I’m looking for an old college friend of mine and I know she lives in “Kansas City.”
Anyway, I have searched AT&T Directories, and nothing comes back under Kansas City.
I have to list a town, so I was wondering if you all could tell me what surrounding towns or suburbs are commonly referred to as part of “Kansas City.”
Thanks!
Overland Park Kansas is a popular suburb.
Sorry (I hit reply too soon), I was going to add that:
Leawood, Lenexa and Olathe are some large suburbs in the area.
It’s going to be a long list. Phone information service usually automatically covers the entire KC metropolitan area when asked for a number in Kansas City.
Try here: http://www.kclibrary.org/sc/history/directorycoverage2.htm
Be aware that “Shawnee Mission” is not a town or any kind of civic entity. It is a postal district on the Kansas side of the metro area. So while it’s proper to address a letter to Shawnee Mission, KS, it’s not correct to say that someone lives in Shawnee Mission.
i cant figure it out. i just moved to KC. I live in Kansas City KS, while 3 houses down kansas city missouri starts. Shawnee Mission, Prairee Village, Olathe, Overland Park,North KC,Leawood,Lenexa,Lee Summit all seem to be lumped in. its confusing to me as well. i hope this thread sheds some real light on it, because even when i ask people, they say “oh its all the same city anyhow”
Blue Springs and Independence MO are a couple others
For a comprehensive list, see the link I provided above.
For a slightly smaller, probably more “realistic” list, see page 20 of the current SBC Kansas City phone directory, white pages.
For maps to see just where these communities are located, see the SBC Kansas City Yellow Pages, starting on page 7.
And again, you will not see “Shawnee Mission” on a map, because it is not a geographical or civic entity. It is strictly a postal designation. You will see the town of Shawnee, and you will see the town of Mission, but there is no such town as “Shawnee Mission.”
Which side is she on, Kansas or Missouri?
Possibilities on the Kansas side (off the top of my “towns I swam against as a child” head):
Shawnee
Overland Park
Lenexa
Olathe
Mission
Leawood
Prairie Village
Merriam
Mission Hills
Quivira (Quivera?)
Bonner Springs
Edwardsville
Fairway
You’re asking the wrong people. That strikes me as not only a totally non-helpful response, but also, well, stupid. But anyway – the map on page 7 of the SBC Yellow Pages shows these various towns with different colors, so it’s easy to see where one stops and the next begins.
One little tidbit – North Kansas City is a separate town, essentially surrounded by Kansas City (MO). It is not the same thing as Kansas City North, which is that portion of Kansas City, MO, that is north of the river.
Hey, don’t forget the Northland. Just off the top of my head:
Liberty
Gladstone
Parkville
Riverside
North Kansas City (not the same thing as KC north)
Northmoor
Platte Woods
Avondale
Claycomo
Pleasant Valley
Ferrelview
Weatherby Lake (not sure if this is an actual town)
Oh, and next to Lee’s Summit: Unity Village.
Originally posted by hansolo
…when i ask people, they say “oh its all the same city anyhow”
Gary T I disagree that its stupid. If I tell somebody from outside this region that I live in Lees Summit, Mo then I usually have to explain where that is. I’m two miles form the KC border. Telling them that I live in KC makes the answer short and pretty darn close to correct. In fact most online phone directories will lock onto a search of my name coupled with KC.
I grew up in Affton, Mo. Could be next to Joplin as far as most of the world understands it. Its a five minute drive from St. Louis. My standard answer to “where are you from?” is St. Louis.
Bubba
Bubba, I agree with what you’ve said and I would do likewise.
Perhaps I misinterpreted hansolo’s comment, but I understood it to mean that as someone new to the area, he’s trying to learn his way around and find out where exactly all these various towns and suburbs are, and people are blowing him off. In the context of someone specifically asking “Where is Prairie Village,” or “Where is Lee’s Summit,” a response of “oh its all the same city anyhow” struck me as stupid.
I hear you Gary T.
