Kansas City Coming Into Its Own (apartment, homes, neighborhood)

[Weaubleau]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/t...ouri.html?_r=0


Here is a recent article in the NY times giving KC props for its beer and barbecue as well as how it is an up and coming city. Nice to see more and more people around the country recognizing what we have here!

[rwiksell]

Fantastic article. The writer doesn't seem to get that there's a difference between KCK and Johnson County (in claiming that Missouri is more expensive, but it's because he's comparing the most expensive part of the Missouri side to the cheapest part of the Kansas side.) But you can only expect so much from the New York Times.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

Fantastic article. The writer doesn't seem to get that there's a difference between KCK and Johnson County (in claiming that Missouri is more expensive, but it's because he's comparing the most expensive part of the Missouri side to the cheapest part of the Kansas side.) But you can only expect so much from the New York Times.

After the paper published a bunch of stats on the Philadelphia neighborhood of Mt. Airy that I couldn't match up with any numbers I had on the actual place, I'm not surprised at all to hear this.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

After the paper published a bunch of stats on the Philadelphia neighborhood of Mt. Airy that I couldn't match up with any numbers I had on the actual place, I'm not surprised at all to hear this.

For the record, I trust the Times to be factual. Just not to grasp the nuances that exist between one Midwest neighborhood and the next.

[TabulaRasa]

New York-based writers generally always seem to write travelogues like they have gone on an anthropological fact-finding mission on another planet.

[kcmo]

He visited the city. When people visit a city to see what a city is all about, they generally don't care about suburbia at all. You might visit NYC and stay right across the river in Jersey City or Hoboken, but you are not going to stay in any further than that if you want access to Manhattan.

In the city, the MO side is much more expensive than the Kansas side as far as KCMO vs KCK. He stayed in Rosedale for part of the trip and noticed the KCK side was suburban compared to the MO side which is true. I doubt he ever set foot in Johnson County.

Even though this story really has nothing to do with JoCo, generally the nice parts of KCMO from the River Market to Brookside will cost more than a similar size home or apartment in Johnson County. This is true for a river market apartment compared to an overland park apartment or a ward parkway mansion compared to a mission hills mansion (of similar size). It's not like he's comparing Prospect to Hallbrook. When comparing apples to apples, it's not out of the ordinary for the MO side to be more expensive and that gap is widening. Areas like the River Market, Downtown and the Plaza will cost you more per sq ft than a similar luxury apartment in the nicest parts of Johnson County.

So it actually makes total sense that the MO side would be more expensive than the KS side. There is nothing actually urban on the KS side to even compare to. Similar to Cincy/KY only Covington KY is much nicer and more urban than KCK.

Suburban homes in JoCo are about the same price as a similar home in the MO suburbs. Maybe 10% more if you are closer to College Blvd etc. The difference is the average home price in JoCo is considerably higher than the average home price in most of the MO suburbs because the MO side is much more economically diverse, even in the newer suburbs.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by kcmo

He visited the city. When people visit a city to see what a city is all about, they generally don't care about suburbia at all. You might visit NYC and stay right across the river in Jersey City or Hoboken, but you are not going to stay in any further than that if you want access to Manhattan.

In the city, the MO side is much more expensive than the Kansas side as far as KCMO vs KCK. He stayed in Rosedale for part of the trip and noticed the KCK side was suburban compared to the MO side which is true. I doubt he ever set foot in Johnson County.

Even though this story really has nothing to do with JoCo, generally the nice parts of KCMO from the River Market to Brookside will cost more than a similar size home or apartment in Johnson County. This is true for a river market apartment compared to an overland park apartment or a ward parkway mansion compared to a mission hills mansion (of similar size). It's not like he's comparing Prospect to Hallbrook. When comparing apples to apples, it's not out of the ordinary for the MO side to be more expensive and that gap is widening. Areas like the River Market, Downtown and the Plaza will cost you more per sq ft than a similar luxury apartment in the nicest parts of Johnson County.

So it actually makes total sense that the MO side would be more expensive than the KS side. There is nothing actually urban on the KS side to even compare to. Similar to Cincy/KY only Covington KY is much nicer and more urban than KCK.

Suburban homes in JoCo are about the same price as a similar home in the MO suburbs. Maybe 10% more if you are closer to College Blvd etc. The difference is the average home price in JoCo is considerably higher than the average home price in most of the MO suburbs because the MO side is much more economically diverse, even in the newer suburbs.

I agree with all this. I guess it was just that his nomenclature was clunky. But again, it's to be expected.

[kcmo]

Nobody out there reads this stuff anyway. There is almost nothing KC (or any city between Philly and LA, except maybe Chicago) can do to get the attention of New Yorkers.

They don't care. Stories like this are published so they can be shared and cherished by the people in the cities they are writing about. That's it. It is what it is.

Nobody from NYC is going to visit KC. But stories like this floating around social media are great for the city. Somebody in Tulsa might see it and make a weekend trip out of it!

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Nobody out there reads this stuff anyway. There is almost nothing KC (or any city between Philly and LA, except maybe Chicago) can do to get the attention of New Yorkers.

They don't care. Stories like this are published so they can be shared and cherished by the people in the cities they are writing about. That's it. It is what it is.

Nobody from NYC is going to visit KC. But stories like this floating around social media are great for the city. Somebody in Tulsa might see it and make a weekend trip out of it!

My travel-indudstry-insider friend here in Philly, who I'm about to knock back a beer or two with at the Pen & Pencil Club (our local press club - the oldest one in continuous daily operation in the country), tells me she's getting increased inquiries from locals about visiting Kansas City.

She also posted when I shared this, "We need to pay more attention to the cities of the interior. We focus way too much on the coasts."

New Yorkers are always in search of new experiences to brag about. You never know - you might see a few coming out that way to try the Q now.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

New York-based writers generally always seem to write travelogues like they have gone on an anthropological fact-finding mission on another planet.

Sometimes even locals engage in this sort of thing.

This poor South Jersey resident got beat up verbally by several Philadelphians (including me) for this gee-whiz description of a trip on the city's oldest and busiest rapid transit line:

I rode the El from end to end for the first time | Philly.com