Canadian moving south! (Kansas City, Lee's Summit, California: transplants, rent, homes)

[MOKAN]

^If you live right around the Prairie Village shops, Fairway shops, or even Corinth, it's pretty walkable. My favorite of those is the Prairie Village shops, but finding a condo to rent in the immediate area might be difficult since they're scarce.

https://prairievillageshops.com/

Corinth Square Shopping Center

The Fairway Shops | LANE4 Property Group

[edxmit]

Great responses so far. Very appreciative. I suppose this is part of KC's friendliness. Reinforces my decision not to aim for a hypermetropolitan area, although frankly Children's Mercy is outstanding, which was what clinched it for me.

Wiseowlsayshoot - thanks for the 51 Main link! I emailed them and will definitely take it into consideration. It seems to be a great location as it is close to Loose Park, which would be perfect for the family. Looks great and excited, but also looks like they're preparing to charge people an arm and a leg

And yes, TabulaRasa - I'm realizing that a lot of the neighborhoods such as Mission Hills and Westwood are very safe, but it appears to be the case because as you implied they are fairly isolated from the other communities. It seems that Plaza and Brookside are more interesting neighborhoods to live in. I'll also look at the 46/Penn Condo. Interestingly enough, one thing that I noticed now that Eyeb mentioned it were the sidewalks. When I came here for the interview, I noticed that some are fairly decrepit and broken up - what's with that?

As for biking, I was wondering what the attitude towards cyclists is. Where I live (Alberta), drivers deliberately give cyclists extra space when passing them. So space, and then some. Generally very accepted. Are cyclists here considered a hassle, like in Toronto or NYC? Or are drivers simply not used to seeing cyclists and not take them into account when driving? That would be the worst case scenario for me. Those are the drivers who tend to ignore cyclists when making turns.

You know weather wise, it'll be a treat. Here the average is 13 (that's the average, not the low) in Winter and where I used to work last year which was in the north (yes, Canadians also talk about the north, which I suppose it your north north), the average was -16. That was cold.

If anything, I'm more worried about the heat in KC and will make sure our rental will have AC. Cold winters and falls would be something that I'd be looking forward to.

[edxmit]

Thanks very much Mokan for the links - I did check it out, but it does involve a fairly longer commute, which I'd prefer to avoid. Thanks again though.

[TabulaRasa]

I would say that cyclists are uncommon enough here that drivers are not necessarily hostile toward them, but are perhaps dangerously oblivious to them. Its just a very driving-centric city. The Plaza is the most pedestrian-heavy area, IMO. It has also been my favorite area to live. It can be costly, but you mentioned that that was no issue.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

Originally Posted by edxmit

thanks for the 51 Main link! I emailed them and will definitely take it into consideration. It seems to be a great location as it is close to Loose Park, which would be perfect for the family. Looks great and excited, but also looks like they're preparing to charge people an arm and a leg

Yeah, 51 Main is being billed as a "luxury" development and is definitely priced on the high end for KC, but you should be able to find cheaper options in that area. Check out PadMapper.com.

As for the cycling issue, I'm not a hardcore cyclist who rides daily, but I've done my share of biking around the city and I don't feel unsafe or threaten by motorists - but you may need to gain some familiarity with the city to learn the best routes to take to avoid the worst, busy streets.

[kcmo]

edxmit, do you have to have good "public" schools or are private schools an option? Kansas City sort of lacks a lot of areas like you describe. KC tends to be either very urban and caters to young professionals and empty nesters or very suburban with single family houses and not a lot of middle ground where families live in more urban walkable areas.

But there are some options as people have mentioned. If you can do private schools, I would stick to South Plaza, West Plaza and Brookside. I think areas of KCMO outside of those might be a bit more crime than you want or too close to such areas. Canadian cities are very different than most American cities and most midwestern cities tend to have even more urban blight and crime problems than most larger coastal cities do to racial segregation, DE-industrialization and cheap sprawl. There is just not as much interest by people to live "in the city" as you will find in Canada and many cities on the coasts. In Canada, everybody wants to live in town and you can tell that by how nice the cities are and the prices. The slums or lower income areas are in the suburbs in many CA cities. I'm not saying KC doesn't have other safe areas that I would be comfortable in, but for someone from a Canadian city, I would imagine your tolerance level would be lower.

If you need good public schools, then you will have to go to the Kansas side or maybe around Briarcliff north of the river if you want to stay as close as possible to the south side of Downtown.

