| How could Hutch have gotten you to stay?? Or, how did it get you too? |
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| By Cody Heitschmidt | |
| Sunday, 10 August 2008 | |
1. Those who left Hutch with no intentions of ever moving back. (group A)
2. Those who have plans or dreams of leaving Hutch and never moving back. (group B)
The question for those 2 groups is: "What, if anything, could Hutchinson have realistically done to keep you happy enough to want to live your life here?"
I put the word realistically in for obvious reasons... If you are
headed to Hawaii because you must live on a sandy beach with blue green
waters, that's cool, nothing we could do about that and I wish you the
best. If you are headed to New York City because you are bound and
determined to be a star onBroadway ... again nothing we could do to
keep you, break a leg and knock 'em dead send your ole buddy Cody some
tickets when you are a headliner.
The
question is for the folks who left or want to leave Hutch for no other
reason than "they want to leave Hutch". What could be done to change
your mind. I would really like for this discussion to remain cordial if
at all possible.
Don't be overly
hypercritical of anything anyone says, we all have a right to an
opinion. Let's just get some stuff out on the table and see if anything
pops up that we think might actually be a solvable problem or if we can
present any information that might give some folks a better taste in
their mouth about our "Fair City". If it's not solvable let's just roll
on. We can't fix everything and no one lpace can make everybody happy.
Seriously though, it is important to me that we stay positive, if you
hate Hutch... that's fine say you hate Hutch because... If you love
Hutch... That's fine too, but let the person who hates it have that
opinion, don't degrade anyone for their opinion. Their opinion is
right... to them... that's why it is THEIR opinion.
The second part of this column goes out to 3 different groups of people:
1. Those who left Hutch with no intentions of moving back... and then moved back to Hutch, I know you are out there! (group C)
2. Those who have moved here from other parts of the world. (group D)
3. Those who moved away for a certain period of time always intending to move back. (group E)
The question for those 2 groups is:"Now that you have
lived somewhere else, what could Hutch do to be better, even if you
love the heck out of it like I do... Give Hutch a little constructive
criticism."
The third part of the column goes out to 2 different groups of people:
1. Those who have lived in Hutch all their lives and don't want to leave. (group F)
2. Those who just aren't sure or are too young to know or haven't thought about it... (group G)
No real question for you folks... Just think about it then chime in and
let us know what you think. Really... honestly... everyone just chime
in, I just made all these groups up to get you to think about where
you stand on the issue.
Here's the rules... Use the comments section below and identify what
group you are in and answer the question I poised to your specific
group. Your don't have to use your real name, just use some kinda name
so conversations can occur. Please answer the question in your first
comment. I think it will make for cool reading. Then just feel free to
jump in a discuss and retort other folks comments. Seriously though if
you just want be a negative jerk that doesn't respect other opinions,
go over to citynoise dot org and ask that guy to turn the comments back
on he hater Hutch article so you can waste time over there.
My Response:
I am a Group E... Has a lot to do with family and the fact that I truly
believe this is one of the greatest places in the world to raise kids.
My children are getting an incredible public education, we have Wichita
and KC close enough that we enjoy big city coolness but can always roll
home to less big city issues. It's an opinion thing I know that but I
really couldn't imagine raising my kids anywhere else. I only left
because I felt the need to serve in the Marine Corps and always knew I
would end up back here.
My constructive criticism is: I think event organizers need to promote
their events better and us common folk citizens need to make a better
attempt to get out and participate in those events. Those are 2
insanely easy tasks that would really improve a already pretty cool
cultural environment... Just try it!?
There you go... I got it started.
If you need to make up more groups... cut loose. No rules other than please don't be a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk.
Didn't your momma teach you to share? Share us.
Users' Comments (18) |
 08-11-2008 12:44, , Guest Hutch just isn't big on Model 204 programming jobs. Heck, most of the universe isn't big on Model 204 programming jobs anymore unless you want to live in Australia. Since then he's worked in several different languages and M204 is largely grandfathered in on the system he works on rather than being the main operating system now. It really has nothing to do with Hutch at all. It's the industry he works in. Mainframes largely exist in large scale environments. 08-11-2008 15:21, , Guest  08-11-2008 17:04, , Registered It's VERY difficult to develop a social life in this town if you're not married and/or with children. I've managed, but it took a long time. And I feel for people who are trying to do it. As far as I can tell, it's no easier now than it was in the 80s. If you read materials like Richard Florida's books you'll find that one of the main things people are looking for these days is a community where they can move in and within a few days have some people in their world. That is NOT Hutchinson. That is even more important the younger you are. Hutchinson is not very open in this way. I try, try, try to remember this and be very engaging with new people. You can just write me off if you wish, but there are at least three people who read WUH that I know would share my sentiments. But, I'm not going to out them in this regard because this is not a popular position. What I generally hear from native Hutchinsonians when I bring this up is that I'm wrong - people in Hutch are very friendly. With all due respect, if you didn't move here from somewhere out of state, to a place where you didn't have family and friends already, without the built in social structure of children in school and such, and family within the state you can easily visit, you have no idea what it's like to move here "cold." It's tough. Very tough. Very, very tough. I'm fortunate. I have a large circle of loyal friends and I feel very connected to multiple groups in town. In fact, it's a running joke with friends that I know someone everywhere we go. Frankly, that's something I really like about living in Hutchinson. But building that social structure took a tremendous amount of effort on my part. And still does. An acquaintance of mine summed it up once by saying, "People here are friendly, but no one wants to be your friend." That's the most succinct description I've heard of it. I'm from the south, and let me tell you, by comparison, this is not a friendly place. As always, your mileage may vary. There are things I really like about living here. I don't want to live in a city again