Help? Info for Single mom/tween son moving to KCMO? (Oakland: apartment complexes, rentals)

[CuriousMama]

First off, I really appreciate all of the thoughtful posts on this site! I've been trolling for a while, but felt it was finally time to get personal I don't have a lot of time to compose the perfect post, but wanted at least get my questions out there ~ please forgive any errors in grammar/spelling/judgment & feel free to ask me most anything (although I reserve the right to refuse answers ) I'm a single mom in my mid-thirties with a soon-to-be 11yr old son who needs to relocate & is seriously considering KCMO.

I work online so I'm pretty flexible with my location, but can't really afford to live anywhere safe in the East Bay (we've been in the "lower bottoms" of west Oakland for the past several years). It seems KCMO might be a bit like Oakland in positive & challenging ways (including the incredible importance of understanding the differences in neighborhoods) & I need some help trying to ensure our move improves our quality of life rather than being in basically the same sort of environment but starting over making friends.

I grew up in Norman, OK & still have family in the general area that I'd like to be closer to (& some in AR) but I've been away for nearly 15yrs (my son's lived almost his entire life in the East Bay area across from SF in CA). I worry somewhat about returning to that region for a variety of reasons ~ becoming a wimp with regards to weather being one (seriously, snow in May?!) although I love & miss storms, lol. I'm also somewhat concerned with more social/political differences as we're used to living in a fairly extremely liberal area...

Any & all feedback is incredibly welcomed! Including suggestions for other spots to scope out (just started considering Lawerence, KS which seems to have a lot going for it, but am hesitant to transition my son from such a large/diverse metro area to a much smaller/predominately white location) Topics I’m particularly interested in are listed in order of importance (sorry for such a long post, but noticed people who post often don’t include enough info in the beginning for really informed responses so I tried to balance being thorough & succinct) Thanks again!

Residential needs

2 bedroom, 1 bath
(doesn't have to be super huge, current place is around 800 square ft or so)
rent < $750
(the more affordable the better current rent's $675 but expect utilities are way higher there)
"reasonably safe"
(have neither the desire nor income for a gated community but would like my son to be able to ride his bike without worrying about him)
Google Fiber
(my understanding’s if you don’t sign up before they roll out to your neighborhood you’re only option is to hope you find a rental that already signed up so I’d like to focus on areas rolling out in the fall ~ I copied Google’s info to a doc available at tinyurl.com/FiberhoodStatusDoc if anyone’s interested )


Residential desires

single house/duplex/triplex/fourplex/etc
(definitely would like to avoid the huge apartment complexes with pools/fitness centers/etc)
kind of close to umkc
(would like to attend in the future & am tired of being a "commuter student" but don't want to live near frat houses/etc)
"bikable" neighborhood
(re safety & places to go, would be great if library & grocery were within a few miles!)
rent < $500
(hey, this is a desire, lol)
1 1/4+ bath
(would love an extra toilet! not looking for particular listings per se, but curious how common it is there...?)

School stuff

KCMO public schools aren't accredited?
(what are the ramifications of this? is enrollment limited to the district you live in? any idea how/when this will shake out?)
charter school insight
(i read a post KCMO has the 2nd highest number of charter schools in the US? are they hard to get into? is there a central resource for them?)
secular homeschooling?
(anyone familiar with resources? CA has lots but seems MO doesn't... seems like probably our best bet)

General area

I know people interpret things differently, but would especially love feedback from folks familiar with the East Bay to compare/contrast:

weather
(would love hear about folks who had to adjust to KCMO after being spoiled by the bay's Mediterranean climate!)
"diversity"
(re ethnicity, cultural, political, religious, sexuality, etc ~ not expecting it to be the same at all, just curious how diverse & open minded folks are)
cheap living
(the bay area’s super expensive, but there’s lots of ways to cut costs including terrific thrift shops/yard sales/etc & cheap eats from Grocery Outlet & even the 99cents only store has fresh fruits & veggies!)

[nullterm]

I am sorry that you wrote such a lengthy yet organized post, and I'm just providing a super quick and probably largely not helpful reply, but I will attempt something better later.

I think that 2 bed 1 bath house for $750/month or less is totally do-able in the extreme SouthEast corner of Wyandotte County, KS. And many of those houses already have Google Fiber service to them. And they are safe. This area is literally across the street from KCMO/plaza/westport etc. I'm not sure if you're considering KS so I'll stop now.

[CuriousMama]

No apologies, please! As I said any & all feedback is incredibly welcomed! Including suggestions for other spots to scope out

I actually just started thinking about KCK this evening when I found out that KS offers k12 charter schools (online public schools) unlike MO. I know UMKC offers some sort of "regional" discount, I guess I should look into that more.

Do you think the "extreme SouthEast corner of Wyandotte County" is the only safe area I could find a 2 bedroom for $750 or less? ($750 is really the very top end of my limit & may actually prove to be impractical once I research utilities/insurance/etc more... I heard KCMO has incredibly high rates of auto theft & vandalism?)

I realize placing a large importance on Google Fiber may seem sort of silly, but I really can't imagine living in the vicinity & not having it, lol. I'm a little nervous of neighborhoods that are already hooked up as it seems that would severely limit my options...

Thanks so much for the reply, I look forward to more!

[SPonteKC]

You can absolutely find a house or duplex in that range in a safe, bikeable neighborhood. The southeast KCK neighborhood discussed above is called Rosedale. Often rentals will be tagged with "KU Med" area. Westport is also doable, as well as the Roanoke, Volker and West Plaza neighborhoods. There are also a lot of rentals in that range in east Brookside and Waldo.

