My family is considering moving to Kansas City, Missouri, and I would basically like to know what it is like. First of all, I’m pretty worried about moving to a place called Kansas city that isn’t actually in Kansas but in Missouri. It’s as if Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz) would say “We’re not in Kansas anymore” and the scarecrow or some other inane character would reply, “No, but you are in Kansas City.”
Okay, sorry, I just had to get that out of the way. Anyways, I"m tired of looking at all these sights on Kansas City that ultimately make it sound like a tropical paradise without giving any useful information. I mean, I basically live in a tropical paradise and it isn’t at all what it’s cracked up to be (the most interesting sights and activities are touristy, which, I might add, get very, very boring after showing them to about 20 people at least 100 times per year before they get bored). I’m looking for information without people gushing on an on about it (I doubt the people who actually write those internet sights actually live in Kansas city, Missouri).
The type of info. I want to know is what it is actually like in daily life (geared toward teenagers). What I mean is, does it get boring? Is there much to do there? What kind of stuff? Malls? Sports? And most importantly: HOw much snow do you get? I miss snow like crazy. During the winter is there ice skating, sledding, skiing, snowboarding, snow days (heehee), etc.?
Please…this is from a person desperately in need of some real information on Kansas City, Missouri.
If it bothers you that much you could always live across the border in Kansas City, Kansas…but I’d be hard-pressed to think of any other reason to move there. 
I live in Columbia, which is a couple hours to the east, but I’ll toss out some basics that’ll hopefully tide you over until a real Kansas Citian happens by this thread. KC is basically like any other mid-size, blue-collar city - there’s a good healthy sprinkling of malls, a okay amusement park (Worlds of Fun), and other assorted things to do. For sports there is, of course, the Royals and the Chiefs, and the Wiz (the Major League Soccer team). Basically, Kansas City has always struck me as a boring place to visit, but an okay place to live. I’ve known lots of people who spent their teenage years in KC, and none of them has ever complained that there was a lack of things to do.
Considering it’s the Midwest, not as much as you might think. There’s snow days here and there, and the occasional blizzard…but at least in Columbia, it seems like we mainly get little crappy snowfalls of an inch or two that melt a day or two later - it’s basically just enough to get everything soggy and muddy. I want to say that they make an artificial outdoor ice rink somewhere downtown (the Plaza?), but I could be imagining that. It’s possible to sled on the hills after a decent snowfall, but you’ll have to go to Colorado if you want any skiing or snowboarding.
I’ve lived in Kansas City (for 5 years…now live in the bay area) …everythings the same except in KC you get a bigger lawn and a more laid back atmosphere
Me, Fierra, sdimbert, bean_shadow, and several others live in KC. Fierra and I have our lesbian love shack in Overland Park, which is the “rich yuppie” side of the State Line in Johnson County. It’s also the home of the UnaBoard.
It’s important to note that when people say “Kansas City”, they really are summing up an enormous metro area which has dozens of small suburban cities pretty seamlessly blended into the larger cities of KCMO and KCK. You really only notice a general change from one to the other.
KCMO has a reputation (well deserved) as being the high-crime, most run-down, older part of the metro area. This is unfair in many ways, however, because it is such a large city that it has very rundown areas (the Paseo, Troost, etc.), very upscale areas (the Plaza and Ward Parkway area), and lots of in-between.
Let me try to answer some of your detailed queries:
High-school sports is big in the area. If you’re into football, basketball, and even baseball, there’s large leagues and a strong “jock” culture. On the Missouri side (and more west on the Kansas side), there are lots of hunting and target shooting organizations.
Frequent teenager “party” activities include heading down to the Lake of the Ozarks or Table Rock Lake (South about 3 hours) and partying, drinking, etc. Going to Worlds of Fun for “party nights” or “high school nights”. There are a couple of dragstrips. A NASCAR track right across the State line. Horse and dog racing at the (incredibly lame) Woodlands. Riverboat casinos, some of which are pretty good.
TONS of malls. KC is the place to shop and go to malls. Johnson County has the most and largest (Oak Park is like 1.3 million square feet or something) but there’s lots of others. These get filled at night with teens.
There’s a really large and pretty cool RenFest nearby every Fall in Bonner Springs.
And, of course, there’s the Chiefs and the Royals. Sigh.
The honest truth is yes, it does get boring. But boring is what you make of it. There’s plenty of parks and lakes to go to. If you’re a caver, tons of wild caves to explore. Rock climbing along Cliff Drive in KCMO, and in several quarries. Skiing can be done at Snow Creek, relatively close by.
