As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
A thread title as boring as I hope Kansas City isn't
Gaslight
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So first, backstory (you can skip down to paragraph three for the actual question if you don't care): I live in Columbus, OH and aside from college in the DC area I have all my life. Up until the end of last year, I was doing work I liked a lot and which I was quite good at a company in Columbus. The pay was not great and not really up to par for the type of work I was doing, but I was repeatedly assured that was only because I had stepped into a role where they hadn't anticipated me being when I joined the company but that I had totally proven myself and that in the new year (2015) I would get compensation I deserved. Then at the end of 2014 it emerged that the company had ended up having a not-so-great financial year (or at least not so great as everybody seemed to expect) and I unexpectedly got laid off. For several months I lived off of unemployment and hunted unsuccessfully for a new full-time job while my then-fiancee and I planned our wedding (which had already been set for the end of May before I got laid off). The wedding came together and I eventually started doing part-time freelance work managing social media for a couple of small businesses, which combined with my wife's full-time pay as a retail assistant manager allows us to get by but not really save anything or make any major purchases (the apartment we have lived in since the wedding and which I have lived in since last November - yes, they laid me off a month before Christmas, two weeks after I signed the lease on a new place, and six months before my wedding - is still missing furniture in some rooms and both of our cars are over 10 years old).
Yesterday I unexpectedly got offered a job in Kansas City, MO. A guy who I knew from the place I worked up until the end of last year has since moved on as well and recommended me to the principal of the firm in KC, and we had talked on the phone and exchanged emails and he said he might have something come open later in the fall or first quarter next year. Then yesterday morning he called me up and said someone on his team was leaving unexpectedly and offered me the gig. It's back to the type of work I enjoyed and excelled at at my old job, or at least it's very close and can evolve into it. It's a lot more money than I was making at my old job, and of course it's a LOT more money than I am making freelancing right now. After a day of sort of hyperventilating and discussing it with my wife, my dad, and some other people whose advice I trust, I decided I'd be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity. I woke up yesterday morning with no plans of leaving Columbus, OH (where I've lived all my life aside from college) and went to bed knowing I was moving 10 hours away!
So, all of that is to say: who can tell me something useful about Kansas City? I want to know everything anybody here knows about the Kansas City area. Right now the sum total of my knowledge of the place is basically:
1. The Royals and Chiefs play there.
2. Apparently there's a lot of fountains?
3. They have good barbecue (I was initially reticent to move to a place where they insist on putting coleslaw on everything because gross but then I was informed that I was confused and it's actually North Carolina where they do that).
What are good areas to live in? We'll be renting at least for a while, and from what I have seen in a little time on Google and sites like ApartmentFinder.com KC seems to be a very inexpensive place to live but I don't know anything about the specific character of different neighborhoods or areas of the city.
What are fun things to do in KC proper? I have already made my peace with the fact KC is probably not as "hip" as Columbus (don't laugh, Columbus has actually become a pretty trendy place in terms of the arts scene, etc) and my wife and I are not the type of people who are into "night life" per se in terms of clubbing or whatever but what are the cool bars, restaurants, concert venues, etc? What's the best pizza in town? The best Chinese? (I am not going to ask about the BBQ because I am sure opinions are as varied as they are fiercely held.)
What are some employers in the area someone with an arts/teaching background might consider applying to? My wife works for a major retail chain and she might be able to transfer to a store in KC but she also might not, and she would like to get out of the retail grind anyway. She is an art education major and she did substitute teaching for a while after college but decided teaching full-time was not for her (job market for teachers in Ohio at the time was terrible as well). She'd still love to have work where they could put her artistic ability to use, however.
What are cool things to do within "day trip/weekend trip" distance? Or is it all just plains? (Not to denigrate the plains, I am sure the plains are very nice, I am led to believe some have even classified these plains as great plains.) But whereas in Columbus within a few hours drive we have Hocking Hills (state park with hiking), Cleveland area with stuff like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Cincinnati with its... stuff... all within 2-3 hours drive looking at a map Kansas City seems like a bit of an outpost.
Anything anyone has to offer under the aegis of one of these broad knowledge categories would be highly appreciated! But really, I'll take any random factoid you wanna throw out! We are pretty much flying blind here! Thanks, all.
Yesterday I unexpectedly got offered a job in Kansas City, MO. A guy who I knew from the place I worked up until the end of last year has since moved on as well and recommended me to the principal of the firm in KC, and we had talked on the phone and exchanged emails and he said he might have something come open later in the fall or first quarter next year. Then yesterday morning he called me up and said someone on his team was leaving unexpectedly and offered me the gig. It's back to the type of work I enjoyed and excelled at at my old job, or at least it's very close and can evolve into it. It's a lot more money than I was making at my old job, and of course it's a LOT more money than I am making freelancing right now. After a day of sort of hyperventilating and discussing it with my wife, my dad, and some other people whose advice I trust, I decided I'd be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity. I woke up yesterday morning with no plans of leaving Columbus, OH (where I've lived all my life aside from college) and went to bed knowing I was moving 10 hours away!
So, all of that is to say: who can tell me something useful about Kansas City? I want to know everything anybody here knows about the Kansas City area. Right now the sum total of my knowledge of the place is basically:
1. The Royals and Chiefs play there.
2. Apparently there's a lot of fountains?
3. They have good barbecue (I was initially reticent to move to a place where they insist on putting coleslaw on everything because gross but then I was informed that I was confused and it's actually North Carolina where they do that).
What are good areas to live in? We'll be renting at least for a while, and from what I have seen in a little time on Google and sites like ApartmentFinder.com KC seems to be a very inexpensive place to live but I don't know anything about the specific character of different neighborhoods or areas of the city.
What are fun things to do in KC proper? I have already made my peace with the fact KC is probably not as "hip" as Columbus (don't laugh, Columbus has actually become a pretty trendy place in terms of the arts scene, etc) and my wife and I are not the type of people who are into "night life" per se in terms of clubbing or whatever but what are the cool bars, restaurants, concert venues, etc? What's the best pizza in town? The best Chinese? (I am not going to ask about the BBQ because I am sure opinions are as varied as they are fiercely held.)