Far enough east in what rental services will call "Brookside" can get sketchy. Western Rosedale as well. South Waldo is not very bikeable/walkable.

Overall, KC is a great deal like Oakland in terms of safety and break-ins and crime. Generally the city is rougher the farther east you go. Very little west of State Line will be bikeable or walkable.

The central corridor (downtown to 75th, State Line to Troost) is walkable, urban (though nothing like SF, more like East Bay streetcar suburbs), and pleasant.

Its also affordable, laid back, and probably fairly sleepy by Bay standards, though there is plenty to do, and admirable restaurant scene, good arts and culture.


The weather here is not for the weak. It get punishingly hot and humid in summer, bitter cold in winter... but we have a solid 6 months of very pleasant weather, and the fall and spring here incomparable.

There are probably 4 or 5 very good charter and magnet elementary schools in the city that you should actively apply for (Border Star, Holliday, Foreign Language Academy, and Academie Lafayette). The 2 best high schools in the city are both public schools in the urban core (Sumner in KCK, and Lincoln Prep in KCMO), but the suburban high schools are far and away more uniformly good.

Best of luck.

[CuriousMama]

Thank you so much for all the details & specific suggestions!

I'd seen stats showing similarities between KCMO & Oakland re crime but read a post somewhere on the boards describing the way in which KCMO is shaped/settled/etc that concerned me. It pointed out Troost is a very long dividing line which is easily crossed into the much narrower area of the "urban core." Lots of Oakland is hella segregated as well, but there are multiple boundaries that divide various pockets from each other & seems there might be many more options for neighborhoods less affected by crime/violence/etc here (not that I can afford any of them, lol). I realize there's a large variety of reasons why places tend to end up basically "segregated" & not "integrated", some stemming from natural desires & others from far more insidious factors imho, but am worried what the reality might be like in KCMO.

There's definitely racism/prejudice/etc here in the bay, but it's not really considered ok for "dominant society" to directly feed it. I knew that wasn't the case everywhere & that there'd been a lot of backlash after Obama was elected, but I guess it's easy to forget how different it can be elsewhere cuz I was floored to see racial slurs being freely used in comments for online KC metro news! It made me wonder how strained racial relations are in KCMO (we're already having to handle a lot of hostility where we are, which I get on some levels but can't exactly change the circumstances, & I worry about the impact it could have shaping his future worldview/etc)

I hope this makes some sort of sense I'd love to get more feedback because there's a lot I'm kinda loving about the idea of KCMO (esp that "its also affordable, laid back, and probably fairly sleepy by Bay standards, though there is plenty to do, and admirable restaurant scene, good arts and culture" cuz SF/the Bay area in general are a bit too intense for us) Even if it means toughening up wrt to weather again, lol. Which is really fair, I suppose, as I truly do miss the storms ~ there's nothing like springtime in Tornado Alley!

[kc chris]

The racism issue here is more of a class struggle than anything, some poor areas screams racism because money isn't being dumped into their neighborhoods (ie: this whole troost line we're talking about). The middle class in nicer areas get tired of being called racist when they've done nothing and some decide to live up to their reputation.

The reality is plenty of minorities are in middle class/upper class suburban communities here and never have a single issue, you won't find it in the work place, you won't find it on the street, in parks, restaurants, shopping districts (as long as you're there to shop and not just hang out), etc. it remains almost entirely on a political level between the classes.

I really don't think you'll have any issues with racism unless you go looking for it.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

Originally Posted by s.davis

You can absolutely find a house or duplex in that range in a safe, bikeable neighborhood. The southeast KCK neighborhood discussed above is called Rosedale. Often rentals will be tagged with "KU Med" area. Westport is also doable, as well as the Roanoke, Volker and West Plaza neighborhoods. There are also a lot of rentals in that range in east Brookside and Waldo.

Far enough east in what rental services will call "Brookside" can get sketchy. Western Rosedale as well. South Waldo is not very bikeable/walkable.

Overall, KC is a great deal like Oakland in terms of safety and break-ins and crime. Generally the city is rougher the farther east you go. Very little west of State Line will be bikeable or walkable.

The central corridor (downtown to 75th, State Line to Troost) is walkable, urban (though nothing like SF, more like East Bay streetcar suburbs), and pleasant.

Its also affordable, laid back, and probably fairly sleepy by Bay standards, though there is plenty to do, and admirable restaurant scene, good arts and culture.


The weather here is not for the weak. It get punishingly hot and humid in summer, bitter cold in winter... but we have a solid 6 months of very pleasant weather, and the fall and spring here incomparable.

There are probably 4 or 5 very good charter and magnet elementary schools in the city that you should actively apply for (Border Star, Holliday, Foreign Language Academy, and Academie Lafayette). The 2 best high schools in the city are both public schools in the urban core (Sumner in KCK, and Lincoln Prep in KCMO), but the suburban high schools are far and away more uniformly good.

Best of luck.

Good post - I agree with most of this, though I may not be quite as optimistic about the number of rental options under $750. They are definitely out there, but rates seem to be rising quickly over the past couple years and the number of quality, low-priced options seems to be dwindling.

As far as auto theft, I found a list of the worst 20 cities for auto theft rate and KC was not included, while SF/Oakland was #6 - so it appears that this will be less of a concern than the bay area.

Were the racist comments you were reading from the KC Star website? I wouldn't give credence to anything you read there - it is definitely not representative if KC as a whole. That place seems to be a magnet for racists and nut jobs who want to spew their venom. I guess the same can be said for the internet as a whole and I see many similar offensive posts on news websites for cities around the country.