What visitors think of Kansas City

[miz.jordan17]

I had a conversation with someone last Sunday that made me smile, and I hope it will brighten your day too. While enjoying the afternoon downtown, I took the streetcar to Union Station to go to the Pompeii exhibit. After, I spent some time just looking around the building (it really does stand toe to toe with a US like Chicago has). I went into the KC Shop, and after browsing, the clerk, a twenty-something girl, came up to talk. She is from upstate New York, and has been trying to get to California, but doesn't have enough money to complete her move yet. She asked if I was a tourist, and I told her I lived just in Independence. She told me she's been in KC for about eight months, and the more she's here, the more it feels like home. She made it sound like she is considering just staying here instead of going to California. I think it really shows how welcoming and attractive our community is.

[brewcrew1000]

Some people say that KC has the friendliest people in the entire USA and I kind of agree. I could be wrong but I really think one major factor that helps is Religion and Churches. I am by no means religious at all but I think the rise of younger people who are moving into in the city and them being tied to a church can magnify the friendliness and welcoming attitude and many of these youth are moving into the city because of a particular church in the city.

We are kind of like the Bible Belt dividing line but we kind of have a mixing bowl of different types religions and I think that can help also. Places like Salt Lake are kind of judgemental towards non-Mormons and it can really affect your social status and job prospects if you are not mormon. (But that has been changing over the years)

[earthling]

KC can almost be too friendly in annoying ways but what I see in many cities is that you don't get any respect until doing something to earn it. In KC, you get respect by default unless/until doing something to lose it. And KC people generally want to be helpful, optimistic towards others compared to other cities. This makes KC much easier to establish roots quickly for outsiders. Entrepreneurs who move here say similar things.

Religion is probably not much of a factor as KC falls in the middle of pack for most/least religious of large markets and less religious than NYC, about same as Chicago and particularly less religious than ATL, Dallas and Houston. KC falls around the middle on most lists. Although of religious in KC, maybe many tend to be extroverted about it. I'm seeing extroverted religious in more cities now, even LA. I spend winters mostly in Tampa area which is not very religious overall but those who are can be in your face.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mos ... ce3c30e/16

[flyingember]

I don't think it's religious or cultural, I think it's generational. People tend to get set in their ways in middle school.

Historically we have been a divided city from the native americans being allowed o live only in KS to the Troost white-black line.

Don't just think urban but think suburban. In recent decades if you identify as hispanic, black, muslim, etc you are more likely to live in a suburb because of the schools. At one time these schools were 99% white Christian. My kid's elementary school is highly diverse. One of his classmates is named Mohammed and he's just another kid to him. I have seen classroom photos at 54th St north where the class was only 1/3 white. This is the reality suburban kids are living in.

Then add in a new white return to the cities. We are starting to see new projects break the long-troublesome Troost barrier. So the inner city is less and less looking like a stereotype and more like a place where we should all be able to coexist.

And I'm not talking about someone who is 10 growing up in this environment, it's been underway for decades in some parts of the suburbs.

Add in gay rights, the continued mainstreaming of individuals with disabilities into the classroom and society, that anyone under about 30 knew their mothers as someone that worked, not as someone working in the home.

Now add technology into the mix. Post 2005 the Internet boom has made the transference of culture ever more possible. It leads to echo chambers too but it allows someone to connect to thousands of people who have different backgrounds. If you are 15 and some kid from Australia can comment on your art or music it's not a huge jump for that to be someone in Dubai or Russia or India.

[earthling]

^So how does that make KC different than most other cites?

Another factor might be that KC is simply a less stressful place. Cheaper to live in, less traffic, no lines, no constraints, and the people don't feel they have to compete with each other (like I especially see in our ATL, LA, Denver and DC offices and other 'hot' markets). Yet KC has most of the big city amenities and continues to improve, even if at slower rate than hot markets. It's at a manageable rate with something new to check out just often enough.

[flyingember]

^So how does that make KC different than most other cites?

Another factor might be that KC is simply a less stressful place. Cheaper to live in, less traffic, no lines, no constraints, and the people don't feel they have to compete with each other (like I especially see in our ATL, LA, Denver and DC offices and other 'hot' markets). Yet KC has most of the big city amenities and continues to improve, even if at slower rate than larger markets. It's at a manageable rate.

Stress is a good point. People aren't friendly who are afraid or distrustful of others or are stressed.

Income inequality could play a big part in other cities. We have rich and poor but we don't have jobs access issues across the board where to live near work means being middle class and nothing else. There's a $15 minimum wage group in KC but it's still possible to live seconds from a bus with a 20 minute ride to work and have a minimum wage job. People who are able to take care of themselves and their family are less stressed and thus way more friendly.


This connects somewhat to crime levels and it's clear employed people are less likely to commit a violent crime. People don't want to be in a place they feel like there's a crime issue. You can see how the parts of the east side with the most promise are not in the recent crime hot spots. Downtown is so safe these days that you don't hear about people complaining about crime, it's parking, transit and such and how it's hard to get to places like 18th and Vine unless you want to drive.

