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Old 06-21-2014, 10:34 PM
 
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So my brother in law is moving to Kansas City KS for a three year project, and he is looking to rent a three bed or bigger apartment. What would be the best area for family environment?
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Old 06-22-2014, 07:03 AM
 
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Makes no difference. They are more or less indistinguishable. Choose the one closest to his job.
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Old 06-22-2014, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Saint Louis, MO
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Agreed, the differences are negligible at best. We lived in Olathe for about a year and loved it, would have been a great area with a family. We had friends who lived in Overland Park as well, which was also fantastic. My wife stayed in an Apartment in Mission (close to Shawnee) and it also wasn't bad. When we were choosing to purchase a home, we considered every area listed above.

I agree with the previous poster, find the location close to his job and look for an apartment/house they like. The actual location really won't make much (if any) difference.
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Old 06-22-2014, 09:02 PM
 
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ll0OoO0ll View Post
So my brother in law is moving to Kansas City KS for a three year project, and he is looking to rent a three bed or bigger apartment. What would be the best area for family environment?
I believe what you mean by "Kansas City KS" is the Kansas side of the KC metro, but nobody says it that way. Kansas City, KS is a city that has nothing to do with Shawnee, Overland Park, and Olathe.

Kansas City, KS is a large city with a diverse array of areas and a diverse population.

Shawnee is a mid-sized suburb that leans conservative and maybe more blue-collar or otherwise modest middle class. There are older areas in the east, including the city's downtown area centered at Johnson Dr and Nieman Rd, and newer areas to the west, with the newest being along the 7 highway corridor. Shawnee is pretty quiet overall and mostly a bedroom community, and is pretty quiet and family oriented, but there are some business parks there close to I-35. The older/eastern parts are in the Shawnee Mission School District. Most of the newer development is in the Desoto School District.

Overland Park is Kansas City's largest suburb and is the corporate power suburb. There are lots of offices parks and large office buildings, the metro's largest and best indoor mall, lots of retail and restaurants that draw people from all over the region and from out of town, a convention center, lots of hotels, and lots of traffic. Overland Park sees a lot of visitors from outside the area. It's a busy, bustling place. Southern Overland Park is the newest area and others have compared it to mega Southwestern-style suburbs. The roads are wide, the speed limits are high, and it's definitely very suburban. Southern Overland Park is very white collar too, with a lot of middle-class diversity (lots of Indians, for example). Southern Overland Park (south of 435) is in the Blue Valley School District, which is often considered the best school district in the metro and is likely the most affluent. Central Overland Park (just north of 435) is older and more modest, but still a nice area. It's what southern Overland Park used to be. It's in the Shawnee Mission School District. Northern Overland Park is more modest with smaller homes (small 50's ranch houses are common). And Overland Park does have a downtown area, which is very nice with a variety of restaurants and shops and centered at about 80th St and Sante Fe Dr (just east of Metcalf, the main thoroughfare). The northern part of the city has become more diverse in recent years, especially the apartment complexes, as the Hispanic population has risen.

Olathe is also a large suburb and is fast growing. It will soon surpass Kansas City, KS in population. Olathe is a major center of employment, but blue collar and white collar, with Garmin's (GPS company) HQ being the most prominent employer. But there are a ton of business and industrial parks in and around Olathe. It's very family oriented, is fairly modest but diverse, leans conservative, has a sizeable religious population, and is location of the HQ of the Church of the Nazarene. Despite being family-oriented, Olathe is bustling and fast paced. There's lots of traffic, it's a busy place. With the new intermodal hub to the southwest, Olathe and adjoining suburbs are expected to continue to see major growth. Olathe is mostly in the Olathe School District, which offers a variety of choices. The Olathe North High School area is largely working class and Hispanic. Olathe does have a downtown area and is the county seat of Johnson County, and while the downtown is clean, there's just not much there in terms of shops and restaurants.

Anyway, I disagree with others that these cities aren't much different. You probably need to take into account what I've said here, do some further research, and go out in person and get a feel for each area. Good luck.
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Old 06-22-2014, 09:36 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MOKAN View Post
I believe what you mean by "Kansas City KS" is the Kansas side of the KC metro, but nobody says it that way. Kansas City, KS is a city that has nothing to do with Shawnee, Overland Park, and Olathe.

