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RE: Some Kansas images: Prairie, the Royals & diehard baseball, What's the Matter with Kansas?, the Westboro Baptist Church and the whole conservative area of Topeka
One thing I've noticed during my adult life is that people aren't aware there are TWO Kansas City cities. There is Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas but both happen to be connected but separated by the Missouri River. They started out at the same time no doubt but the river is the dividing line of the two. The thing to note is that the Missouri River is also the State Line between the two for the most part.
The Kansas City Royals are on the Missouri side. Kansas City, Kansas has no professional sports teams that I know of. They have in very recent years built the Live-Strong Soccer Complex and the T-Bones Baseball (owned by Frank White) stadium as well. They built the NASCAR speedway in the same area also. This area at I-435 and I-70 interchange has gone through drastic changes and improvements. It's clean and vibrant at this time. They have worked hard to gear it towards a more upscale group of people and it seems to have worked.
Otherwise, Kansas City, Kansas (urban core) is unfortunately known as a bit of a rough area and crime rate is high there. Not sure why. I have been told there are low income Hispanics that mostly comprise the Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) side of the line. Having said that, KCM (Missouri side) has its fair share of violent crime.
I hear that Wichita and St. Louis have high crime rate and gang related activities also. Something the police have a hard time getting a handle on.
Missouri and Kansas are basically farm land with a few cities here and there of course. The folks here are very conservative. The educational system is way behind the systems on the east and west coast. Thats unfortunate but they way it is nonetheless.
Both States are mostly rural with weather extremes. AND very muddy water! We don't call it the Mighty Missouri River here...we call it the Muddy Missouri River.
Well, I think you are grossly over simplifying the differences between KCMO and KCK.
About the only similarities the cities have is their name and some similar industrial districts and both have annexed a lot of land extending their original city limits, but that's where the similarities end for the most part.
KCMO actually has much worse crime problems than KCK, although they are generally concentrated on the east side of KCMO while much of KCMO is very nice and vibrant. KCK on the other hand has less hard core violent crime than KCMO, however KCK has more blight and is more poor overall across the entire city with no affluent areas like KCMO has. KCMO also has several major business districts like downtown, crown center and the plaza, plus the suburban office districts near the airport that is in the city limits. KCK has almost no office space and the space it has is generally county and state offices.
Other differences:
First off, KCMO is older and was established long before the state of Kansas was even a state.
KCMO is obviously larger, but the more important difference is its built infrastructure. KCMO is much more urban than KCK. Even the old parts of KCK is mostly modest wood frame single family homes in working class neighborhoods. KCMO just has a lot more urban substance with entire neighborhoods of multi story brick apartments, more stately single family homes and dense urban highrise districts like the Plaza, Armour Blvd, Broadway and of course the Downtown area.
Also, the cultural difference is not even comparable. It's not just that KCMO has the pro sports, but it has all the museums, fountains, boulevards, entertainment districts etc that make KC unique and interesting.
KCMO has always had the pro sports venues, concert venues, major airport, amusement parks, convention center, zoo etc.
KCMO is where you have to live in metro KC for an urban lifestyle. Period.
KCK's historic highlight is the opening of the suburban Indian Springs Mall (now vacant), not the construction of skyscrapers, museums or pro sports venues.
KCK is basically a blue collar suburb of KCMO and is not even as large or on the same level as Overland Park, another Kansas side suburb. KCK only has about 150,000 people while Johnson County, KS (which is also a suburb of KCMO) has over a half million.
My point is that it's hardly even worth comparing KCK to KCMO other than trying to clarify the confusion with the names which I would agree that only about 5% of the people in this country outside of about 150 miles of metro KC understand.
Metro KC is one urban core city (kcmo) with an urban population of about 300k (rest of kcmo is suburban) surrounded by almost 2 million people in suburban areas in both MO and KS. Some of the suburbs like KCK and Independence, MO have urban characteristics and very historic areas, but today, they are very much suburbs.
Outside the 5% that actually understand KC's geography, this is what most people think the KC area is like:
1. Never even heard of Kansas City, Missouri, thought the entire city was in Kansas.
2. Knew there were two Kansas Cities, but thought they were nowhere near each other.
3. Knew there were two Kansas Cities, but figured the bigger one was in Kansas and that MO one just had the sports teams (like the Jets playing in Jersey).
