Northern Missouri Images (Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia: relocation, travel, rental)

[tdgrinstead]

Hello, everyone. I just got back home to California after a 5-day trip to Northern Missouri. When I went, it was to investigate Saint Joseph for possible relocation later this year. First of all, I am sure that St. Joseph is a great town, lets just say that it was not what I was looking for. I wanted old town Americana. The small town looks and feel. Saint Joseph has some great old buildings, it is a shame that it has been allowed to fall apart. My camera was not working that day so I did not get any photos and I did not feel the need to drive back during my trip. If you live in and love St. Joseph, I am not saying it was bad. It was just not what I was looking for. I put about 1,000 miles on the rental car in the 5 days that I was there. Driving all around northern Missouri. If you follow the link attached, it will take you to a slide show that I posted of my trip. I fell in love with a town in Platte County called Parksville. Thanks for all of the info for my trip and I hope you enjoy the slideshow.

Tim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJZnMXw6QU

[Marks]

Originally Posted by tdgrinstead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJZnMXw6QU

Great photos tim!!!

[txgrl]

Beautiful photos. Thanks so much for sharing!

[MoMark]

Originally Posted by tdgrinstead

Hello, everyone. I just got back home to California after a 5-day trip to Northern Missouri. When I went, it was to investigate Saint Joseph for possible relocation later this year. First of all, I am sure that St. Joseph is a great town, lets just say that it was not what I was looking for. I wanted old town Americana. The small town looks and feel. Saint Joseph has some great old buildings, it is a shame that it has been allowed to fall apart. My camera was not working that day so I did not get any photos and I did not feel the need to drive back during my trip. If you live in and love St. Joseph, I am not saying it was bad. It was just not what I was looking for. I put about 1,000 miles on the rental car in the 5 days that I was there. Driving all around northern Missouri. If you follow the link attached, it will take you to a slide show that I posted of my trip. I fell in love with a town in Platte County called Parksville. Thanks for all of the info for my trip and I hope you enjoy the slideshow.

Tim, if you liked the country and atmosphere, even though you didn't care for St. Joseph itself, you may like Columbia, Missouri. I wish I could recommend Springfield from that slant because although I love living here, it's not beautiful as far as "old town" goes, even its town square is kind of 'mall-like'. But, another town with a traditional feel to it with old buildings, about 10,000 residents, close to us here, full hospital and college, etc. is Bolivar, Missouri. Bolivar is beautiful and totally flag-waver Americana

[tdgrinstead]

I have family in the Northland area of Kansas City. One of the reasons for moving was to be near them...

[MO~orphan]

Tim, did you check out Hannibal on the other side of the state?

[QuintusCinna]

Back in May of this year, I also traveled through Northern Missouri because I was interested. Living in Oregon, I see diversity in houses, old new, bad and good. When I traveled between Columbia to St. Joseph in hopes of finding a nice, architecturally sound town, I was rather surprised. Let me give examples so you know where I am coming from. Let me rate the quality of the average Oregon house as 70% with building codes. I would rate the average Californian house that I have seen as 78%. As for the houses and commercial property in northern Missouri, I would rate their building quality as 50%. What I mean is that in Marceline, Linneus, and Brookfield of Linn County, I found trees growing in the middle of their front porches, facades that were falling forward or tilting sideways from disrepair, only half the buildings were painted within 10 years, and many commercial buildings using metal siding. It was bad, very bad. It was Marceline that I was the most interested in, and when I asked the Mayor's office in Marceline details about housing in Walt Disney's hometown (aka "Main Street USA"), the lady said very proudly that Marceline doesn't have any building codes. It finally made sense and made me suspect this was a similar case in other towns of Northern Missouri. There's nobody condemning houses that should be condemned. There's no fines for letting a house decay and fall apart. There's no repairing and use of historical preservation in these areas that I found. If people in the area challenge me on this, I can only repute that I saw an extreme number of houses with trees pushing through the front porch (not little ones either), leaning at 30 degrees, or doors and windows that were broken or hanging from hinges. As a tourist and future investor, this is a deterance, no matter how beautiful the sunsets are.

[MO~orphan]

I don't know what to tell you, except that you sure picked a bad area, in my opinion. My town has a population of 400 and we do not allow delapidated building to remain standing without repair. There are fines!

[christina0001]

Thank you for sharing your pictures and thoughts!

[TwistedSister]

Originally Posted by tdgrinstead

Hello, everyone. I just got back home to California after a 5-day trip to Northern Missouri. When I went, it was to investigate Saint Joseph for possible relocation later this year. First of all, I am sure that St. Joseph is a great town, lets just say that it was not what I was looking for. I wanted old town Americana. The small town looks and feel. Saint Joseph has some great old buildings, it is a shame that it has been allowed to fall apart. My camera was not working that day so I did not get any photos and I did not feel the need to drive back during my trip. If you live in and love St. Joseph, I am not saying it was bad. It was just not what I was looking for. I put about 1,000 miles on the rental car in the 5 days that I was there. Driving all around northern Missouri. If you follow the link attached, it will take you to a slide show that I posted of my trip. I fell in love with a town in Platte County called Parksville. Thanks for all of the info for my trip and I hope you enjoy the slideshow.

Tim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJZnMXw6QU

I'M not surprised you fell in love with "Parksville". Actually it is Parkville. I live in Kansas City and I'd give anything to be able to live there, however its not something I can afford to do. It is a VERY nice area and I noticed you look for hometown feel so you are right on the money there. I cannot say enough good things about Parkville. You would like it much. Its close enough to KC, a stone's throw, to have access to all the KC stuff, but in your own little corner of the world.