Let's play a little game here. Let's pretend you were thinking about moving to Kansas City. You've never lived there; in fact, you've never even visited there. Lets just say that you are an immigrant from Outer Elbonia who has magically fallen in love with Sporting, and you want to make your home there so you can be an SKC STH and worship all things Sporting for the remainder of your days. You don't have any dogs in the KS vs MO fights; you're willing to live anywhere within, say, a 30-45 minute drive of LSP; you're strictly middle class - you don't want to live in the slums but you don't need to live in a neighborhood of McMansions, either. Low crime would be nice, but gated communities are not necessary. More rural is preferable than more urban (reminds you of your native Elbonia.) Where would you choose to live? Can't wait to see the answers to this one.
i'd probably say look in the northland. why? because it'll be a frigid day in hell before i ever recommend joco (unless that person is my enemy and/or a criminal), but mostly because i always say that it's like the northland is a different city from the rest of kc... which sounds like it could be more like elbonia. just go far into the northland. that'll actually be decently close to lsp as well. southern lee's summit, maybe around greenwood, might be an option as well, though that'd be pushing your 30-45 minute drive.
I live by the airport. Takes about 20 minutes to get to either the sports complex or LSP. Do it, watch out for the Northlander though. The guy is kind of a dick.
Northland. I have lived up here my whole life and as long as I live in KC, I would continue to live up here. If I didnt have kids, I might consider a loft downtown. The Northland is nice because it is low on crime, the houses are nice, everything you need is within a few minute drive, you can get to downtown in 10 minutes and just about anywhere in the KC Metro within 30. It only takes 20 minutes to get from my house to LSP. It is just as nice as Johnson County but the traffic isnt nearly as bad except for Liberty but the cost of living is considerably lower. I always look at houses on the Spring Homes Tour and fall Parade of Homes and you can get the same house as you do in Johnson County but at 50k to 100k lower not to mention that the property taxes are lower. All the school districts up here are among the best in the state of Missouri. It's clean and most of the neighborhoods are quiet. I leave my cars unlocked all the time and if I go for a run or to run some errands I leave my house unlocked as well.
what's traffic like in rush hour now that the bond bridge is open and all the construction has subsided? it used to be a disaster with the paseo bridge, so how much has the extra lane alleviated things?
I have no idea. I work in Shawnee Mission so I take 635 now and there is no traffic at all. However, it was never really that bad before.
Seriously, KC has never had a serious traffic problem. Any traffic problems we have ever had are entirely relative. Sachsen, probably need to know if "your friend" has kids or not. If you have school age kids in KCMO, you should be prepared to pay for private school (KCMO district has once again lost its accreditation). North of the River is probably a great choice; more and more people seem to be gravitating there, and the NKC school district has not been plagued by the failures of the KCMO district. Nice thing about Johnson County, KS is the fantastic public schools, but OTOH if you need to have culture or entertainment options within say a 10 minute drive, Johnson Countians are pretty much SOL. Then again, the Northland isn't where we keep much of our culture either, so there you go. Places like Brookside and Prairie Village are really appealing to some as well - picture smaller homes in really quaint, charming neighborhoods with lots of foliage and just generally picturesque. Brookside is in KCMO, so you have the school issue there, but Prairie Village, KS has great public schools. If our "Elbonian friend" has kids, but still wants access to stuff, he can probably live in Northeastern Johnson County, near KCMO but not actually in it - say Roeland Park, Fairway, Westwood. Best of all worlds there. If he doesn't have kids he has more options, but Rosedale and the KU Med Center district have close highway access, so downtown is as easily accessible as the Plaza, and he would be right there next to 39th St, which has lots of good, inexpensive dining options in its own right. Lee's Summit was mentioned, but I don't know much about that area. It seems to have produced some reasonably well-adjusted Cauldronites, so it might be worth looking into. However, that part of town, it has to be said, is on the outside of your 45 minute radius from LSP. Kansas City, KS (or the UG, as it is now known) itself might work, but that's another part of town someone else should chime in on. There are too many Kansas Citians like myself who can only tell you about the bad parts of KCK, and I'm reliably assured there are plenty of decent neighborhoods there. I just don't know where they are. Obviously LSP will be very convenient there. Just a few thoughts there, they're by no means comprehensive.
Olathe wouldn't be a bad choice if you want to be on the KS side. Good schools, pretty close to everything (except downtown and the airport), probably 20 minute drive to LSP. I would say Gardner, since housing tends to be cheaper here, but they are currently reaming us residents on property taxes (though that means the schools are very good), so head a few miles north and east to avoid that.
