Rankings, lists, and such

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Statistics for new housing construction (I believe based on permits issued) through May of this year.
http://www.census.gov/construction/bps/ ... 201305.txt

Kansas City and some peer/Midwestern/cities of interest:

CSA Name Total 1 Unit 2 Units 3-4 5 plus Structures with 5 units or more
Kansas City,* MO-KS 3126 1709 70 40 1307 46

Cincinnati-,* OH-KY-IN 1858 1343 26 15 474 22
Cleveland-Elyria-,* OH 981 874 0 7 100 12
Columbus,* OH 3489 1483 60 72 1874 78
Detroit-Warren-Livonia,* MI 2344 2022 36 30 256 20
Indianapolis-Carmel,* IN 2655 2189 22 27 417 24
Milwaukee,* WI 617 442 28 0 147 7
Minneapolis-St. Paul-,MN- 3877 2605 8 10 1254 15
Oklahoma City,* OK 3169 2610 40 23 496 28
Pittsburgh,* PA 1486 1372 6 31 77 8
St. Louis,* MO-IL 2165 1879 16 15 255 17

KC seems to be doing well in comparison with our peers, especially on multi-family.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Statistics for new housing construction (I believe based on permits issued) through May of this year.
http://www.census.gov/construction/bps/ ... 201305.txt

Kansas City and some peer/Midwestern/cities of interest (sorry for the poor formatting):

• CSA Name....................Total 1-Unit 2's 3-4's 5+ Structures with 5 units or more
  Kansas City,* MO-KS......3126 1709 70 40 1307 46
  
  Cincinnati-,* OH-KY........1858 1343 26 15 474 22
  Cleveland-Elyria OH..........981 874 0 7 100 12
  Columbus,* OH ............. 3489 1483 60 72 1874 78
  Detroit-Warren-,* MI .......2344 2022 36 30 256 20
  Indianapolis-,* IN.............2655 2189 22 27 417 24
  Milwaukee,* WI ................. 617 442 28 0 147 7
  Minneapolis--,MN-........... 3877 2605 8 10 1254 15
  Oklahoma City,* OK .........3169 2610 40 23 496 28
  Pittsburgh,* PA ............... 1486 1372 6 31 77 8
  St. Louis,* MO-IL ............ 2165 1879 16 15 255 17

KC seems to be doing well in comparison with our peers, especially on multi-family.

[FangKC]

Kansas City's Country Club Plaza makes list of 40 Greatest Urban Places -- On the Commons magazine.

Some of the greatest public spaces on Earth--which offer lessons of what we could do in our hometowns.

http://onthecommons.org/magazine/around-world-40-places

[bbqboy]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8334-505145_162- ... ?pageNum=2

[earthling]

Roasterie makes a list of best coffee roasters..
http://www.thedailymeal.com/28-coffee-r ... -slideshow

Same site ranks Blvd Brewery #3 of craft breweries in US..
http://m.kansascity.com/kcstar/db_10892 ... &pn=0&ps=5

[earthling]

KC economy is not very tied to farming industry anymore, ranking 46th. Some metros surprisingly rank higher...

2011
http://www.bea.gov/iTable/drilldown.cfm ... 1&nRange=5

1969
http://www.bea.gov/iTable/drilldown.cfm ... 1&nRange=5

[FangKC]

I imagine Kansas City's drop as a percentage over time has a lot to do with the meat packing and stockyards industries leaving. When you go from being the second largest stockyards (after Chicago historically) to nothing, I'm sure it had a big impact. Not only did KC lost stockyards and meatpacking, so did St. Joseph, MO.

The other factor is Kansas City has lost the grain, milling, and food processing industries--mostly because of consolidation. For example, Cargill is a major player and they are based in Minneapolis. Farmland Industries problems also contributed I'm sure.