[FangKC]

Having lived in several cities, and our country's largest, I agree that stress probably does play a part. Kansas City is a very stress-free environment, and most people living here don't have as many financial struggles to just survive. In almost all measures, KC is a cheap place to live.

NYC has become more stressful today than when I lived there 15 years ago. I notice on my Facebook feed the conversations and posts of NY people I know. They are constantly worried about high rent increases each year; losing their rent-stabilized apartment; fighting with their landlords; their favorite restaurants, bars, and stores losing their leases because of high rent increases; mass transit rate increases. Many of them are constantly moving further and further away from Manhattan into cheaper neighborhoods. My artist friends can barely make it there anymore.

I often wonder why they just don't move to a less stressful city.

Granted, NYC is a great place to live if you have a really good income, and regular salary increases to keep up with price increases.

So I agree that high stress does tend to make people less friendly. It's easy to be calm in KC, and when one is calm, one tends to be more pleasant to others.

I remember when I lived in Phoenix that sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic would send my stress level through the roof--especially during the hot stretches of summer. In NYC, it was waiting in long lines for everything, and being packed like sardines on buses, subways, and elevators. After I lived there a few years though, I got adjusted to it and it seemed normal. I never had the impression of many that New Yorkers were that rude though. Most people were actually very pleasant. The rudeness is usually situational. Even the most pleasant country-raised newcomers to NYC would eventually turn hostile and rude given the right situations.

Kansas City also tends to draw in a lot of people who grew up in smaller towns and cities in the region, so they grew up with the inclination to be friendly.

[earthling]

Minneapolis draws a lot from small town region but is known to be very cold to outsiders who move there.

The migration stats for KC show it draws a lot from outside the region, maybe more than within the 4 state region if I recall at least in 80s-2000s, maybe not as much lately.

[FangKC]

I'm going mostly on personal experience. I meet, and know, more people that come from small towns within an hour to an two-hour drive of Kansas City than from outside the region. In addition to that, I know native-born KC people whose parents and grandparents moved here from small towns within that two-hour drive.

I grew up about 85 miles from KC in NW Missouri. I get the hometown paper, and the vast majority of the reportage of family visiting their parents and grandparents is from the KC Metro.

Omaha isn't that much farther from my hometown than KC (an extra 25 miles), yet there are hardly any reports of relatives visiting from Omaha. The only thing I can think to explain that is TV and radio broadcasting. We got KC TV and radio stations (even before cable reached small towns), and not ones from Omaha. Thus, my hometown was always more centered on KC--and familiar--than Omaha.

[chingon]

I don't think it's religious or cultural, I think it's generational.

Nope, it's cultural.

[KCPowercat]

Ran into some Steelers fans in crossroads today who seemed to be aimlessly wandering around looking for stuff...asked me where to go, where Jack Stack was, etc. etc....so weird in this day and age not to be on your cell phone and find what you are looking for or pre plan your trip just a little bit. When I asked them what they wanted, they just wanted "stuff". They will have a horrible trip and it's nobody's fault but their own.

[chingon]

They will have a horrible trip

I hope so. I would have given them directions to a happening neighborhood called "Topeka".

[Highlander]

I visited KC for over a week over Christmas. My first visit to KC in a year. I was very impressed by the amount of activity in the Crossroads and especially along Main. That area is being transformed. My two adult children who have never lived in KC said they loved the vibe and that KC was starting to feel like a big city. Indeed, downtown and the Crossroads (albeit to a lesser extent) was full of both foot traffic and auto traffic during our visit. That said, the Crossroads still has a lot of gaps to infill. You can walk through some fairly dense areas and then two blocks of parking lots and/or unoccupied buildings. It will be interesting to see when we are back in September when the current construction is finished. Very excited to see what happens with the KC Star building in particular.

One thing I wasn't impressed by was the broken down feel to so many critical pieces of infrastructure. The potholes on the roads are much publicized and a real issue. It was also very disappointing to visit Union Station on probably its most crowded time of the year and have the escalators on the west side of the building out of use (which many folks were wanting to use coming out of the west parking lots) and, at the same time, the elevators on the east side of the building were also out of use. The latter forced families with strollers to carry them up to the Crown Center connection walkway. Bad look for KC at anytime but especially bad at Christmas. The city needs to keep on top of things like this. On the upside, the WWI museum and the Liberty Memorial pavilion were both packed and very well maintained. Nice to see so many people up there gawking over the skyline - shows a bit of pride in the city.

KCI remains a disaster. Cannot wait for the new airport. Our kids flew in an hour apart and we decided to wait up at the upstairs food court in the SW Airlines terminal. It was extremely poorly maintained. Trash everywhere. KCI was extremely chaotic and will benefit greatly from separating the arrivals and departures. Interestingly enough, I flew through Denver, Tucson, Seattle, KCI and Tulsa during the holidays and KCI had By Far the longest security lines of any of the airports we visited.

