I need to be more clear about my views of KC... (Overland: neighborhoods, college)

[MidWestCityNative]

Originally Posted by xenokc

The thread title sounds rather self-important and self-absorbed.



Then there was no need to create this thread as you just started it up again.

I'm not following you; how is this thread self-important and self-absorbed? I'm just stating what I ORIGINALLY thought KC to be before I began to educate myself on what others think. I wanted to also tell people that I'm now looking at the big picture and I've accepted the fact that KC is not perfect, but is capable of doing better. I still think KC should be more competitive, but I'm no longer going to nitpick everything to death and worry so much about what others think. What's wrong with that?

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by MidWestCityNative

I wanted to also tell people that I've accepted the fact that KC is not perfect, but it can do better. What's wrong with that?

Isn't that the case of any community, regardless of size?

[jason87x]

I meant for my post to be longer, and cover some of the bigger things, but yea didn't mean to nitpick on the little things. I guess we're wishing for quite a bit. I will see what is going on at thew new pac and sprint center as well, though I doubt either of those places have many of the kinds of shows I would be into, then again I might find surprising interesting things.

As for the exodus of businesses from downtown, isn't that space getting filled up by actual people? We talk of 98% occupancy downtown, let the businesses leave as it frees up space for more people to live in, so that it's not a ghost town after 5. Building new skyscrapers takes a ton of money, which would result in sky-high rents (though they already are really high).

I really think that each side of the line should focus on its strength. So some small HQs are leaving for OP, but KC is becoming a much better arts city. Let OP be the corporate jewel and KCMO be the artist destination, with rents not nearly as high as most "artist destination" areas.

And I'm not really complaining about traffic, just the many drivers who seem barely above comatose :0

And a rebuild of KCI's terminal would be really nice, just saying. Though when I travel anyway, it's always been by car, with Chicago, Denver, MSP, Dallas all being ~8 hour drives away and some decent ~4 hour cities like Omaha, St. Louis, Tulsa etc.

[MidWestCityNative]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Isn't that the case of any community, regardless of size?

I suppose, but there are many things it should improve upon if it wants to compete with other cities its size. KC doesn't have to be like NY or Chicago or SF, but it should at least try to be more competitive (when it comes to business, community, public transportation, sports, etc.)

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by xenokc

Most of the negativity and cynical posts here are coming from people who don't live in KC anymore. Not all, but outsiders seem to be creating flamebait.

It's hard to tell who you're directing your replies to on this thread.

Are you the Moderator of this site by chance? You seem to take anything anti-KC personally.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by MidWestCityNative

I suppose, but there are many things it should improve upon if it wants to compete with other cities its size. KC doesn't have to be like NY or Chicago or SF, but it should at least try to be more competitive (when it comes to business, community, public transportation, sports, etc.)

I guess I just don't find KC to be so horrible in comparison to similarly sized cities. And ever since I moved here, and have hosted family and other guests for whom KC was not previously a blip on the radar, they've found it to be lovely. Not "Well, it's pretty small-time, compared to Cincy"..."It's nice, but it's no Albuquerque!"....or "Well, why would you have chosen here, when you could be living in Pittsburgh or Buffalo?!" etc. Pretty much everyone thinks it's a cool, and underrated, place. I really don't see that it suffers by comparison to similarly sized cities.

[xenokc]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

You seem to take anything anti-KC personally.

Not really, just when people point things out over and over as if KC has unique problems and no other city does. Every city has issues to deal with.

KC has 3 major things to deal with...

- Awkward airport and mediocre transit (both have a focus to address but will take years)
- KS poaching businesses from KCMO (this is a state level thing and difficult to stop)
- Crime, especially on the E Side (KCMO went from 10th to 21st in crime rate so is improving but not good enough)


Big recent scores have been..
- Google Fiber
- Bcycle bike rental
- Return of numerous development announcements in core of city lately including a lot of apts.
- Growing downtown population (with demand much higher than supply)
- Performing Art Center

KC isn't a metro of 6M+ like Dallas that has a global economy. But as a metro of 2M, KC is in some ways more comparable to metros 2.5-3M than other metros around 2M. And relative to the rest of the Midwest, KC is doing pretty well. Some of the things brought up are simply flame bait, other valid issues have been rehashed over and over and it gets tiring. But yeah, I do tend to take a half glass full view on things and will point out flame baits.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by xenokc

Not really, just when people point things out over and over as if KC has unique problems and no other city does. Every city has issues to deal with.

