KCRag Forum

and since I've lived in both...

Well, they're a LOT different...

Lawrence isnt really a suburb... yet:

I consider Larryville a burb more than St Jose but if you use the Denver descriptions of burbs then StJ is in too.

I agree KC, but I would bet that there are just as many KC commuters up here as there are in Larrytown...

St. Joe is getting a nice little developement of their own!

As these outlying cities become absorbed by the metro we are getting situations where they are connected one part of the metro, but not the entire thing. For example Lawrence is becoming very connected to Johnson County, but not so much to places like Blue Springs or Liberty. Same thing with St. Joe and the Northland, Warrensburg and Eastern Jack, etc. In other words, people in Olathe are likely to think of Lawrence as part of the metro area, but people in Liberty probably aren't so likely to agree.

as you can see by that map our metro is withing 2-3 counties of engulfing the Lake of the Ozarks
Both STL and KC are 2 counties away from Jeff. City and Columbia

On K-10 the drive to Lawrence is miles and miles of countryside.
I do not think that there is enough development connecting them together.
It seems that Lawrence is spreading towards Topeka more.
Compare this if you drive from Dallas to Denton TX (where my alma mater is) it is almost completely developed. This is not really a "good" thing though.
KC metro is very sparse, it will have a long way to go before it engulfs the cities mentioned.
I hope that urban sprawl is curtailed by that time.

First, I am not for/against Lawrence or St. Jo being considered a 'Burb.

I cannot speak for St. Jo, but Lawrence has definitely become a bedroom community for both Lawrence and Topeka. There is a huge percentage of people, from my experiences, that live in Jo Co and commute to school at KU or live in Lawrence and commute to employment in Jo Co/KC or Topeka. Lawrencians shop, dine and play in Jo Co and the Plaza much like someone from Lee's Summit, Liberty or Bonner Springs would. Lawrence is a city of 80,000+ and growing with little to no employment opportunities outside of KU and small business...you do the math.

Being part of a metroplex does not require that there be suburban sprawl from end to end. The patterns of where people live, work, and play within the KC region says enough.

What do the different Colors mean on that map??

I'm assuming they are calling Lawrence it's own seperate Metro area, and St. Joe too, with the green of Buchanan and Andrew Counties making it up?

St. Joe is REALLY spread out.

the colors are the metro areas, like red is Kansas City, light blue-green is St. Joseph, dark red is Lawrence, tan is Topeka, light green is Wichita, blue is Columbia, purple is St. Louis, dark green is Joplin, light teal/green is Springfield, brown is Springfield, dark purple is Peoria

I believe St. Joseph's MSA includes a third county now, Donophin.

It just looks spread out on the map because those are the counties from which people commute to jobs in St. Joe, the city doesn't actually take up that much land area. St. Joe is actually a fairly compact city for it's size of 75,000. It does some sprawl around the eastern belt highway, but nothing like western Lawrence.

Are you kidding Danger???

There is a parkway that goes from one end of town to the other, and I'm pretty sure it winds for 26 miles...

From the Southern tip of S. Joe to the Northernmost point is probaby about 10-12 miles or so...

I can't believe it hasn't spread east more.

You are right in the fact that the majority of St. Joe is in Buchanon County.

Downtown St Joe is far more urban than lawrass kansass. Downtown St Joe is very cool, great old buildings and density. I can't say the rest of the city is much. As far as people coming from lawrass to Johnson cty... who cares? What else is there to do in Kansass except go to the worlds largest ball-o-twine and shop for trash at oak park mall? St Joe would be a nice addition to the metro area, Let aecerything in kansass move west and stay there.

LyRiCaL GanGsTa wrote:Downtown St Joe is far more urban than lawrass kansass. Downtown St Joe is very cool, great old buildings and density. I can't say the rest of the city is much. As far as people coming from lawrass to Johnson cty... who cares? What else is there to do in Kansass except go to the worlds largest ball-o-twine and shop for trash at oak park mall? St Joe would be a nice addition to the metro area, Let aecerything in kansass move west and stay there.

You need to get outta your Ozark hillbilly cave more, G! Try to experience a state that isn't as backwards as Missouri. Without KCMO and St. Louis, Missouri would be second to Arkansas. What are you doin' on a Lawrence thread anyway? Stick to Columbia threads and the Ms. Walmart Arena.

Then again, WTF are we discussin' Lawrence in the Missouri suburb section? Sorry, LG

^ true, true
But KC and STL do exist

I like St Joe, it has a great downtown area, dense with very cool old buildings. St Joe was bigger than KC at one time and was poised to become 'theeee' city along the Missouri until KC built a bridge crossing. There is an excellent book at Barnes & Noble on the Plaza that shows old photos of prolific St Joe buildings, unfortunately many are razed. I was amazed at the buildings and the architectural diversity.

I really like some of the traditional neighborhoods, parks and parkways in the northern half of St. Jo.

Some photos of St. Joseph I found on the web:
http://www.kcskyscrapers.com/kcforum/vi ... 5919#25919

He's right..>St. Joe was a great place at the turn of the century....THE LAST century though...

This place has been allowed to decay for too long. My only hope is that things are changing, but I've seen little evidence that Downtown St. Joe will ever be anything but a hole...