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^ not to talk you out of KC. Like I said in my first reply, I think it is pretty close to what you want. But you really should give St Louis a hard look.
StL is much like KC. Highly underrated, lots to do, lots of culture, little traffic etc, but I think you may have a much easier time finding that Italian culture. Even if you live in the suburbs, just the ability to drive down to the Hill and interact would be something KC just can't offer.
And the crime stuff in StL is WAY overblown. StL city has a tiny city limits and so its crime stats get distorted when comparing it to other cities. If you compared KCMO's crime within a similar boundary, you would be rather surprised by the results. I don't know for sure, but I think that StL County + City has a lower crime rate than KCMO + Jackson County and I know that metro StL is actually on of the safer larger metros. So their metro area is actually very safe and so is STL City so long as you avoid specific areas (just like any city).
Anyway, enough on StL, it's just a pet peeve of mine when people mention how StL has such bad crime. It's just not the case.
KC is a great city. If you do choose KC, you will probably really enjoy living there.
Couldn't agree more. I moved to KC from Seattle, and I LOVED taking mass transit to the downtown area and then walking through Pioneer Square to get to Safeco Field. If only the quality of ball played within had been better...
I think a Royals park in the Crossroads or the West Bottoms would be incredible. Alas, it will probably remain a fantasy for the next 20 years.
Kind of bringing the sports talk back to some relevancy to the original post, you mention soccer. Stating that Kansas City simply has a professional soccer team is bit of an understatement. Soccer is, especially in the past few years a pretty big deal here. Sporting Kansas City pulls about the same per game attendance as our MLB team despite the stadium. And with with each game selling out to fire code capacity, it could easily sell more. Theres also 2-3 season long waiting list for season tickets when I checked at the beginning of this season. There are tons of competitive and non-competitve youth leagues. Many working with SKC's youth academy. Even if you aren't Sporting KC fan you'll find a passible fan base for many other teams. Along with being a Sporting fan, I'm a pretty big milanista and there are quite a few others here. There are Barcalona, Man U and Liverpool fans everywhere, and iv'e even seen a few flags and jerseys for smaller fan base teams such as Palermo, Celtic, FC Basel and quite a bit others. As far as soccer culture goes, you're not going to find a bigger one in the country, the only city that comes close is Seattle. And in the other cities listed in this thread its going to be almost nonexistent.
Kind of bringing the sports talk back to some relevancy to the original post, you mention soccer. Stating that Kansas City simply has a professional soccer team is bit of an understatement. Soccer is, especially in the past few years a pretty big deal here. Sporting Kansas City pulls about the same per game attendance as our MLB team despite the stadium. And with with each game selling out to fire code capacity, it could easily sell more. Theres also 2-3 season long waiting list for season tickets when I checked at the beginning of this season. There are tons of competitive and non-competitve youth leagues. Many working with SKC's youth academy. Even if you aren't Sporting KC fan you'll find a passible fan base for many other teams. Along with being a Sporting fan, I'm a pretty big milanista and there are quite a few others here. There are Barcalona, Man U and Liverpool fans everywhere, and iv'e even seen a few flags and jerseys for smaller fan base teams such as Palermo, Celtic, FC Basel and quite a bit others. As far as soccer culture goes, you're not going to find a bigger one in the country, the only city that comes close is Seattle. And in the other cities listed in this thread its going to be almost nonexistent.
First, I'm not sure it's fair to say that KC's MLS team is equally as popular as the Royals in a sustainable way. I'm pretty sure TV ratings etc would say otherwise despite the Royals continued struggles on the field. The Royals fan base has taken a major beating for the past few decades and what you see now is pretty much a team at the low end of its fan drawing ability. They bottomed out at about 19k fans for 81 home games and now average about 23k a game for a team that's highest goal anymore seems to be staying above 500. Compare that to a team that has been extremely competitive (winning the MLS cup last year) and playing in new stadium with limited seating (creating supply and demand) that draws about 19k a game for 17 home games. The same team that was consistently in or near last place in attendance and MLS apparel sales for most of its existence. The same can be said about the Chiefs who also had a decade long waiting list for season tickets that literally evaporated in just a matter of a couple of poor seasons. I think KC is a great NFL market, but KC fans can quickly turn their backs. I still think KC is one of the best baseball towns in the country that just has had a terrible team to support and if the Royals were to ever become competitive on a regular basis, KC would awaken a fanbase that has been in a coma for a long time. The Royals would draw very well. They would draw even better with a downtown ballpark IMO. I only bring this up because I hear a lot of KC MLS fans ripping on the Royals and their fan base. I don't really get that, why can't they be fans of both teams? Regardless it's not a fair comparison.
So what happens when Sporting starts loosing over half their games, the new stadium wears off etc? I honestly think the jury is still out on KC being the best MLS market outside of Seattle.
Having said that, what's going on in KC right now with the MLS is nothing short of amazing and a miraculous turnaround for not only an MLS franchise but probably one of the most impressive turn arounds in all of pro sports. A few more years of this type of success and I think MLS soccer culture will become less of a fad and more of an embedded sports establishment into the KC culture and should continue on to the next generation of fans. It's awesome that KC has embraced the MLS and has gone from a situation where most people wanted KC out of the MLS to a role model franchise.
