Why did you move from KCMO to a suburb?

[slimwhitman]

To play on a similar thread about moving to other cities...

There are many on this board that have moved from the older parts of KCMO to a suburban part of the metro. There are also members here that choose to live in the burbs after considering an urban core living option. You had to make a choice. You chose not to live in the urban parts of KCMO. Why?

Some reasons might be: schools, house prices, housing type options, job location, family location, shopping/leisure preferences, yard size, crime (perceived or real) and many more. Maybe you are just more comfortable there?

Why did you make the choice? Was it the right choice for you? What would it take to make a move to the urban KC area a remote consideration for you?

*NOTE* I am not criticizing. In fact, I live in the burbs by choice, so I throw no stones.

[shinatoo]

Schools and family. The plan is to be in town again someday.

[KCLofts]

Spent 18 years downtown (Quality Hill, Union Hill & River Market).

Moved to PV last year. We had no particular life circumstances that required a move to the burbs, just wanted something that was all mine - no shared walls, a garage, a yard. Without looking very hard, we found the perfect house and jumped on it.

I'm closer to family and within blocks of where I grew up. But I do miss the urban lifestyle, if not urban living.

[warwickland]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems almost comfortably enough connected to what I think of as "Kansas City," but some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

[loftguy]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems more connected to what I think of as "Kansas City." Although some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

Would somebody please wake Taxi up.

This one's his to answer.........

[earthling]

Is interesting to see the migration patterns of the core counties/cities still heading out to the burbs, despite urban momentum in most cities. The core county of nearly every metro area has loss to the burbs or the nearby region. Even hot cities like Dallas, Seattle, Phoenix and Atlanta have recently lost population to the burbs/region. Houston's core county even showed a slight loss to region in 2010. Every major Midwest metro shows loss for the core counties - even Minneapolis, Indy and Columbus.

I'm sure crime and schools are common reasons but another factor that causes sprawl that few would mention is 'out with the old and in with the new'.

http://www.forbes.com/special-report/20 ... ation.html

[warwickland]

One thing I'm interested in is in what quarters of metro areas are the inner suburbs getting the culturally middle class former urban dwellers who have children and want a good public school education for them while wanting to maintain some proximity to the city (and want halfway walkable - walkable at the least in the sense that you can walk ANYWHERE that is worth walking to - area). It's a phenomenon that I think is gaining steam as there are more middle class type people who spent their 20s in the city vs say, back in the 90s, putting more demand on these inner suburbs that are in the right quarter.

In the case of metro Kansas City - my assumption is that this is the NE quadrant of JoCo - hence my curiousity surrounding PV. My use of the word "cool" was a bit frumpy, admittedly, but I was hinting towards what I just explained - not really somewhere anyone thinks is "cool" for whatever reason they randomly think. Personally, I don't think I could ever live in a 1980s/1990s/2000s "highway suburb," again. Ever. There is something between this and a solid urban street grid.

Overall, I think there is stuff happening (because of the economy, because of culture shifts within people under 40ish, etc) in the burbs of larger metros with large rings and quarters of suburbs that people/journalists are not paying attention to, because it's not as sexy as urban core revitalization, decay, black flight or population loss.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Was a south KC resident from 1957 to 2009 except for 6 months while living in Grandview after marriage in 1973. Now live in Raymore. Why? The reasons are simple and at the same time complex.

First, we were ready to move but it only took us about 5 years to actually move, just had to find the right house and all. Looked in JOCO first and almost moved a few times. But for my wife and I we decided we both had to like the house WITHOUT talking the other into it. As being empty nestors we were looking to downsize but then decided that for the price we would have to pay just find the right house no matter the size. We then decided to look in Lees' Summit and again almost bought a few times, once the house sold before we decided another my wife decided the house wasn't right and another the house was just too pricey. We almost bought a new house in Creekmore in Raymore but the builder decided to lease the house out instead of dropping the price to the point we wanted to pay. Later got on a webpage and this house, along with a few others, looked interesting. Looked at it three times and we both thought it was the best house we saw for the price.

The decision to leave south KC was simple - it didn't have what we were looking for. We were looking for a newer house in a neighborhood that had a swimming pool or access to one close by among many other things. We wanted to stay south of the river and really didn't want the area east of Raytown. We have a neighborhood pool that has a lifeguard and a school playground for our granddaughters to play on with city parks close by. Membership in the High Point Wellness Center is way cheaper than the Y, $27 a month total for the both of us with two indoor pools with slides, a sports court, and a good size workout area, all much bigger than the Red Bridge Y. Almost all of our shopping and dining is close with 119th and 135th Streets in KS and 50 Highway and 470 about 25 minutes away to expand our options.