However, you will give up a lot. Even in older inner ring suburbs like Mission and Prairie Village will have significantly less interesting and charming housing stock than areas across state line and will be more isolated from more urban walkable areas. Briarcliff is in a really nice area and some of the best topography of the metro and would be a very quick commute to hospital hill and Broadway, but it's pretty suburban and disconnected from downtown because of the river.

I would try to make Brookside or South Plaza work if you can. I think that will be the closest thing you will find to what you are looking for. But you would probably have to go with private schools although I think the charter schools and many public elementary schools are fine in the area, it's just the higher grades that become an issue.

I'll be honest on this one. KC is a terrible biking city. For a major city, it's just real bad. There is almost no bike infrastructure (bike lanes, urban trails etc) compared to almost any other major city and what it does have is barely used so it's almost like there is just no demand. That doesn't mean you can't bike in KC, you can. JoCo has a decent network of winding suburban trails, but they are sort of boring (not much to see) and more for exercise and not a lifestyle like urban trails are. The trolley track trail is nice, the buses all have racks (that are also rarely used) etc. When I lived in Brookside, I would ride my bike to Crown Center (same distance as the Children's Mercy locations) quite often. But not many people do it. KC surprisingly has a bike share system, something not all cities have, so they are trying. But they have a long way to go.

KC is a nice city, I just hope you can find what you want. I try to be honest on these forums and not everybody likes that. But KC still seriously lacks what you describe. It's a very sprawly metro with a lot of blight, tons of uncongested roads and not very many people outside of their cars, even in urban areas. In most cities, residents as well as suburbanites flood urban parks and bike trails etc on evenings and weekends, that is not the case in KC. There are only a few very small pockets of real urban neighborhood activity and even fewer that are family friendly.

But Brookside and South Plaza will be as close to this as you can get. You can walk to the Plaza, the trolley trail is great for getting to Downtown Brookside, Waldo, UMKC etc. You have decent transit options. Loose Park is probably the only true urban vibrant park in all of KC and it's right there. Children's Mercy would be a short commute. You can live in a charming historic walkable area and still be very close to both the city and suburban shopping out south.

Good luck. I'm sure you will like KC and I know for sure you will help make it even better.

[edxmit]

Very perceptive KCMO. You are right - in Canada everyone wants to live inner city. The only reason people do not live inner city is when they can't afford the price/space ratio, ie they want a bigger home and move to the suburbs. I do sense that the US is different in that regard (of course there are exceptions).

Based on the feedback here in the forum, I think we'll try to find a place in Brookside or South Plaza. I'm very grateful for the feedback on this forum because I really had no idea what neighbourhoods would be ideal for us in KC. In retrospect Mission and Westwood are definitely not the places we would resonate with.

[Tenebrae]

My mom's condo is in the Plaza area, is specifically safe and walkable, and occasionally has units for rent. I'm honestly very happy that she found that place. The doormen there are all very good to her, and they have an enclosed parking garage.
The condo is called Oak Hall and is at 4550 Warwick. It's across the street from a park, and walking distance to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and a nearby art college.
I know a lot of the people who live there are elderly or retired, but there are also families and younger folks.

Only chiming in because you mentioned condos. Yeah, the building is older, but they have Google Fibre!

-T.

[kucorrinne]

Congrats on your upcoming move. How exciting for you!
My family lives in Brookside with our 2 small children. The sidewalks may be a little older and broken in some places, but the amenities of the area more than make up for it. We are a short stroll from wonderful restaurants, shops, 2 grocery stores, parks and a great farmer's market. Our neighborhood is wonderful and there are a wide range of houses available, from small bungalows to larger homes with room to spare. We love it.
Those are the plusses, but to be honest with you, there are break-ins in the area. Every couple of months there is a new rash of them, but the thieves go out of their way to avoid people. It is purely for property. I've never felt unsafe walking around my neighborhood with my kids and we all look out for each other. With the exception of a few charter schools, the public schools are the areas true downside. However, if you have the budget for private schools or the desire for a parochial school, you will be fine.
I don't know what the real estate market is like in Canada, but here in Kansas City you can get a lot more for your dollar if you are in a position to buy. Houses rent for much more than the mortgage payment on the same house would be.

[brooksider2brooklyn]

BKS Eh? Yes you will love Brookside! The plaza area is nice too. The rest of the metro? Just meh, but livable.

Choose the plaza or brookside areas and you will enjoy your time in kc. Choose another area and you may regret it.