What Do You Hate About Kansas City (St. Louis, Charleston: section 8, sex offenders)

[GraniteStater]

The state line, the horrible climate, the provincialism, and the social culture.

[TabulaRasa]

All the divisive state line crap.

[KC_Sleuth]

Amazing that, for being such a college-fan town, there are not a lot of great private colleges in this area. Avila, Park, and other locals barely crack Tier III...and our only public institution in KCMO is also not a top-100. I wish we had a WashU caliber university here. I love cities with thriving college scenes...the school I went to in Boston was just always full of activity.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Ziasforever

I thought I'd inject something positive about KCMO from New Mexico.

Positive #1. KC is the Paris of the American Midwest. Beautiful fountains. Sophisticated in a lot of respects.

Positive #2. People aren't that rude. You want rude? Try Boston or Massachusetts.

Positive #3. Relatively inexpensive place to live. Try living on minimum wage in Colorado. Much more difficult there.

Positive #4. Green rolling hills. Just awesome!

Positive #5. Beats almost everywhere in California. Sorry KC is so much better than LA.

Positive #6. Many delicious places to eat. Arthur Bryant is just one of hundreds!

Positive #7. Good road systems. Denver should come and study KC's transportation system.

Positive #8. Lot's to do! Chiefs, Royals, KS speedway.

Positive #9. Distinction of playing in the first Super bowl

and #10;

It's alway very satisfying when the Chiefs put an a$% whopping on the Denver Donkeys! Very satisfying.

I am biased because I lived in Lee's Summit as a kid. But it's all true if you ask me!

I mostly agree with you, but Denver actually has a "transportation system" other than freeways. You know, the extensive light rail system that's still being built out? If you're referring to the actual freeways, Denver leaves a lot to be desired, considering the population and density. I-25 has been widened and is in good shape (they're about to add carpool lanes to the far-northern section of it), but I-70, for the most part, is in bad condition and doesn't have enough lanes for the traffic load. Same with the 76, 270, and 225, although part of 225 was just widened and the rest will soon be widened. KC's only real transportation system is freeways, and last time I was there, it almost seems like they have more lanes than needed.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

The state line, the horrible climate, the provincialism, and the social culture.

The state lines issue is real and its bad.

I don't know what you mean by social culture, but there are definately some things about the culture of this town that are infuriating.

The climate is wonderful. We get a full four, with a big fall and gorgeous spring. Its sunny alot, not dank and gray. Winter's rarely very bad and summer has 1 solid miserable month, but you get probably 4 months of decent or nice weather and 2 months of incomparable beauty, plus...excellent storms.

And this is probably the least provincial city I've ever been to.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by s.davis

The state lines issue is real and its bad.

I don't know what you mean by social culture, but there are definately some things about the culture of this town that are infuriating.

The climate is wonderful. We get a full four, with a big fall and gorgeous spring. Its sunny alot, not dank and gray. Winter's rarely very bad and summer has 1 solid miserable month, but you get probably 4 months of decent or nice weather and 2 months of incomparable beauty, plus...excellent storms.

And this is probably the least provincial city I've ever been to.

The climate is wonderful? No. If you only think Kansas City has 1 month of very hot and humid weather you must be from the far South. The heat and humidity is horrid for long periods of time. Wind- way too much of it. Winter- the last two winters in KC have been snowier than average. Most of the time winter is brown with low humidity and air so dry that it just about does my skin in even with many types of moisturizers. The best season is Fall.
Provincialism would likely depend on what area of the metro you live in and even the neighborhood...

[Brettfan]

Easy. Having the metro located in two different states with people on both sides being vastly different. Even to the point that the Burbs in Johnson County have people who are different demographics than those in KCK and KCMO. I know I am generalizing and over simplifying things. I'm just a bit burned out with the Kansas side vs. the Missouri side. It happened when bi-state wouldn't pass. It happened when Kansas City, Kansas took away the race track that the Missouri side wanted. It happened when the Wizards left to the Kansas side and became Sporting KC.