The urban KC or the older inner burbs were never an option. Neither of us prefer that housing stock and for the most part that stock that might interest us would be more expensive that what we paid for our new home. Although we don't need schools if you have to pay the school taxes you might as well get something that is worthwhile and hopefully reward you when you sell.

We may not have gotten everything we wanted but neither my wife nor I have ever second-guessed this decision. This is a great area, at least for us, and if and when we decide to downsize or move again it will be into another house in the area.

[taxi]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems more connected to what I think of as "Kansas City." Although some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

Would somebody please wake Taxi up.

This one's his to answer.........

Funny you would write that, as my fingers were twitching.
I grew up there and am glad to be gone. It is also known as Scary Village and Perfect Village for a reason. While some of the older parts are now semi-hip places to live, mainly because they are close enough to walk to basic services, the perfect lawns and fascist/racist cops are what I hate most about like suburbs. I will wager that a disproportionate amount of folks who get pulled over are either black or hispanic. My bro got a $140 ticket just yesterday for running a red light. ON HIS BICYCLE. Fuck the PV police and fuck their perfect lawns (no offense, KCLofts, I don't mean to insult you personally). And if that's your thing, by all means, enjoy it. As my old man would say, "More food for the living!"

[warwickland]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems more connected to what I think of as "Kansas City." Although some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

Would somebody please wake Taxi up.

This one's his to answer.........

Funny you would write that, as my fingers were twitching.
I grew up there and am glad to be gone. It is also known as Scary Village and Perfect Village for a reason. While some of the older parts are now semi-hip places to live, mainly because they are close enough to walk to basic services, the perfect lawns and fascist/racist cops are what I hate most about like suburbs. I will wager that a disproportionate amount of folks who get pulled over are either black or hispanic. My bro got a $140 ticket just yesterday for running a red light. ON HIS BICYCLE. Fuck the PV police and fuck their perfect lawns (no offense, KCLofts, I don't mean to insult you personally). And if that's your thing, by all means, enjoy it. As my old man would say, "More food for the living!"

hahah. just trying to get a grip on patterns of wealth, culture, and decline beyond the urban core in greater kansas city. laid back mid century modern streets (or older) and houses with backyard firepits, old in the ground swimming pools, light adult pot smoking (if you don't have children of course), and tree canopies are my thing, or i should say my back-up thing, but not fascist cops (i'm pretty appreciative of city cops and in fact buy them shots). i don't have any kids yet but have had some friends move to some laid back inner ring suburbs in kc (northern joco) and st. louis (sw pie slice of st. louis county) and they seemed to be pretty selective of what sort of quarter of the region they chose.

[aknowledgeableperson]

My bro got a $140 ticket just yesterday for running a red light. ON HIS BICYCLE.

What's wrong with that? If they are on the street they need to obey the traffic laws.

[taxi]

My bro got a $140 ticket just yesterday for running a red light. ON HIS BICYCLE.

What's wrong with that? If they are on the street they need to obey the traffic laws.

Bullshit. You should be in jail.

[KCMax]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems almost comfortably enough connected to what I think of as "Kansas City," but some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

I would think Raytown or Independence would be "cooler" because it is grittier and more authentic or maybe even Mission. Meanwhile PV is nicknamed "Perfect Village." I think PV's Facebook page sums up the attitude here perfectly "its not quite Brookside or Waldo, but its got good schools." It is interesting that almost everyone in our neighborhood is either younger than 35 or older than 65.

We moved to PV because frankly its what my wife wanted. If it was totally up to me, we'd probably live in the city. But she's also the practical one and we get nice free schools, a fairly affordable house with a decent amount of room for the kids to play in and around. Ideally we'd live in Brookside, but we cannot afford the kind of house we would want and private school (yet?) We still talk about possibly moving there in a few years, but I think its probably wishful thinking, and we'll end up living in PV til our kids are in HS or out of HS and then we'll get a condo on the Plaza or downtown or wherever is cool in 15 years. Most of our friends live way out in either south JoCo or west JoCo which we both were pretty much against. E-Jax was too far from her work and we really knew nothing about the northland. I think the only other place other than PV and Brookside/Waldo we even halfway considered was near old downtown Lenexa.

