STL vs KC suburbs (Kansas City, St. Louis: safe area, good schools, place to live)

[lepoisson]

Let's come up with a nice list and discuss and compare STL and KC suburbs.

Here's my list. Feel free to add more.

I've never lived in these places, but have been here for shopping, dining, etc.

I have very little experience with STL suburbs, so I will let someone else add those.

KC
Lee's Summit - Feels sort of like Wentzville to me. Very family feel with good schools. Probably not the best place for 20-30 olds.

Blue Springs - Similar feel to Lee's Summit, just a little smaller. Definitely feels more rural and spread out. Family feel with good schools. I believe housing is a little cheaper than in Lee's Summit.

Independence - A mix of old KC feel and Lee's Summit/Blue Springs feel. Schools can be bad or good depending on location. Neighborhoods can also be bad/good depending on location. More to do than L Summit or B Springs.

Grandview/Martin City - Very rural feel to me. Not a lot to do around here. Seems like a nice place to live if you want to live near the city, but more rural.

Leawood/Overland Park - Nice restaurants, shopping, schools, and neighborhoods. Housing is expensive. Very safe area to live.

[SPonteKC]

StL suburbs hands down. Those old inner ring StL County burbs are charming, often fairly walkable and charming. There is very little like that in the suburbs of KC. The postwar suburbs of either place are, like 90% of postwar suburbs everywhere, toally indistinguishable. One of the primary reasons I prefer KC is that the urban core of KC is very like those inner ring StL suburbs and the southwestern fringe of StL city.

[Old Trafford]

The suburbs of each are pretty different, I have not hung out in all of the suburbs but here are the few I know

Chesterfield / Ballwin / Creve Coeur are similar to Overland Park

Ladue / Huntleigh / Frontenac similar to Leawood

About the only comparable to Webster Groves or Kirkwood that I know is Liberty - Old small downtown surrounded by nice historic building stock. But I have not spent any time in Blue Springs or Lee's Summit which I have been told have nice small historic commercial strips.

St. Charles - The Northland with Weston standing in for downtown St. Chuck

Nothing comparable in suburban KC to Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, or U City

Not sure if their is a KC equivalent to Wildwood or St. Albans - which is kind of upscale rural on the very western edge of St. Louis county

Of course there is also the Il side burbs in St. L that get little attention - Edwardsville is kind of the Kirkwood or Webster of the east side, Belleville has put a lot of money into a very nice small downtown with great residential building stock surrounding it.

If Alton ever pulls it together it could become one of the nicest suburbs in the metro - amazing downtown buildings residential and commercial - Some of the best views you will find on the Mississippi

[kcmo]

The demographics are somewhat similar between Overland Park and Chesterfield, but they have a very different feel and look. Overland Park is very flat and wide open with more grass and less trees.

Overall, there is no comparison, I much prefer the suburbs of StL over KC. It's not even close for the inner ring suburb like SDavis mentioned. KC has very little of that charming historic suburbia that StL County has deep inside 270. As I mentioned, I think the outer suburbs are similar as far as demographics, but are very different as far as topography and even culture. The St Louis suburbs are more a cross between Lee' Summit and Overland Park. As far as culturally, the Johnson County suburbs are very much "Kansas" places and less Kansas City, while it's the opposite in St Louis. West County, which is similar, if not more affluent than Johnson County, is very much "St Louis" with far less "Missouri" influence/pride.

But for fun, here is how I would compare:

Overland Park = Flat version of Chesterfield and West County (upper middle class and corporate office parks/plethora of chain retail)
Lee's Summit = St Charles without a river
Prairie Village/Mission Hills = Creve Coeur/Ladue StL area is more affluent over larger area and housing stock is more charming
Raytown = Berkeley and other parts of modest working class north county
Waldo = Overland
Brookside = Olivette
Grain Valley = Eureka
Olathe = Arnold
Independence = Florissant
Blue Springs = Wentzville
Lenexa/Shawnee = Ofallon MO/StPeters
Liberty/Shoal Creek = Kirkwood/Oakville/South County with some Edwardsville IL feel as well
Gladstone = Concord part of South County
Grandview = Fairview Heights, IL
KCK = Granite City to Edwardsville in IL
Gardner = Warrenton
Kearney = Wildwood
Leavenworth = Alton IL
Parkville/Southern Platte = High Ridge / Parkdale in Jefferson County

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by kcmo

The demographics are somewhat similar between Overland Park and Chesterfield, but they have a very different feel and look. Overland Park is very flat and wide open with more grass and less trees.