The upsurge in California cities' increase in farm income has also come as a result of extensive water diversion efforts in California that has expanded agriculture to a lot of more arid regions. Produce production based in California and the resulting transportation improvements means that more fruits and vegetables come out of California and shipped nationwide than probably in 1969--even in summer months.

[earthling]

^Is curious that KS as state ranks 7th yet KC (46th) and Wichita (55th) are not tied into the farming industry very much anymore. STL (21st) is more economically tied into lower ranked MO (15th) although could also tie into IL (4th). OH ranks a notch lower than KS yet Columbus (20th) has more ties than KC.

State Income
http://www.bea.gov/iTable/drilldown.cfm ... 1&nRange=5



This shows KC a little more involved in 'production expenses', the trade of feed, seed, fertilizer etc for farms in the region. KC ranks 26th but below Philly, San Diego, Portland. Still rather low involvement for KS being 7th in income.

http://www.bea.gov/iTable/drilldown.cfm ... 1&nRange=5

[FangKC]

Well, I think we have to factor in livestock feedlot income, stockyards, and meat production that has moved into rural Kansas away from major cities where it used to be done. That is quite a different business that raising livestock on farms.

As far at St. Louis metro income related to agriculture, that may have to do with Monsanto and Nestlé Purina PetCare (formerly Ralston-Purina) being headquartered there.

A lot of the former farm-related income that used to be significant to Kansas City has moved to other large processing centers like Chicago, Minneapolis and to a lesser extent St. Louis because of consolidation of the Big Ag industries. Cargill, Land O Lakes, and Archer Midlands Daniels are out of Minneapolis. ConAgra is out of Omaha. Having those headquarters there increase those cities farm-related income a great deal. Losing Farmland Industries probably affected KC a lot. Farmland Industries was the largest agricultural cooperative in North America when it eventually sold all of its assets in 2002-4.

All that farm-related income is funneled to headquarters cities as reported profits of corporations that have corporate headquarters there, even probably if they have operations in other places. Most profits from agriculture comes in "value added processing," not basic farming. Very little food production profit goes to farmers themselves, but to the processors after it is produced.

For example, Interstate Bakeries used to have be big presence here, but that got bought out, the headquarters was moved to Texas, and then all the former associated brands (Hostess, Wonder, Natures' Pride, Dolly Madison) divided up after bankruptcy. Hostess Brands is now headquartered in Kansas City again, but it's a much smaller company than the old Interstate Bakeries was before it was bought out.

I do wonder if our farm-related income will also drop since the Kansas City Board of Trade has closed, and operations sent to Chicago. That was a huge business in Kansas City--the trading of red wheat, and that income will probably be reported in Chicago now.

Part of the growth of Kansas' state agricultural income has not to do so much with farmland. Missouri has more productive farmland. However, a lot of livestock is now shipped into Kansas from neighboring states for processing. Livestock-to-meat processing has increased Kansas' gross agricultural income tremendously, but it's not so much from raising livestock as it is from processing livestock that comes from elsewhere.

Kansas doesn't have as much agricultural income from farming crops and raising livestock as Missouri does, but it has made up for that fact by processing finished livestock into meat and other byproducts. There is a huge value-added income in taking a raw product and processing it into a final product that can be sold to consumers.

I don't know for certain, but I'm curious as to Kansas' rise as a livestock processor having something to do with less state environmental regulations, and weak unions--or none at all, than surrounding states. Livestock processing is a very messy business. A lot of pollution comes from the business, and thus this is why all of it has moved out of cities. Few people want to live around or near stockyards, and livestock processing plants.

Meatpacking used to be among the strongest union enterprises in the past, but not so much anymore. And for good reason they had strong unions historically, it's a very hard and dangerous job.

When I was a kid, meatpacking jobs were some of the best-paying jobs you could get, and they were more sought after jobs for blue-collar workers. Now, not so much. People who work at the Triumph Foods plants up in St. Joseph only do so because they can't find any other work. They even have to ship workers in from Kansas City each day. There is also a high turnover rate at the Triumph plant in St. Joseph.

