Down town Wichita, River Festival (c) Connelly Photo
Wichita Kansas was rated # 1 friendliest city in America, in list of top 25 cities by Peter Greenberg, NBC, and Newsmax?
Greenberg, traveling editor for NBC's Today show, thinks so. He was hired to travel the nation looking for the top 25 cities that best, "embodied America's core values", based on nine categories:hospitality, wholesomeness, family-friendliness, business-friendliness, devotion to religion, culture, community activities, scenic beauty, and education. He rated each category on a scale, 1 (low) to 10 (high).
Although Wichita didn't rate the best in categories like scenic beauty (6) and education (6), it did seem to shine in social, devotional, and cultural categories like; devotion to religion (8), culture (9), family-friendliness, and wholesomeness (8).
Greenberg reported,
"This is one of America’s most livable cities, with a historic downtown that helps bring the community together. The city’s affordability, thriving industry, and accessible culture are the bonus elements that make it stand out from the crowd."
What makes Wichita so friendly? Is the answer in its stronger rated categories?
There's no question that Wichita has very strong devotion to religion. Doing a quick web search for Wichita churches on areaguides.net, I found 779 churches to choose from, (this does not include churches that are not listed in the yellow pages). With so many churches, and, in the middle of the 'bible belt' it is easy to see why Wichita would get such high reviews for culture, family-friendliness, and wholesomeness.
Scott Wilson, a seminary student, who had just moved to Wichita from LA, California, only six months ago, told me, "Oh yea, I can see that. It really makes total sense. I mean isn't that what the fundamental teachings of Jesus are all about, 'doing to others as you would have them do to you?' or love your neighbor as yourself?' Wichita is very rooted in religion and has a deep sense of spiritual culture, even those who I run into that do not claim to have a relationship with Jesus, still have a respect for the Bible and those core Christian values because they grew up with it. Those values should effect the way that we view those around us."
When I moved to Wichita from Oroville, Ca., the thing that struck me most, was the deep rooted biblical knowledge in the people. I even discovered that those who seemingly wanted nothing to do with religion, the church, or Christians still had a soft spot at the mention of Jesus. Almost everyone I've met has some portion of biblical understanding, even the atheists, pagans, and agnostics.
It's easy to see that the 'faith connection' has a key roll in Wichita's rating. If you take a look at Greenberg's list of the top 25 cities you'll discover that none of the cities which made the cut, rated less than a 6 in the 'devotion to religion' category. Also something else to point out is that every city also scored high in the categories of wholesomeness, family-friendliness, and culture. And it shouldn't really surprise anyone because, as Scott mentioned before, "...isn't that what the fundamental teachings of Jesus are all about...?"
For more info: See Peter Greenberg's to 25 cities here.
According to NBC, Wichita also ranked #11 in top 100 best places to raise a family.
Do you feel that Wichita's spiritual culture is the reason it stands above the rest?
Let me know what you think. Drop me a line.
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