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I would agree that JoCo and WyCo benefit from the proximity to KC, MO certainly. But honestly, kcmo, you truly seem to think that JoCo and WyCo are the whole state.
The rest of Kansas is hardly impacted at all by KC, MO. There are no urban centers, that's true. It's a RURAL state. FARMERS, ranchers and other ag-related industries out on the plains including meat packing and animal health. None of these industries "leans" on KC.
Wichita isn't an "urban" city, but no one expects it to be, it's in Kansas. It's still a stand-alone economic base that impacts the whole state. Arguably more so than JoCo or WyCo.
Small businesses flourish all over the state.
Kansas also offers a lifestyle that appeals to a great many people. Not you, I understand that. But many people do enjoy small town Life. My nephew grew up in a town of about 100 people. He couldn't wait to get out. He joined the Navy and has been seeing the whole world for years now. Do you know where he wants to live when he gets out of the service and is ready to have a family ???? Yep, same small town.
Samantha, right, Wichita is independent of KC. Congrats. You win whatever point you are trying to make...
Dude, if you want to just spout bs and have no one call you on it, then a public discussion forum is not the best place to air your opinions.
This is a forum for people to ask questions about Kansas (or whatever other subforum they are in).
When you say something that is incorrect, it's misleading to the person who asked the question and it's misleading to anyone else who happens along in the discussion.
So if I know it's incorrect, I will say so. See, that's how discussion forums work.
You said, "I'm not the biggest fan of Kansas, but I think it's one of the nicer midwestern states. It just lacks urban centers and leans on MO and KCMO (don't say it doesn't) ."
And I will say it doesn't, because it doesn't. Two counties benefit from their proximity to KC. The other 103 counties ... not so much, most not at all. Kansas is a big state and in the grand scheme has no dependence on MO. That is my point. Thanks for conceding it.
Dude, if you want to just spout bs and have no one call you on it, then a public discussion forum is not the best place to air your opinions.
This is a forum for people to ask questions about Kansas (or whatever other subforum they are in).
When you say something that is incorrect, it's misleading to the person who asked the question and it's misleading to anyone else who happens along in the discussion.
So if I know it's incorrect, I will say so. See, that's how discussion forums work.
You said, "I'm not the biggest fan of Kansas, but I think it's one of the nicer midwestern states. It just lacks urban centers and leans on MO and KCMO (don't say it doesn't) ."
And I will say it doesn't, because it doesn't. Two counties benefit from their proximity to KC. The other 103 counties ... not so much, most not at all. Kansas is a big state and in the grand scheme has no dependence on MO. That is my point. Thanks for conceding it.
I agree, and it's not like KC Missouri doesn't benefit from Johnson County, either. I daresay a lot of what KC Missouri has to offer would not be possible without Johnson County's money, both philanthropists who ive in Johnson County and donate money to Kansas City Symphony, Midland Theater, Kansas City Repertory Theater, the Lyric, Nelson-Atkins, Starlight, Union Station, the American Royal, etc., and Johnson Countians who buy tickets. If they had to depend on only Kansas City Missourians to buy tickets, the Royals and Chiefs would have been long gone. I never understood the chip on some people's shoulder about Johnson County. I'd like to see where Kansas City Missouri would be without Johnson Countians and their money.
The KS side of KC is about 1/3 of the population of Kansas. I have read in business magazines etc (but have no links to back it up) that JoCo alone is over 25% of the entire KS economy and that the KS side of KC is half the KS economy.
Wichita holds its own with the aerospace industry. Most of the rest of KS is losing people and the economy is shrinking at rather high rates save the meatpacking industry out west and the influx of immigrants those rural counties are bringing in. On the grand scale of things, none of that matters much. Wichita pretty much hangs on, rural KS is losing ground while the KS side of metro KC pretty much drives the economy and grows fast enough to barely offset the rest of the state’s losses.
So my point is that the KS suburbs are the most important part of the KS economy. It’s suburban KC/Lawrence, then Wichita, then Topeka and the rest.
And how did KS go from being a rural state with only Wichita, a couple of small college towns and a handful of small suburbs near KC to what it is today?
You guessed it. The counties near KC (pretty much JoCo) have taken advantage of pulling in many of KCMO’s massive pool of companies to grow and offset what would otherwise be one of the countries most economically troubled states.
The state has been able to lure people to the KS side of KC to work at all the new jobs (most of which used to be in kcmo). People also chose to live in Kansas because of kcmo’s big city culture and attractions. If JoCo was not next to KCMO, do you really think many people would choose the area over Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas etc? I’m sure there would be some, especially in an economy like this. But most would not want to live in JoCo if the MO side didn’t exist.
So KS does lean on MO. MO is basically what gives KS identity. The Chiefs, Royals, skyline etc (since many people don’t know the urban part of the city is in MO) etc.
luz,
Come on seriously.
Do you honestly think that if JoCo did not exist that metro KC would simply have 600,000 less people? I know a lot of people think that out there. So KC would have simply stopped growing. Nothing would have happened in KC over the past 50 years because JoCo didn’t grow????
KC has grown at a modest pace and would have grown at the same modest pace had JoCo not been the primary path of growth. The northland, eastern Jackson County, Cass County etc would each simply be slightly larger. The Northland might have closer to 700k vs the 400k it has today. It’s really that simple. KC would look more like St Louis with most of the suburbs on the MO side and the KS side being a much smaller percentage of the population and a much much smaller percentage of the regional corporate economy.
