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Old 08-15-2012, 07:18 PM
 
Location: South St Louis
4,363 posts, read 4,559,063 times
Reputation: 3165

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Lee's Summit is right on the verge of entering the "100K Club", soon becoming the seventh Missouri city ever to break the 100,000 population barrier.

Missouri cities that currently exceed the 100K mark are Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Independence and Columbia. (Columbia reached 100K in about 2007.) The other city that achieved 100K, St. Joseph, registered a population of 102,979 back in the 1900 census. It has remained below that mark ever since.

In 2010, Lee's Summit had an official population of 91,364. If the city's growth rate has remained the same since that census, it should exceed the 100K mark by this fall. It will become the third city on the Missouri side of the KC MSA to exceed that number.

Question for you locals: What has led to the explosive growth in Lee's Summit? Is it simply due to annexation, or has the population density increased as well?
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Old 08-16-2012, 12:10 AM
 
Location: Kansas City, MO
3,565 posts, read 7,974,728 times
Reputation: 2605
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1greatcity View Post
Lee's Summit is right on the verge of entering the "100K Club", soon becoming the seventh Missouri city ever to break the 100,000 population barrier.

Missouri cities that currently exceed the 100K mark are Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Independence and Columbia. (Columbia reached 100K in about 2007.) The other city that achieved 100K, St. Joseph, registered a population of 102,979 back in the 1900 census. It has remained below that mark ever since.

In 2010, Lee's Summit had an official population of 91,364. If the city's growth rate has remained the same since that census, it should exceed the 100K mark by this fall. It will become the third city on the Missouri side of the KC MSA to exceed that number.

Question for you locals: What has led to the explosive growth in Lee's Summit? Is it simply due to annexation, or has the population density increased as well?
That's fine and interesting, but I think St. Joseph's 1900 peak made the most out of breaking 100K and makes for the coolest town!

I don't think annexation is responsible, I think the city is actually growing. Lee's Summit is probably the #1 Missouri-side suburb for white-collar transplants and it's also squarely within the traditional trajectory of black flight from urban KCMO, as in those moving on up and seeking safer neighborhoods and better schools for their kids. Below I'll provide a link to a map showing population growth and change in the KC area, including by race. But I'd like to say I think Lee's Summit's massive growth has to do with proximity to Johnson County and being a straight shot down the south leg of 435. JoCo has a tremendous amount of white and even blue-collar employment, and Lee's Summit has little employment. I'd love to see commute patterns for the KC area, but have failed to find any. LS may be very much a "suburb of JoCo". The south leg of 435 is one of the busiest highways in the metro, for sure. I'm sitting here unconciously listening to its noise as I type.

Here's that link: http://www.marc.org/gis/assets/2010C...n_change_4.pdf
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Old 08-19-2012, 01:20 PM
 
267 posts, read 618,364 times
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Yea. Not surprised to hear this at all. I commute the opposite way to work, and notice the epic traffic (well, most likely caused by at least one accident every single rush hour) on 435. I guess the population boom came about because JoCo's real estate became way too pricey for the average local here, so everyone moved to Lee's Summit, the closest semi-nice part east of State Line along 435/470. I'm talking like, a house in Johnson County probably cost double what a similar house in MO would cost, though this has probably come closer in price by now.
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Old 08-19-2012, 07:04 PM
 
3,326 posts, read 8,857,209 times
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No surprise. In many ways, Lee's Summit might be KC's best suburb.
I was also under the assumption that southwest KC was a nice area if not high-end.
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Old 08-19-2012, 10:25 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,871,538 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jason87x View Post
Yea. Not surprised to hear this at all. I commute the opposite way to work, and notice the epic traffic (well, most likely caused by at least one accident every single rush hour) on 435. I guess the population boom came about because JoCo's real estate became way too pricey for the average local here, so everyone moved to Lee's Summit, the closest semi-nice part east of State Line along 435/470. I'm talking like, a house in Johnson County probably cost double what a similar house in MO would cost, though this has probably come closer in price by now.
That’s ridiculous. First off, comparable homes in LS are not that much cheaper than JoCo and from what I have heard they are about the same. You can find much “cheaper” stuff right in JoCo (Much of Olathe is cheaper than similar homes in LS) without having to go clear to LS and commute every day.