Overall, there is no comparison, I much prefer the suburbs of StL over KC. It's not even close for the inner ring suburb like SDavis mentioned. KC has very little of that charming historic suburbia that StL County has deep inside 270. As I mentioned, I think the outer suburbs are similar as far as demographics, but are very different as far as topography and even culture. The St Louis suburbs are more a cross between Lee' Summit and Overland Park. As far as culturally, the Johnson County suburbs are very much "Kansas" places and less Kansas City, while it's the opposite in St Louis. West County, which is similar, if not more affluent than Johnson County, is very much "St Louis" with far less "Missouri" influence/pride.

But for fun, here is how I would compare:

Overland Park = Flat version of Chesterfield and West County (upper middle class and corporate office parks/plethora of chain retail)
Lee's Summit = St Charles without a river
Prairie Village/Mission Hills = Creve Coeur/Ladue StL area is more affluent over larger area and housing stock is more charming
Raytown = Berkeley and other parts of modest working class north county
Waldo = Overland
Brookside = Olivette
Grain Valley = Eureka
Olathe = Arnold
Independence = Florissant
Blue Springs = Wentzville
Lenexa/Shawnee = Ofallon MO/StPeters
Liberty/Shoal Creek = Kirkwood/Oakville/South County with some Edwardsville IL feel as well
Gladstone = Concord part of South County
Grandview = Fairview Heights, IL
KCK = Granite City to Edwardsville in IL
Gardner = Warrenton
Kearney = Wildwood
Leavenworth = Alton IL
Parkville/Southern Platte = High Ridge / Parkdale in Jefferson County

Waldo and Overland I can see, though I think Waldo is a great deal more like Lindenwood Park/Shrewsbury/MacKenzie and Brookside is like a mash up of Richmond Heights and Webster Grove.

[Truly Missouri]

St. Louis has really nice suburbs. But KCMO doesn't have any suburbs that are comparably close to what Ferguson is. What a shame that place is.

Sorry for being the first to make mention of that place.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by Truly Missouri

St. Louis has really nice suburbs. But KCMO doesn't have any suburbs that are comparably close to what Ferguson is.

We do, they are just in the city of KCMO.

Also, KCK around the 635 corridor isn't too much different that Ferguson/Florrisant and other North County areas.

[Truly Missouri]

^ Yeah KCMO does have some pretty bad areas. Ruskin Heights is one of them. But our police force is what's really different from Ferguson. We have a very respectful chief of police in Daryl Forte; who's African American. But as with Baltimore, having African American Mayor's, police officers etc means nothing. That kind of rioting can happen anywhere nowadays.

[Caesarstl]

Originally Posted by Truly Missouri

St. Louis has really nice suburbs. But KCMO doesn't have any suburbs that are comparably close to what Ferguson is. What a shame that place is.

Sorry for being the first to make mention of that place.

Originally Posted by Truly Missouri

^ Yeah KCMO does have some pretty bad areas. Ruskin Heights is one of them. But our police force is what's really different from Ferguson. We have a very respectful chief of police in Daryl Forte; who's African American. But as with Baltimore, having African American Mayor's, police officers etc means nothing. That kind of rioting can happen anywhere nowadays.

Let's not turn this into another ridiculous thread where KC magically doesn't have any big swaths of blight, racial issues, crime, etc. I know this is suburb specific but the night and day differences in views some on here have about issues these two cities share can be staggeringly ignorant sometimes.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by caesarstl

Let's not turn this into another ridiculous thread where kc magically doesn't have any big swaths of blight, racial issues, crime, etc. I know this is suburb specific but the night and day differences in views some on here have about issues these two cities share can be staggeringly ignorant sometimes.

+1