[earthling]

This implies meat packing plants and food processing are in manufacturing category, not farming...
http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/1999/aug/wk1/art04.htm

KC has a large chunk of animal health research industry (pet and livestock) but that is likely in health or sci research categories.

[chingon]

I don't know for certain, but I'm curious as to Kansas' rise as a livestock processor having something to do with less state environmental regulations, and weak unions--or none at all, than surrounding states.

It has nothing to do with relative environmental regulations, which are pretty comparable all around.

The meatpacking industry moved from it's traditional urban centers (Cincy, KC, Omaha, Chicago) 100%, exclusively, for 1 reason:
to undercut union power in its workforce.

[earthling]

KC came in 22nd (2011) for income from locally owned biz. Not bad for 29th market size and few Fortune 500 HQs. Is surprising Portland is so low given the locatarian purism reputation, maybe local biz don't do as much outside biz. Nashville stands out most and then KC, relative to market size.

http://www.bea.gov/iTable/drilldown.cfm ... 1&nRange=5

[KCMax]

Putting City Rankings into Perspective

We often take too much interest in these rankings (and they are fun to follow), but recognizing how little they mean puts matters into perspective

Guess what city is in the pic? The author is a scholar at the Kauffman Foundation.

[earthling]

^Not a great skyline shot, showing surface lots in foreground.

Most subjective lists are pointless, some are curious in terms of perspective people have of cities. Some objectively measured ones are of course useful, like ranking in population, employment or economic state or what cities are stronger in one industry vs another. But yeah, even objectively measured ones can have a poor methodology. Either way lists will happen, most can't be taken too seriously, others need to be treated in context to the subject matter.

[FangKC]

This article features KC's skyline as well. Interesting in the article is the fact that if Kansas City were in Canada, it would be the third largest metro--about the size of Vancouver.

This was made clear to me when I moved to Kansas City, Missouri, last year. Kansas City is not particularly large in terms of population compared to other U.S. cities and has a certain small-town feel. However, after doing a bit of research online, I was astonished to discover that if Kansas City were moved north of the border, it would be a contender for the third most populous metropolitan area in Canada. In other words, the Kansas City metro area has around the same number of people as Vancouver’s.

The linked article also states that if Kansas City were in France, it would be the second most populous metro after Paris.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... of-cities/

So Kansas City would be the second-largest metro in France, Similarly, many European cities that we think of being incredibly important and central to global affairs are not as large as they feature in our minds. Dublin, Amsterdam, and Brussels are all smaller than Cleveland, for example.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-a ... ally/1444/

[brewcrew1000]

Our Metros in the US are way to large to even be compared to European Cities/Metros. You could most likely fit the metros of Brussels, Lyon, Antwerp, Nice, Bordeaux, and Marseilie all within the Boundaries of KC and be leftover with Platte County to spare. Brussels is a very dense metro, in some spots in only takes 8 miles to already reach the countryside

[chingon]

I can't believe anyone on earth thinks Dublin and Amsterdam are

incredibly important and central to global affairs

.

Brussels is marginally important, though if it disappeared tomorrow, I'm sure some other soul-less, blood-money funded, post-imperial Euro-trash stain on history would step into the minimal void created.

[kcmetro]

I can't believe anyone on earth thinks Dublin and Amsterdam are

incredibly important and central to global affairs

.

Brussels is marginally important, though if it disappeared tomorrow, I'm sure some other soul-less, blood-money funded, post-imperial Euro-trash stain on history would step into the minimal void created.

Getting drunk and high are very important global affairs.

[brewcrew1000]

Some garden in Olathe makes the list of 10 glorious gardens to explore

http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/1 ... l?page=all

[longviewmo]

Some garden in Olathe makes the list of 10 glorious gardens to explore

http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/1 ... l?page=all

aka part of the Overland Park Arboretum. You know, the one in Olathe... :p