All the same people living in KC supporting the Chiefs and the Royals and Symphony and the Zoo, only a higher percentage of them would be living and working on the MO side.
And how I dream of how different KC would be today had this been the case.
If Downtown and Midtown had 400,000 jobs instead of 200k, how nice it would be if the area around KCI was built up instead of areas 70 miles from KCI, how nearly 2 MILLION PEOPLE would be funding regional assets rather than half that, how KC would probably have a transit system etc.
I honestly think KC would be a much larger, stronger and faster growing metropolitan area if this were the case. A stronger urban core that doesn’t have to give away billions in tax breaks to keep companies from going to KS, a city that is on par with St Louis in Jefferson City.
Instead, KC ended up with one of the fastest growing counties in the nation mostly at the expense of KCMO, while the metropolitan area as a whole was passed up by over a dozen other metro areas during the same time period and practically fell off the national map.
You know, I have tried to correct you with good-natured ribbing (no KC pun intended) and facts and I have tried to stop your incessant bs-ing about Kansas when it is so obvious to everyone but you that you have no idea what you're talking about by giving more facts.
I was even going to give it one more shot and explain to you some basics about statistics and magazines ... and facts. But anyone can google as well as I can and see your post for the total piece of crap that it is.
So here's the deal: You have made your distaste, dislike, disgust, dis-whatever else for the entire state of Kansas WELL KNOWN on this forum.
WE ALL KNOW you think KS sucks. WE GOT IT!!!!
And none of us can stop you from bashing it, if you insist on it.
But if you continue to post stuff that you are trying to pass off as "information" when it's really just more of your BS and dislike for the state in general. I'm going to call you out on it EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Stick to what you KNOW. Talk about the city. Talk about the stuff you like. Talk about the places you actually ENJOY. Do this and you will never see me respond to another of your posts except to agree with you.
You are woefully misinformed and terribly biased and bigoted against KS and this completely blackens anything remotely useful in your posts.
So please, for the sake of the people who come here for actual INFORMATION - STHU about Kansas!
The world will be a better place ..... Trust me ....
Really, so my last post is all BS huh? What part of it? Just the "MO is basically what gives KS identity" Not bad for a 500 word post huh?
So you don’t think JoCo is 25% of the KS economy? You don’t think KC would still have the same amount of people had the growth gone in different directions? Really? People would have said, nah, not moving to KC, there is no Overland Park or Olathe. Lee’s Summit and Liberty are just not good enough. Really? Like I said, I think metro KC would be BIGGER if so much of the economy didn’t move to KS. Mostly because of the damage it has done to the urban core’s vibrancy which made KC a very unattractive place to a lot of people over the past 15 years of economic boom. Young people and active families that wanted more than suburbs chose many other cities over metro KC because the city just didn’t stack up.
So back to all my posts are BS…
I have personal experience. "Most" of the positive things people think of when they think of KS are the things that are actually in KCMO (museums, plaza, pro sports etc). "Most" of the negative things people think of when they think of KC are actually in Kansas (flat, boring, brown, conservative etc).
That's from the hundreds of people I have talked to over the years. I have several brand new conversations I could post just from the past couple of weeks since I live in DC now. But I will spare you since you will think I just made it up anyway.
In general, people don't think highly of Kansas. They just don't. In general people don't think highly of KC (because they think "Kansas" when they think KC). They just don't.
So the more positive things about Kansas are driven by the KC area, primarily the MO side of the KC area. While the “PERCIEVED” negative things about KS (rural, boring, religion in schools etc) seems to be a part of KC's image.
That's my perspective from people I talk to from all over the country. There are people that are more into rural areas and know about the college towns etc in Kansas. Most people don't get into that. Most just think of the wizard of oz and bible thumpers when they think Kansas and that image carries over into the image of KC.
It's fine if you don't like it. But like I said it's from personal experience.
And I'm having a lot of fun showing people photos of KCMO (and Kansas). It blows people away out here just showing them photos of Downtown and the Plaza area of KC. They just don't believe they are photos of KC. Like I have said many times before. People don't think a city like KCMO can exist in Kansas. It just doesn't make sense to them because people think KS is about as interesting as the moon. I also show people photos of Overland Park and it’s the same deal. They don’t believe it. “That’s Kansas?” They say. I hang out with urban minded people though, so many will also bash OP. But hey are still shocked to even seen upscale suburban sprawl in Kansas. People just don’t know. They think KC is a town about the size of Springfield in a flat, treeless place that they have no desire to visit. I have half my office wanting to move to KC now when they see how nice the city is and how cheap it is to live there.
So can we get back to where I should have lunch on Monday in Lawrence? Since Free State is closed on Monday I need some suggestions! I'm excited about visiting your state and am looking forward to running into some good down to earth people!
Please do not mistake the above post for actual information about Kansas.
This has been a public service announcement. Thank you.
Spent enough time on my local forum to know that "they're" everywhere! ha ha ha
I just want some good local opinions on what to check out as I hate hate hate the popular/tourist spots!
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It's still a stand-alone economic base that impacts the whole state. Arguably more so than JoCo or WyCo. 