Overall, KC and the area is “unexciting” to many people. Having been to and spent some time at the most “exciting” places in the World (London, Paris, Warsaw, New York, well, about 11 countries and 40 States overall) I can say that KC is in the top 3 places where I would ever want to live. Sure, you can find a lot more “excitement” roaming the streets in Soho in London or the Opera Quarter in Paris, but shit, you wouldn’t really want to live in those places. Kansas City is a “great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there”. Whenever I have clients come to town looking for tourist activities, I typically am at a loss to show them things to do.
But on the other hand, it’s a clean, low-crime rate, friendly city. Of course, you should be prepared for the numerous jokes and slurs from enormous creeps from the West and East coast who’ve never been to the area for any real visit - especially online creeps.
Driving and having a car is key in KC if you are a teen. The city is so spread out it’s insane, and EVERY teen who is someone needs a car just to get to work, and often to school. In addition to and connected with that, “cruising” on Friday and Saturday nights is a big thing, especially in Johnson County and Independence.
Snowfall has been extremely variable as of late. We’ve been very dry here the last few years, in a drought, actually. Snow Creek offers some skiing nearby, via artificial snow. Some people really like it; others think it’s “lame”. I’ve never done it.
The weather is extremely variable and unpredictable. There’s no point watching the freaking news to see the weather, because it’s no good. Winter days can get as cold as -20 F with -80 F windchill, Summer days as hot as 115 F with 80% humidity. Typically, however, you can sum up the Weather like this:
Winters: cycles of light to heavy snow, followed by 1-2 weeks of clear cold about 20 F. Occasional warmups to 50-60 F, then repeat.
Spring: Wet, wild temperature variations - from 15 F to 85 F in 48 hours, and back sometimes. Typically 40-60F.
Summers: start out wet and 80’s to 90’s, very very humid. Get to dry 90’s - 100’s by July and August.
Fall: Typically very variable. Wet, dry, hot, cold,…yeesh.
Another thing to mention - this metro area has one of the absolute best Community College systems anywhere. There are tons of Community Colleges with a huge array of classes and programs. Many teens use these as “stepping stones” to MU, KU, or even (shudder) K State, spending 1-2 years at a local Community College and transferring to a 4-year. Tuition prices in KC are low, in general. Johnson County Community College in (ironically) Johnson County is the “gold standard” for Community Colleges, and is one of the best in the entire US, and is cheap. There is also UMKC right smack in the area as well.
Some time back, I started a thread asking if there really were “some crazy little women there” as the song says. Replies were inconclusive, and some posters said I’d just have to go out and “get me one” to find out. So, The Great One, I guess you’ll have to let us know about that part.
I moved here by choice from Florida. I literally said “I want to live in Kansas City;” I’ve been there before, and I really liked the area.
KC is affordable, the landscape is interesting (gently rolling hills), the weather is mild, the people incredibly friendly, the built environment easy on the eyes, the economy good (while much of the country booms and busts, KC just keeps humming along with mdoerate growth), it’s much more cosmopolitan than people give it credit for, it was easy to bond with … I can’t say enough good things.
One thing I shoudl say, too … it’s easy to get the two Kansas Cities confused.
Kansas City, Missouri is the big Kansas City. There’s some rough neighborhoods, but for the most part it;s a very diverse, prosperous city. Lots of gentrification, Country Club Plaza, the center of the area’s nightlife, beautiful parkways, and just enough urban grit to keep thngs interesting. The “Northland,” the part of Kansas City north of the Missoiri River, is very suburban in feel, and comfortable middle/upper middle class.
Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County is the little Kansas City. KCK is very industrial and blue-collar, and the population is dominated by Mexicans immigrants and whites with a working class, rural/country-leaning cultural orientation. KCK doesn’t offer much, but the housing is CHEAP, and there’s the Cablela’s retail outlet.
Johnson County, Kansas is really more suburban KCMO than KCK; it’s a continuation of the southwest side of KCMO, really. The street naming and address grid continues that of KCMO, not KCK. JoCo is fairly affluent; there’s comfortable down-to-earth suburbs at the north end (Roeland Park, Mission, Westwood, Fairway), but towards the south (Prairie Village, Leawood, Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe) you encounter edge cities, tract mansions, and the like. Most JoCo communities are well planned, in a suburban context; tough landscaping, architectural design, and signage regulations give it a somewhat sterile but uncluttered appearance.
