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I was born in Missouri and lived there part of my life. Grew up mostly in western Shawnee/Lenexa. Now live in Prairie Village. I've also spent some of my adult life in Kansas City, Missouri and moved back to Kansas as soon as I could afford to because I prefer the lower crime rate and neighbors who take care of their property and I like the suburbs better than urban areas.
Personally, I like (in no particular order): Prairie Village, southern Overland Park, western Shawnee/Lenexa/Desoto (these areas are where I would live if I wanted to and could afford to buy a house with a little bit of land).
I personally would not want to live in Olathe (further out, a little more crime than the rest of Johnson County), Merriam (too old an area for me - smaller, older houses, lower end houses - Prairie Village is older with smaller houses too, but I think the houses are better and the community was planned by JC Nichols which is a big plus and crime is low), Gardner (even further out than Olathe and not much there), or Leawood (too close to State Line/higher crime). The close to State Line thing affects Prairie Village too but so far it's not too bad. People on here (kcmo) will scream about me saying people come from Missouri to commit crimes in eastern Johnson County, but it's 100% true, and the police departments on this side of the state line will tell you that. We have had burglaries and bank robberies the last couple of years but that is on the decline since police departments have added officers. Used to be kind of like Mayberry around here, nothing for the police to do. Now they chase down burglars and robbers from Missouri.
I'm not saying living on the Missouri side of the state line is dangerous. That depends where you live. Waldo/Brookside are decent areas, but the crime rate on the Kansas side is just lower and I prefer that.
Personally, I don't want to live in Missouri. Been there, done that, came back. It doesn't appeal to me at all. Crime can happen anywhere, but there is more of it in Missouri - especially violent crime. Now someone is going to get on here and say WHAT ABOUT THAT GIRL THAT WAS KIDNAPPED FROM OVERLAND PARK AND MURDERED IN 2007? Yeah, that did happen. She was kidnapped by a guy who had just moved to Olathe from Missouri and he kidnapped her from a store parking lot and took her to Missouri and murdered her. That was a shock because you hear about murders in Kansas City, Missouri, but it's very rare to hear of violent crime in Johnson County. The Kansas City Missouri suburbs are obviously more safe than urban Kansas City, Missouri and probably as safe as Johnson County, but I prefer Kansas, specifically Johnson County.
In Kansas City Missouri you have UMKC and Penn Valley/Metropolitan Community College (I don't like the crime rate in either of those areas). In Johnson County you have Johnson County Community College and University of Kansas Edwards Campus. 45 minutes away in Lawrence, Kansas, you have the University of Kansas.
I know people are going to jump on me (esp kcmo), but I am giving you my honest opinion of the Kansas City area and the reasons I live in Johnson County.
Why would you be surprised by this? While I think most people that move to metro KC from outside the area initially settle in JoCo, many of them migrate to the MO side once they learn the area and JoCo probably fuels much of the younger urban population growth in central kcmo.
Also, most people that I know that are born and raised in kcmo would not even consider the KS side. If they migrate to the suburbs, it's to Lee's Summit, Northland etc.
Just saying.
I've been taking more interest in the Jackson County suburbs lately and one thing that I can see for sure which is quite amazing is how incredibly cheap the cost of houses are on the Missouri side. Like I've said before, I've also noticed how the Missouri suburbs are much more integrated in regard to housing prices and thus socio-economically. In the Missouri suburbs you can get a newish (or at least modern suburban) house in an good to excellent school district in a nice subdivision for well under $150K. If you try hard, you can find a nice house that's decent sized under $100K. That's amazing! So yeah, I doubt many folks move from the Missouri suburbs to JoCo because they already know the Missouri suburbs are nice and you get WAY more for your money. If you're lucky you can get into a nicely remodeled, tiny 1950s 1000 sq ft 3 bed, 2 bath, 1-car ranch in JoCo for $130K. In the Missouri suburbs you could have a 3 or 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage house with a basement for that price, whether it be a nice older suburban house, 5 years old, or possibly even new (not sure, didn't search for new specifically).
As for KCMO's urban core and JoCo, that's also where I see the most back and forth traffic between the 2 states.