Kansas City, KS is a large city with a diverse array of areas and a diverse population.
Good post, I would agree, that those three suburban cities while having many similar suburban sprawl type neighborhoods, also have some substantial differences. For one Olathe and OP are very large suburbs, so you will find many different areas of those cities alone. Southern OP and northern OP are VERY different areas both esthetically and socially. Olathe is all over the place as well. Shawnee is smaller, but it also has very different areas. Western Shawnee is nothing like eastern Shawnee. Western Shawnee is like Southern Overland Park with hills.

As far as KCK...

I hear this all the time. It's like people think the KC area is two metropolitan areas (like Dallas/Fort Worth or Minneapolis/St Paul or Tampa/St Pete) combined.

Of course that's the people that know that metro is in two states. I would say that half the people in the country don't even know that, so labeling the entire KS side as "Kansas City Kansas" is like step two in understanding KC geography. You have to live in the area for years or decades to finally understand things like Northland, KC North vs NKC etc .

KCK does have an urban core, but it's not a "big city" urban core like Fort Worth, St Paul etc. and it's certainly nothing like Kansas City, Missouri's urban core. It was at one time just KCMO's little industrial brother across the river with a smallish, yet independent downtown. But it has always been a blue collar single family home bedroom community to KCMO.

Now, I think most would consider it a large suburb of KCMO like Independence and Overland Park. Just like Overland Park is a large white collar suburb of KCMO, KCK is a large blue collar suburb of KCMO. Metro KC is much more like a normal single urban center metro area than a two urban core metroplex. Things could be different today, but the KS side only grows suburban, so KCK has not matured or become more relevant as an urban center. If anything it has become more suburban, but for the most part, most of the city is stuck in a time warp from the 1950's and 60's. It's built environment looks the same as it did 50 years ago, but it's nowhere near as vibrant (very little retail, pedestrians, transit use etc). Although KCK has become rather diverse ethnically.

KCK is an interesting place. I find it to be one of the most oddball places in the entire country especially for it being literally a mile away from the downtown center of a major metropolitan area.

Last edited by kcmo; 06-22-2014 at 09:45 PM..
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Old 06-22-2014, 09:53 PM
 
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Shawnee is the closest to Kansas City, Kansas, if that is where his job is. To me, Overland Park and Shawnee are better than Olathe. But, it depends WHERE in Shawnee and Overland Park you are talking about too. All areas are safe, but some parts are better than others. Olathe is okay too, just a little different vibe.
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Old 06-23-2014, 09:23 AM
 
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Not sure if this is important factor but Olathe and Shawnee have Google Fiber agreements, Overland Park does not yet. If he wants fairly cheap high speed (gigabit) Internet or the free low speed, might be something to consider. But could take another year or so to even rollout to first suburb.
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Old 06-23-2014, 10:03 AM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,089,721 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luzianne View Post
Shawnee is the closest to Kansas City, Kansas, if that is where his job is. To me, Overland Park and Shawnee are better than Olathe. But, it depends WHERE in Shawnee and Overland Park you are talking about too. All areas are safe, but some parts are better than others. Olathe is okay too, just a little different vibe.
I think Olathe feels a little more "small town" than other JoCo cities. Probably since it was an independent small town before the suburbs grew into it.

KCK isn't a big city at all. I looked the the population is only around 150K at best. And so much of it is rural to semi-rural. Yes, it's an odd place.
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Old 06-23-2014, 11:12 AM
 
Location: Kansas City MO
654 posts, read 618,279 times
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I would rank them- Old Overland Park- 1, New Overland Park- 2 Shawnee -3 Olathe -4 . Any of this group would be fine. The home construction in Olathe, from what I understand left much to be desired in the past, plus it is the furthest out of the three, although western Shawnee would give it a run for its money for being furthest out. Nice sections of older OP would be my choice, with newer, southern OP being second. Of course real estate prices will also somehwat reflect this preference as well.
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Old 06-23-2014, 02:48 PM
 
13,721 posts, read 19,117,142 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by denverian View Post
I think Olathe feels a little more "small town" than other JoCo cities. Probably since it was an independent small town before the suburbs grew into it.

KCK isn't a big city at all. I looked the the population is only around 150K at best. And so much of it is rural to semi-rural. Yes, it's an odd place.
In the 80s we had friends who moved from Merriam to Olathe. We rarely went to visit them because it seemed SO far. You would drive I-35 and there were actually miles of NOTHING and I think that's what made it seem so far. Now you can get there driving through town, but the highway's a lot faster! And it's not as far as it seemed back then.
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