As somone in or close to your age group, Im going to say, it depends. What are you into and where in “KC” are you going to be? Are you going to be in the suburubs? If so it is horribly horribly horribly boring. Im not joking, many nights are spent in Kansas City proper or doing such activities as bowling. Overall it is a nice place to “grow up” but I know few people who are staying.
If you are into the outdoors, there is frisbee golf, a decent zoo, all sorts of nature areas and lakes. There are fields for about every sport you could want.
If art and history are your thing, then there is the Nelson Atkins (my place of employment), which is really truly a great museum world class asian collection and a good sampling of everything else. There are a few historic sites in the area (Fort Osage…my former place of employment) which are well… historic or something like that.
If music is what ticks your tocker, then you are in luck, there are great great venues that recieve all sorts of local and national acts. There are jazz clubs new and old, punk rock clubs, country western bars, raves, latin music… but for all of these things be prepared to drive “downtown”.
If your into sports… I cant help you, I watch the wizards (soccer) and occasionally the royals.
Also, it depends on your age, if you are of legal age and are so inclined there are a numbe of ahem “gentleman’s clubs” which are apparently some of the best in the country. If you are into the dance scene, and want to go anyplace remotely narely decent, you must be of age, to get into many rock concerts, you must be of age… Hell, if you hold a missouri liscence and want to drive between one and five in the morning, you must be of age.
Its not a terrible existence but be prepared for some closed minds, and some nights of sheer boredom, whatever part of the city you are in.
-PSM
As it happens, today I was at a job fair where there were some people recruiting from the Kansas City area. I am in West Texas.
I asked out of curiosity whether they were from Kansas City Missouri…or Kansas.
They immediately said “From the good one! - not the one you hear about on the news…etc”…
Ummm ok…I honestly have never heard any news, good or bad, from either Kansas City in quite a while. After an awkward moment or two, they said “Kansas”.
I agree that Johnson County CC is one of the best in the country, but, for the love of God, don’t go to Maple Woods CC. It’s one of the bottom community colleges in the country and the teachers are really awful. I can’t really provide any cites for that, except that I went there for a year and a half and my fellow peers who went there agree. Go to JCCC.
I live North of the River, near Parkville, Missouri in Kansas City. It’s not as upscale looking as Overland Park, but it has it’s moments. North Kansas City does look rather rundown, but that’s because it’s main purpose is to house a bunch of factories. As for malls, you won’t find many good ones around here. All the best malls are in KCK.
I would reccomend moving to south of the river, near Overland Park or Lenexa if you could. There’s more to do, for one, and I think it looks nicer.
Sorry Erin, I forgot about your troubles with MW. 
This is really more an IMHO thing.
Kansas City, Kansas City here I go…
One other note about music: Lawrence, KS is only about a 40 minute drive from downtown KC, and has a great music scene. DJ’s, local bands and national alternative acts all come through Lawrence frequently.
As far as neighborhoods go, I am more partial to the older type neighborhoods that have houses, parks and home town businesses rather than suburbia. I live on the Kansas side, right off of 39th street in the KU Med Center area. From here I am within walking distance to the 39th street restaurant district, a 5-minute drive from Westport and the Plaza. Westport is the “party district” with about 6-8 different clubs in a 2-block radius (what great memories I have of that place!!!) The Plaza is a great place to people watch and to hear jazz bands during summer evenings.
I think any place you live in can be boring at times. What keeps KC un-boring to me is that it is home to me. I feel comfortable here, I relate well to the people here, and I love having four seasons!!! I am dreading those hot days that feel like you live in an oven, but they don’t last too long.
Oh, yeah…GO ROYALS!!!1
Shout out to Brookside Dopers (if there are any besides me)!
Ah, Kansas City, the only place I can remember. My family moved here when I was two, and I’m almost 17 now.
It’s a pretty nice place to live. I sort of wish the downtown area wasn’t the office wasteland that it is, and that people actually lived downtown, etc, etc. But I live in a nice neighborhood in the “good” part of town, so it’s pretty much ok.
KC is pretty spread out, but there are some pretty good malls and shopping areas around (Note: Ward Parkway mall sucks majorly. Everything else is ok.) The Plaza is an excellent place to shop/eat/see movies/whatever. I probably go and hang out at the Plaza with my friends at least every two weeks. We go see a movie at the Palace, then go eat at Winstead’s (50’s style diner that is a sort of KC tradition) or Houlihan’s or Pizzeria Uno or somewhere else. We go to Barnes & Noble, Anthropologie, The Discovery Channel Store, the Gap, and a bunch of other places. Basically, the Plaza has everything you could want in a shopping experience. It’s outdoors, so crossing streets is kind of an adventure (pedestrians are supposed to have the right of way, but some people don’t seem to know that.)
