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The relatively nice weather we have here compared to the Northeast and Eastern Midwest- Ohio and northeast of there for example. As crappy as our winter was, ask someone in Michigan or upstate NY how theirs was and see what they say.
KC's overall niceness of the people- it is so nice when you encounter a stranger, you can just assume the interaction with them will be pleasant.
The boulevard and park system makes the city attractive from the river all the way down to 435 and even south of there. Many other cities are " donut holes" that are OK downtown and near downtown and then run down all the way out to their outer loop in all directions until the area gets nice again.
Ease of getting around- this is a blessing and a curse as it led to way more sprawl than is needed in a metro area of just over 2 million people, nevertheless, it is nice not to be stuck in traffic all the time.
The range of things to do for this size of a metro is tremendous compared to others this size, i.e the Keuffman Center, 4 casinos, a world class art museum, the Plaza, Loose Park etc.
I love something many others HATE...namely, that it's a fairly calm, chill city without breakneck pacing. I love KC, because it has a relaxing atmosphere while still retaining my favorite characteristics of city living, like easy and inexpensive access to cultural amenities and leisure activities. I love that in KC, I can go see priceless works of art, attend top notch musical performances, get to and from fun night spots, visit excellent and unique museums, attend baseball games, access higher end shopping when need be, and patronize excellent dining establishments, without having to deal with routine gridlock, zero street parking, exorbitant parking rates, crowded and often less-than-timely commuter trains, and crushing crowds (all the case where I am now). I like relaxed over hustle and bustle, so KC suits me well in that way. I also find it to be an exceptional value in terms of cost of living, given the amenities. Hidden gem for sure. It's my kind of town.
KC offers quite a bit of big city culture, attractions etc, but the big difference is that KC is "EASY" compared to most other larger metros.
If you decide to go to a ballgame, it's easy to get tickets, easy to drive there, easy to park and you can be back home before the late news is over. Here is DC or any city out here, going to sporting event quickly becomes an all day event between transit, traffic etc. And games often sell out and when that happens ticket prices quickly double and triple on craigslist or StubHub. Parking and or transit costs are 4-5 times that in KC.
If you do anything downtown such as a concert at Sprint Center an event at Bartle Hall etc, driving downtown is easy with no traffic, parking is plentiful and cheap, if not free. Complete different world from here.
Traffic is easy. You can drive from Blue Springs to KCI or from Liberty to Leawood almost any time of day, any day of the week and you will almost never encounter any sort of delay. So as spread out as KC is, it's still easy to drive to a complete different part of the metro often in less than 30 minutes. Here, you really have to think twice, check traffic etc before driving anyplace and weekend traffic is just as bad, if not worse than rush hour traffic (rush hour traffic is almost all day long with just a few breaks, but that's when they close lanes and do maintenance, which also trigger massive delays).
You have places like Worlds of Fun, the Zoo, WWI Museum etc where it's relatively easy and cheap to be entertained. We have more and larger amusement parks, but they are so busy and expensive compared to just being able to jump in the car and spend a few hours at WoF.
You can drive into the city and easily find parking ANYWHERE on the streets or in garages. So much parking in KC. I get several $100 parking tickets a year in DC just trying to park legally. Speaking of parking, the KC suburbs have four times the parking it needs in suburban retail areas. In suburban DC, there is barely enough parking around most retail areas for regular weekdays. Weekends and Holidays can be absolutely brutal just trying to park at a local mall or strip mall.
Now KC's excessive parking and lack of congestion (city streets or freeways) leads to other problems I mention all the time such as the lack of hustle and vibrancy that most cities have now and even blight because land is not used effectively. But for many, the ease of getting around and access to attractions trumps having a city with bustling busy areas full of people on sidewalks, outdoor cafes and available transit. KC is perfect for those intimidated by busier cities but still want to enjoy bigger city amenities.
KC has great suburban youth facilities and parks. While urban recreation in KC is severely lacking, few metros can match metro KC when it comes to suburban parks and youth league facilities. We miss the top notch soccer, baseball, softball facilities that surround metro KC for both little league sports and amateur adult league sports.