What are some employers in the area someone with an arts/teaching background might consider applying to? My wife works for a major retail chain and she might be able to transfer to a store in KC but she also might not, and she would like to get out of the retail grind anyway. She is an art education major and she did substitute teaching for a while after college but decided teaching full-time was not for her (job market for teachers in Ohio at the time was terrible as well). She'd still love to have work where they could put her artistic ability to use, however.
What are cool things to do within "day trip/weekend trip" distance? Or is it all just plains? (Not to denigrate the plains, I am sure the plains are very nice, I am led to believe some have even classified these plains as great plains.) But whereas in Columbus within a few hours drive we have Hocking Hills (state park with hiking), Cleveland area with stuff like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Cincinnati with its... stuff... all within 2-3 hours drive looking at a map Kansas City seems like a bit of an outpost.
Anything anyone has to offer under the aegis of one of these broad knowledge categories would be highly appreciated! But really, I'll take any random factoid you wanna throw out! We are pretty much flying blind here! Thanks, all.
Gaslight on
0
Posts
I haven't been in a few years so other people can probably give more current information about jobs and living situations.
Kansas City barbecue is some of the best in the country. Everybody has their favorite little spots, get some advice from a local or just try a bunch of them yourself. The portion of KC right on the state line is pretty cool. Lots of book stores and coffee houses if you're into that sort of thing. It's also a bit of a musical hub for the area, for what that's worth.
As far as teaching jobs (which was what I was looking for), KC has a good number of independent and alternative schools that would probably be happy to have a good art teacher. Local public schools probably less so, unfortunately.
Lawrence Kansas is a very cool place not that far from KC, as well. Home of KU and a kickass brewery scene.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
We absolutely are, I should have thought to mention it in the OP. This is one of our favorite places in Columbus, and once when we visited my wife's old college roommate in Lansing, MI we made a day trip to Detroit just to see John K. King Used & Rare Books. Any specific places you can remember, @OptimusZed?
Edit: I've heard good things about Rainy Day Books as well, though it seems a little more mainstream.
Edit 2: Jim Butcher's going to be there at the end of the month. Now I'm jealous.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
http://www.schlitterbahn.com/kansas-city/rides/all-new-verruckt
Fuck.
FUCK.
I had COMPLETELY forgotten Google Fiber! This adds a whole new wrinkle to apartment hunting!
Almost life-long resident here. I will do my best.
First, there's the actual city of Kansas City, which is in Jackson County, Missouri. Then there's another Kansas City in Kansas, which is in Wyandotte County. They're totally different and right next to each other. A lot of people (like myself) tell outsiders "I'm from Kansas City", which I'm technically not as I live in a suburb on the Kansas side, but a lot of people just call the whole metro area "Kansas City". I say this because depending on who you talk to, they may be talking about any one of those variations.
We're very spread out, with good highway access all around the city and you can get pretty much anywhere in the metro area in 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. Traffic is also damn good compared to other comparably sized cities like Boston, Vegas or Denver. You only really slow to a crawl if there's an accident or there's weather.
The metro is separated more by counties than cities. You've got Jackson (KCMO), Clay (Northland) on the Missouri side, and Johnson (Suburbs, farmland, good schools) and Wyandotte (mix of urban/KCK and rural) on the Kansas side. Just about every county gets reduced to a couple things and stereotyped.
-Johnson County (where I live) has really good schools in almost every city, has all of the good shopping and stores (except The Plaza) and has a reputation as being wealthy. There is a lot of money here, and you will find a shit ton of large houses and nice cars depending on the neighborhood or city, but there are plenty of regular ass people who live here who aren't WASPs and are really nice. A lot of people work in KCMO but live in Johnson County as the quality of schools and neighborhoods is so much better. There are also a ton of great jobs here and people come over from KCMO. We have as many people in Johnson County (close to 600,000) as there are in the state of Wyoming, and most of us are in the northeast corner of the county. I'm sure plenty of people consider that small, but while it is Kansas, it doesn't feel like you're in small-town USA.
-Jackson County has its issues. Pretty much every murder you see on TV seems to come from a low numbered street in KCMO. The schools are pretty terrible and I'm not even sure if they regained their accreditation back. If you have kids, you will probably want to look into private schools if choosing to live in KCMO. When looking at houses recently, this was the number one reason my wife and I chose not to live in KCMO. There are plenty of vibrant, eclectic, and charming neighborhoods throughout KCMO, but the schools killed it for us. Waldo and Brookside are pretty cool. KCMO has its share of million dollar houses and Ward Parkway (street) has plenty of awesome houses in a nice area.
-Clay County is considered the "Northland" and I don't know much about it as there's never a reason to go up there. It's suburbs with people commuting.
-Wyandotte County has KCK, which the further east you go, the worse it gets. West has the Speedway and Legends Shopping area, and Cerner just built some big buildings there.
We get about 4 months of gorgeous weather here (April, May, September, October), and the rest is either hot and humid, or cold and bleak. It doesn't get as hot or cold as other places. We get about two or three major snow falls a year, and even then it's not bad. We usually get a few weeks of near 100 in the summer. Sometimes the heat goes all the way into October, sometimes it's done in early September.
We do get the occasional tornado. Spring and Fall thunderstorms are nice and sometimes epic to behold.
People are friendly and welcoming here. No one gives a fuck if you were born here or came from somewhere else. We're a city of immigrants, and people are always coming and leaving for jobs. There's no accent that I can tell.
Our baseball team is doing really well right now so it's a great time to become a fan and go to a game (playoffs will be expensive). It was a shit team until last year so it feels like most of the city has become Royals fans recently.
The Chiefs have lots of loyal fans, but often fail when it comes to big games. You should be familiar with disappointment in sports coming from Ohio. I don't think anyone would give you shit for wearing an Indians or Browns jersey at a game, but there are assholes everywhere.
There's tons of affordable housing. Houses for sale or rental properties. Rent seems to be relatively cheap compared to the rest of the country. We rent a 1000 sq ft townhouse in a nice area/city for $850 a month. We just bought a fantastic 1500 sq ft house in a great neighborhood with good schools and will be paying not much more per month. Cost of living and housing is cheap. We have Walmarts and Targets, Trader Joes, Ikea, Whole Foods, etc.
Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Memphis, Little Rock are all within a days drive. You've got the Flint Hills in KS which are a couple hours away, the Ozarks, Omaha Zoo, Oklahoma City for a Thunder Game. We have a good airport. Having been to O'Hare and Atlanta, ours is so fucking easy. It's just way the fuck up north. After staying in Chicago for a week and riding the train and walking around the city I got really freaked out by how spread out our city is. It was just so strange for it to be so wide open, it may take getting used to. There are also a lot of trees and hills here. It's not dusty, wind-swept plains. You've got to drive about 3 hours west to get into the really stereo-typical part of the plains.
It's a stereotype about the barbeque. We've got some good places, but we don't all talk about it all the time or really even give a shit about it (that I've noticed). If we do talk about it, it's because we have an inferiority complex compared to the coasts. We just want to be noticed for something. We definitely have access to good, cheap beef and pork. There are tons of good places to eat and you will figure that out because your tastes are probably different. There are not barbeque joints on every corner. I've been to a decent amount of cities and we look like most of them.
Bars and night-life aren't really my thing, but we've got PLENTY of them. We have a nice art scene, and we get plenty of good musical acts coming through. I like to listen to 96.5 (alternative station, put on concerts) and 89.3 (local NPR). You can listen to them online to start to get a feel for the city.
I don't really know anything about Columbus, but I wouldn't look at it like you're downgrading. KC has a lot to offer. My only gripes are the humidity and lack of mountains. I love pretty much everything else about it.
Let me know if you have any other specific questions. When visiting, renting a car is a must. If you are in town let me know, my wife and I can do our best to show you around and see the different cities (it's a big metro).
What's coverage like for the various cell phone carriers in KC? I am currently on Verizon and would like to get away because of their generally arbitrary, restrictive, and anti-consumer policies, but the one thing they do have going for them is that they seem to have good coverage most places.
It's only been opened for ~2 years, and that is as long as I've lived in KC for, but Q39 is the best BBQ in town.
For anything regarding schools or teaching, you are gonna want to look at Missouri. Kansas keeps slashing school budgets, and Missouri actually puts up billboards making fun of brownback and saying they'll hire all the kansas teachers.
It won't hold a candle to Sandusky Ohio, but Worlds of Fun (and also Oceans of Fun) are nice amusement/water parks owned by the same company as Cedar Point. As was mentioned earlier, The Nelson is pretty great. Also, there is this thing called First Fridays, which is just a big night for going around and looking at art in a ton of different galleries that are open on the first friday night of every month. And you mentioned the chiefs and the royals, (and also soccer sucks) but KC also has a MLS team that won some thing last year. There's also a minor league hockey team (and hockey, unlike soccer, is amazing) and you can go see them for like, $10 front row. And something something college basketball.
Kansas City is a real city, and any of the carriers will offer identical coverage and will be fine. (T-Mobile is pretty good about not being on those anti-consumer things) I don't recall having any problems even when I drove out to dodge city, which is literally the middle of nowhere.
You might notice that people are pretty polarized on the KCMO vs KCK issue. Mostly, people live on one side or the other, and wouldn't change for anything. Personally, I fall on the Missouri side and wouldn't change. A lot of that comes down to Brownback. In terms of places to live, it really depends on what you are looking for. The metro area is very spread out, so driving from place to place is pretty much a must. Plenty of urban and suburban living to go around. In terms of general areas, east of Troost (a street running north south) tends to be a lower income housing area. Waldo and Brookside are pretty hip urban spots that are trendy and at a medium distance from downtown. Westport and the plaza areas are a little closer in, and are also pretty trendy.
Finally, cell phones. I always pitch Virgin mobile. You have to buy your own phone, but there are no contracts, its 4glte on sprints network, and you can get "unlimited" data for 45 a month.
Keep it coming folks, this is great!
Edit: Another question about a specific thing. What is the best/most customer-friendly bank in the KC area? I am with PNC right now but it looks like they don't have any locations in the area, and while I don't go to a bank branch very often it would be nice to have them nearby if I had a need. The main thing I care about though is not getting hassled with nickle-and-dime fees for stuff like minimum balance, transfers from savings, etc. Number of locations and ATMs is less critical for me because I don't carry cash that much.
Also; they kinda suck. On all those hints you dislike about nickel and diming banks. Look into a credit union? I also need to do that. Someday.
OVERVIEW
Picture the face of a clock. Draw a line from the 8 to the 2, then draw another line from the center of the clock to the 11, so you have three slices - 2-8, 8-11, and 11-2. That's a (very) rough approximation of how the city is divided. The biggest slice constitutes Kansas City, Missouri and its southern suburbs and the Johnson County suburbs south and west of it. Aside from being the biggest, all of the areas within this slice use the same street naming and numbering conventions, so it's pretty easy to find your way around once you know the scheme.
The next slice, the 8-11, is Kansas City, Kansas. It's kind of cut off, isolated from the rest of the metro area by rivers and railyards, and it has its own street numbering system (numbered streets count westward rather than southward).
The last slice, the 11-2, is the Northland, constituting Kansas City North and North Kansas City (yes, these are two different things, and I can't keep them straight either) as well as various outlying northern suburbs like Liberty and Parkville. The Northland is, again, kind of isolated by distance and being on the other side of the river.
KC is something like 45th in North America by population but 29th by geographical size. What all this means is that people tend to stay within their own "slice." KCK folks will often tend to find stuff to do within Wyandotte County rather than go to the hassle of hopping on the highway to get over the bridge - even though they can see downtown KCMO from where they're sitting. People in the Northland tend not to cross the river except on weekends or for big events. Very few "Kansas Citians" who live in one outlying suburb can find their way around a different outlying suburb with any degree of confidence, which is kind of funny; on the other hand, it means that we have a lot of neighborhoods with interesting neighborhood character (because people would rather eat at the Mexican place near them than drive 25 minutes to a different one).
That's why, personally, if you can swing it with your work commute and everything, I strongly recommend living somewhere either reasonably central or near one of the big highways (I-35, I-70, I-29, or 71) so you'll have the biggest range of interesting things to do within a reasonable radius.
