Living the Rural Life
Having grown up in the Houston area and later spending several years in the Dallas metroplex and central Texas, I do not miss the traffic. Or the crowds. Or the heat & humidity. I have become rather spoiled to my 15-minute commute from “out of town” to work. The biggest hindrance to my daily drive is the occasional tractor or deer.
There are a lot of advantages to living in a small town besides just the traffic. My home was less expensive for a larger place with a bit of elbow room from our neighbors. The neighborhood is pretty quiet, and we can hear the train a few blocks away. There are also downsides, of course. We don’t have a huge variety of restaurants or things to go & do, but if we want to experience those things, it isn’t a terribly long drive to do so.
Kansas is particularly interesting because the population is heavily concentrated along the I-35 corridor and east. Wichita, which is right on the interstate, has the highest population by far. Other highlights of eastern Kansas include the two land-grant Big 12 universities: KU & K-State (located in Lawrence & Manhattan, respectively). And, of course, there’s the capital, Topeka. Lastly – although many folks don’t realize that there even is a Kansas City, KS, the communities in that region along the Missouri River (and, of course, lapsing over into the “actual” Kansas City, MO), are also densely populated.
A big challenge with Kansas is that no one (I’m looking at you, elected officials) seems to notice or care that the bulk of Kansas’ geographic area is actually west of I-35. Most communities in this region are rural; in fact, based on a Top 100 Cities ranking by population, no cities in western Kansas are even listed until #14 & 15 (Garden City & Dodge City, at 27,781 & 27,652, respectively). The next-largest western Kansas community is Hays, ranked #22 at 21,078.
I can deal with less ample options for entertainment and eateries, because the positive aspects of our rural quality of life outweigh those limitations. However, my biggest personal frustration, at this point in my life, is access to healthcare in western Kansas. I have a wonderful primary doctor “in town,” and we also have a regional hospital and a couple of urgent-care clinics. However, specialized care is harder to come by. My orthopedist and rheumatologist are each a little over an hour away, though not the same city. This usually means taking a ½-day off from work when I need to see one of them.
So, when I read headlines about the very real risk of losing rural hospitals and clinics, nursing homes, as well as folks reliant on Medicaid losing coverage – thanks to Chief Cheeto and his Big Bill of Bulls*t – it makes me want to flip a table. I’m in a position where I can take a ½-day off from work when I need to, but what about all those who can’t? What happens when their nearest hospital shuts down? When elderly parents have nowhere to go because their nursing home closed or they lost medical coverage? What then??
When legislators claim that they represent their communities, yet blatantly ignore the needs of rural communities, it speaks volumes about where they really stand, and that stance is clearly in support of themselves alone. When will the Red-hatters finally wake up and realize that their politicians never have and never will truly represent them?
References and further reading:
Kansas Department of Transportation. Kansas highway map. https://www.ksdot.gov/about/our-organization/divisions/planning-and-development/kansas-maps-and-gis-resources/state-and-district-maps
Kansas to lose $3.897 billion in Medicaid funding under Senate-approved ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ thousands still to lose coverage insurance. https://healthfund.org/a/updated-modeling-on-one-big-beautiful-bill/
Stanford Data Commons. Ranking by Population: Top 100 Cities in Kansas. Retrieved July 3, 2025, from: https://datacommons.stanford.edu/ranking/Count_Person/City/geoId/20?h=geoId%2F2025325.