KC has 3 major things to deal with...

- Awkward airport and mediocre transit (both have a focus to address but will take years)
- KS poaching businesses from KCMO (this is a state level thing and difficult to stop)
- Crime, especially on the E Side (KCMO went from 10th to 21st in crime rate so is improving but not good enough)


Big recent scores have been..
- Google Fiber
- Bcycle bike rental
- Return of numerous development announcements in core of city lately including a lot of high end apts.
- Growing downtown population
- Performing Art Center

KC isn't a metro of 6M+ like Dallas that has a global economy. But as a metro of 2M, KC is in some ways more comparable to metros 2.5-3M than other metros around 2M. And relative to the rest of the Midwest, KC is doing pretty well. Some of the things brought up are simply flame bait, other valid issues have been rehashed over and over and it gets tiring. But yeah, I do tend to take a half glass full view on things and will point out flame baits.

Ok gotcha, I understand now. For the record, I love KC, born and raised there. And yes, Dallas has its own problems. I would only compare/contrast here as a point of discussion, not to flame KC because I will love it until the day I die, which is why I'm here and love the updates and photos. I've learned more about my hometown the past few years thanks to sites like this, Wiki, photos online, etc. then in my years there (I left in 1985).

[Arden T]

Originally Posted by MidWestCityNative

I want to take the opportunity to clear a lot of the misconceptions people on this forum have had about my threads:

In the past five or so months since I’ve joined City-Data, I’ve been posting threads that I always THOUGHT were interesting discussion topics in regard to Kansas City. But I realize some of the topics I’ve posted were rather trivial compared to some of the more important things that affect the city.

During most of my youth/adolescence, I’ve always had the basic idea that Kansas City was a respected “big city” that most people in America are familiar with and that its problems are just like any other American city. I was always like “yeah, everyone knows about the chiefs and the royals, right?” That’s been my feeling about KC until a few years ago when I began to do some careful research online and abroad.

I was pretty crushed and saddened to learn how lacking KC is in a lot of things, compared to other cities; it left me feeling pretty scarred in the process. Deep down I knew that KC is my hometown (a part of who I am) and I could never leave it for any other city. If I was going to maintain that frame of mind, I needed to figure out good reasons for having pride in it.

When I stumbled upon this website, it was refreshing to hear more well-thought-out views and opinions from people on this forum (it helped balance out all the negativity I was used to hearing on this site and beyond). Anytime I was uncertain about something relating to KC’s image, I felt like this was a good place to ask questions and spark conversations about things that I’ve noticed, but wasn’t 100% sure about.

I know I’ve started threads (like my last one about FCA) where people felt the content was irrelevant and inappropriate. Maybe it was and maybe it was immature and intolerant of me to bring it up…and for that I am sorry. Sometimes it’s hard for me to express my thoughts and opinions without being too cynical; it’s something I need to work on. I don’t agree with the views of the FCA on homosexuality, but I realize I blew it out of proportion, and I am sorry.


As of now, I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that KC is not perfect. But I also feel that people’s perception of our city should be more accurate, insightful, subjective, and fair. Aside from that, there are things I feel the people of KC should discuss and consider if they want to bring their city to the next level.

I want to continue blogging on this site, but I also want to avoid confrontation.

I was Born In K C M O,my Family came from Chaffee M O. How ever I have lived in New York for a very long time.
I still consider Missouri as home(point of oragin if you will). I have learned that no matter where you come from there are up sides and down sides. I am an American and the whole place is my home,small town big city no matter and makes no never mind

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by jason87x

The path chosen for 435. No one lives anywhere near 435 except for on the southern fourth. Meanwhile, 470/291, 152, and K-7 are much more useful. Methinks a routing along that path would be far more useful than what we currently have, as none of the above is really a full freeway at all and get terribly clogged while 435 remains empty. If we did that though, wouldn't we have the largest beltway in the world?

Believe it or not, there was a time (early 70s) when there was no development whatsoever south of I-435 in JoCo. When Johnson County Community College was built on what was then known as 111th Street, I said, "why did they build that way out in the middle of nowhere?" And I don't think you can say no one lives anywhere near 435 except on the south side. Look at Google maps. Plenty of development NEARBY in lots of places, but maybe not having their backyards backing up to the interstate.