News: "Missouri offers truce in Kansas business battle" (Kansas City: apartments, low crime)

[GraniteStater]

Missouri offers truce in Kansas business battle - SFGate

[kcmo]

I have been following this very closely and it looks like Kansas is about to cave on this. I think leaders in JoCo and Topeka are starting to see the light and how destructive, wasteful and unproductive this has been for the entire KC metro. Stats are proving that what KC has been doing is failing the metro as a whole.

I actually do agree with Kansas leaders that they need to be careful that they don't shut down the ability to use incentives on a case by case basis to keep a company from leaving the metro, but I don't think this has been a problem in KC as very few companies that have moved and taken advantage of incentives were serious about leaving the metro.

Kansas is starting to look pretty bad by appearing to be unwilling to cooperate with the Missouri side. That combined with the fact that the KC metro is just not competing as well economically nationally as it should and I think or hope that KS side leaders will wise up.

A part of me would like to see KCMO snag a big JoCo company (maybe one that originally came from KCMO) for downtown first though. Maybe that’s what it will take to get Kansas on board. A few big companies moving to KCMO (hopefully downtown KCMO and not a South suburban KCMO office park).

[luzianne]

Well, it looks like Kansas City/Johnson County isn't really different from other cities and their suburbs. Seems like people like the suburbs and want to live and work there, other than an element of mostly young people who like the idea of living and working downtown - but that is a small contingent of the total population.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/st-lo...-downtown.html

[kcmo]

^ that has nothing to do with the topic. MO leaders are trying to stop the corporate welfare that's going on in KC between the two states. The St Louis thread is a different topic, a problem that KC can relate too, but still not the same issue. Most of the moves across state line involve suburb to suburb (JoCo to South KCMO etc), although JoCo has also snagged some urban core companies, it's been about the money they get more than anything. St Louis County is not handing out 50 million bucks to move a 400 employee company form STL City to Clayton.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by kcmo

^ St Louis County is not handing out 50 million bucks to move a 400 employee company form STL City to Clayton.

Are you sure about that?

But still, if you read the thread you see that it's the same situation in that people WANT to work in the suburbs near where they live not downtown. I think it's the same in Kansas City.

[kcmo]

Yes, I'm sure.

Yea and there are people that want to work downtown near where they live or would like to live as well. What's your point?

Again, this is clearly about stopping the border war of corporate welfare on both sides which includes suburban areas on the MO side. You have plenty of other threads for your joco propaganda.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Yes, I'm sure.

Yea and there are people that want to work downtown near where they live or would like to live as well. What's your point?

Again, this is clearly about stopping the border war of corporate welfare on both sides which includes suburban areas on the MO side. You have plenty of other threads for your joco propaganda.

Don't talk to me about propaganda. I think other posters have tried to tell you how they feel about your constantly putting down Kansas City and specifically Kansas/Johnson County. And this thread is just more of the same.

You have an agenda; I am just here to give honest advice to people moving to Kansas City.

[jbtornado]

Luzianne you and KCMO are the same, one harps against Missouri, the other on Kansas...

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by jbtornado

Luzianne you and KCMO are the same, one harps against Missouri, the other on Kansas...

The difference is that I don't have an agenda.

When people come looking for the best place to raise children, I give them my honest opinion based on living in the area for 50+ years, being raised in the area myself, and raising my kids in the area. When people ask where there are great schools and low crime, I will almost always recommend Johnson County, but if they say they want to be on the Missouri side I will recommend Lee's Summit, Liberty, Parkville, etc.

I will never recommend urban KC as a place to raise kids. Some people are trying to push urban KC. That might be okay for young single people moving to Kansas City, but I wouldn't recommend it to people with kids who want great schools and low crime. Some people with kids may opt to live in urban KC and that's fine if that's what they want. But if I am giving my recommendations, I will always recommend suburban living and especially southern Johnson County.

I know there are nice areas in the suburbs on the Missouri side; that's why I recommend those if someone wants to be on the Missouri side. Otherwise I give my honest opinion about the best place to raise kids and that is Johnson County.

There is a huge urban agenda. If people want to live there, fine. But not everyone does. Some people want a place to stretch out, a yard for their kids to play in, low crime, great schools. I don't care about the whole "Johnson County is stealing businesses from KCMO!" drama. That doesn't affect my day to day life. I just know that life in Johnson County is good and that's why I recommend it. I don't have an agenda to make Johnson County the epicenter of Kansas City. I just know it's a great place to live.

Honestly, it would be great for me if everyone wanted to move downtown and prices in the suburbs fell. Because I would love to have a nice suburban home on several acres real cheap!

So for me, there is no agenda. I simply recommend what I consider to be the best of both worlds. Country living to me is too isolated; I like to be closer to amenities. Urban living to me is too crowded, too much crime, bad schools. But living in the suburbs with easy access to everything I need and want, low crime, great schools, pleasant surroundings, a yard, trees, a house instead of an apartment, room to breathe - it's perfect. And that's what I will recommend. People are free to look at my recommendations along with others and make their own decision about what is best for them.

[brandthom]

Originally Posted by luzianne

The difference is that I don't have an agenda.

When people come looking for the best place to raise children, I give them my honest opinion based on living in the area for 50+ years, being raised in the area myself, and raising my kids in the area. When people ask where there are great schools and low crime, I will almost always recommend Johnson County, but if they say they want to be on the Missouri side I will recommend Lee's Summit, Liberty, Parkville, etc.

I will never recommend urban KC as a place to raise kids. Some people are trying to push urban KC. That might be okay for young single people moving to Kansas City, but I wouldn't recommend it to people with kids who want great schools and low crime. Some people with kids may opt to live in urban KC and that's fine if that's what they want. But if I am giving my recommendations, I will always recommend suburban living and especially southern Johnson County.

This is just false. You can raise a kid just fine in the city, and crime isn't high at all. The way you're talking the urban core is some crime ridden stinkhole where you can only buy one bedroom rat infested apartments. Its almost offensive at this point, considering I was a kid raised in the urban core. The only place that this holds any truth are high schools. But if you can afford to live in JOCO you can afford to just live in the city and send your kid to a decent high school if you want to live in the city. Everything else is off base and misinformed. Theres nothing wrong with raising a kid within the KC city limits, with the added positive they wont be raised to fear anything urban.

As far as the social border war goes, to me it seems that a bulk of it is coming from the Kansas side. I don't hear people from the Missouri side of the city complaining about Kansas nearly as much as the reverse. And when there are complaints they're almost always about the STATE of Kansas and not the portion of the city that happens to be in Kansas.

Besides i've seen you recommend JOCO over KC to young people who specifically said they want to live in the city while talking down the inner core. You may not have a conscious agenda but you have a definite biased. And very obviously care about the health of Johnson county over the health of the city in general.