kansas city sucks.

[GRID]

I have already gotten over the sticker shock of housing on the east coast.  It's expensive, but generally people make a lot more too.  I think you get more for your money here, just so much more in the city and in other cities nearby.  It comes down to you get what you pay for.  There is a reason why people are not leaving by the millions to live in places like Des Moines and Kansas City and St Louis to get out from under high COL.  Because they really don't want to.  The idea of cheap housing sounds nice, but its typically not near enough to entice somebody to move from a coastal area to the Midwest.  If all you want is cheap housing and un-congested freeways and plenty of cheap or free parking everywhere, then KC is great, but if you want more, the city begins to show its negatives.

I have always thought KC's greatest asset is "it's cheap" and it is.  It's location also makes it easy and inexpensive to access both coasts and all of the midwest.  It's a great city to live in if you want to see the country on a budget and I did just that.

I think KC is a great city, but I can also see why so many people choose to pay crazy prices for homes and live elsewhere.  KC prices actually need to go up, especially urban areas.  Houses in urban KCMO are just so cheap, too cheap.  West Plaza homes go for 150k.  In most major cities houses in an urban area like that would be much higher and typically urban areas like that will be much more desirable and in demand than most suburbs.  Till there is more demand and it's as popular to live in urban KCMO vs Overland Park, I don't see a lot of new urban core construction for a while in KCMO.  Everybody in KC might have a cheap mortgage, but I have learned that people in KC spend a freaking ton more on those cheap houses.  That's why there is a home depot or lowes every couple of miles in metro KC.  People go crazy with homes.  I did the same thing.  Now I'm less interested in that and so is everybody else.  It's just different.

So my plan to live on the east coast and then go to the west coast or Denver for a while should be just fine because I don't think KC will change a whole lot in the next decade or two.  I will be back and maybe by then, the city will have changed enough for me to really be interested in it again like I was while growing up there.

I do tell everybody about KC though and really enjoy showing off the city to people out here.  People out here have no idea what KC is like, how big it is, the topography of the area, the attractions it has etc.  So many people really do think "Kansas" and rural when they think KC. I honestly don't even understand how so many people think the city is so small and rural, Kansas or not.  But I can make jaws drop by showing them photos and that's when I miss KC's good assets, which it does have plenty.  I'm just enjoying some time away for a while .

[trailerkid]

Grid...don't take this the wrong way b/c I love hearing your take on everything, but you're not "away" f/ KC. Physically-- yes. Mentally-- no. You're married & just sleeping with another woman right now.

[KCMax]

forbes.com....we take 10 data items and make 10,000 lists out of them.

No doubt.

Our Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, as well as eight other issues that cause people anguish. The metrics include taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. We also factored in two indexes put together by Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly we considered corruption based on convictions of public officials in each area as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Those factors have very little to do with whether I am miserable or not.

[ComandanteCero]

(thinking out loud)

If you think KC can be cooler, do your part.

Dissatisfaction is a healthy state if it encourages you to do something to improve what you're dissatisfied with.

You can impact your city either as someone who helps directly create and add to the amenities and features that make a place awesome, or as someone who supports and patronizes said features by where you decide to live/shop/work.

[trailerkid]

(thinking out loud)

If you think KC can be cooler, do your part.

Dissatisfaction is a healthy state if it encourages you to do something to improve what you're dissatisfied with.

You can impact your city either as someone who helps directly create and add to the amenities and features that make a place awesome, or as someone who supports and patronizes said features by where you decide to live/shop/work.

the things that need to change aren't really "start a business" issues. they are school district, UMKC x 10 effect, more mixed use infill, better mass transit.

[ComandanteCero]

That's a good point, I guess in terms of stuff like mass transit and the school district, advocacy and political involvement is another way to "do something" about the situation.  If those are the issues folks are dissatisfied with, they can get involved.