People choose to live in LS because they like it there. It has nothing to do with that fact that somebody that buys a 320k home doesn’t want to spend 330k on the same home in Overland Park.

Lee’s Summit is a lifestyle choice for a lot of people. There are a lot more options (lake living, downtown, park land, access to mid MO lakes etc) than the more traditional sprawl you will find in JoCo (of which LS has too).

Just saying that I have heard this comment more times than I can count that people live in the MO side suburbs because they can’t afford JoCo.

Trust me, I know a lot of people that live in really nice homes in LS, Northland etc and they wouldn’t live in JoCo if the houses were 20% less there. Sorry, that has always rubbed me the wrong way…

Oh, and much of kcmo east of state line is nice. The entire west side of kcmo from downtown all the way to Martin City (135th) and even further like Loch Lloyd is nice. Metro KC has a ton of decay going on (on both sidses of the state line). I'll be the first to admit that. But to say that LS is the only nice place is just not true at all.

If I were to live in a kc suburb, there are only two I would live in. In the Parkville area (and the part of kcmo around it) and the Lee's Summit area. There are other nice suburbs, but they do nothing for me. Most of the rest of suburban metro KC is about as "meh" as you can get. Midwestern sprawl with zero character blahh... If you have to live in some midwestern burb, then I have to have some topography, trees, water, downtown culture etc.

Although the more I live out here, the less and less I ever see myself living any place in the midwest again. I think I have found what I personally like. Big vibrant cities everywhere with lots of recreation in between them all (oceans, mountains etc) and within them.

My last trip to kc hit me like a brick wall. Where is freaking hell is everybody at, is all we thought the whole time we were there. People have to got to get out of their cars in more places than the plaza in that town.

Last edited by kcmo; 08-19-2012 at 11:38 PM..
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Old 08-20-2012, 07:54 AM
 
29,981 posts, read 42,917,108 times
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Lee's Summit offers better topography, rolling hills, trees, & lakes , than does Southern JoCo. Overall, IMO, it is just prettier than the the mile after mile of tract housing built on once fertile KS farm fields. YMMV
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Old 08-30-2012, 01:02 AM
 
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
50 posts, read 106,408 times
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[quote=kcmo;25715718]Trust me, I know a lot of people that live in really nice homes in LS, Northland etc and they wouldn’t live in JoCo if the houses were 20% less there. Sorry, that has always rubbed me the wrong way…



That is so very true. I pass through Lee's Summit quite often and it's got a really good feel I can't quit describe. Very opposite of JoCo. I like shopping in JoCo, I have nothing much bad to say about it, but it feels very different then what I'm used to, perhaps more soccer momish. Lee's Summit also has the soccer momish type feel, but at the same time it's got lakes, cowboy boots, and has a more small town suburban feel to it. Quite hard to describe, but Lee's Summit is definitely a lot different than anything in JoCo.
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Old 08-31-2012, 01:40 AM
 
13,721 posts, read 19,246,566 times
Reputation: 16971
[quote=kcguy;25870480]
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcmo View Post
That is so very true. I pass through Lee's Summit quite often and it's got a really good feel I can't quit describe. Very opposite of JoCo. I like shopping in JoCo, I have nothing much bad to say about it, but it feels very different then what I'm used to, perhaps more soccer momish. Lee's Summit also has the soccer momish type feel, but at the same time it's got lakes, cowboy boots, and has a more small town suburban feel to it. Quite hard to describe, but Lee's Summit is definitely a lot different than anything in JoCo.
And I feel just the opposite. Johnson County is what I'm used to and feels like home and nowhere else in the KC Metro feels like home. I was born in Smithville and lived in Clay and Platte and Jackson County in my earliest years, but moved to Johnson County when I was about 7 and it has always felt like home. At different times I have lived elsewhere - family moved outside of Kansas City my last years of school, I moved to Lawrence for college, I lived in Wyandotte and Jackson County when I was young and couldn't afford to live in Johnson County, but my goal was always to get back to Johnson County. No other area feels right.
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Old 09-04-2012, 09:42 PM
 
Location: Middle America
37,409 posts, read 53,543,435 times
Reputation: 53068
I love Lee's Summit. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm having to move away, but I really enjoyed my time in LS...a great community.
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Old 09-05-2012, 12:43 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,871,538 times
Reputation: 6438
You staying in kc tab?
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