I miss the four seasons of KC. Missouri and Maryland are actually pretty similar, but KC's weather is a bit more extreme and KC has awesome weather in the spring and fall while there is only a couple of very extreme months in summer and winter. Plus, I actually kind of miss the crazy spring thunderstorms and ominous cloud formations that would role into the city from Kansas. You never see anything like that here.
It straddles the line between big city and small city. It has the amenities of a big city, while still having the charms of a small city.
I love the architecture. I think KC has done a much better job preserving its buildings and character than say a St. Louis. Even the awful 70s art deco stuff has some charm.
I love the funky, not quite honky-tonk, not quite hipster, art scene here. The Crossroads is a real jewel that seems to get better each day. If you haven't checked out Raygun, or the Jacobsen, or Grinders DO SO NOW!
I love Ward Parkway. Is it okay to love rich people? That's such a scenic drive.
I love our passion for sports. Even college rivalries that tear this city apart. The run SKC went on last year was amazing. People you would never expect to be soccer fans we wearing SKC scarves and yelling "WE ARE THE SOCCER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!" I was just mowing my lawn with an SKC shirt and some jogger yells at me "Go Sporting!" Just imagine if the Royals ever get to be serious contenders! This city would explode!
I love we are starting to build up some real civic pride. I used to envy St. Louis because they have an almost unabashed, annoying amount of civic pride about St. Louis. KC is starting to get some of that. I think people are proud about downtown again. We're proud of our emphasis on the arts. We're even proud of our sports teams again. Its very exciting seeing the direction this town is moving in.
We had our choice to live literally anywhere because our jobs are so mobile. We chose to settle down here and we have never regeretted it.
KC offers quite a bit of big city culture, attractions etc, but the big difference is that KC is "EASY" compared to most other larger metros.
If you decide to go to a ballgame, it's easy to get tickets, easy to drive there, easy to park and you can be back home before the late news is over. Here is DC or any city out here, going to sporting event quickly becomes an all day event between transit, traffic etc. And games often sell out and when that happens ticket prices quickly double and triple on craigslist or StubHub. Parking and or transit costs are 4-5 times that in KC.
If you do anything downtown such as a concert at Sprint Center an event at Bartle Hall etc, driving downtown is easy with no traffic, parking is plentiful and cheap, if not free. Complete different world from here.
Traffic is easy. You can drive from Blue Springs to KCI or from Liberty to Leawood almost any time of day, any day of the week and you will almost never encounter any sort of delay. So as spread out as KC is, it's still easy to drive to a complete different part of the metro often in less than 30 minutes. Here, you really have to think twice, check traffic etc before driving anyplace and weekend traffic is just as bad, if not worse than rush hour traffic (rush hour traffic is almost all day long with just a few breaks, but that's when they close lanes and do maintenance, which also trigger massive delays).
You have places like Worlds of Fun, the Zoo, WWI Museum etc where it's relatively easy and cheap to be entertained. We have more and larger amusement parks, but they are so busy and expensive compared to just being able to jump in the car and spend a few hours at WoF.
You can drive into the city and easily find parking ANYWHERE on the streets or in garages. So much parking in KC. I get several $100 parking tickets a year in DC just trying to park legally. Speaking of parking, the KC suburbs have four times the parking it needs in suburban retail areas. In suburban DC, there is barely enough parking around most retail areas for regular weekdays. Weekends and Holidays can be absolutely brutal just trying to park at a local mall or strip mall.
Now KC's excessive parking and lack of congestion (city streets or freeways) leads to other problems I mention all the time such as the lack of hustle and vibrancy that most cities have now and even blight because land is not used effectively. But for many, the ease of getting around and access to attractions trumps having a city with bustling busy areas full of people on sidewalks, outdoor cafes and available transit. KC is perfect for those intimidated by busier cities but still want to enjoy bigger city amenities.
KC has great suburban youth facilities and parks. While urban recreation in KC is severely lacking, few metros can match metro KC when it comes to suburban parks and youth league facilities. We miss the top notch soccer, baseball, softball facilities that surround metro KC for both little league sports and amateur adult league sports.
