Kansas City's ethnic neighborhoods/enclaves. (Independence, Gladstone: crime, house, public schools)

[urbanenthusiastfromKC]

Ok so basically I saw this forum on General US about ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves in the KC area and I just couldn't help but comment on it. I think I have a good understanding on the ones the city has but I made this forum for people to make their comments on some of them, or alarm me of one I don't know of. Currently I live in the UMKC area but I originally am from Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. If you live there you are either Croatian/Slovenian or Mexican and I am Slovenian. I grew up going to church at Holy Family and lately I've been thinking a lot about my younger child hood and how I miss it a lot. Maybe this is just me, but I love ethnic neighborhoods. I just love the culture within a culture and I wish places were still like that all around. So I made this thread as a Ethnic neighborhood forum.

[MRG Dallas]

My sister-in-law grew up in Strawberry Hill and she is of that Slavic etc ancestry. I recall the NE part of KCMO (St John's/Independence Ave.) with alot of Italians. The Argentine district was Mexican (I think it was called Argentine, on the KS side) SW HS and Center HS had alot of Jewish students, and I think the spillover into KS was SM East. Sugar Creek also had Eastern European ancestries.

Was there a Polish hood in KCK that fed into Bishop Ward HS, or was that also Strawberry Hill?

There was a small pocket of blacks near Noland Rd just south of US 24 in Independence. Or at least that's how I remember.

Other than those offhand, I don't recall any more. Maybe others can chime in, I too find this an interesting subject.

[TabulaRasa]

My spouse used to teach in Strawberry Hill (St.John/Holy Family), and, yeah, the old school Eastern European enclaves were solid at the time. My MIL grew up in downtown KCK, but her crowd was Irish Catholic.

[Okey Dokie]

Lots of Italians in Carriage Hills subdivision in Gladstone. When I was in high school in the early 70s, there were a lot of Jewish families in the subdivision SE of 83rd and Nall. No idea if that’s still true.

[urbanenthusiastfromKC]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

My sister-in-law grew up in Strawberry Hill and she is of that Slavic etc ancestry. I recall the NE part of KCMO (St John's/Independence Ave.) with alot of Italians. The Argentine district was Mexican (I think it was called Argentine, on the KS side) SW HS and Center HS had alot of Jewish students, and I think the spillover into KS was SM East. Sugar Creek also had Eastern European ancestries.

Was there a Polish hood in KCK that fed into Bishop Ward HS, or was that also Strawberry Hill?

There was a small pocket of blacks near Noland Rd just south of US 24 in Independence. Or at least that's how I remember.

Other than those offhand, I don't recall any more. Maybe others can chime in, I too find this an interesting subject.

Yes, Polish Hill was the old hood that kinda led into Ward. Polish Hill is basically the hill west of 7th street and it goes a long time and feeds south. I have no experience there, but I know lots of family who lived there as I am 25 percent Polish. There is also a totally gentrified neighborhood called Russian Hill, most people would just consider it Strawberry Hill but it's its own thing, At least it was. It is just south of Strawberry Hill/Central Ave. It had an old beautiful church called Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox. It is closed now but someone bought and restored it into a house or something. It still looks like a church and is beautiful. The NE near the river area of town has still a small but prideful Italian population, That area also has a big Asian population, Specifically Vietnamese and there is a Huge Asian Market down there. I know the West Side has a large chicano population. Sugar Creek is yes, a mixed bag of Slavic cultures which is why I never see anybody consider it an ethnic enclave. It is no particular ethnicity just all types of Slavs, I have only been there a few times for the Slavic festival but I know I have some second-third cousins that are Slovenian up there. Speaking of that, I went to my old parish the other day, Holy Family, which is a Slovenian Church in Strawberry Hill. I now know that the church is split almost 65/45 in ethnicity. Now, there is lots of Burmese people (Myanmar) at the church, which I thought was weird. There still is lots of Slovenians and I think it still holds up strong as a Slovenian parish. Also this isn't the only place where Burmese are popping up. There is a small Asian grocery store in the east side where crime is at its worst called Little Burma! How strange. I believe many Serbians are scattered around Southeastern Johnson County. I went down to Serb fest and there was TONS of ethnic Serbian speakers there. This does make sense to me as Strawberry Hill serbs were the only Slavs from that area to migrate. Apparently there is also Russians around there, but not as much ethnic Russians. Also I looked at list of ethnic enclaves in North American cities on Wikipedia. The list said there was TWO Croatian neighborhoods in the KC area. Of course Strawberry Hill but what else? They said there was a hood called "The Croatian Place" near Downtown KCMO. What? Excuse me? I have never heard of this in my life. I have no idea what is going on. Fake news. If anybody can chime in on the Croatian Place please do. I did not know there was Jewish people attending the KCMO public schools especially in a place like SW which is in Brookside, which strives to not be an ethnic enclave. I have been through Argentine, and though KCK is filled with Mexican people throughout, this is where I have seen this most. I would like to know more about Jewish people in Kansas City, as I am not familiar with that. I hope this could help and I hope more and more people keep adding to those forum to search.