This is also why public transit in KC has had a harder time happening than in other places (more ground to cover and fewer people to pay for it) and why, no matter where you live, you will definitely want a car and to keep your car in good working order. The good news is that traffic is really not bad.
NEIGHBORHOODS & COMMERCIAL DISTRICTS
Downtown - Where the tall buildings live. When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, downtown used to be dead; one time, and I am not making this up, I actually saw a tumbleweed rolling down Main Street on a Sunday afternoon. Things have really turned around in the last ten years and it's now a place I travel frequently for reasons other than paying speeding tickets at the central police station. There are all the usual things you'd expect to find down there - the hotels and shops and nice places to eat - but also some hidden treasures, like the Green Lady jazz lounge, which feels like stepping into a time warp to the 40s. Downtown used to not be a very livable place; when I was an economics student, the future mayor of the city, who was then city manager, would come occasionally to guest-lecture one of my classes and he talked about the huge battles the city used to fight with the grocery store chains to try and convince one of them to build a grocery store downtown - nobody wanted to live somewhere they couldn't get food conveniently, after all. That's a thing of the past and as of winter 2014 downtown was actually at 100% occupancy until a few new apartment and condo construction projects were completed. Parking can be an issue, of course, but if you don't have kids and want to be where it's happening, and want ready walking or bus access to many of the places you're likely to go, definitely look into renting downtown.
The River Market - a hip commercial/residential district on the northeast edge of downtown, centered around the namesake Market, a big open-air affair with booths and stalls selling fresh produce, livestock, hot soup, and so forth. It's the best place in town to get fresh groceries, but there are also some good restaurants nearby, as well as places to hear music.
Crown Center - Hallmark Cards is based in KC and Crown Center is their commercial headquarters, a combination shopping mall/hotel at the south edge of downtown. Some of the stuff for sale tends to be a little gift-y or touristy - it's where you go when you want KC hats or snowglobes or that kind of stuff - but it also has some of the city's best (pricey) restaurants, including The American, which is the kind of place you might want to go on your anniversary if you're prepared to drop a couple hundo. It also has a nice theater that shows a good mix of mainstream and arthouse films.
The Power & Light District - Located in the middle of downtown, this is one of those kind of preplanned, prepackaged corporate developments that some firm just decides to plunk down in the middle of a random city. There is very little "Kansas City" about it; the restaurants and bars are chain things that you can find in Minneapolis or Tucson or wherever. But I guess that's not really an awful thing, since it gives nervous tourists something familiar to spend money at without having to leave their comfort zones. It's very popular with conventiongoers, hotel guests, and other out-of-towners, but has also become the number one destination for bros and sorority-girl types. That, and a policy among businesses of aggressively keeping out people with the wrong clothes and possibly the wrong skin color, tends to lead to it being called the "white" power district. Still, there are a couple good places to eat there, and the Alamo Drafthouse is nearby.
The Crossroads - Located on the southwest corner of downtown, near where Southwest Boulevard crosses from KCMO into KCK, this is the primo hip, urban, artsy district in town. Twenty years ago it was all rotting warehouses and crack dens; now it's galleries and lofts. The actual artists who helped turn it around have been priced out of the area by their own success and have moved elsewhere, but the galleries remain, and this is the epicenter of First Friday, which several other folks have mentioned. How does First Friday work? Basically, you and a few thousand of your closest friends walk around the Crossroads neighborhood, pop into random galleries and look at the new art, and avail yourselves of the various free glasses of wine, free canapes, and so forth. When the weather cooperates, it's great.
Westside - A hidden gem of a neighborhood, located on the west edge of downtown on the other side of I-35 from the main portion. Being kind of cut off by the highway, Westside feels weirdly chill and pastoral compared to the busy city just a few blocks away. It's mostly situated atop a tall river bluff, so you get a great view of the surrounding city, and there are several great local bars and restaurants as well as some antique stores and galleries. Definitely get there early one morning and try the crepe place - it's a restaurant that serves only crepes and closes at like noon.
Columbus Park - On the north edge of downtown, near the River Market, this used to be the old Italian neighborhood back in the day, and still has a strong Italian flavor - the fire hydrants are painted green, white, and red, there are bakeries and delis galore, and the restaurants tend to pipe a lot of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett out into the street. The neighborhood has recently become one of the nexuses of the Vietnamese community in town, though, so you'll see Sal's Deli next to Tran's Noodles/Tax Preparation/VCR Repair. So, in a weird twist, it's the place to go if you want either good Italian or good Vietnamese.
Northeast - follow Independence Avenue east out of the River Market for five minutes and you'll enter Northeast, an interesting and diverse neighborhood that began life as the Jewish part of town, then became predominantly Italian after WWII, then became a ghetto in the 70s, and is now heavily Vietnamese. The neighborhood is made up of all these beautiful old mansions built around the 1910s, many of which were later subdivided into apartments or fell into disrepair but are now being restored. It's kind of a schizophrenic neighborhood: there will be this amazing, super-gentrified block where Lexuses are parked in front of meticulously maintained town homes and mansions, and then the next block over will look like "The Warriors." It's someplace I don't necessarily recommend living but I absolutely recommend visiting; Cliff Drive runs along the crest of a steep cliff overlooking the Missouri River and is a gorgeous view, the Kansas City Museum (of science) is located there and is a beautiful building, and there are some cool restaurants and stores, like The Local Pig, which is a very high-quality butcher shop.
Midtown - "Midtown" is a catchall term that refers to any one of a number of small neighborhoods that are south of Downtown, north of the Plaza, but are not Westport. It's all mixed residential/commercial urban living - apartments and townhouses, shotgun houses with small lawns, shops with apartments on the second floor and so forth. Hyde Park and Union Hill are popular with urban professionals who want to live somewhere that is near downtown but feels a bit upscale, while the areas around 39th Street or Gillham Park tend to attract a lot of college students (particularly KU Med students around 39th, and Art Institute students around Gillham) with comparatively low rents and walking access to their schools as well as nearby coffeehouses and bookstores.
