities, including a great art museum. I only mention the proximity to KC because it’s quite do-able to head there on weekends.) The Pittsburg area has a slower pace to which you’ll soon adapt, and you’ll come to appreciate having fewer big city distractions and hassles; it’ll give you time for reading, gardening, etc. The cost of living is quite reasonable. </p>
<p>There’s relatively little snow in the winter, but you can get some freezing drizzle. Summers can be quite humid (but there are much more humid places in the South, or even Southern Indiana, as far as that goes). You do get strong storms, including tornadoes, that pass the area in spring and summer. They move out of the northern part of OK, but the worst of them seem to track somewhat south of there along the I-44 corridor. I’d still recommend that you become a weather watcher and get yourself a weather radio. I’ve lived and worked in several different parts of the country and always found each area interesting in its own way, SE Kansas not excepted. The terrain is either flat or low rolling hills. I think Pittsburg was a coal mining area originally, though the surrounding rural areas now are cattle country. I never found it particularly scenic, but it’s not as devoid of trees as western KS or OK. Along US 69 was a chain of Indian forts originally, from Fts. Riley and Leavenworth in the north to Ft. Blair (Baxter Springs) in the south. Thirty miles north of Pittsburg is Ft. Scott; there’s a restored fort, brick streets, and a very extensive area of old Victorian houses there. </p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.</p>
<p>Not sure I’m qualified to answer, as my one time was more of a drive-by. It’s not a destination that draws lots of tourists. It’s near Joplin, Missouri, and that general area seems to get some bad weather - ice storms and tornadoes. I’d probably describe it as a small, somewhat “boring” town, but depending on your family, boring is not always a bad thing! No traffic jams, slower pace of life, opportunity for a sense of community. I work at a university and I happen to think a university provides a lot to an area - speakers, music, theater, interesting people, libraries, athletics and other events.</p>
<p>I lived in Wichita Kansas for a while as a kid - no ocean, no mountains, no desert, lousy weather in both summer and winter, lots of bugs … but some people must like it there well enough because people live there. I haven’t been to Pittsburgh Kansas though but I don’t know that it’s much different than my desription of the Wichita area.</p>
<p>It has a Starbucks. Drove through it this summer.</p>
<p>Thanks, y’all. Here’s what I’m getting so far:</p>
<ul>
<li> not particularly scenic but not barren</li>
<li> reasonable cost of living</li>
<li> fair amount of severe weather</li>
<li> not a lot to do, but not terribly far from places with things to do</li>
<li> has a Starbucks</li>
</ul>
<p>I guess it sounds like a typical small city.</p>
<p>How about Pittsburg State University? My wife would have to transfer to finish her BSN, and I see that PSU (or whatever they call it) has a BSN program. I assume the school is a typical, not great but not bad, small public university. True?</p>
<p>Also, how about the public schools? And finally, the violent crime statistics are above the national average. Why is that?</p>
<p>I don’t really know much about PSU, the local schools, or the crime rate.</p>
<p>I had some work colleagues with master’s degrees from PSU, and they all seemed to have a solid training in their field.</p>
<p>When I did consulting in the area, I lived there during the week and commuted home to another state on the weekends. When there was an opportunity to extend my contract, I had to consider whether I wanted to move my family there. At the time, my daughter was still in high school and I didn’t think the local school would compare well with the school she already attended, so I didn’t make that move. This doesn’t necessarily mean the schools are inadequate. I really didn’t look into the schools and it’s only my impression based on conversations with work acquaintances in which their kids didn’t seem very academically focused and didn’t aspire to much more than what was available in that area. If their kids went to college, they went to the local community college, PSU, Missouri State, or sometimes to KU. One colleague’s wife taught in the Ft. Scott schools; it didn’t seem like the teachers were paid very well or had good benefits.</p>
<p>I always felt pretty safe in the area. Though I lived in SE KS, my work often took me to SW MO. My impression was that people on the KS side were relatively more prosperous and better-educated than those on the MO side (though, in general, rural and small town areas are hurting). A lot of people on the KS side were from a German or East European cultural background; on the MO side, it was more Southern and a lot of people were proud of the area’s Bushwhacker heritage. I used to hear a lot of stories about the meth problem in SW MO. Maybe this contributes to the crime rate in the general area?</p>
<p>You might get better information from the city-data forum:
[info</a> on Pittsburg (Overland Park, Kansas City, Frontenac: low income, rental, crimes) - City-Data Forum](<a href=“http://www.city-data.com/forum/kansas/72787-info-pittsburg.html]info”>info on Pittsburg (Overland Park, Kansas City, Frontenac: low income, rental, crimes) - (KS) - City-Data Forum)</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for linked to that forum. It really helps.</p>
<p>I didn’t know Joplin, Missouri, was so much bigger than Pittsburg and considered the destination in that area for shopping and such.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your help.</p>
<p>If you go check out Chicken Mary’s and Chicken Annie’s…they both have quite a following and have been featured on the travel channel…they are fierce competators and their buildings are only one house (and horse) separated from each other…I went recently and now am a proud owner of a t-shirt…I have a friend who is from around there and prefers Annie’s so that is where I went…have not tried Mary’s yet.</p>
<p>On a side note…our server told us that a grandchild from each establishment married each other and started their own chicken place…can’t remember what it is called but I didn’t see it…</p>
<p>The town is probably still buzzing about the time a U of Wisconsin grad drove through town.</p>
<p>LOL, I’ll bet they are! :D</p>
<p>No, but it was the first tip over a dime they got at that Starbucks. 
Forgot about those chicken places but I saw that show. Dammit. It was not a planned trip or that would have been a priority stop. We were coming from seeing Joplin right after the big twister hit.</p>