As for schools in the KCMO district, most of them are pretty crappy. For elementary schools, I would definately suggest a charter school, like Academie Lafayette (a French Immersion school, pretty small, my 9 year old brother goes there) or Edison. I suppose you could enroll in a private school, like Notre Dame de Sion, or St. Elizabeth’s, or Visitation, but I sort of have a personal vendetta against private schools, so I wouldn’t really recommend them. For high school, however, there is one public school that is extremely excellent. Lincoln College Prep is a public school in a crappy building and a crappy neighborhood (it’s the ghetto, yo!) but the academics and sports and extracurricular activities are wonderful. And the offer IB and AP classes, and you can earn college credit from Rockhurst University just from taking your regular classes. (Can you tell where I go to school?)
The weather is some kind of crazy. The summer is too goddamn hot and humid, the winter is too goddamn cold and dry. We get some snow in the winter, not huge amounts, but enough. We usually get two or three snowdays a year. For sledding, Suicide Hill is the way to go (yes, there is a place called Suicide Hill. I’ve never heard another name for it.) Big hill, a really steep area, a really nice, long, smooth area, and everything inbetween. There’s also a nice little playground at the top of the hill, and some tennis courts. Another nice big park is Loose Park, which has fields and a rose garden and a big pond with fish and ducks and little islands and a nice walking trail and barbecue areas and whatnot.
TheNelson Atkins art museum is pretty cool, they offer a lot of classes for little kids, and they have some really awesome stuff. The Science City museum is a sort of interactive science museum, which is a lot of fun, but they don’t really explain some of the science, which is a bummer. There’s also the Toy and Miniature Museum, where I once went with my aunt, who made reproduction antique toys, and she saw one of her reproductions there as an original.
Kansas City is a pretty nice place to live, and if I like it a lot. So do both my parents, who grew up in New England. So move here, because we always need another Doper here.
Oh, and manhattan, you’d probably get shot if you sang that around here anywhere.
Oh, and KC has a really big barbeque scene. I don’t like barbeque, but apparently we’re the best in the country.
And we have about a million fountains. Get used to seeing fountains in parks, ponds, intersections, Brush creek, everywhere.
Some images of the Country Club Plaza district.
http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6890
http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6891
Thanks, all, for the great info. (great info to a great person). Maybe I’ll be seeing you! And if I don’t, you should probably be relieved, despite my all amazing greatness.
I’ve lived in KC for five years now. I actually moved to San Diego for six months, and then came back to KC, because I missed it. I think its the people I like so much. Generally speaking…the people here are very friendly and helpful, good neighbors.
HelloKitty, wtf!! I lived at 47th and Mission. So weird to think I was living so close to another Doper. Now I live in Olathe:(. The Great One, don’t move to Olathe. I’ve lived in KCK, next to a crack house, and prefer it to Olathe. One of these days I’ll get to live in Brookside.
One thing I didn’t see mentioned here are the really cool storms we get. I’ve lived a lot of places and have never seen such storms.
I lived there for about 2 years and loved it. The teenagers I knew seemed pretty comfortable with living there, not that they had any choice. I’d hear some complaints (I taught school there) but that’s true anywhere you live.
My impression, having lived in the south previously, was that the area got quite a bit of snow. I recall one storm (Oct '97) that dumped about 8" of snow and brought down lots of trees, too, as they hadn’t yet lost their leaves. Several hundred thousand people were without power, some for up to 4 days, myself included. Basically, it’s typical lower mid-west, with lots of extremes in heat and cold and dry and wet and so on.
I thought it was a great place to raise a family, very friendly, not much traffic, reasonable prices for homes, good solid education system, and pretty. Don’t forget about all the fountains, either: more than any city in the world except for Florence, Italy.
We lived in a pretty suburb town west of the state line called ‘Prairie Village.’ We’d still be there if my ex-wife hadn’t wanted to move back to her old friends.
Like ouisey, I liked the storms, too. I remember hearing the tornado alarms going off one June evening while we were watching the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals and having to carry the sleeping kids downstairs into the basement until the alarms stopped.
Best of all, if you drive down State Line Road, you can straddle two states at the same time.
Have fun.