As for your comment about people moving to JoCo when new to the area and moving to the Missouri suburbs once acquainted with the area, I can totally see that. I lived in a (relatively healthy) small town during high school and never could understand why people chose to live in the suburban part around the country club when the town had no ghetto and such cool old housing stock. Looking back, I know why. It was because jobs brought them there and they saw the suburban part as a stable and safe investment in which they could sell their house should they have to move on. It was a safe place. And I think JoCo on a much larger scale is the same thing for metro KC. However, when they fall in love with KC and decide to stay here, that opens a lot of options.
I was born in Missouri and lived there part of my life. Grew up mostly in western Shawnee/Lenexa. Now live in Prairie Village. I've also spent some of my adult life in Kansas City, Missouri and moved back to Kansas as soon as I could afford to because I prefer the lower crime rate and neighbors who take care of their property and I like the suburbs better than urban areas.
Personally, I like (in no particular order): Prairie Village, southern Overland Park, western Shawnee/Lenexa/Desoto (these areas are where I would live if I wanted to and could afford to buy a house with a little bit of land).
I personally would not want to live in Olathe (further out, a little more crime than the rest of Johnson County), Merriam (too old an area for me - smaller, older houses, lower end houses - Prairie Village is older with smaller houses too, but I think the houses are better and the community was planned by JC Nichols which is a big plus and crime is low), Gardner (even further out than Olathe and not much there), or Leawood (too close to State Line/higher crime). The close to State Line thing affects Prairie Village too but so far it's not too bad. People on here (kcmo) will scream about me saying people come from Missouri to commit crimes in eastern Johnson County, but it's 100% true, and the police departments on this side of the state line will tell you that. We have had burglaries and bank robberies the last couple of years but that is on the decline since police departments have added officers. Used to be kind of like Mayberry around here, nothing for the police to do. Now they chase down burglars and robbers from Missouri.
I'm not saying living on the Missouri side of the state line is dangerous. That depends where you live. Waldo/Brookside are decent areas, but the crime rate on the Kansas side is just lower and I prefer that.
Personally, I don't want to live in Missouri. Been there, done that, came back. It doesn't appeal to me at all. Crime can happen anywhere, but there is more of it in Missouri - especially violent crime. Now someone is going to get on here and say WHAT ABOUT THAT GIRL THAT WAS KIDNAPPED FROM OVERLAND PARK AND MURDERED IN 2007? Yeah, that did happen. She was kidnapped by a guy who had just moved to Olathe from Missouri and he kidnapped her from a store parking lot and took her to Missouri and murdered her. That was a shock because you hear about murders in Kansas City, Missouri, but it's very rare to hear of violent crime in Johnson County. The Kansas City Missouri suburbs are obviously more safe than urban Kansas City, Missouri and probably as safe as Johnson County, but I prefer Kansas, specifically Johnson County.
In Kansas City Missouri you have UMKC and Penn Valley/Metropolitan Community College (I don't like the crime rate in either of those areas). In Johnson County you have Johnson County Community College and University of Kansas Edwards Campus. 45 minutes away in Lawrence, Kansas, you have the University of Kansas.
I know people are going to jump on me (esp kcmo), but I am giving you my honest opinion of the Kansas City area and the reasons I live in Johnson County.
I agree with some of what you say and don't deny criminals from KCMO go into JoCo to burglarize, etc. But you choose to live in PV, the part of JoCo closest to KCMO's eastside and close to KCK, yet you say Leawood is too close to KCMO crime (KCMO side of Leawood area is Red Bridge and Loch Lloyd, private school, solid middle class areas), which is weird. And most of the Missouri suburbs are further from the ghetto than eastern JoCo, plus separated by rivers, bluffs, etc. East JoCo is merely across the street from KCMO.
I agree with some of what you say and don't deny criminals from KCMO go into JoCo to burglarize, etc. But you choose to live in PV, the part of JoCo closest to KCMO's eastside and close to KCK, yet you say Leawood is too close to KCMO crime (KCMO side of Leawood area is Red Bridge and Loch Lloyd, private school, solid middle class areas), which is weird. And most of the Missouri suburbs are further from the ghetto than eastern JoCo, plus separated by rivers, bluffs, etc. East JoCo is merely across the street from KCMO.