Westport - Westport is the number one eating and drinking destination in the city. It's south of downtown, centered around Westport Road, which runs southwest from 40th and Main Street to 43rd and State Line Road. Within those few blocks are bars (The Riot Room, Kelly's, about a dozen others), clubs (can't remember the names, never been), restaurants (McCoy's, The Char Bar, The Foundry, The Flea Market, Mario's, Jerusalem Cafe, Korma Sutra, Harry's, the Corner Restaurant, others), an arthouse theater (The Tivoli), a grocery store, a World Market...fuck, I dunno. It's busy and packed and crazy and I don't always even like going there and dealing with the crowds but you don't really have the option not to - there are just too many things there that you will probably want to do.
The Plaza - Directly south of Westport is the Country Club Plaza, although everyone here just calls it The Plaza. It's a scale replica of a few blocks of Seville, Spain, built by slightly crazy developer JC Nichols back in the 1920s. So in the middle of this Midwestern city we have a few blocks of Spanish architecture and tiled mosaics and classical fountains and etc etc. It's the upscale counterpart to Westport, the city's biggest shopping and eating destination for people with money. It's where you find, you know, Anthropologie and J. Crew and MAC and Banana Republic, and a bunch of pricey places to eat al fresco. That doesn't mean there's nothing to do if you're not rich, though: a lot of the restaurants have great lunch specials, and there's a three-story Barnes & Noble that used to be one of my favorite hangouts when I was around there, and there are some cool hidden local gems like Eden Alley, a long-running vegetarian restaurant tucked away into the basement of the Unity Church.
Brookside - South of the Plaza is Brookside, a residential neighborhood that is, I think, KCMO's most popular place to live if you have a family. It's all nice Tudor-style houses from the 30s and 40s, well-kept, with beautiful lawns and parkway streets. There's a shopping district that has a lot of bistro-y, boutique-y type places geared toward middle-aged people, professional people, and parents rather than singles or committed drinkers. As mentioned, the KCMO schools have a bad rep (although some of them are fine!) so parents in Brookside tend to send their kids to one of the nearby private schools like Bishop Miege.
Waldo - South of Brookside, roughly between 65th and 83rd streets on Wornall Road, Waldo is a little hipper and edgier than Brookside, a little less settled-down, with more apartments and small homes for singles and couples just starting out. It's not FUCK YEAH PARTY CENTRAL the way Westport or Power and Light are, but there are bars, and good Mexican joints, coffeehouses, everything's fairly walking-accessible. It's hip, but more laid-back, a little more suburban than Midtown. It definitely seems like different types of people gravitate toward these places.
The West Bottoms - West of downtown, between downtown KCMO and KCK, located in a deep river valley (the bottoms) where the stockyards and warehouses used to be. This area wasn't even a neighborhood twenty years ago; it was just rotting buildings and torn-up streets that looked like the future war scenes from the Terminator movies. As people expanded out of the Crossroads district, though, the West Bottoms got an overhaul, and many of the warehouses have been renovated into lofts, studios, and communal art spaces. New storefronts have sprung up, and now it's a big destination for antiquing and art collecting.
Shawnee Mission - the generic name and postal code for all the small cities on the northeast side of Johnson County, near the site of the old Shawnee Indian Mission. These cities - Roeland Park, Mission, Merriam, Mission Hills, Westwood, and Prairie Village - are the oldest and most centrally-located of the Johnson County suburbs. Mission HIlls is the wealthiest part of Kansas City, kind of our version of Beverly Hills (which it rivals in median income), but the others represent a diverse range of affordability. The Johnson County school districts (Shawnee Mission in the north, Blue Valley in the south) are the best in the metropolitan area and the best in Kansas in general, so a lot of young couples try to rent apartments in Mission or small rental homes in the older, eastern part of Prairie Village to get a toehold into the region and its zip code. I am going to admit my bias up front: I live here, in Prairie Village near Mission Hills, and I like it. I think it's the best suburban living the KC area has to offer: there are nuisances like higher mill levy taxes (for the schools) and stricter property codes, but they translate into a generally pleasant suburban experience with wide streets, nice parks, a safe environment (if you are okay with somewhat overbearing police), and with I-35 nearby it's all less than 20 minutes from the Plaza, from Westport or downtown, so you don't have to feel like you're living on Mars.
Johnson County - Johnson County at large, once you move south and west from the older and more centrally-located neighborhoods in the NE corner of the county, is kind of the apotheosis of runaway suburban sprawl. The city of Overland Park, which is the county's largest, really exemplifies this: it kept growing and growing, incorporating and swallowing up the small towns in its path, and it had the same dude as mayor for like 30 years and he did absolutely nothing to regulate business or development at all. So it's this neverending sprawl of four-lane streets that lead to mazelike residential developments with kind of dodgily-built McMansions, the kind of place where, when you live there, your main dining options are the Applebee's or the Chili's or the Panera Bread. Stuff keeps being built further and further south while the hot new suburban development of 16 years ago sits, abandoned, weeds in the parking lot and with a sun-faded Blockbuster Video logo somewhere. If you like taking 20 minutes to get from the Best Buy to the Home Depot next door because the parking lots are blocked off with little shrubberies and the streets are congested, Overland Park and Olathe are for you. As a bonus, very little is open after 9pm; you basically need to drive into the actual Kansas City if you want to eat late. ALL THAT SAID, there is some nice stuff in greater Johnson County. Downtown Overland Park is a cool, classic little stretch of old-timey storefronts that have been carefully kept up and have a good-sized farmer's market every week during the warm months. The Oak Park Mall is probably the best shopping mall in the KC area, with all the stuff you would want and expect (and everything the mall doesn't have is on another corner of the giant intersection the mall sits at). Some non-generic culture has slipped into the county in recent years and there are some good Asian markets, Korean and Middle Eastern food, and a few other interesting developments. The cities spend a lot of money on keeping the roads up and keeping them looking nice, so it's certainly a pleasant enough place to drive through.
