What is the difference between Kansas City KS and MO? I'm totally clueless (Independence: sales, credit)

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

You brought up roaches. You must have experienced them somewhere to even be worried about it. I've never even thought about it. However, a potential roach problem has to do more with who lives in a place than the age of the building. Saying old buildings have roaches is just stupid. To be honest, an educated argument can be made for the disfavor of old houses or even old condos, but a roach problem is not that.

I listed several reasons that I don't like older, urban neighborhoods. Roaches were one of them. Yes, I have been in lots of buildings in Kansas City, Missouri where there were roaches crawling everywhere. You have a bunch of people sharing a building, or people moving in and out over 100 years, and it happens. If I'm a "snob" because I don't like roaches, so be it. I live in a 55 year old house now, but I have lived here 25 of those years. No roaches. I also don't like the crime in KCMO/Jackson County. I don't like urban areas with little green space. I don't like driving down the street and seeing trash all over the sides of the road. Personal preference. I'd rather live in the suburbs, preferably Johnson County. If I couldn't live in Johnson County, I'd go to a newer area of Lee's Summit or Parkville or something like that.

I was born and partially raised in Missouri. I prefer Kansas.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Nikki0417

I'd have to second that. XD This is coming from someone who's spent a good deal of her life traveling back and forth between KC to NYC. I have nothing against urban areas, in fact I love them. Jackson may have its nice parts, but I still wouldn't say the area as a whole is more "upscale" or wealthier than JoCo. More touristy, maybe, but if cities like Miami, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are any indication, high tourism doesn't accurately portray a city/county's income and poverty levels.

JoCo is a mirror image of any other corporate suburban county in the US. It isn't any wealthier or "more special" than any of its peer competitors.

[Nikki0417]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

JoCo is a mirror image of any other corporate suburban county in the US. It isn't any wealthier or "more special" than any of its peer competitors.

...And Jackson is a mirror image many urban counties in the US. I never said JoCo was wealthier than it's "competitors." I said it was wealthier than Jackson. If that offends you or something, then I'm sorry. I never said JoCo was more special, either. I'm wondering where you got that from, since I never used the word "special" anywhere in my post.

Honestly, I thought this thread was about the differences between KCK and KCMO, not which one was better. Why is everyone trying to turn this into a silly contest?

[GraniteStater]

Let's keep this thread on-topic PLEASE.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Nikki0417

...And Jackson is a mirror image many urban counties in the US. I never said JoCo was wealthier than it's "competitors." I said it was wealthier than Jackson. If that offends you or something, then I'm sorry. I never said JoCo was more special, either. I'm wondering where you got that from, since I never used the word "special" anywhere in my post.

Honestly, I thought this thread was about the differences between KCK and KCMO, not which one was better. Why is everyone trying to turn this into a silly contest?

Some counties that I think JOCO is in competition with in the Midwest include Hamilton (Indiana), Delaware (Ohio), Waukesha (Wisconsin), DuPage (Illinois), Lake (Illinois), Will (Illinois) Sarpy (Nebraska), Scott (Minnesota), Washington (Minnesota), Carver (Minnesota), Dakota (Minnesota), etc.
The toughest thing to do when measuring corporate subruban counties against ther counterparts is the rate at which they are adding new job growth relative to population growth and overall cost of living. JOCO is also different from other corporate suburban counties due to the fact that it was the almost exclusive recipient of white flight from Kansas City, MO and other surrounding areas three and four decades ago. JOCO also developed highly skilled white collar employment in an almost exclusively suburban environment before some of its competitors. Two newer economy corporate suburban areas that are much faster growing in population and overall job growth than JOCO are the aformentioned counties of Hamilton (Indianapolis) and Delaware (Columbus).

[kcmo]

It's easy to be fast growing and affluent when you can just syphon off a core county next door while having the ability to ignore basic metropolitan responsibilities that most major developed counties have to deal with. JoCo has mastered such practice by acting as if they were 500 miles away unless they want something (be it sports, culture, entertainment etc or a company to poach).

The "affluence and jobs" landed in the lap of JoCo mostly do to the geography and the lack of regional cooperation they have with the rest of metropolitan KC. Not to mention the fact that the county has done a tremendous job of picking and choosing which demographics (and races) it wanted to allow into the county and remained one of the largest mostly white "core" metro counties in the midwest. We are not talking about an outer suburb like Cass County, but the second largest county in the metro probably now the one with the largest economy.

Long ago, JoCo decided to be KCMO's biggest competitor (and really enemy) and decided to take on kcmo and steal its economy with zero regard to what's in the best interest of the metropolitan area as a whole or even themselves in the long run. So much of what is in JoCo has original roots in Jackson County and to this day they pay un-godly amounts of money to buy kcmo companies yet wont even show up to a transit planning meeting. They even thought they could have their own commercial airport (failed) and thought they needed their own major convention center (failing).

