Where to move for more progressive STEM city? (St. Louis, Houston: construction, public schools)

[olyp]

Would love to pick your brain on where to move out of KC in 3-5 years. Originally from EU came to US to complete Masters, worked in Denver & Chicago; had to travel all around EU. I work in AEC (architecture/engineering/construction field). Also co-founded a startup in STEM field, have been doing it for a few years and back to AEC due to various reasons.
I am also a parent of a kind on a spectrum, very bright, in general classroom, but does not do sports. Very limited STEM opportunities in KC made me look for options outside towards East Coast. Looking at Philadelphia, Boston, may be DC - all have tons of opportunities in STEM but such a huge cost of living especially when looking in Urban Core.
We currently live in downtown, love all the opportunities, affordability and so on...but miss on urban infrastructure, STEM, innovation, diversity.....If you've been living outside of KC on East Coast - does it worth it? I see lots of people are moving to KC from DC, Seattle and similar places - am I missing the point?


Thank you!

[James Bond 007]

I see lots of people are moving to KC from DC, Seattle and similar places - am I missing the point?

I moved here from Seattle a couple years ago. Nice place, but I missed 4 seasons and it was getting expensive.

Which brings me to your main question: Most of the cities you mentioned are quite a bit more expensive than KC (except maybe not Philly so much?). If you make a lot of money those other cities might be fine, but if not you're probably going to be better off staying put here or finding a city that's maybe just 1 step above KC (like St Louis, Minneapolis, etc).

[twan2001]

"one step above KC like St Louis"... LMAO!!!

[goat314]

Originally Posted by twan2001

"one step above KC like St Louis"... LMAO!!!

St. Louis is a noticeably larger metropolitan area. What's so funny?

[swale]

If large metros aren't a requirement, how about Raleigh as a place with a lot of STEM opportunities?

[twan2001]

Originally Posted by goat314

St. Louis is a noticeably larger metropolitan area. What's so funny?

i assumed he was talking about the city and not the suburbs. Maybe i misunderstood. if so then my bad.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by olyp

Would love to pick your brain on where to move out of KC in 3-5 years. Originally from EU came to US to complete Masters, worked in Denver & Chicago; had to travel all around EU. I work in AEC (architecture/engineering/construction field). Also co-founded a startup in STEM field, have been doing it for a few years and back to AEC due to various reasons.
I am also a parent of a kind on a spectrum, very bright, in general classroom, but does not do sports. Very limited STEM opportunities in KC made me look for options outside towards East Coast. Looking at Philadelphia, Boston, may be DC - all have tons of opportunities in STEM but such a huge cost of living especially when looking in Urban Core.
We currently live in downtown, love all the opportunities, affordability and so on...but miss on urban infrastructure, STEM, innovation, diversity.....If you've been living outside of KC on East Coast - does it worth it? I see lots of people are moving to KC from DC, Seattle and similar places - am I missing the point?


Thank you!

I love KC. It will always be home, but personally, It's just way too slow paced, slow growth and stubborn to change and adapt to modern quality of life.

Having been on the east coast for some time now. I still enjoy visiting KC, but with each visit, I find myself realizing more and more that I will probably never move back permanently by choice for the city alone. (family reasons maybe). It's not that it's a bad city at all. It's a nice city. It's just a very static and rather slow paced city with very little urban infrastructure. I prefer a more progressive city.

I personally think the cost of living is worth it to live on the east or west coast or maybe a bigger, progressive landlocked city (Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago etc) if you make enough money to live there. I like the pace, I love the diversity, I like the growth, things feel more modern and up to date, people are more liberal and more live and let live. Education is taken more seriously. Sports are popular (and there are more teams) but they are not overly in your face 24/7. Beaches, mountains, big cities, amazing national parks, incredible recreational options (rural and urban), plenty of high paying jobs, large modern airports that have flights to anyplace, anytime, transit is nearly always an option. People are friendly in a more authentic way IMO.

The only real negative is probably traffic. But I don't even think traffic is all that bad. It's much worse in places like Atlanta, Houston, Dallas etc. Avoid the Jersey Turnpike on Sunday evenings, or any highway coming to and from mountains or beaches to the cities on Sundays/Fridays and you can avoid the big traffic jams. But the again, the trek to the beach or up to NYC etc for the weekend is worth it. At least I have the option of the 3-4 hour drive to a crazy amount of things to do even if there is a two hour traffic delay. The daily traffic grinds are not all that out of the ordinary unless you are doing a 40-50 mile commute across DC. Lots of people in KC have hour long commutes, they just don't deal with as much traffic.

Other than having a much nicer downtown (it's not really bigger or anything), KC is not much different today than it was when I was in high school. Almost thirty years ago.

People will hate me for posting this. But you asked. And that's my opinion. Lots of people like KC for all the reasons I grew tired of it.

However, having said that, I would think KC has plenty of STEM. If anything, they have more STEM jobs than they can fill because of the lack of STEM emphasis in the public schools. They make a BIG deal out of STEM out here in public schools and don't spend jack **** on things like football stadiums or big fancy buildings. It's all STEM and it's intense. It's also extremely difficult to get into major public universities. It's not like KU and MU where you can just do okay in high school and you are in KU or MU. Also the lack a major university presence in the KC. Lawrence 45 miles away doesn't get it done. So KC doesn't grow STEM talent like they do here or in many/most major metros, but I do think they have the jobs (although most KC STEM jobs are in suburban office parks, again making it difficult to recruit compared with some cities).

BTW, I have two STEM kids. One is now in college, the other about to go to college.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by twan2001

i assumed he was talking about the city and not the suburbs. Maybe i misunderstood. if so then my bad.

Yes, I was referring to the metro area, of course. OP gave no indication living in the central city was a requirement.

[twan2001]

he said "all have tons of opportunities in STEM but such a huge cost of living especially when looking in Urban Core." To me, that said that he was interested in living/working in an urban core.