Independence/Raytown - These are the oldest suburbs on the east side of the city, in Jackson County. Unlike the older suburbs in Johnson County, which are still basically thriving, they've been on the decline for years and years as the industries that supported them dried up. They're very kind of blue-collar, rust belt-y type places fallen on hard times. You can drive down Noland Road in Independence and the street is just packed as far as you can see with all these gigantic signs crowded all around each other screaming for your attention (again, unlike Johnson County, they didn't have sign ordinances or public beauty ordinances or whatever) and these signs are all from, like, the 1950s, and many haven't been maintained in years and years and are starting to rot away. There's a Drug Emporium in Raytown where nobody changed the bulb in the "p" for like a decade so it said DRUG EM. I feel like that kind of sums the place up. There's still good stuff, like the Hi-Boy Burger in Independence (with authentic giant burgery boy statue) and Fun House Pizza in Raytown, which has arcade games and classic greasy 70s pizza parlor pizza, but otherwise it's largely a wasteland of payday loan joints and pawn shops. True story: about 2002 Independence actually had to pass a city ordinance limiting the number of pawnshops allowable per block, because it was getting out of control.
KCK/Wyandotte County - Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS are actually effectively one and the same; the city and county governments merged fifteen or so years ago to form the Unified Government. Downtown Kansas City Kansas is immediately northwest of downtown KCMO, just across the river, but it's kind of an island unto itself; getting there means taking a somewhat circuitous highway route or knowing one of the few surface streets that crosses a bridge. It used to be a bit dead, but shows signs of coming back to life. There's a huge Hispanic community in the city, specifically around KCK, and there are several streets and neighborhoods that are Spanish-primary, where you can get handmade tamales and fresh tortillas and sugary donut things for ridiculously cheap prices. There's a bit of an arts scene beginning to kick off in the downtown area, and some kind of cool old-timey dive bars. Because it's a bit cut off, I don't get to get out there much, but there's a lot to discover. Outside of downtown, which is to say, west of it, Wyandotte becomes a lot more rural: the contrast is almost shocking. Like, you'll be driving down a block that looks like something out of south central LA, and then you turn a corner and suddenly you're in Deliverance country.
The Legends - Located far west of downtown KCK (and west of most things in general), The Legends is Wyandotte's new and enormous commercial district, built around a NASCAR racetrack. Aside from the sort of places you might expect to find in the vicinity of a racetrack, like Cabela's and a couple of steakhouses, there's also a huge Nebraska Furniture Mart and a mix of bars, clubs, fast casual eateries and so forth. Schlitterbahn, the water park, is located immediately nearby as well. I don't get out to the Legends much - it's not a convenient drive for anyone not in Wyandotte/KCK - but there's enough stuff there that you kind of find yourself ending up out that direction a few times a year anyway.
Northtown - this is the generic name for everything "north of the river," which includes Kansas City North, North Kansas City, Parkville, and Liberty. I can't speak to these neighborhoods very much as I get north of the river maybe like once a year (not counting trips to the airport). Parkville is immediately north of Downtown KC, right over the river, and is an old-timey small town that has been kept up well, with a cobbled main street and antique buildings and all that sort of thing. Park University is there, and the town seems kind of pleasant and laid-back, like a little island of old-time Americana within sight of the downtown skyscrapers. Liberty is far northeast of downtown KC and is another small town that has grown considerably in the last 30 or 40 years, becoming a pretty large suburb.
OUT OF TOWN
Lawrence, KS - about 40 minutes straight west of KC. Home of KU. Almost the stereotype of the picturesque college town, with well-kept old buildings, shaded streets, a hip downtown (Massachusetts or "Mass" Street) with a lot of record stores, guitar stores, bookstores and a ton of bars that feature live music. The downside is that a lot of this wonderful stuff closes at 5, and then it's just the bars. That was really frustrating when I went to school at KU; I thought I'd be hanging out at the coffee shop at all hours and showing off my Sartre book to the ladies or whatever, but nope; the streets rolled up just as I got out of class and then there wasn't much to do if you didn't want to go pound shots. It's better nowadays but definitely, when you hear about something cool in Lawrence that isn't a bar, definitely, definitely check the hours of operation.
Columbia, MO - home of MU, or "Mizzou." Two hours east of the KC area. A lot of what I said about Lawrence applies here, although the town is a bit less hilly and a bit flatter and more sun-baked. It's also a longer drive from KC so I don't get there nearly as much, but it's still absolutely worth visiting on the weekend when there's good music in town.
Weston, MO - about forty minutes northwest of Kansas City, this is a picturesque small town packed with antebellum homes. Lots of nice scenery; the town has a winery and grows some grapes nearby. The main street has several really cool antique stores and an old-timey bar, and there are a couple great bed-and-breakfasts. It's the sort of place couples like to go for a day or two to get away from everything; the whole vibe is very welcoming and relaxing, although it's not Excitement Central.
The Lake of the Ozarks - when Kansas Citians say they're "going to the lake," this is almost always what they mean - a huge, winding artificial lake about two and a half hours southeast of the city, down in the middle of Missouri. The lake has an enormous shoreline area (it's a bunch of winding mountain valleys filled with water, basically) so there are a lot of towns and resorts along the perimeter, all with kind of different vibes. There's a strong element of like beach party bro culture, kids who treat the lake like a mini-Tijuana (and every year there's some new scandal about kids partying on the lake and doing molly or whatever), but there are other places that cater to outdoorsmen, so you can get your trout fishing on or whatever, and others that are just kind of subdued and relaxed. There's a great Four Seasons down there that I've stayed at a couple of times, and Bagnell Dam, on the east edge of the lake, has a really cool main strip with a lot of like arcades and go-kart racing places and ice cream parlors and junk shops and stuff.
Branson, MO - about 3.5 hours southeast of KC. I know this place is kind of a punchline nationally - “it’s like hillbilly Las Vegas” - but it’s actually kind of a cool vacation destination if you’re looking for somewhere to get away on a three-day weekend. Branson used to be where old country music stars would retire to open up a small theater and play a couple nights a week, and it still has a lot of that, but there’s also now a thriving and bustling resort community built up around that, with a lot to see and do without ever having to visit the world’s greatest Merle Haggard impersonator or whatever. Of particular note is Silver Dollar City, the theme park just west of town, which has some terrific rides and a lot of arts and crafts, as well as a genuinely impressive cave you can tour.