Hmmm... Platte City looks promising. Nice and quiet, and a straight shot down 435 to LSP, less than 30 minutes' drive, looks like. What say ye?
You should realize that there is NOTHING up there, and you will probably have quite a daily commute, but if a small quiet town outside the city is what you're after, then why not? Real estate there is probably inexpensive, crime is probably pretty low... I can dig it.
This depends a lot on where you live in Olathe. It takes me 10-15 minutes to GET to the highway, depending on how many lights I hit, then another 20-23 minutes to the stadium in light traffic.
The one thing to keep in mind is that PC is very rural and conservative. Maybe that is a plus for whoever this is but if this person is liberal and more of an urban person, they arent going to fit in very well. I have had a couple of friends move up there because houses were cheap and found out really quick that people up there are pretty "hick" and they just didnt really fit in.
Well if this person is really wanting the small town-ness, Basehor and Tonganoxie are a pretty straight shot to LSP along State Ave/highway 40. It's never been an overly busy road when I'm on it (though I can't say I have ever been on it during rush hour) Parkville has a nice small town feel even though it's closer to "the city." I grew up in JoCo, and am in no hurry to go back. Endless subdivisions (even if they are nice ones) aint my thing. I'm pretty damn happy lofted up in the Crossroads. But I'm single and no kids, so don't really have much to worry about.
Get a 3 bedroom in Old Leawood, somewhere around Belinder and 92nd. Have a relaxing coffee at Hattie's at Corinth on a lazy Sunday afternoon and drinks over an Irish dinner at O'Neill's on Mission and 95th. If you have kids, they'll go to Shawnee Mission schools. And whatever you do, don't walk away from all of that for a boring Johnson County brown-house somewhere near 135th, just because you think it would be nice for something bigger, but now you can't get your wife to move back to Old Leawood. Don't ask me how I know.
Shaking my tiny fist at you from 135th & Nall.... I know all those places you mention, used to live at 83rd & Mission, behind Corinth Elementary.
Rambling thoughts from a senile old man: What seems like a must-have at 25 or 30 may be completely off your radar at 35 or 40 with kids in school. (Example: You will NOT have time to hang out in cool coffee shops more than once a month once you sign up the kids for sports and such.) At some point, a 3-car garage becomes relevant to your interests. You aren't getting those with a quaint PV ranch or Brookside Tudor. Easy interstate access will eventually become more important than you can imagine. The differences between Lee's Summit and JoCo south of 435 are negligible, except LS is to hell and gone from LSP. Once you get past "listening to live bands at bars" as entertainment choice #1, there is "culture" everywhere. You just have to look a little bit harder. Our Elbonian should take a look at DeSoto/Western Shawnee. You can go as suburban or as rural as you like within a 5-mile radius out there.
ahhh yes, suburban kansas ... that sounds about right... where a normal 2-car garage just isn't good enough.
20 years worth of accumulating bikes and camping gear and tools and such, and that 3rd garage means I never have to scrape an iced-over windshield. To borrow from an old song, I was through being cool many years ago. Creature comforts all the way, baby. Seriously, where and how you live should reflect who you are at a given point in life. Ten years from now, my kids will (hopefully) both be out of college and my wife will have met the magic formula to retire from the school district. We might downsize, I might sell my business so we can get the hell out of Kansas, who knows. Which is just another way of saying that I think we need to know a little bit more about this Elbonian before making the perfect recommendation......
I'd love to have a 3 car garage. Two things I want in my next house which will hopefully be the house I have until I am about 50 is a 3 car garage and a full, open basement so I can finally have my sports bar in my house.
I didn't know anyone while growing up in Olathe who had a 3-car garage. Can't say I do now either. Of course, none of my friends were overly wealthy or anything. The only friend I can think of as wealthy, his parents lived within means and instead used the extra money to make investments and to simply better their lives. And they had/have a single door, very tight space two car garage. Mostly reserved for the wealthier patches. For the most part, its 2-car. 3-car garage would've been awesome growing up. Not for a third car, but as previously mentioned for the space. Certinaly wouldn't have fit in my neighborhood, not a ton of space between houses. Neighborhood of mostly split-levels that didn't feature a lot of open space inside.
sigh. of course you'd like to have a 3-car garage. who wouldn't want a larger house? my jab was at the mentality of the stereotypical joco-er, where this sort of thing is more of an expectation and a given than it is a luxury or desire. ...and before anyone overreacts to this, i'm just poking fun.
I know, I just had the sudden realization that I didn't know anyone with one. Had never thought about it before. Found it a bit odd.