[MOKAN]

Everytime I see somebody down anything KCK has accomplished, I just don't understand. Sure, it's nice for KCMO to get development, particularly in the urban core. But it's nice to see KCK, a long-depressed community, get some action. Whine all you like about KCMO not getting everything KCK has, but the fact is KCK needed that stuff more than KCMO. KCK has long been left behind and has had nothing going on. While KCMO has a hard time competing with JoCo, it's not exactly void of prized developments and attractions, nor is it deprived of regular suburban development. KCK was, now it's not.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Everytime I see somebody down anything KCK has accomplished, I just don't understand. Sure, it's nice for KCMO to get development, particularly in the urban core. But it's nice to see KCK, a long-depressed community, get some action. Whine all you like about KCMO not getting everything KCK has, but the fact is KCK needed that stuff more than KCMO. KCK has long been left behind and has had nothing going on. While KCMO has a hard time competing with JoCo, it's not exactly void of prized developments and attractions, nor is it deprived of regular suburban development. KCK was, now it's not.

My only beef with KCK is they have done almost nothing with the city east of 435 (basically the entire city). I get the speedway and a few big boxes and stuff out in the boonies, but I think the city and state blew a great opportunity to get something done in the actual city at the same time. Why has KCK put all of its eggs in one basket? A basket that has little to do with the actual city.

You go a few miles east from village west and you are into suburban blight and it only gets worse as you drive east.

Any city can build a suburb from scratch in a greenfield using the amount of incentives that KCK used. But it takes a lot more to redevelop a city and that's what incentives are for. Why would anybody ever go to Indian Springs or Downtown KCK or anyplace along the run down I-70 corridor when they can get insane incentives to go out by bonner springs?

KCMO could have easily had that track if they wanted it bad enough to throw as much money at it as KCK and Kansas did. Neither KCMO nor Missouri wanted, or needed to do that though.

Again, some of what was done out there is great. The speedway, some of the retail and some of the hotels. It would have been a lot better had Village West been tied to some redevelopment projects though. Why not use star bonds from Nebraska Furn Mart to help build a ballpark (or both ballparks) at Kaw Point? Why not require Cerner to go downtown if they want the kinds of incentives they were getting. They may have taken the city up on the offer. They were ready to take on south kcmo and still have a major office there, why would they snub their nose at downtown kck if they were the centerpiece of a massive redevelopment?

What about the casino? What a joke that has become. It’s at the speedway, something that is used a few times a year. Why is that not in downtown KCK as well?

Can you imagine Sporting KC playing in a stadium in a massive redeveloped area at the foot of the Lewis and Clark Viaduct (with a trail to downtown kcmo) surrounded by new hotels and mixed use buildings all overlooking a riverfront park and the KCMO skyline? Can you imagine cerner being a part of this development or in a new 20 story tower in downtown KCK? Can you imagine this co-existing with the speedway area, water park, NFM etc in a newly sparked suburban area of KCK and the Plaza at the Speedway development (walmart, best buy etc) at Indian Springs (much like the new blue ridge crossing in east kcmo)? Can you imagine a destination land based casino and hotel tower nearby these other developments? Maybe an aquarium?

I can imagine it and every time I look at village west all I see is what could have been. I don’t see success, I see a city that really blew one hell of an opportunity.

This is the National Harbor built along the Potomac River in a suburb of DC that is otherwise the stepchild of the metro.

This could have happened in KCK. I honest to god think it could have happened. I can imagine the national harbor at kaw point and that's all I wanted to see.



http://www.chesapeakeboating.net/Media/chesapeake_boating/nat-harbor1209.jpg (broken link)

[Vegas Joe]

Just from a recent visitor view, there is nothing I hate about your city but it seemed rather seedy when you go out of the downtown area and drive to Rockhurst University. Maybe that is just a scary looking part of the city. We have those in Las Vegas too but most visitors never go there. The rest of the city I saw was beautiful but I was only there 3 days and on business so I did not get the time to run around much. Oh, and the BBQ at Gates was fantastic!