where I can spend 45 minutes to go three miles in traffic. And, frankly, most towns are largely the same - generica rules. Even large cities are just a bunch of Hutchinsons stuck together and many people live most of their lives not venturing past the borders of their little burg. But, I'd sure like to live in a place where there are more people interested in new technologies, entertaining, gathering, etc. Today is a prime example of how difficult it is to engage with people here. WUH had a comment about getting burgers this week, with a schedule. Greg and I went to Fraese today and got a table large enough for other folks to join us, put a little sign on the table that said WUH, waited a bit, and finally ate lunch with just the two of us as we often do. That's cool. I love having lunch with Greg. But, it's not exactly a meetup when it's something we would have done anyway. I realize people have other things going on in their lives. I'm just using that as an example of how priorities are different here. If this sort of thing had occurred in a couple of previous places I've lived, I guarantee that Greg and I would have had company today. The approach to life is different here. Where I'm from, people take priority. If you have the option of engaging with other people, or doing your errands, you engage with other people and do your errands later - provided that's possible, of course, and it's not always. Here the priority, as best I can tell, is to get things marked off the check list and people are at the bottom of the priority list - unless they are your family. Not that family shouldn't be a priority, but it you don't engage with people outside your family, it's very difficult for people who have no family here to develop a social life. And they're lonely. And they move on. And then we all sit around wondering why people don't stay. I've been in many conversations - casual and formal - than I can count where we're talking about encouraging people to move to Hutch, or promoting Hutch, or trying to get people to visit Hutch, or whatever - and it's common I am the only person in the room who has actually moved here from out of state. People will politely listen to me and by and large then go on to point out why I'm wrong. Again, with all due respect, if I'm the only person in the room who has done the thing we're talking about, you should give it a little thought. Not that I have all the answers, by any means. But at least THINK about it instead of just discounting my experience because it doesn't jive with what you believe things to be. What I'd really like is for you to invite a whole bunch of people who have moved here from somewhere else, without a support structure in place - and actually LISTEN to what they're saying. If you have family here, if you have kids, if you grew up here, etc., you do NOT know what it's like to move here without that. It doesn't mean you have nothing valid to offer at all - but it does mean your perspective might be enhanced by hearing about the experiences of people who've done the thing you're talking about. Invite some of them to come to your meetings. What can Hutch do? Realistically? It's not something the city can do - it's something individuals can do. Make an effort to be a little more engaging with people other than your family. Invite someone other than your family over to your house. Invite someone to lunch. When you have the choice between an activity with people or something else, choose the people if at all possible. If everyone reading WUH did each of those things once a week, we'd see a difference in our community.  08-11-2008 17:46, , Registered This is a great comment. Honestly I need a little more time than we had with the Fraese thing today, but if you will come whenever you possibly can... we will start planning mini-WUH events every week. Starting right now. We will do everything we can to get everybody there. We are planning it right now. 08-11-2008 18:16, , Guest IMHO, Hutch is like everywhere else. You meet people one at a time through the normal course of your life and when you hit it off with someone, you spend more time together. I didn't grow up in Hutch and moved there in my mid 20's. At a time when I'd ended a long-term relationship with the guy I'd been living with since I was 18. I'd pretty much spent the months before I moved to Hutch doing the same things I did in the months after I moved to Hutch. Meeting new people who fit in with my new reality. No offense to the folks I was friends with as a couple prior to the time he and I broke up but healthy is healthy. When we began dating and then living together, we worked together. Our friends were still people he had a lot of daily interaction with. Great folks. I loved 'em but separation is separation. I needed new friends who were part of where I was going, not where I'd been. It was slow going at first in Hutch and there were some mis-steps. By the time I left the same thing that has happened every place I've lived had happened --I'd made friends, one at a time in the daily course of my life. I've kept in touch with many of them all these years, through kids graduating from school, marriages, children...the whole nine yards. I do think people in Hutch want to be friends with other folks, including new folks. It is true that none of folks I made friends with during my time there were event driven. We did go to events but the personal connection was there first. First came the casual conversations, the shared laughter, the things you had in common, talking about family and lives and then came the events. Maybe it works in reverse also. All I know is that in my experience, through all the places I've lived, making friends is something that happens one person at a time rather than having a group of folks just be there to welcome you. 08-11-2008 19:28, , Registered 08-11-2008 19:35, , Guest Noone here thought you were bagging. I appreciate the example to explaing your point about Hutch. i am results kinda guy, I really don't like addressing problems that don't have a solution or an attainable goal. I think we can start a regular WUH weekly event and solve a problem. We will publicize the heck out of it and let people know if you, for any reason, need a place to meet folks and start your Hutchinson Social circle... We have an option for you. Maybe not the best one... who cares, but we have an option for you. We will have details tomorrow and we don't care if 4 or 40 people show up. There will be no agenda, no meeting minutes... Just a social gathering. I am excited... 08-11-2008 19:42, , Registered 08-12-2008 14:54, , Guest 08-12-2008 16:35, , Registered Maybe we could have a meetup where we discuss this very thing, and come up with ideas of how to address it. Everyone has something valid to offer if we can just accept the premise that it's difficult to build a social circle here. That's the part I find people have a hard time accepting if they haven't done it. If there's interest in getting together I'll host at my house. I'll bake some dessert, brew some tea, and we'll talk. |
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| <Ok first off, I should just leave this alone. But... | I really think we need to check this out. > |
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