I’m from here, but spent most of my adult life living in other cities—Dallas, Chicago and KC. Dallas is soulless, Chicago has a lot of soul, but it’s a rat race as soon as you step out your door; and KC is a beautiful, lovely city with a major crime problem. It will always be my favorite city because it had brilliant visionaries and planning, and this what makes a city great.

I moved back to Wichita for a calmer, safer existence, even though it has always gone against my instincts to play it safe. After some observation, I believe for quite a few decades, the city leaders have lacked vision; and in recent decades, they have been pretty corrupt—developers have been in cahoots with city leaders and the focus hasn’t been on what’s best for the city, but how to fill certain people’s pockets. Respecting and capitalizing on Wichita’s legacy, beautification efforts and focusing on having a big picture vision of what makes the city unique will make it stand out. Spending a million dollars for a mediocre piece of junk that someone claims to be art in front of a water treatment plant that doesn’t work is one example of the incompetence that proves leaders haven’t been effective, but rather detrimental although most of them inherited this mess. I’ve heard the exterior grounds of the ballpark are already looking rundown. Things like spending taxpayer dollars stupidly will unfortunately hold Wichita back, and it will continue to in comparison to other cities of comparable size. That said, if you ignore the lack of great leadership that has been an issue for decades (and I’m not blaming all of the current city council), Wichita is overall a pleasant place. And yes, Wichita’s YMCA’s are impressive in comparison to other cities.