Not to pick on Hans, but he should be thankful he doesn’t live in St. Louis County. St. Louis and St. Louis County are not the same place although just about everybody in St. Louis County will take the easy road and tell you that they live in St. Louis. St. Louis County has well over 200 cities-burgs-whatevers in it.
I think Breezy can solve her (his?) problem by using a search engine that recognizes surrounding area codes (816 MO side/913 KS side). Yahoo should do it for starts.
And Hans may be fated to go through that same learning curve that I had to endure when I moved here. - KCMO, KCKS, KC-North, North-KC. You graduate when you can find Peculiar or understand what the locals mean when they say “Larry” and “Happy Rock”.
Bubba
Don’t you have to cross a river???
Part of the state line in the Kansas City area is along the river, but the majority of it is not. Much of it is along State Line Road.
try www.qwestdex.com and check the box that says “check the surrounding area”
The real source of debate is how far out “Kansas City” really stretches. I would say that Olathe does not qualify, for instance, because there is somewhat of a “gap” of very low-density land between it and Lenexa and parts of Overland Park. I also would not really include Grandview, as it has its own separate identity and feel that is very different than the rest of Kansas City MO. I certainly wouldn’t include Bonner Springs, Basehor, or most of Shawnee, since there is still a very low-density gap between them and KC proper. I guess you might include, on the Kansas side, everything inside the 435 loop…?
Una, in Overland Park.
I had a hard time explaining it to thosse outside the area when I lived there. I usually gave them this summary.
The default Kansas City is Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO). It’s also the largest of the two places named Kansas City. Kansas City, Missouri covers a large area, and there are many neighborhoods in the city limits, north of the Missouri River and far south of downtown, that are suburban in nature. Kansas City, Missouri is also thought of as the nicer of the two. KCMO covers three counties – Jackson, Clay and Platte – and several school districts.
Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) is the smaller of the two places named Kansas City. It’s considered gruffy and downscale compared to Kansas City, Missouri. License plates that you’ll see on cars (or more likely, big pickup trucks) from KCK will have a little sticker reading “WY” on them; this means Wyandotte County. KCK is mostly coterminous with Wyandotte County. Still, KCK has Nebraska Furniture Mart and Cabela’s.
Even though Kansas City, Kansas is considered the bad Kansas City, the Kansas side suburbs (Johnson County) are considered quite affluent. Even though it’s across the state line, Johnson County streets follow the KCMO street naming and addressing scheme. The postal address of Shawnee Mission, Kansas covers several suburbs, including Mission, Roeland Park, Westwood, Fairway, and parts of Prairie Village and Overland Park. Overland Park is considered the large, affluent, dominant suburb, like Plano north of Dallas or Amherst northeast of Buffalo. Olathe is the distant upper middle class boom 'burb on the urban fringe; not much in the way of offices or shopping, but lots of four bedroom, three bathroom, 3,000 square foot houses, four to an acre. Shawnee is considered middle class, and Lenexa is considered quite nice. Leawood and Mission Hills are the most prestigous addresses.
The Missouri side suburbs are generally considered not as nic e as their Kansas City side equivalents, although there’s a few exceptions; Parkville tot he northeast, and Lees Summit to the southeast Raytown is considered redneckish; Independence is growing but still has something of a reputation as a crystal meth stronghold, and Blue Springs is blue collar middle class.
IMHO, the Missouri side suburbs are much uglier than their Kansas side equivalents; Johnson County cities have very strict zoning, sign and landscape regulations. Still, some criticize the Kansas side 'burbs for their sterile, planned community-like appearance.
Yep, we get a lot of Johnson County people who re-locate to ugly Lees Summit to live with us rednecks. My transplant neighbors love the wooded area behind our houses that hasn’t been “JoCo sanitized” and they enjoy driving across town without dealing with the traffic caused by a shopping mall on each corner.
I think that holds for the west side of town, but the south end of 435 is pretty dense, especially in the Leawood area. You could probably make an argument to extend the metro area out to 135th St.