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Saying that Kansas City is in Kansas is like saying Philadelphia is in Jersey or St Louis is in Illinois or Memphis is in Arkansas or Cincinnati is in Kentucky.
Sure, there is a Kansas City in Kansas, but locals NEVER use the name Kansas City for that city without following it with Kansas or simply saying "KCK".
In the KC area, Kansas City, Missouri is simply called Kansas City or KC, while KCK is always well, KC"K". And KCK is only the city of KCK which only has like 150k people. It's not even 1/4 of the Kansas side population.
KCK is an industrial/blue collar suburb of KCMO. Nothing more. It's not even a very urban city and has almost nothing in common with KCMO. As mentioned, there are other Kansas side suburbs that are nearly as large or larger than KCK.
But as far as the original question. Pretty much nobody knows this. Even people that have visited the or have been there once or twice don't understand KC's geography. East and west coast people don't have a clue about Chicago. They are utterly clueless about KC and have no idea what it's like at all. I find it entertaining now.
Based on my experience (I have no doubt you have more), the fact that Americans have no idea that THE Kansas City is in MO, and not KS, has nothing to do with the fact that there are two Kansas Cities or their confusing geographical locations.
They are not confused or "thrown" because they knew there were two, nor are they "perplexed" by how they sit opposite on each side of the border.
They simply have no idea about the existence of the KC in Missouri, period. Because of the name, and because their " knowledge" of the Midwest is that it's a large swath of farmland with a few cowtowns every 200 miles (they had heard about Kansas City a few times on tv), they simply assumed Kansas City is in Kansas the first time they ever heard of Kansas City.
Met a cute guy from CA and his mom while I was traveling. The mother has lived in the US her whole life for more than 65 years. Both had heard of Kansas City and both had thought their whole lives there was only one and it's in Kansas.
I know KC (the one most people refer to) is in MO. There is also a KC in Kansas but its much smaller. Just across the state line, right? Does a river divide the states there? I haven't looked at a map of it but seems as if a river is up there like the Kansas or Missouri river.
For someone who's been to "just 14" states, you seem to have formed quite an opinion about people from elsewhere. Examples:
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Based on my experience (I have no doubt you have more), the fact that Americans have no idea that THE Kansas City is in MO
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It still surprises me how shockingly little many people on the coasts know about anything outside their own tiny worlds.
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Who the hell wants to live in say, Maine? Lol
As someone who has been to 48 states (going to the 49th in January), I find your genralizations about people from elsewhere inaccurate. You may feel differently yourself if you get out and travel a bit more rather than getting your views of the world from anonymous CD posters.
For someone who's been to "just 14" states, you seem to have formed quite an opinion about people from elsewhere. Examples:
As someone who has been to 48 states (going to the 49th in January), I find your genralizations about people from elsewhere inaccurate. You may feel differently yourself if you get out and travel a bit more rather than getting your views of the world from anonymous CD posters.
Amen. It is a little hypocritical (and, at this point, comical) to make a thread (really, several threads, this is just the latest) going on about how people on "the coasts" generalize "the middle" so much when they haven't been there; yet at the same time it doesn't appear the OP has spent much time on "the coasts" herself before making her own sweeping generalizations.
Any young boy who is mildly interested in Pro sports (baseball & football) knows. I taught all my nephews and my own son and daughter our countries political geography using pro sports cities quite often as an example
I don't see how the number of states out of 50 I've been to is a definitive sign of my experience with life long coasters' responses to Kansas City, Missouri.
Why? Simple. First, there are 50 states nation wide but a limited number of states that fall in the category of the coastal states. Clearly we can agree we are talking about the pacific and atlantic coasts and not the Gulf coast.
Second you have no idea how much time I spent in those 14 states or what those states were. For all you know, most of them are the limited number of coastal states and therefore most of the people I talk to collectively in my life are from the coasts, and this makes a difference in the collation of my data when I tell them about KC and sample size I have.
Third, you grossly under-estimate the experience that people actually from KC (like kcmo here) and KC residents go through on a regular basis in such conversations. You are neither from KC nor do you live here. Why would you talk about or mention KC? Yes you know of it and know its in MO because of your own thirst for knowledge. You'd rarely bring up the topic. People like kcmo from KC and who now live on the coast or people who actually live in KC no doubt would have encounters with people all the time, mentioning KC and the topic comes up. Why wouldn't we have much more experience on what coasters and Americans in general outside the Midwest know about KC? If it weren't the case, it'd be very strange and odd indeed.
And the experience that he has is that Americans outside the Midwest generally do not know. And my experience supports his.
Last edited by sadgirl80; 09-29-2013 at 08:31 AM..
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