Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, has struggled to keep up with its mid-size competitors in the country’s midsection, due to a frustrating combination of conservative and fragmented government, anemic corporate philanthropy, dependence on a single industry, and thrall to fast-talking developers and consultants who have promised much and delivered little. In this episode, Chase Billingham, author of “All-American City: Bluster, Boom and Bust in Wichita,” examines Wichita’s at once unique, but all-too-typical predicament as cities across the US turn somersaults to attract and retain the “creative class.”
Show Notes
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Intro/Outro: “Ya Got Trouble,” by Robert Preston (Original Cast Recording of “The Music Man”)
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Discussed:
“All-American City: Bluster, Boom and Bust in Wichita,” by Chase M. Billingham
“The Midwest Revival: A Well-Kept Secret,” Alan Arenhold, in Governing, April 21, 2026
Unfrozen 118, “Migrant Midwest”
Unfrozen 108, “NORTH”
Wichita’s non-annexation agreement with the Aerospace Industrial District, renewed 2021
Overview | Aerospace | Industry... | Greater Wichita Partnership
Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida
The Cheesecake Factory arrives in Wichita – stop the presses
Gilbert and Mosley chemical bloom,1986
“The Minnesota Guys” – David G. Lundberg and Michael Elzufon
- Arrest for fraud
“Harvard-educated” James Chung: 2015 Focus Forward
Marshall Murdock and the Wichita Eagle
“The City as a Growth Machine: Towards a Political Economy of Place,” (1976) by Harvey Molotch
“Urban Fortunes,” (1987), Harvey Molotch and John Logan
Markus Moos, University of Waterloo: “Youthification”
Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari and Eric Kleinenberg
Century II (1970), by John M. Hickman
Wichita Public Library (1967), by Schaefer, Schirmer & Eflin
Naftzger Park (2019 edition, Garver)
Naftzger Park (1979 edition)
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