What JoCo has done and continues to do can hardly be called amazing or special.

Take a bunch of flat farmland and stick it across an imaginary state line from any major city in the nation. I mean right next to the core of the city and then go to war with that city economically while hiding behind that state line. The power you get from such a geographic gift is incredible and you can either take full advantage of that gift and go to battle with the city or go a more passive route and grow "with" metropolitan KC. JoCo chose the first option and that's all that JoCo has to really be proud of.

You sure would think it would be more affluent. Yet the county is still barely on the national radar. It's still nothing more than a tumor on the side of kcmo probably doing more harm than good to the metro as a whole. For a county that will hand out 50 million dollars for 400 jobs (half of which already live in the county) they don't get many takers from outside of KCMO because the place is not as desirable as people there like to think. Trust me, KC would still have 2 million people and 1 million jobs if JoCo didn't exist. They would just be in other counties and probably contributing to a better metro area with better regional cooperation, a more lively downtown, more regional transit, cultural taxes etc (see denver) and KC would probably be competing with places like Denver and Minneapolis rather than Kansas in its own back yard.

It's only going to get worse as JoCo passes Jackson County in population. As much as KCMO wants to build up the city, when half your metro has no interest in anything but themselves and will actually harm the core city to their benefit, KC will eventually get passed up by places like Indianapolis, Nashville and Charlotte where entire metros are on the same page and there is still a regional focus on the core city (despite typical suburban growth) just like KC was passed by Minneapolis, Atlanta and Denver decades ago.

[luzianne]

[Nikki0417]

What JoCo has done and continues to do can hardly be called amazing or special.

Is anyone here actually saying JoCo is special, other than Boredom-Junkie? I've seen several post pointing out its wealth and safety, but nothing that actually described the county as being special, amazing, unique, or any of the above. I scrolled back through this thread to search for mentions of JoCo's specialness and the only times I see the word "special" being used are in posts pointing out how not special JoCo is, one or two of which were yours. So, I don't think anyone is trying to say JoCo is amazing or special, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to that topic. However, I'm sorry you feel such disdain for the county I live in, enough to consider it a cancerous growth.

Some counties that I think JOCO is in competition with in the Midwest include Hamilton (Indiana), Delaware (Ohio), Waukesha (Wisconsin), DuPage (Illinois), Lake (Illinois), Will (Illinois) Sarpy (Nebraska), Scott (Minnesota), Washington (Minnesota), Carver (Minnesota), Dakota (Minnesota), etc.
The toughest thing to do when measuring corporate subruban counties against ther counterparts is the rate at which they are adding new job growth relative to population growth and overall cost of living. JOCO is also different from other corporate suburban counties due to the fact that it was the almost exclusive recipient of white flight from Kansas City, MO and other surrounding areas three and four decades ago. JOCO also developed highly skilled white collar employment in an almost exclusively suburban environment before some of its competitors. Two newer economy corporate suburban areas that are much faster growing in population and overall job growth than JOCO are the aformentioned counties of Hamilton (Indianapolis) and Delaware (Columbus).

I did wonder what you meant by competitors. I had a hunch you meant other Midwestern counties, but I wasn't entirely sure. Thank you for going into detail about that. I feel like I learned a little bit about JoCo's history, too. I wasn't aware of the white flight from KCMO. I'll be reading up on that, now.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Nikki0417

Is anyone here actually saying JoCo is special, other than Boredom-Junkie? I've seen several post pointing out its wealth and safety, but nothing that actually described the county as being special, amazing, unique, or any of the above. I scrolled back through this thread to search for mentions of JoCo's specialness and the only times I see the word "special" being used are in posts pointing out how not special JoCo is, one or two of which were yours. So, I don't think anyone is trying to say JoCo is amazing or special, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to that topic. However, I'm sorry you feel such disdain for the county I live in, enough to consider it a cancerous growth.

I did wonder what you meant by competitors. I had a hunch you meant other Midwestern counties, but I wasn't entirely sure. Thank you for going into detail about that. I feel like I learned a little bit about JoCo's history, too. I wasn't aware of the white flight from KCMO. I'll be reading up on that, now.

A simple google about JC Nichols will suffice.

[SweetOzarksGirl]

I'm not one to fight over KCK and KCMO. I like all of it and the surrounding communities. As far as preference for living, I'm in the minority because I liked living in Argentine, which is part of KCK and south of the river. I like north of the river too, but I can't imagine living there. I've lived in Waldo in KCMO and Parkville, MO and both were fine, but I was far happier and found life to be more peaceful in Argentine.