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Kansas City, Kansas is basically a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.
When people think of, or hear about, Kansas City, it is usually the one in Missouri.
That's where the Chiefs and Royals play. It's where the Country Club Plaza is located.
The Nelson-Atkins art museum is in MO, as well as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the numerous theater venues. The Liberty Memorial, WW1 Museum, ALL the big buildings downtown, the international airport, as well as the old downtown airport.... all in Missouri. The boulevards, the fountains, Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun... in Missouri.
Sprint Center, Power & Light District, City Market, 18th & Vine, Crossroads Arts District... all are in Missouri.
Kansas City, Kansas has the NASCAR track and the Legends shopping center. Also, a Schlitterbahn (?) water park is being built there. The T-Bones minor-league baseball team plays there.
The one in Missouri has a very wide mix of dense urban development, as well as numerous suburban-type areas old and new, and even wide open countryside (for now).
KCK, as it's known, has some older neighborhoods, some newer ones, and some open space as well, but not much in the way of true "urban" development.
KCMO takes up portions of 5 counties, while KCK is in 1.
Both have some very nice areas, and both have some very crime-ridden parts.
Ward Parkway in KCMO is a gorgeous old street lined with mansions from the early part of the 20th century. The Paseo at one time was the middle-class alternative, but now.. not so great. Still kind of pretty, though.
Okay dig, it is very easy, and quite natural to assume that a city would be named after it's home state. Where do these names actually come from? Missouri? Kansas? Illinois? These states are named after the Native American tribes found in the regions respectively, by their European settlers. The state of Missouri is named after the Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe (via the Missouri river.) Kansas (the state) is named after the Kansa Nation. Now, the town of Kansas City (not Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas. Just "Kansas City") was originally settled in 1833 as "West Port" by John Calvin-McCoy. Roughly one year later McCoy established a river-side landing on the Missouri river, for boats to access, which he called "West Port Landing."
At this time, this area of the "Midwest" was basically French. (the French had purchased the land from the Spanish) "Detroit" for example, is a French word meaning "straight," and is pronounced de-TWA in French. The French explorers/fur traders of the region referred to the natives they encountered as the Cansez. In fact, François Gesseau Chouteau established the first permanent trading post in the area which he referred to as "le village de la Cansez" (the village of the Kansa) as early as 1821.
In the mid 1830's a group of investors created the "Town of Kansas Company" ("Kansas" being the English spelling for the French "Cansez") and bought the land surrounding West Port Landing. Fast forward to March 28th 1853 when the town was officially incorporated as the "City of Kansas." Now to make an even longer story much shorter, the Kansas Territory was established in 1854, while the state of Kansas wasn't admitted to the Union until 1861. So, in this case specifically, the city (in Missouri) was named "Kansas" before the state, or even the territory was named the same thing by the federal government.
A lot of this will be opinion, so feel free to object or disagree with me. I feel like the difference between the actual cities is a lot like the difference between the north side of Chicago, and the south side of Chicago. Kansas City, MO would be the north side+downtown Chicago, to KCK's south side. By this I mean that, when most people think "Chicago" they are thinking of downtown/the north side, not that one is better than the other or preferred unanimously by everyone. People that live on the Kansas-side don't necessarily envy those that stay on the Missouri-side, citizens usually prefer THEIR side, whichever it is. More specific differences (like taxes etc.) are more easily understood when you consider that the very city of Kansas City, Kan was initially a suburb of Kansas City, MO. In fact, the actual suburbs in the Kansas City, Kansas metro are much larger than the anchor city, and have much better economies, and opportunities. Places like Overland Park, Kan, and Olathe, Kan (pronounced 0h-LAY-thuh) for instance. Anyone agree? disagree?
A lot of this will be opinion, so feel free to object or disagree with me. I feel like the difference between the actual cities is a lot like the difference between the north side of Chicago, and the south side of Chicago. Kansas City, MO would be the north side+downtown Chicago, to KCK's south side. By this I mean that, when most people think "Chicago" they are thinking of downtown/the north side, not that one is better than the other or preferred unanimously by everyone. People that live on the Kansas-side don't necessarily envy those that stay on the Missouri-side, citizens usually prefer THEIR side, whichever it is. More specific differences (like taxes etc.) are more easily understood when you consider that the very city of Kansas City, Kan was initially a suburb of Kansas City, MO. In fact, the actual suburbs in the Kansas City, Kansas metro are much larger than the anchor city, and have much better economies, and opportunities. Places like Overland Park, Kan, and Olathe, Kan (pronounced 0h-LAY-thuh) for instance. Anyone agree? disagree?
I agree with some of your sentiments but Olathe and Overland Park are not suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas and are actually considered part of the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area.
I agree with some of your sentiments but Olathe and Overland Park are not suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas and are actually considered part of the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area.
Uh, Kansas City, Kansas is part of the KCMO metropolitan area too.
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