Here is a good article on the current situation. As of right now, metro KC residents are solid fans, second only to Seattle in support with nearly 13% of residents being fans of the MLS.
KC is great, but, no, you are not going to find the most burgeoning of Italian cultural scene there at this point in its history. As others have pointed out, the Italian contingent has dispersed quite a bit over the years, and there's no true centralized Italian cultural enclave anymore.
Even if you aren't Sporting KC fan you'll find a passible fan base for many other teams. Along with being a Sporting fan, I'm a pretty big milanista and there are quite a few others here. There are Barcalona, Man U and Liverpool fans everywhere, and iv'e even seen a few flags and jerseys for smaller fan base teams such as Palermo, Celtic, FC Basel and quite a bit others. As far as soccer culture goes, you're not going to find a bigger one in the country, the only city that comes close is Seattle. And in the other cities listed in this thread its going to be almost nonexistent.
I could not help but smile when reading this statement, because my fiance is (quite literally) the biggest Palermo fan you will ever meet in your life. He has a "Palermo Room" in our house with framed game worn jerseys, autographs, framed write ups from Giornale di Sicilia and La Gazzetta dello Sport. We have to get special TV packages so that we get RAI, RAI 1, RAI 2, RAI America, and RAI Sport - just so we have all the games covered. There are almost as many pictures in that room of Fabrizio Miccoli, Santiago Vernazza and Carlo Radice as there are pictures of family in other rooms. So, just to see that you even mentioned Palermo brought a smile to my face.
As to soccer as a culture, that is a huge thing for us. My fiance was a standout collegiate player in the states, and was planning to go play in Argentina before a car accident put a halt to those plans. He is okay now, but fracturing your spine at 21 sort of puts athletic careers on hold. We do not follow the MLS to any noteworthy degree, but we do know that Seattle and Kansas City have the most prolific fan bases in the country, and that excites us. Let me ask this, does Kansas City have any "soccer bars" or "soccer cafe's"? In Boston for example you can watch any Italian Serie A game at any number of bars and cafes in the North End. The same goes for where my fiance lived in Miami, Philadelphia, and other larger metros. Are there soccer bars and cafes in Kansas City, even if they are "Sporting KC" bars specifically?
KC is great, but, no, you are not going to find the most burgeoning of Italian cultural scene there at this point in its history. As others have pointed out, the Italian contingent has dispersed quite a bit over the years, and there's no true centralized Italian cultural enclave anymore.
Thank you for this insight. In truth, I think we can accept the lack of a centralized Italian culture, as long as the area isn't completely devoid of it.
For example, if Boston didn't have a "Little Italy" (known as the North End) then there wouldn't be too many other places around the city where Italian culture dominated. However, there are areas where a lot of Italian families live. For example, Lawrence, Massachusetts was known for 80 years as the areas "Little Sicily", however now it is largely a Puerto Rican enclave. But, neighboring towns, such as Methuen, Massachusetts have many Italian families there, and there are still some import shops and excellent bakeries. If one listen's carefully, you can still hear the language spoken once and a while among some of the older families. The same goes for areas in Connecticut like the Town Plot Hill section of Waterbury, and the Wooster Square section of New Haven. In Rhode Island, there is the Federal Hill section of Providence (although nearly all of Rhode Island is Italian.......seriously, look it up......the whole state has the highest Italian concentration per capita of any state in the country). Not every area offers concentrated populations now, as new immigrant groups enter the country, but those once dominant Italian families in those once Italian-American neighborhoods had to go somewhere.
Again, for example, Boston is sort of divided in half (sort of). Basically, north of Boston (the North Shore and Merrimack Valley) is where most of the Italian families spread out to. South of Boston (the South Shore and Cape) is where most of the Irish families spread out to. There are obviously other cultures in the area, but you get the idea. We know there are Italian-esque suburbs and Irish-esque suburbs. Did anything like that happen in Kansas City? I mean, did the Italian families who once lived in the Little Italy section (when it existed) all go in the same direction? Did they all go north, east, south, or west of the city? Are there suburbs or areas where most of the Italian families moved to? That is something I would like to know a little bit about. This is especially so for my parents, who would acclimate better if there were neighbors with a similar cultural heritage, and who would settle in easier if there was a decent bakery nearby where a coffee and a cannoli could be had in the mornings with another Italian-American around to chit-chat with.
Could you all please comment on the quality of healthcare in the area? As my parents get older, and as I have a son, I worry a bit about high quality healthcare. Obviously, where we live, there exceptional hospitals and healthcare networks nearby in Boston (Mass General, Boston Children's, Brigham and Women's) and I drive south to work everyday at Yale Medical. So, we are sort of spoiled in that regard here. How are the hospital's in Kansas City? Are there many of them? Are they rated highly?
St. Lukes ranks high for heart, KU Med Center for cancer and Children's Mercy for pediatrics. All have hit top 15 lists in certain categories. There is also HCA hospital system in KC.
BTW, Lidia Bastianich has a restaurant in downtown KC - Lidia's. I think KC and Pitt are only two restaurants she has outside NYC.
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