Help me find an awesome neighborhood. (Kansas City: to buy, movie theater, live)

[fredbobjoe]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Even with the a bunch of cops stationed at Wesport and Mill, I've witnessed multiple gunshots at the BP that's at about 40th and Broadway where no cops showed up. You're confused if you think every shot is recorded. It is so chaotic when things get out of hand weekend nights, that ought to be easy to understand. Cops aren't superhuman.

That said, gun shots are a regular enough occurence on weekend nights in Westport in the summer that it is not a neighborhood I would want to have my go-to grocery store located, especially if I had a family. That was my point and this thread has been cluttered by folks trying to minimize the bad side of the area.

So what, you personally saw someone firing a weapon and then hung out in case the police showed up so you could post on this board? Or you recorded the time and date and checked the police blotter the next day? Cops aren't superhuman you know, maybe it just took them more than 30 seconds to show up.

I've tried to recognize your concerns and come to an understanding, but I just can't keep that up. You've moved this into a discussion of personal faith absent of any demonstrable facts and nobody here (including yourself) can argue with imaginary, unprovable figures. Of course it sounds like an attempt to minimize the bad side of the area - when the badness of it is unknown and you assert that it is high, any attempt to demonstrate a quantifiable figure below your belief becomes 'minimizing'.

Honestly, thank you for sharing your personal feelings about the area. I think that it will be helpful to some people but I hope everyone recognizes it as a personal opinion and does their own research.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by brewcrew1000

I have a family and live in the area and my go to Grocery Store is Costco, I love costco, they have everything i need and much better prices then SunFresh

Costco is awesome. They have a great standard of quality. Picked up a hard to find Vermont cave-aged cheddar just the other day that they sometimes have. But I use Costco to stock up on bulk items once a month or so. Being that I cook from scratch most weeknights I tend to stop in Cosentino's Brookside or Price Chopper on a regular basis.

It's nice to have a safe, no-hassle local grocery store. Brookside is great for having daily necessities right in your own neighborhood in a safe and pleasant environment. The Westport Sunfresh is just not the same. They have a great product selection, but it's not a place I want to serve as my neighborhood store now, let alone if I had kids or a wife in tow. I'm sorry, that's just how I feel. Besides, that store is expensive! And the reason is obviously a high rate of theft.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by fredbobjoe

So what, you personally saw someone firing a weapon and then hung out in case the police showed up so you could post on this board? Or you recorded the time and date and checked the police blotter the next day? Cops aren't superhuman you know, maybe it just took them more than 30 seconds to show up.

I've tried to recognize your concerns and come to an understanding, but I just can't keep that up. You've moved this into a discussion of personal faith absent of any demonstrable facts and nobody here (including yourself) can argue with imaginary, unprovable figures. Of course it sounds like an attempt to minimize the bad side of the area - when the badness of it is unknown and you assert that it is high, any attempt to demonstrate a quantifiable figure below your belief becomes 'minimizing'.

Honestly, thank you for sharing your personal feelings about the area. I think that it will be helpful to some people but I hope everyone recognizes it as a personal opinion and does their own research.

You don't know what you're talking about and are very presumptuous. I was in the area at least an hour after I heard the multiple gunshots that came from the street that runs behind the BP. The cops didn't show up, despite being a few blocks away. However, I will admit the police were busy that night investigating what I witnessed an hour or so before the gun shots behind BP - and that was 2 young black men chasing 3 black girls down the sidewalk along Mill St northward and into the parking garage by Gold's Gym where thereafter I heard multiple shots in the garage which caused the multiple cops to run the same direction on foot. That night was particularly chaotic.

[xenokc]

The original point that headed this direction is... should a family who wants to live in the city consider Roanoke/Volker, Brookside etc. The question is coming from someone who lives in DC.