I moved to Prairie Village in 1986. There was NO crime at all them. None. But the reason I said I wouldn't want to live in Leawood is that I think Leawood has a bigger problem with crime just because it's in general a more affluent area than Prairie Village and thus more of a target than Prairie Village, and those houses are right on State Line. Not that Prairie Village doesn't have nice areas too, but they are buried in areas away from State Line Road. The houses nearer State Line in Prairie Village have been targets of break-ins but they are the lower property value area, and you'd have to go through PV to get to the "richer" neighborhoods - and not a straight shot out of the area back to Missouri. Leawood's affluent areas are right along State Line Road. And yes, I know Red Bridge and Loch Loyd (although I wasn't talking about that far south) are nice areas, but I think if someone were going to commit a burglary in Leawood it would be easy to get across State Line back into Missouri fast. I would consider Mission Hills to be a target, and houses on the Missouri side along Ward Parkway. That's all I meant by that.
I don't think the criminals really care how far they go from the ghetto, they just want to be able to can get back across the state line fast.
I don't really consider KCK close to Prairie Village because there's not really easy access. I mean, I guess if you went down Roe/18th Street Expressway, but that is a long distance and doesn't seem to happen. I doubt a criminal would want to drive that far through Johnson County if they were planning to commit a crime. Traffic lights and too long a stretch of two lane road that would make it hard to escape.
No crime in 1986? What? I actually think you're kind of obsessive. I doubt there's much difference between Leawood, PV or Fairway in regard to being targeted.
luz, I know a lot of criminals from kcmo (as well as kck) go to the suburbs to do their thing, but if you read the papers, people committing crimes in JoCo are OFTEN from joco as well.
JoCo has western kcmo to buffer it from kcmo's east side. Can you imagine living in Brookside, right next door to the east side? While you do have to put up with more, most people that choose to live in Brookside, Waldo etc are fine with the area.
Also, UMKC? Really? Went to grad school there and never, not once to I even think about crime being an issue. I even took buses often to get there! Scary!
I guess I'm not seeing the correlation here: Kansas = suburban and Missouri = urban? That's simply not right.
If you want a true urban experience chances are great you're going to end up on the MO side, but the reverse is not true. There are some super suburban areas on the MO side -- just as suburban as southern JoCo.
For me it would depend, if I were looking for something so suburban, on where I was commuting from/to -- outside of that, from my experience living in 3 major midwestern cities, outer ring suburbs are generaly cut from a pretty similar cloth.
luz, I know a lot of criminals from kcmo (as well as kck) go to the suburbs to do their thing, but if you read the papers, people committing crimes in JoCo are OFTEN from joco as well.
JoCo has western kcmo to buffer it from kcmo's east side. Can you imagine living in Brookside, right next door to the east side? While you do have to put up with more, most people that choose to live in Brookside, Waldo etc are fine with the area.
Also, UMKC? Really? Went to grad school there and never, not once to I even think about crime being an issue. I even took buses often to get there! Scary!
Do you really live with this much fear?
kcmo, will all due respect, the area around UMKC is not that safe. I wouldn't walk around there alone at night. But then, I'm used to being/feeling completely safe, and I wouldn't feel that there. During the day, sure.
Yes, I know that some of the crime in Johnson County is from Johnson County criminals. But a lot (maybe most?) of it is not. All you have to do is look at the Johnson County booking and release record to see all the people from Missouri (and KCK) arrested in Johnson County. I don't think the reciprocal is true; I don't think you see a lot of Johnson County residents perpetrating crimes and being arrested on the Missouri side.
And yes, you are right - we do have a buffer that Waldo and Brookside don't have. And I know a lot of people like living in Waldo and Brookside (my husband grew up in Waldo and loves the area), it's just not for me. I grew up in Shawnee within a stone's throw of Shawnee Mission Park, when it was pretty much rural but still was Johnson County feel.
No crime in 1986? What? I actually think you're kind of obsessive. I doubt there's much difference between Leawood, PV or Fairway in regard to being targeted.
Okay, not NO crime, but no crime to speak of. Certainly nothing major going on and maybe an occasional break in or something but few or far between, unlike now. We used to never hear police sirens in Prairie Village. I just think because a criminal would have more to gain by burglarizing a house in Leawood, which is also next to State Line Road, they would be targeted more. I don't know that for sure, just my assumption. I mean, if I were wanting to get away with jewelry or something I would guess I'd be more likely to find it in houses that were $400,000 to millions range than $150,000 to $200,000 range.
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