4. It's just one city with one city hall and one mayor that happens to be in two states.
[color=Purple]There is Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas but both happen to be connected but separated by the Missouri River. They started out at the same time no doubt but the river is the dividing line of the two. The thing to note is that the Missouri River is also the State Line between the two for the most part.
I've wondered why Missouri would adopt the "Kansas" in it's city name rather than call it Missouri City,MO. Anyone know the story behind this? In other states you would have "New York" City or "Oklahoma" City.
I've wondered why Missouri would adopt the "Kansas" in it's city name rather than call it Missouri City,MO. Anyone know the story behind this? In other states you would have "New York" City or "Oklahoma" City.
Kansas City Missouri was established before Kansas was a state.
The city was named after the Kansa Indians.
It was originally called the Town of Kansa, then named the City of Kansas and then Kansas City (again, all before Kansas ever became a state).
As KCMO was becoming a large city, what is now KCK was called Wyandotte, Kansas.
Kansas City Kansas came about after a collection of small cities on the Kansas side (including the biggest of them all, Wyandotte) merged. One of those cities was called Kansas City, but it was very small industrial area.
This new merged city in Kansas chose the name Kansas City because they wanted to take on the name recognition of KCMO which was a booming urban city at the time.
So basically, Kansas City, MO came first. Kansas and Kansas City, Kansas came later.
Kansas City Missouri was established before Kansas was a state.
The city was named after the Kansa Indians.
It was originally called the Town of Kansa, then named the City of Kansas and then Kansas City (again, all before Kansas ever became a state).
As KCMO was becoming a large city, what is now KCK was called Wyandotte, Kansas.
Kansas City Kansas came about after a collection of small cities on the Kansas side (including the biggest of them all, Wyandotte) merged. One of those cities was called Kansas City, but it was very small industrial area.
This new merged city in Kansas chose the name Kansas City because they wanted to take on the name recognition of KCMO which was a booming urban city at the time.
So basically, Kansas City, MO came first. Kansas and Kansas City, Kansas came later.
Interesting, I didn't even know that, thanks kcmo.
Interesting, I didn't even know that, thanks kcmo.
I would say that 90% of people that live in metro KC don't even know the history of the names of KCMO and KCK so when people ask them, they don't really give the correct awsner.
So basically, Kansas City, MO came first. Kansas and Kansas City, Kansas came later.
Close, but not quite accurate. The portion of Indian Territory inhabited by Kansa Indians was called "Kansas" at least as early as 1829, when the Delaware Indians were relocated there, because their treaty uses the word "Kansas" to refer to what is now Wyandotte County. Kansas City did not have a corporate name until 1845, after experimenting with a few different possibilities. Locals began using the words Kansas City to distinguish the town of Kansas from Kansas Territory, which was officially so named in 1854, but was referred to as Kansas for decades before.
Short version: the first use of the word Kansas was a reference to what eventually became the state. KC was named after the same indian tribe as the state of Kansas.
I simply stated that Kansas City, MO was a city before Kansas was a state or before KCK was a city. How is that inaccurate?
Kansas City, MO and Kansas were both named after the Kansa Indians. I stated that.
Kansas City, MO was founded in 1838 and established as a city in 1850. The “Territory of Kansas” (which included part much of Colorado) was not even incorporated till after Kansas City ,MO was established as a city and the portion of the Territory of Kansas that became Kansas could have been named anything when it finally became a state in 1861, eleven years after KCMO was a city. It could have been called Colorado or Wyandotte. Bottom line is that KCMO was a city named after the Kansa Indians and a city that was well on its way before the state of Kansas was established. The city of Wyandotte, KS is the one that actually changed their name to Kansas City, Kansas even later in the game.
KCMO was a growing industrial city when the state of kansas was still trying to figure out its boundaries an official name and before much smaller Wyandotte, KS changed their name to Kansas City, KS.
When I first visited (Eastern) Kansas, I was surprised to find the natural topography much less boring than say Illinois or Iowa...
I'm guessing you've never been to Southern Illinois or state parks like Starved Rock? Illinois has corn fields, for sure, but it has a little bit of everything. Southern Illinois is beautiful and forested, and it even has some coal mining and swamp lands.
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