If comparing to Dupont Circle and Georgetown (granted, far more urbane than KC's hoods), Roanoke/Volker has less problems than Dupont Circle/Adams Morgan. Brookside has less problems than Georgetown. S Plaza and along Ward Parkway (among highest income in city) probably have the least problems. However KC's best urban (well semi-urban) hoods do have more problems than high income suburban hoods - ditto with DC city vs burbs and most other cities/burbs. It's all relative and about what you'd accept when living in the city. There are many high income families who live in the city, including parts of Roanoke/Volker and even Central Hyde Park. A single visit to the mentioned hoods (and the stores) will give you a quick indication if it's your thing or not.

[aragx6]

Sunfresh is consistently cheaper than Cosentino's and their sale prices are much better -- I shop at Sunfresh for convenience but am regularly annoyed by their product selection. If there's a reason to not shop at Sunfresh it has nothing to do with safety (because it's perfectly safe) and everything to do with the fact that it's simply not that nice of a grocery store. For daily needs, however, it is perfectly suffcient.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Sunfresh is consistently cheaper than Cosentino's and their sale prices are much better -- I shop at Sunfresh for convenience but am regularly annoyed by their product selection. If there's a reason to not shop at Sunfresh it has nothing to do with safety (because it's perfectly safe) and everything to do with the fact that it's simply not that nice of a grocery store. For daily needs, however, it is perfectly suffcient.

What exactly is it that you consider makes a grocery store nice? How does the product selection at Marsh's annoy you? What do they not have that you want? What's an example of a grocery store that's nice and you like?

[aragx6]

^Their produce is mediocre at best and they have few organic options. Their meat is well priced but we've had our fair share that was less fresh than one might hope. Their seafood is pitiful to the point of being worrisome. Their fancy cheese section is only passable at best. They have a surprising lack of ethnic and health foods given their location.

I vastly prefer Cosentino's in Brookside but the price and distance keep it from being our "daily" store. If you've ever been to Houston there's a place called HEB that changed my world it was so amazing. Every Dierberg's in St. Louis is almost equally as nice. The Whole Foods at North and Clybourn in Chicago is another amazing place, and really not as pricey as people like to make it out to be.

[brewcrew1000]

^ You should use the Price Chooper in Roeland Park, really great Produce, lots of good mexican products and pretty good prices. It's not very far from you either.

[aragx6]

^I definitely prefer it to SunFresh, but it's really no closer to me than Brookside and I like Cosention's better.

I mean, really, I like SunFresh just fine -- it works for what I need and if we're ever having a dinner party or cooking up a big meal of some kind it's not a problem to go to another store. I'm a pretty laid back chick and I love a good dive bar as much as any fancy lounge, but I will admit to being a total BoBo when it comes to food -- I'm picky and pretentious and I like new and shiny stores with nice ladies who offer me cheese and wine samples.

My point was really that it you're not going to shop at SunFresh it should be because it's a mediocre grocery store not because it's some wildly dangerous place because it's just not. I'm there like 3 times a week.

[xenokc]

Found this site that shows crime index by zipcode. Not sure of the methodology or how accurate it is, but it ranges from 1-10, 10 being worst.

St. Louis Central West End (better part of city core) shows rates of 9-10. Downtown STL showed 10.
Minneapolis Uptown/Downtown shows 8-10.
Dupont Circle zipcode in DC shows 8 for violent, 6 for property
Georgetown in DC shows 8 for violent, 5 for property
Gold Coast Chicago shows 8 violent, 5 for property

Downtown KC zipcodes (64105/6) shows 6-7
Westport to Roanoke/Volker (64111) shows 6-7
Plaza (64112) shows 5-6 (most incidents are in shopping district)
Brookside (64113) shows 4-5

Even Cape Girardeau, MO, considered a pretty subdued town has an index of 6-7. US Avg is 4, including rural America.

Of course the higher income suburbs you go, the lower the score. But relative to other city cores, KC's W side isn't as bad.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Punch in zipcode and then click on 'crime' tag.