I miss the four seasons of KC. Missouri and Maryland are actually pretty similar, but KC's weather is a bit more extreme and KC has awesome weather in the spring and summer. Plus, I actually kind of miss the crazy spring thunderstorms and ominous cloud formations that would role into the city from Kansas. You never see anything like that here.
Ha! I actually HATE that its so easy to get into a ballgame (it should be packed every night!) and hate that traffic is so easy (I wish we used more mass transit), but I get what you're saying
I do wish we had more bike trails and running trails. I would like to see more emphasis on parks.
Ha! I actually HATE that its so easy to get into a ballgame (it should be packed every night!) and hate that traffic is so easy (I wish we used more mass transit), but I get what you're saying
I do wish we had more bike trails and running trails. I would like to see more emphasis on parks.
Oh, I agree, I personally much preferred going to Royals games when I knew there would be at least 30k out there, the bigger the crowd was predicted to be, the more I wanted to be at the game.
Same with downtown KC. I actually loved it when multiple events were going on at once because it made downtown KC feel like a real thriving city with people and traffic everywhere. Even with multiple events downtown or large crowds at the ballparks, things are still very easy in KC.
Lots of people in KC love KC for these reasons though. Hopefully the Royals start drawing better, they are still in the bottom few teams in attendance. They do very well on weekends, but horrible on weekdays, which I attribute mostly to the stadium location.
-The Plaza...probably my favorite place to hang out (not just in KC, but anywhere).
-Fountains
-Architecture
-BOULEVARD BEER
-The K (not so much the location, but the stadium atmosphere is great)
-No major traffic issues.
-Excellent choice of restaurants - I would stack our eating options against anywhere in the nation..including culinary "elite" cities like NYC.
-Sports teams, sports culture
-Music scene. There are a lot of good musicians here; I have recently started playing in a jazz quartet here and have played with a bunch of good people who have day jobs and play music on the side, but have tons of talent.
-Nice parks.
-Zoo, which has improved tremendously in the time since I have moved here.
-Easy layout of streets...I can pretty much find how to get somewhere from any point in the metro.
-Cultural events; Shakespeare in the Park, Performing Arts Center, etc.
-I am not an expert in visual arts, but I enjoy the art museums here.
-I like the fact that metro KC is trying to embrace soccer...it makes us unique. I watched the Sporting KC championship game last fall with a friend at Saint's Pub in Overland Park....it was a lot of fun (I am warming up to soccer fandom).
-The college rivalries (namely KU/MU/KSU) are kind of fun in March, but they can get kind of tiresome when the personal insults start to fly.
There are others, but these are what I could think of right away. Give me a strong urban university, some dedicated bike lanes, and get the Phoenix Coyotes to move to KC and this place would be near perfect. I would love to be able to go grab a drink in P&L and go to Sprint to see the Boston Bruins play.
Last edited by KC_Sleuth; 04-23-2014 at 11:08 AM..
One thing I really like is the relative lack of one way streets (I know there are a few, though the city has been converting some of them to two way, but a few are going to be inevitable in large cities). A pet peeve of mine is downtown areas primarily consisting of one way streets (Davenport, Iowa being one example... I found its downtown a pain to navigate).
I can see how people not used to the area can get confused/stuck with Southwest Trafficway not allowing left turns, but it really is a nice set up.
Another thing I like is how some of the most iconic restaurants are in non-downtown areas which makes parking a cinch (I'm looking at you, Arthur Bryant's), and in general are well spread out throughout the city.
- Livability. KC is a very 'livable' city and does not have a congestion feeling while at the same time not compromising on amenities of bigger cities. KC has tons of nice places to eat and tons of things to do. Easy to get around and great schools.
- Friendly people (specially when you compare to some of the bigger East Coast cities).
- Light Traffic
- Country Club Plaza (a KC treasure).
- Sports culture (both College & Pro). Like what KC_Sleuth said above, it is amazing how the city has embraced soccer. I was at the MLS Cup last Dec at the Sporting Park and the atmosphere was unbelievable. They sell out all games. I have watched MLS games on TV where it took place in Denver and Houston, and there were a lot of empty stands. The stadium was barely half full. The Houston Game was even a playoff game.
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