CULTURE
Music - for most of my life, most big music acts and tours avoided KC, going either to Omaha up north or Oklahoma City down south. This has abruptly changed with the construction of the new Sprint Center downtown, and now we’re getting a lot of big national acts coming through. The local music scene, meanwhile, kind of depends on what kind of music you’re interested in. KC has a ton of great blues and jazz joints, and we have a couple good places to hear live hiphop (Tech N9ne is from the area), but the rock scene has never been the best, although good bands do show up. The best places to go hear random rock acts are probably going to be the Bottleneck in Lawrence, the Riot Room in Westport, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club in midtown, and Grinders or The Brick downtown. To keep an eye on upcoming events, check out The Pitch ( http://www.pitch.com/ ) which is our local alternative weekly newspaper.
Events - Planet Comicon is in March or April and has grown from a small little operation in the Overland Park convention center backroom to a juggernaut that takes up the entire Kansas City Convention Center (or “Bartle Hall,” as oldtimers call it) and gets major guests like the TNG cast or a couple of different Doctors. Around the same time (sometimes the same weekend) is Naka Kon, the anime convention in Overland Park. The Spectrum Fantastic Art Convention, a gathering of sci-fi and fantasy painters and illustrators, happens around May. In June we have the Maker Faire (a crafts fair, kind of like Etsy on steroids) and the Scottish-themed Highland Games. Around late August or early September, we have the self-explanatory Irish Fest and then the six-week long Renaissance Festival, whose turkey legs and mead have been KC institutions since the 70’s. Lastly, in late September through October, we have the American Royal, the massive livestock and cattle convention. Obviously not all of that will be to your interest unless you’re really looking for new developments in the exciting field of bull semen, but the Royal also features concerts, a parade, a BBQ competition, rodeos, horse shows and more.
Movies - You’ve probably heard of the Texas-based chain the Alamo Drafthouse and we’ve got one downtown; it shows first-run movies as well as a constant string of classics (RoboCop, Aliens, The Big Lebowski, etc etc) and you can drink alcohol and eat burgers while you watch. The Screenland Theater, which has two locations in KCMO, is kind of like a homegrown Alamo Drafthouse, mixing first-run movies and cult classic revivals (like the “Shocktoberfest” horror festival). For regular corporate theaters, KC is the home base of AMC Theaters, who understandably keep their local facilities to a very high standard; their Ward Parkway theater, which is in south KCMO, near Waldo, features astonishingly comfortable reclining seats (I snoozed through a bit of the first Hobbit in one) and a dinner service that I have not yet tried. For indie fare, we have the Tivoli in Westport, which is a local institution, and the Fine Arts Group, owned by a pair of movie-fanatic brothers, operates a few lovingly-restored vintage arthouse theaters in Merriam and Overland Park. Both the Tivoli and Fine Arts feature first-run indie and arthouse films. Out towards Independence, we also have the I-70 Drive-In and the Twin Drive-In, two of the last drive-ins in the Midwest. You can get tickets to see a triple feature - three movies in a row - for like ten bucks a head.
Nerd Stuff - If you’re looking for Magic cards, roleplaying games, or board games, the best places to check out are TableTop Games in Overland Park and Pulp Fiction in Lee’s Summit. They both have good selections and spacious backrooms where you can meet up with people and play games, participate in tournaments and so forth. For comic books, check out B-Bop South in Overland Park (the name is somewhat misleading as the original B-Bop no longer exists, but oh well). AVOID Clint’s Comics in midtown; they basically stay open by being the only place to get comics that’s not in the suburbs, but the owners are deeply unpleasant, overbearing people who are basically real life Comic Shop Guys. Lastly, if you’re looking for arcade games, the only game in town used to be Dave & Buster’s out at the Legends, but I never really cared for their selection, which is heavy on lightgun games and claw games and that sort of thing. Now, as of a month or two ago, we have UpDown, a barcade in the Crossroads district that has all the arcade greats, from Gyruss to the Simpsons 4-player game to the TMNT cabinet.
The Riverboat Casinos - are not on the river and aren’t really boats; they’re just boatlike buildings sealed in concrete next to the river, and apparently this is what passes for lawful compliance with “only riverboat gambling is allowed” in Missouri. They exist, and they’re all kind of equally depressing.
The KC Zoo - was kind of run-down and sad when I was a kid, but after a costly ten-year makeover is now a really cool modern zoo, with much more spacious, humane habitats, an IMAX theater that shows educational films, and a lot of interesting exhibits.
Powell Gardens - about 45 minutes southeast of town, this is a big open-air garden park. I’m not a flower guy, I can’t tell basil from a begonia, but the roses are shrubberies and park paths are quite beautiful and make a fun day trip.
Parks - Shawnee Mission Park is the big park that serves Johnson County; it has a large lake, a jogging/biking trail, and places to grill and picnic. Loose Park, in the center of KC near the Plaza, is a gorgeous 75-acre urban park with winding paths and a rose garden, and this kind of neoclassical, English country house look to the architecture of the park facilities. The rose garden is a popular wedding location. Swope Park, in the south of KC, is a huge (2,000-acre) stretch of often somewhat untamed land (bits of it are more like a forest than a park) with hiking, jogging, and biking paths, tennis and basketball courts, and the KC Zoo and Starlight Theater.
Radio Stations - 89.3 KCUR (Kansas City University Radio) is our big local public radio and NPR station, mixing all the usual NPR content (Marketplace, All Things Considered, etc) with local programming. The local programs I strongly recommend are Central Standard, a talk show where host Gina Kauffman interviews both national and local celebrities and that features regular visits by food critic Charles Ferruza and the local movie critics, Up to Date with Steve Kraske, which does local and statewide (for both states) politics and interviews, and Cypress Avenue with Bill Shapiro, a longrunnning (since the 70s) music-documentary show where each week Shapiro takes the full hour to cover an entire artist’s life story and discography. 90.1 KKFI is our second public radio station, this one not affiliated with NPR, and features strictly local content, often with some kind of goofy hosts - a bit like public access TV, except some of KKFI’s stuff is really great, particularly the jazz and blues programs. 90.0 The Bridge is our new third public station but plays strictly music (with no commercials), specifically quality music from a broad range of time periods and genres; it’s the kind of place where an old bluegrass tune will lead to an REM song and then to the Decemberists or something. 98.1 The Buzz is the default top 40 rock station, and 101.1 KCFX The Fox does 70s classic rock.
