Do you consider Overland Park a suburb of KCMO or KCK? (Kansas City: private school, wages)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I don't think the tiny "Kansas City" neighborhood in WyCo's portion of the West Bottoms was named "old Kansas City" originally was it? It was just a little industrial area nicknamed Kansas City on the real old maps I have seen. Maybe that area took on a new nickname after KCK was created from the different areas of WyCo? Regardless, I have heard many times by credible sources that KCK named its newly created city "Kansas City" for one reason. To take advantage of KCMO's reputation and capitalize on its confusing name. KCK thought that by calling themselves Kansas City too, that they would confuse people and industry to the east and they would grow their city by confusing people from outside of KC that they were the famous Kansas City.

I honestly don't know how true this is. But I have read it in history books, and have been told this by older history buffs that know KC history well including my late grandfather who knew KC history like nobody else.

I don't know how much it actually helped KCK. I mean KCK did develop a large industrial economy, but outside of that, the city has never been able to really evolve into anything more than a low income blue collar suburb.

A quick look at the Wikipedia article on Kansas City, Kansas, indicates that no, it was just called "Kansas City." It was incorporated as a city in 1872, after Wyandotte was established.

I'd also heard what you have heard about the reason for the consolidated city taking "Kansas City" as its name. I'd also heard that it had to do with a building boom then underway in the Missouri city, but in both cases, it was that the city in Kansas sought to capitalize on what was happening in Missouri.

The confusion part definitely worked, it seems to me, even if the growth or building-boom part didn't. It seems to me the evolution of KCK into an industrial center had little to do with its name.

I often refer to it as "a little bit of the Rust Belt on the prairie." This will probably not endear me with folks from "the 'Dotte."

[kcbluesprings]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

Are you saying no part of KCK is urban? That's a tough argument to make.

Sorry if I failed to clarify clearly on the KCK side. Basically, If you live in KCK east of I-635, you are urban. Anything west of I-635 is more suburban to me.

Also, I would probably throw Westwood and Westwood Hills into the "urban" category. Maybe Roeland Park. It's a bit of a mixture of urbanized suburbs...could go either way.

[kcmo]

There is nothing urban whatsoever about KCK outside of 635. Much of the area has a more rural feel to it than even suburban. The only area of KCK west of 635 that is even consistently built up suburbia is within a mile or so of 78th and State.

KCK inside of 635 has some nice pockets of urban housing, but its mostly urban by Kansas standards. Relative to other urban centers across the country (including KCMO), KCK doesn't have much urban feel to it.

KCMO is only urban from the River to about 51st. Then it becomes streetcar suburban. Old NE and pockets of the East side also urban. Much of the east side of KCMO and obviously everything beyond Swope Park, down south and north of the river are suburban even if they are technically in the urban core and have urban problems such as poverty, decay and crime.

There is nothing about Johnson County or the Northland that is urban at all even though densities in those area can get pretty high because they are built out more.

[rumba77]

Wow I've never seen so much misinformation bull **** in a thread before.

[kcbluesprings]

Originally Posted by rumba77

Wow I've never seen so much misinformation bull **** in a thread before.

Elaborate???

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by rumba77

Wow I've never seen so much misinformation bull **** in a thread before.

Looks like a sentence that's been copy-pasted into hundreds of threads.

[kcbluesprings]

Originally Posted by kcmo

There is nothing urban whatsoever about KCK outside of 635. Much of the area has a more rural feel to it than even suburban. The only area of KCK west of 635 that is even consistently built up suburbia is within a mile or so of 78th and State.

KCK inside of 635 has some nice pockets of urban housing, but its mostly urban by Kansas standards. Relative to other urban centers across the country (including KCMO), KCK doesn't have much urban feel to it.

KCMO is only urban from the River to about 51st. Then it becomes streetcar suburban. Old NE and pockets of the East side also urban. Much of the east side of KCMO and obviously everything beyond Swope Park, down south and north of the river are suburban even if they are technically in the urban core and have urban problems such as poverty, decay and crime.

There is nothing about Johnson County or the Northland that is urban at all even though densities in those area can get pretty high because they are built out more.

I was trying to distinguish the difference between general urban vs general suburban.... but you're basically right regarding the area of KCK inside of I-635. "Urban" can be fairly relative, depending on the kind of city you're talking about. KCK lacks much in common with its neighbor across the river/state line. Even if the houses are closer together, have special districts, such as Quindaro, Rosedale, Armordale, Strawberry Hill, and Argentine, They don't have the density that KCMO has regarding the Crossroads, Freighthouse, Quality Hill, Union Hill, etc. And once you get south of the Plaza and east of Troost, the density lightens up fairly quickly.

[Floorist]

OP is a KCK suburb. That is one of the problems with this forum. The Kansas side suburbs should be in the Kansas forum, not the Missouri. The two sides have very little in common.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Floorist

OP is a KCK suburb. That is one of the problems with this forum. The Kansas side suburbs should be in the Kansas forum, not the Missouri. The two sides have very little in common.

Ridiculous. I have to assume for your sake that you're joking. JoCo suburbs literally border KCMO. You really think Roeland Park or Prairie Village has more in common with Garden City Kansas than Kansas City Missouri?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Floorist

OP is a KCK suburb. That is one of the problems with this forum. The Kansas side suburbs should be in the Kansas forum, not the Missouri. The two sides have very little in common.

Um, no.

The two sides of the metropolitan area are intimately intertwined.

And Kansas City, Kansas, has few suburbs to speak of, if any.

A case might be made for the more working-class communities that border it along the northern edge of Johnson County, such as Roeland Park (which lies at the south end of the 18th Street Expressway) and Merriam, but the more affluent Johnson County commumities are all suburbs of Kansas City, Mo. That traffic headed north on I-35 isn't getting off the freeway at the 18th Street Expressway or 7th Street Trafficway; it's headed for the downtown KCMo freeway loop.

Kansas City, Kansas, annexed all its suburban growth, first when it absorbed Rosedale in the interwar years, then when it consolidated with Wyandotte County to form the Unified Government.