That was the downside. I remain very impressed overall with what's going on in the city. You would get the impression that the Plaza was in it's death throes from the thread here but it was vibrant and well visited when I was there and I noticed very few empty storefronts (the Nordstrom/Plaza Theater area notwithstanding). We were especially impressed with the gentrification going on in the North Plaza area. Gentrification is a dirty word to some but KC needs this badly. That area rivals the Crossroads in terms of being remade. Also impressed with Beacon Hill. I thought that area would be slow in taking off but there's clearly a lot of momentum there now.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

You would get the impression that the Plaza was in it's death throes from the thread here but it was vibrant and well visited when I was there and I noticed very few empty storefronts

I wonder who could have given you that impression?

You mean that just because a few outdated stores selling over-priced status symbol trinkets have closed, the Plaza hasn't become a total wasteland? Imagine that.

[earthling]

Gentrification is a dirty word to some but KC needs this badly.

Yeah, there are a lot of ways to interpret the term, is a matter of perspective and the impact can vary. KC doesn't have much either way, agree the right kind is needed.

Armour Blvd used to be known as sex offender row and had high crime. The 'gentrification' clearly improved that stretch.

The Plaza is a matter of perspective. It used to have cheap enough housing to allow service industry people working Plaza to live around Plaza. That's now less the case. But the upgrades and redevelopments are generally considered improvements to those who can afford to live there (though some unfortunately fight density).

Gentrification that improves low/poorly functioning areas is good if still broadly inclusive enough. Gentrification that pushes out people from a decent functioning area is generally considered bad. KC has plenty of low functioning areas that could use some 'good gentrification' as happened to Armour.

[DaveKCMO]

Armour Blvd used to be known as sex offender row and had high crime. The 'gentrification' clearly improved that stretch.

Yet Armour was one of the clearest examples of intentional large-scale displacement with support from the city council and neighborhood leaders.

[earthling]

I almost added to that sentence that even Armour is debatable. When you upgrade buildings for market rate, obviously many will be pushed out. Can't escape that. Bainbridge was kept as a token inclusive building and still an issue. You can't deny it's now far better than sex offender row but even this example may not have been inclusive enough. When it comes to anything that looks like 'gentrification', you can never please everyone, which was my other point.

[Highlander]

Gentrification is a dirty word to some but KC needs this badly.

The Plaza is a matter of perspective. It used to have cheap enough housing to allow service industry people working Plaza to live around Plaza. That's now less the case. But the upgrades and redevelopments are generally considered improvements to those who can afford to live there (though some unfortunately fight density).

Gentrification that improves low/poorly functioning areas is good if still broadly inclusive enough. Gentrification that pushes out people from a decent functioning area is generally considered bad. KC has plenty of low functioning areas that could use some 'good gentrification' as happened to Armour.

I don't think people realize how far KC is behind in having available housing in its core (for ownership) for middle and upper middle class people. Of the cities I am most familiar with, the entire city of Denver is gentrified and Houston has wide swaths of gentrified areas in the core now. There is practically nothing in KC's urban core other than upper class housing along Ward Parkway and the very small Brookside area (with even smaller enclaves dotted around in places like Hyde Park). I was very impressed with Plaza Heights (St Luke's) and what is going on in that area along with Beacon Hill being able to create some critical mass. Plaza Heights is a tiny development and KC could use another 50 such developments but they will be slow to come due to lack of economical drivers unless employment in downtown truly does take off (and even then, KC doesn't have the traffic snarls that drive people into the city like Houston). If KC really wants to improve the tax base and ultimately the KC School District, these are things that will have to happen.

[earthling]

Is likely Plaza Westport Neighborhood around St. Lukes to SW Tfwy will go all high end over time. It's already in progress and likely a few 'lower end' brick buildings left will be redeveloped pretty soon. The 'gentrification' might get some resistance if starting to tear down functional bungalow leaning homes in that area but it's inevitable and is what it is. The bigger problem is St Lukes tearing down homes for surface lots and/or low rise developments wasting space.

Plaza has a lot more condos than downtown but market conditions might start to turn prompting more downtown condos. Sounds like Three Light will start with more for sale out of the gate.

Beacon Hill/Hospital Hill is the area for higher end new single family home developments closest to the central corridor.

[flyingember]

Is likely Plaza Westport Neighborhood around St. Lukes to SW Tfwy will go all high end over time. It's already in progress and likely a few 'lower end' brick buildings left will be redeveloped pretty soon. The 'gentrification' might get some resistance if starting to tear down functional bungalow leaning homes in that area but it's inevitable and is what it is.

The Plaza adjacent areas have had some of the most expensive housing in the region for decades.
It's a trend that's been underway for longer than I can recall. It just takes time to buy properties.