FOOD
Generally, for food recs, everyone here in town follows Charles Ferruzza, the Pitch food critic. Their website has an archive of his reviews; he also appears a lot on KCUR.
BBQ - the barbecue is the first thing everyone’s going to ask you about. What you should know is that there are two predominant styles here: Missouri style and Kansas style (which are, essentially, euphemisms for black people style or white people style). Missouri style favors thinner, spicier sauces over chicken and pork, while Kansas style tends to involve thicker, slightly sweeter sauces over beef brisket and pork ribs. Those are generalizations, and as new places open up and the types interbreed, the distinctions have blurred, but the point is that there isn’t really one single KC bbq style; you need to try a few places to find what suits you. The Jack Stack is kind of the premier barbecue joint - not because its bbq is the best (people always love it, particularly the burnt ends, but they tend to love one other place slightly more, so it’s always 2nd on most people’s lists) but because it’s one of the best overall sit-down restaurant experiences, with nice tablecloths and good service, a place where you can get a good wine or beer, and the side dishes are excellent. By contrast, everyone really loves Joe’s Kansas City (formerly “Oklahoma Joe’s” until like this year), which does great food but is housed in a gas station. Like, a working gas station where people will be buying gas while you eat your food off paper plates. Gates is one of the bastions of Missouri barbecue, a KC institution, but if you’re new it’s a good idea to peruse the menu ahead of time before going in to order, because the ordering process is you enter the building and step up to this, like, cafeteria serving line and someone shouts, literally shouts, HI MAY I HELP YOU and you have to be ready to order right then because there are fifty people behind you who totally do know what they want. Q39 is a new entry in town, a new competitor for Jack Stack’s “best classy bbq” crown, and has a sleek, modern look and feel with smaller portions and a kind of hipper vibe. The brisket is particularly excellent there.
Steak - We used to have a lot of really well-regarded steakhouses in town, but right now everyone I talk to seems to think the best one is at the Cleaver and Cork. So, uh, go there!
Chinese - Bo Ling’s is the nice, spendy-ish Chinese place, with a main location on the Plaza (where everything is spendy-ish) and a couple elsewhere. The food is absolutely worth the money, though. I can also recommend Po’s Dumplings on 39th Street, which does both some high-quality American Chinese as well as authentic Szechuan. In Overland Park, the ABC Cafe is a tiny little place that does authentic dim sum.
Noodles and Dumplings - Lulu’s Noodles in the Crossroads district and the Blue Koi, on 39th street or out in Johnson County, are the two biggest noodle institutions in town. A newcomer is EiPho Tower in Midtown, which, as you might have guessed, specializes in pho.
Mexican - Rudy’s Taqueria in Westport is a good default tex-mex, get your beer and basket of chips kind of place. Frida’s in Overland Park is Mexican fusion cuisine, doing new experimental stuff with classic Mexican dishes - since it’s experimental, the menu tends to change frequently, but I recommend the corn fungus tacos and the apple guacamole. El Salvadoreño in Overland Park specializes in Salvadoran food. The pupusas are fantastic. There are also a ton of super-authentic hole in the wall type places in KCK but I have no idea which ones to recommend.
Upscale - Everyone agrees that The American Restaurant in Crown Center is the city’s best fine dining experience, but if you’re looking for something more in the $$$ than the $$$$ price range, check out Room 39 on 39th Street; it has a rotating menu, a ton of interesting selections, and also does a downright cheap lunch special. The Webster House downtown is a giant old mansion that’s been repurposed into an antique store, bar, and restaurant; it’s a very stuffy, ladies-who-lunch kind of place but the food and the cocktails are fantastic, if somewhat pricey.
Eclectic/American - Harry’s Bar and Tables in Westport does really fantastic tapas and has the bonus of being open pretty late. Tomfoolery’s, on the Plaza, is a good medium-price all-round kind of place with a nice beer list and cocktails. Governor Stumpy’s, in Brookside, serves a great chicken spiedini and does good pizzas, burgers, and salads.
Burgers - Hamburger Mary’s in Midtown is the KC branch of the venerable San Francisco institution. The atmosphere is a bit camp - your server is probably going to be a dude in a frilly pink dress - and the burgers are fantastic. The Burg and Barrel in Overland Park is another good option, with a big beer list and a lot of, you know, specialized burger toppings like peanut butter or pineapple or whatever. For classic diner type burgers, Winstead’s (on the Plaza and also all over Johnson County) has been doing great “steakburgers” and malts and banana splits since 1939. The Town Topic short order diner downtown is also a beloved institution, just this tiny, tiny little building with a huge sign, and is open almost 24/7.
Pizza - Minsky’s is the default local pizza option in KC, with like fifteen locations and a lot of different pie styles; it’s pan pizza, thick but not too thick, and their Combo, which just dumps a ton of onions and mushrooms and spiced meats onto a pie, is one of my favorite pies ever. D’Bronx, a New York-style deli with a few locations, does a pretty good New York pizza. Waldo Pizza, in Waldo, is another popular local choice, and they have a great weekday lunch buffet. Lastly, and not even many KCers know about this one, Rosati’s, down in Overland Park, is a branch of a family-run pizza chain from Milwaukee that does fantastic, super-thick Chicago-style pizza. I ate there once a week when I lived in Milwaukee, and was super going to miss it when I moved back here to to KC, only to discover that the store followed me home. They also have a third branch in like Tucson. I have no idea why. Anyway, their vegetarian and cheese pizzas are a Godsend.
Ice Cream - Murray’s in Westport is the crowned king of local traditional ice cream places, although you’ll want to check their status online before going as they sometimes close for a week or two at a time when it’s cold. Sheridan’s Frozen Custard, located all over town, sell concretes with various candies mixed in (chocolate custard with Reese’s in, etc) and they are essentially dealing legal crack. You’ll see people huddled up outside the Sheridan’s (it’s a stand, so there’s no indoor seating) when it’s like 45 degrees in October.
Vegetarian/Vegan - Eden Alley on the Plaza and the Bluebird Bistro downtown are the two biggies here, although I don’t eat at Bluebird often enough to really speak to their differences. Eden Alley does really tasty lunches and dinners, though.