Kansas or Missouri side of Kansas City? (Lee's Summit, Raytown: section 8, rental)

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

A separate consideration is that if you WORK in KCMO I think you have to pay a city wage tax of 1% even if you live in KS and that KS state income taxes are a bit higher.

So, all things being equal you might want to live in KCMO if you already work there. No point handing over more of your paycheck.

Which was my thinking and what I did, but then my office left KCMO for Overland Park.

[luzianne]

Kansas, specifically Johnson County. Look at the crime stats.

[TabulaRasa]

Meh, I live in Lee's Summit...pretty safe MO-side community, as those things go. Just depends on where in the metro you wanna live. I'd take the "KS is hands down safer than anything MO" thing with a grain of salt.

[kcmo]

Most of metro KC is safe. Even most of the urban core is safe. The MO side is better than living in one of the most boring and monotonous places in the country, JoCo. The MO suburbs are not near as bland as the JoCo burbs. They have interesting downtown districts, pretty topography, more diverse housing. You can see the skyline from most of the Northland and Downtown/Plaza is only 10-15 minutes away so the “city” is not such an afterthought or a place people strive to avoid. Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs offer an oasis of outdoor recreation with lakes and large parks dotting the landscape out there. Independence has some amazing history and iconic structures. Liberty, Parkville, Independence, NKC, Lee’s Summit etc all have vibrant downtown districts. The MO side has almost all the suburban residential lake communities, certainly has all the urban housing options (lofts, condos, high rises, row houses etc) and has all the largest new urbanism projects (Arbor Walk, Longview Farms, Shoal Creek Village, Northgate) and the largest new urbanism shopping district (Zona Rosa). Indep and Lee’s Summit has Amtrak service. You are typically closer to the stadiums, worlds of fun, casinos, or KCI than in the KS burbs.

So if all you want is beige houses and office parks and six lane streets lines with brick facade strip malls in flat, treeless areas with little to do (other than movie theaters or drive to MO) far isolated from anything that might be “old” and even slightly interesting, but “safe”, than JoCo is the place for you! Plus, you can sit and watch the immaculate snow plowing in the winter!

This is in response to luzianne, I couldn't resist. Disclaimer, there are a few ok areas of JoCo that are ok such as Prarie Village, Mission etc, although I find them highly overrated and overpriced and it's only a tiny part of the JoCo population.

[TabulaRasa]

To be honest, Lee's Summit has its share of really big beige houses made of subpar materials that all look the same and crappy-ass strip malls and annoying lifestyle centers, too...BUT, it also has historic vintage homes and a charming downtown.

[Lexus Chick]

Quote: Then you have run down and even ghetto areas in both states.
MO:, northern and western Indy, much of eastern KCMO, much of southeast KCMO (Ruskin, Hickman Mills)

And that's too bad. I grew up in KCMO. I went to high School in the Hickman Mills School District. When I went there (between 1977-1981) it was mainly white, middle class. All the kids were nice, they worked part-time jobs, bought their own cars and respected their parents.

Now the Hickman Mills distrcit is something like 79% black. High crime, robberies, etc. It makes me sick that the old neighborhood has gone downhill so much, when at one time, it was one of the nicest areas in KC.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Lexus Chick

And that's too bad. I grew up in KCMO. I went to high School in the Hickman Mills School District. When I went there (between 1977-1981) it was mainly white, middle class. All the kids were nice, they worked part-time jobs, bought their own cars and respected their parents.

Now the Hickman Mills distrcit is something like 79% black. High crime, robberies, etc. It makes me sick that the old neighborhood has gone downhill so much, when at one time, it was one of the nicest areas in KC.

It's sad. People don't believe me when I tell that that SKC/Ruskin/Hickman Mills was one the most popular place in metro KC to live. It was the suburban area of choice in all of KC. Then it all came to a grinding halt.

[TabulaRasa]

I work in SKC, right at the borders of the Hickman Mills and Ruskin districts, and you can definitely see vestiges of the nice community it was before people turned it to crap.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

I work in SKC, right at the borders of the Hickman Mills and Ruskin districts, and you can definitely see vestiges of the nice community it was before people turned it to crap.

My aunt/uncle/cousins lived in Ruskin Heights in the 60s when I was a kid. It was *very* nice.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Most of metro KC is safe. Even most of the urban core is safe. The MO side is better than living in one of the most boring and monotonous places in the country, JoCo. The MO suburbs are not near as bland as the JoCo burbs. They have interesting downtown districts, pretty topography, more diverse housing. You can see the skyline from most of the Northland and Downtown/Plaza is only 10-15 minutes away so the “city” is not such an afterthought or a place people strive to avoid. Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs offer an oasis of outdoor recreation with lakes and large parks dotting the landscape out there. Independence has some amazing history and iconic structures. Liberty, Parkville, Independence, NKC, Lee’s Summit etc all have vibrant downtown districts. The MO side has almost all the suburban residential lake communities, certainly has all the urban housing options (lofts, condos, high rises, row houses etc) and has all the largest new urbanism projects (Arbor Walk, Longview Farms, Shoal Creek Village, Northgate) and the largest new urbanism shopping district (Zona Rosa). Indep and Lee’s Summit has Amtrak service. You are typically closer to the stadiums, worlds of fun, casinos, or KCI than in the KS burbs.

So if all you want is beige houses and office parks and six lane streets lines with brick facade strip malls in flat, treeless areas with little to do (other than movie theaters or drive to MO) far isolated from anything that might be “old” and even slightly interesting, but “safe”, than JoCo is the place for you! Plus, you can sit and watch the immaculate snow plowing in the winter!

This is in response to luzianne, I couldn't resist. Disclaimer, there are a few ok areas of JoCo that are ok such as Prarie Village, Mission etc, although I find them highly overrated and overpriced and it's only a tiny part of the JoCo population.

And obviously, I disagree. What you call the bland suburbs of Johnson County, I absolutely love. What you love, I hate and wouldn't live there if you paid me to. A lot of Kansas City, Missouri, to me, is ghetto. I don't like trash littered all over the sides of the roads and eyesores like the casino area. You are talking about no trees and then you say how great downtown is. There ARE NO trees downtown. Plenty of trees in Johnson County, nice landscaping, people take care of their property, and when losers throw trash out of their car windows, it gets picked up here, not left until it disintegrates like you see in Missouri. I'm not saying all of Missouri is like that, but a lot is.