KC local slang and jargon (Kansas City, Overland: city hall, construction, community college)

[luzianne]

Blue Valley is southern Johnson County. "Shawnee Mission" is older/northern Johnson County area.

Bannister and 95th Street are the same thing
Gregory and 71st Street are the same thing

Brush Creek has been called "flush creek"

Juco means Johnson County Community College, at least if you're in Kansas.

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by luzianne

About the bottoms and west bottoms - maybe someone else can explain exactly where they are. I know when I am there but I couldn't tell you which is which (one down by the haunted houses in KCMO and the other down the hill north of KU Med Center in KCK?)

This is my take on that, others may differ:

If someone is talking about "the bottoms" I consider that synonymous with the "west bottoms" which is diown in the Kemper Arena/haunted house areas. Definitely not the area north of KU Med Center - I'd refer to that as Rosedale.

There are also the "east bottoms" running along Front Street from about I-35 to I-435.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

This is my take on that, others may differ:

If someone is talking about "the bottoms" I consider that synonymous with the "west bottoms" which is diown in the Kemper Arena/haunted house areas. Definitely not the area north of KU Med Center - I'd refer to that as Rosedale.

There are also the "east bottoms" running along Front Street from about I-35 to I-435.

Okay. I had a relative who was born in 1919 who lived in Kansas City a lot of her young adult life. She called that area north of KU Med something. I was thinking the bottoms. Maybe the stockyards but that's not the stockyards, either. It's where all those train tracks are down there between the highway and the Mexican restaurants. It may be something else she called it, but I can't think of it now. Wish I could ask her, but she died in 2011. She had a sharp mind right up till the day she died! She said she bought a house at 18th and Kensington or something like that, and the houses were new then. She also bought a house in a brand new subdivision over by the VA Medical Center. She said only very rich people lived in Hyde Park.

She used to tell the story about how she was a young single working woman in Kansas City. She had grown up in a small town (Windsor Missouri) and was very naive, had no idea there were men who liked men or women who liked women or men who dressed like women. She said her friends took her to the Jewel Box. She said she was shocked; had never seen the things she saw there! But knowing her, I know she laughed and took it in stride; she was still that way when she died. Always seemed like a 30-something person in the body of an older person.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by luzianne

Okay. I had a relative who was born in 1919 who lived in Kansas City a lot of her young adult life. She called that area north of KU Med something. I was thinking the bottoms. Maybe the stockyards but that's not the stockyards, either. It's where all those train tracks are down there between the highway and the Mexican restaurants.

Armourdale?

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by kcmo

71 Highway, 350 Highway etc. The only place I know that puts the highway after the name.

Just realized this. I grew up saying "Highway X" but I've lived in KC for more than a decade and I always say "71 Highway"...

I also say Wor-NELL and most people I know do.

KC Italians and old-school northeast/downtowners call bums "Gandies".

"Kansas" almost always just means Johnson County. Almost never means KCK or real Kansas when it's said here.

Outstate Kansans, as well as Missourians, also call KC "the City"

As noted Johnson Countians often call the entire urban core "Downtown".

"Northtown" mean NKC. "The Northland" means everything else north of the river.

Most younger people definitely say "Missouree" here.

The space between the sidewalk and street is usually called the "right-of-way" or "easement" or "strip between the sidewalk and street".

"Pop".

A "shirtwaist" is a house with a stone or brick first floor and a wood frame second.

A "colonade" is a (usually) six-plex apartment building with three floors and 2 flats per floor with stacked balconies up the front and a shared center stairwell.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by s.davis

Armourdale?

That may have been it.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by RjRobb2

I've never heard anyone say that that lives in the metro area.

That's why I said "rural" MO. My wife is from about an hour east of KC and just about everybody out there calls anything west of Grain Valley "the city". This was also true in Warrensburg when I went to college, although not as high a percent because many people there are from St Louis etc.

In the metro area, I have heard people in the suburbs say "the city" when they are talking about Downtown, Crown Center, Plaza etc, but that is not all that common.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by s.davis

"Kansas" almost always just means Johnson County. Almost never means KCK or real Kansas when it's said here.

That's very true. People in the MO suburbs call JoCo "Kansas" more often than they call it JoCo.

"We are going to Kansas to get some stuff at MicroCenter". Nobody talks about Kansas outside of JoCo or maybe Village West unless referring to the university.

[Okey Dokie]

Wyandotte County, Part 14

Armourdale was on the NORTH side of the Kansas River, one mile west of its confluence with the Missouri River.

If you're interested in Kansas history, this is a wonderful site to spend a snowy afternoon looking at.

[xenokc]

I hear people refer to 'JoCo' much more often than not in midtown - ditto with most people at work (downtown) who live on MO side. I rarely hear just KS when referring to JoCo, it's almost always JoCo. And most say KCK, not just KS. I think the further out you go from any named place, the more generalization you hear. As the case with many cities.