[KCMax]

One thing I'm interested in is in what quarters of metro areas are the inner suburbs getting the culturally middle class former urban dwellers who have children and want a good public school education for them while wanting to maintain some proximity to the city (and want halfway walkable - walkable at the least in the sense that you can walk ANYWHERE that is worth walking to - area). It's a phenomenon that I think is gaining steam as there are more middle class type people who spent their 20s in the city vs say, back in the 90s, putting more demand on these inner suburbs that are in the right quarter.

In the case of metro Kansas City - my assumption is that this is the NE quadrant of JoCo - hence my curiousity surrounding PV. My use of the word "cool" was a bit frumpy, admittedly, but I was hinting towards what I just explained - not really somewhere anyone thinks is "cool" for whatever reason they randomly think. Personally, I don't think I could ever live in a 1980s/1990s/2000s "highway suburb," again. Ever. There is something between this and a solid urban street grid.

Overall, I think there is stuff happening (because of the economy, because of culture shifts within people under 40ish, etc) in the burbs of larger metros with large rings and quarters of suburbs that people/journalists are not paying attention to, because it's not as sexy as urban core revitalization, decay, black flight or population loss.

If you could wave a wand (or offer free school vouchers) and suddenly make the KCMO school district have a great academic reputation, PV would shrink overnight (well it already is shrinking) and everyone would move to Waldo/Brookside/Hyde Park/Coleman Heights. I like the older neighborhoods here, the canopied streets, the fairly walkable nature of the town, but all of that is pretty well trumped by KC, and the housing stock in KC absolutely blows PV out of the water. Unless you like a small ranch or a Cape Cod, you're pretty much outta luck in PV.

[pash]

.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Meanwhile PV is nicknamed "Perfect Village."

Growing up we called it Prairie Chicken Village.

[KCPowercat]

My bro got a $140 ticket just yesterday for running a red light. ON HIS BICYCLE.

What's wrong with that? If they are on the street they need to obey the traffic laws.

Do you understand the bike traffic laws? I didn't until bikeshare came and I read them.

[aknowledgeableperson]

If referring to me my understanding goes back decades when I was a youngster. Sometimes a police officer would talk about safety and such. And we were to obey lights and stopsigns and traffic direction much like an auto and not just for our safety but also not to interfere auto traffic. If one was walking a bike then one was like a pedestrain but if one was riding one could be treated like an auto. Maybe the offense might be different than one that might apply to an auto but still one could be cited.
Now maybe it was the big bad cops trying to scare little kids.

But then there is Section 304.285 of the Missouri State Statutes that gives bicyclists an affirmative defense to red light violations, 304.281 and 304.301. I guess that does imply that a bicyclist can receive a red light violation. And I would assume that would apply to Kansas statues also.

[heatherkay]

In Missouri and Kansas, bicyclists can proceed through a red light after they've come to a complete stop and if the light remains red for an "unreasonable" amount of time. There is some leeway about what is unreasonable. For example, I know my bike, even my motor scooter, doesn't have enough iron in it to make the the light at Adams and Rainbow change. A reasonable amount of time might mean that I can go right through it. But I would still have to stop. It just changes from a light to a stop sign. If cyclists want to be taken seriously as vehicles, we have to follow the law. If you think you should be able to do a rolling stop like in Idaho, you need to get the law changed.

[chingon]

Is PV one of the "cooler" burbs in the KC area? I just say that because I had a professor who was fairly worldly, or whatever, who lived there, and you can actually walk home from Waldo/easy bike if you wanted (although they could improve that damn sidewalk on 75th and actually put a treelawn between it and the street!). I used to wander around over to PV and some other inner JoCo spots a bit. It seems almost comfortably enough connected to what I think of as "Kansas City," but some of those inner JoCo areas strangely don't have sidewalks off the main streets.

In my experience, with 30-something urban middle class parents whose kids are becoming school age and are looking for their first house "with schools", Prairie Village is the #1 destination, maybe Fairway second (due to price). The Westwoods seem to still be older with less turnover, there's also just less housing stock. Ditto N. Leawood.

I also think alot of those PV parent get a taste of the suburbs, wrap their minds and formerly citycentric egos around being suburbanites, decide to go big and eventually take the plunge into S. OP.

That's right, kids: Prairie Village might seem cool at first, but it is a gateway drug.