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The southern influences would be a very large contingent of people from the South that have moved there over time, being close to the South geographically, being surrounded by the Bible Belt, and much milder climate with little winter weather at all compared to the majority of the Midwest.
Statistics would prove otherwise, Mainline Protestants outnumber Evangelicals and people of religion themselves are the minority, representing only 37% of the population, according to this site anyway.
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The southern influences would be a very large contingent of people from the South that have moved there over time, being close to the South geographically, being surrounded by the Bible Belt, and much milder climate with little winter weather at all compared to the majority of the Midwest.
Counters to these points:
* If you include African-Americans, I can think of more midwestern cities which have "a very large contingent of people from the South that have moved there over time" than don't. Even if you exclude the Great Migration, places like Columbus and Dayton are known for having lots of people with origins in Kentucky, and I'm sure there are other examples.
* A lot of places in the Midwest are "close to the South geographically." I can get in my car on the near west side of Cleveland and be in West Virginia in two hours. Sure, WV isn't the deep south, but neither is anything near Kansas City (Memphis, a seven-hour drive away, would be about the closest, in my book). Enid, Okla., is 4 1/2 hours southwest of KC, and that's still considered by many, maybe even most, to be part of the Midwest.
* I would not call KC "surrounded by the Bible Belt." Is the mix of Christian denominations different from Chicago or Detroit? Yes. Is it typical of the lower Midwest (Columbus, Indy, etc.)? Also yes.
* It gets awfully cold in Kansas City in the winter, especially with the wind coming off the plains. It's one of the warmer midwestern cities, but its weather isn't qualitatively different from other spots in the Midwest. Sure, KC's weather has similarities both to Omaha and to Dallas, but which one is it more similar to?
* If you include African-Americans, I can think of more midwestern cities which have "a very large contingent of people from the South that have moved there over time" than don't. Even if you exclude the Great Migration, places like Columbus and Dayton are known for having lots of people with origins in Kentucky, and I'm sure there are other examples.
* A lot of places in the Midwest are "close to the South geographically." I can get in my car on the near west side of Cleveland and be in West Virginia in two hours. Sure, WV isn't the deep south, but neither is anything near Kansas City (Memphis, a seven-hour drive away, would be about the closest, in my book). Enid, Okla., is 4 1/2 hours southwest of KC, and that's still considered by many, maybe even most, to be part of the Midwest.
* I would not call KC "surrounded by the Bible Belt." Is the mix of Christian denominations different from Chicago or Detroit? Yes. Is it typical of the lower Midwest (Columbus, Indy, etc.)? Also yes.
* It gets awfully cold in Kansas City in the winter, especially with the wind coming off the plains. It's one of the warmer midwestern cities, but its weather isn't qualitatively different from other spots in the Midwest. Sure, KC's weather has similarities both to Omaha and to Dallas, but which one is it more similar to?
Very solid points. One thing to know however, is that rural or semi-rural Missouri, even as far north as places like Kirksville or Moberly, is still dominated by Evangelicals, making almost all of the state somewhat part of the Bible Belt. I don’t think Memphis would be the closest deep southern place to KC, but rather somewhere like Scott City, MO (5 hour drive), where the Mississippi Delta roughly begins.
Statistics would prove otherwise, Mainline Protestants outnumber Evangelicals and people of religion themselves are the minority, representing only 37% of the population, according to this site anyway.
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In terms of my comment of being surrounded by the Bible Belt, that is true for most of the rural counties that surround the KC metro area in Missouri. The article is just a typical KC homer piece, mostly on the varied history of the area. The biggest problem is the state line that splits in the metro area in half, the brain drain, and the constant relative economic decline compared to much faster growing metro areas in other areas of the country.
* If you include African-Americans, I can think of more midwestern cities which have "a very large contingent of people from the South that have moved there over time" than don't. Even if you exclude the Great Migration, places like Columbus and Dayton are known for having lots of people with origins in Kentucky, and I'm sure there are other examples.
* A lot of places in the Midwest are "close to the South geographically." I can get in my car on the near west side of Cleveland and be in West Virginia in two hours. Sure, WV isn't the deep south, but neither is anything near Kansas City (Memphis, a seven-hour drive away, would be about the closest, in my book). Enid, Okla., is 4 1/2 hours southwest of KC, and that's still considered by many, maybe even most, to be part of the Midwest.
* I would not call KC "surrounded by the Bible Belt." Is the mix of Christian denominations different from Chicago or Detroit? Yes. Is it typical of the lower Midwest (Columbus, Indy, etc.)? Also yes.
* It gets awfully cold in Kansas City in the winter, especially with the wind coming off the plains. It's one of the warmer midwestern cities, but its weather isn't qualitatively different from other spots in the Midwest. Sure, KC's weather has similarities both to Omaha and to Dallas, but which one is it more similar to?
The weather point is a strawman argument as Omaha is closer geographically to KC than Dallas is. However, I would say Des Moines has far more in common with Omaha, Chicago, and Sioux Falls than KC when it comes to climate. All of those cities have four well defined seasons with an actual winter. KC has a very long hot and humid summer with a short winter that is often nonexistent with very little snow. Snow is a key Midwest (northern) characteristic. KC shuts down most of the time when any snow actually occurs, very common in most of the South.
The weather point is a strawman argument as Omaha is closer geographically to KC than Dallas is. However, I would say Des Moines has far more in common with Omaha, Chicago, and Sioux Falls than KC when it comes to climate. All of those cities have four well defined seasons with an actual winter. KC has a very long hot and humid summer with a short winter that is often nonexistent with very little snow. Snow is a key Midwest (northern) characteristic. KC shuts down most of the time when any snow actually occurs, very common in most of the South.
Well, I think the response to that is going to be, yeah, Omaha and KC are much closer to each other than Dallas and KC, and that's yet more evidence that Omaha and KC are in the same region, and Dallas and KC aren't.
If there are particular quirks of KC weather that make it more different from Omaha than, say, Columbus is from Cleveland or Indianapolis is from Chicago, and thus, would justify placing KC in an entirely different region (something we don't do for Columbus or Indianapolis), I'm all ears. I'm just not aware of any.
The weather point is a strawman argument as Omaha is closer geographically to KC than Dallas is. However, I would say Des Moines has far more in common with Omaha, Chicago, and Sioux Falls than KC when it comes to climate. All of those cities have four well defined seasons with an actual winter. KC has a very long hot and humid summer with a short winter that is often nonexistent with very little snow. Snow is a key Midwest (northern) characteristic. KC shuts down most of the time when any snow actually occurs, very common in most of the South.
Heavy snow is not a key Midwestern characteristic, that is only true for the Upper Midwest and Northeast. Most of the US is a mix of humid subtropical and hot-summer humid continental, of which Kansas City, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Cincinnati are in the transition zone between the two. These cities all being near the historic mean center of the US population as well.
Last edited by Doughboy1918; 04-03-2023 at 08:56 AM..
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