University Daily Kansan / Thursday, September 14, 1989
9
Lifestyle
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Lawrence living provides big-city lifestyle minus the big-city hassles
When a person lives in the Midwest, or particularly in Kansas, there are some things he may have to endure from the unenlightened across the country.
There are the endless Oz and Marshall Dillon cracks, the amazement that we have indoor plumbing, and the hard-to-win argument that we have more than one tree in the state.
So, if a Westerster is ever in need of a snappy comeback, or a comeback anyway, he might try. "Oh yeah? Well at least we can afford to live there."
ACRA's cost-of-living index for the first quarter 2018 shows Lawrence to be an avail-able income source.
Although that remark may not stop the skeptics in their tracks, it may have hit them where they live, especially if they're from either coast, according to American Chamber of Commerce Researcher's Association.
The index, which does not allow for inflation or taxes, is based on the prices of housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, health care and miscellaneous goods and services. These factors are combined to form a composite index, with 100 representing the national average in all categories. Lawrence's composite index was 98.8.
The city's index was slightly above the national norm for both groceries and miscellaneous goods and services. Lawrence was slightly below the national index for housing, utilities, transportation and health care.
This is an instance in which "average" isn't a put-down. Instead, it's preferable to the cost of living in certain metropolitan
areas of both coasts
The greatest margin of difference between Lawrence and coastal areas is in housing costs. For example, in the Long Island section of New York, a house could cost $2\%$ times more than a comparable one in Lawrence. In both Los Angeles County and San Diego, the same house could cost twice as much.
Some people, therefore, think twice before leaving Lawrence for jobs on either coast; even people who have lived in these areas and can afford to go back.
Eventually Phillips Bradford found a new job, but the Bradfords didn't leave Lawrence.
In 1988 the state Legislature abolished the commission and replaced it with the Kansas Technology and Enterprise Corp. Phillips Bradford served as interim president until Gov. Mike Hayden appointed his successor in 1987.
The couple was faced with the prospect of relocating.
Phillips and Camille Bradford, 1603 Cypress Point, are one such couple. In 1894, the Bradfords moved to Lawrence from Princeton, N.J., after Phillips was named executive director of the Kansas Advanced Technology Commission in Topeka. Mrs. Bradford gained employment with Kansas Power and Light also in Topeka as a construction and environmental affairs attorney.
He was hired by Columbia University in New York City in March 1988 as associate
director for the Center for Advanced Technology in the computer science department.
Camille Bradford was happy with her Topeka job, and both of them enjoyed the lifestyle of Lawrence. They decided to stay here.
Phillips Bradford became a weekend commuter, leaving New York on Friday evenings and returning Sunday nights. Their decision was based on their previous experiences, their professional careers and the escalating cost of living in the New York area.
we ran benefitted from the rapid rise in real estate prices," said Phillips Bradford of their move from New Jersey to Kansas. "Our gain on our property could pay for the living cost here. We were able to buy twice the square footage of our home in Princeton."
In comparison, the "hassle factor" of big city life is greater than in Lawrence. No matter how much money one makes, everyone must contend with some degree of a logistical nightmare when living in a city such as New York.
If they lived in the city they would have had to deal with a smaller living space, not being able to go out onto the streets at night, cockroaches and abusive landlords, he said.
"The mechanics of living on the East Coast are very difficult." Phillips Bradford said.
But the same appreciation in real estate values that helped the Bradfords in their move to Kansas continued at such a rapid rate that it helped curtail their plans to move back, he said. They also had grown accustomed to the less hectic pace of life in Kansas.
Then there's commuting. At one time while living in Princeton, he worked in Manhattan and she attended law school in Delaware. They travelled in four states every day. His commute took three hours a day; her's took four hours. In the winter they left and returned home in the dark.
Time wasn't the only factor in Bradford's commute. He was fortunate to have a parking place at the Princeton station (there was a three-year waiting list), but he wasn't guaranteed a seat on the train. So sometimes he had to stand during the ride. He said he also had to step over homeless people and that the car often smelled of urine.
Carmille Bradford's job was also a deciding factor for staying in the Midwest. As with her husband's career, her's is a job that is not found in every locale. In addition, she said there were certain attitudes a woman could encounter when job searching.
"Women interested in pursuing careers are much better off if they're in a position to say, 'Here is where I'm going to work,' and not change when their husbands move," she said.
The Bradford's Lawrence-to-New York lifestyle worked so well that a similar commuting plan developed earlier this month when Phillips Bradford took a job in Denver earlier this month as the director of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute. His weekly commute to Denver takes nine hours each week, compared to 12 from Kansas City to New York and 15 from New Jersey to New York.
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"We don't feel we lost any attributes of East Coast living," Bradford said. "We can go back for a weekend with the bargain airfares. The airfare is no more than an evening in New York."
The couple said they also enjoyed the academic and cultural environment of UCSD.
"The cultural attractions of Lawrence are significant," Bradford said. "We're not missing out on what New Yorkers call culture."
John Clark, professor of history, is a native New Yorker who has lived in Lawrence since 1963, when he was hired by the University of Kansas after finishing his doctorate at Stanford. Having lived on both coasts, he agreed with much of what the Bradfords said about moving back to New York.
"I've never really considered it very seriously," he said. "It's not so easy to move in academia. But the point is, if I were to move to New York, I would want to be able to take advantage of New York.
"In my case, that would mean living on Manhattan Island where I grew up..But you cannot get an apartment. You would have to buy a condo. A condo with 1,500 square feet would probably cost $300,000.
"So what kind of salary would it take?
Three times more than here. And no school is going to pay it."
Clark told of a friend whose monthly note on his condominium was between 2,500 to
"Ridiculous," Clark said. "I wonder if there really is the opportunity to go to New York or the West Coast."
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