Kansas City is the largest
city in the U.S. state of Missouri
.
It
encompasses in parts of Jackson
, Clay
, Cass
, and Platte
counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being
Independence
, just to the city's east. The city also serves
as the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area
, second largest in Missouri, and largest with
territory in Kansas
(Wichita
is the largest metropolitan area anchored in
Kansas). As of February 6, 2009, it was revealed that the US
census had underestimated Kansas City's population, and re-released
it to be 475,830, with a metro area of over two million.
Kansas
City was founded in 1838 as the "Town of Kansas" at the confluence of the Missouri
and Kansas
rivers and
was incorporated in its present form in 1850. Situated opposite
Kansas City,
Kansas
, the city was the location of several battles
during the Civil War, including
the Battle of
Westport
. The city is well known for its
contributions to the musical styles of
jazz and
blues as well as to
cuisine (
Kansas City-style
barbecue).
Abbreviations and nicknames

Kansas City Skyline from Liberty
Memorial
Kansas
City, Missouri, is often abbreviated as "KCMO", or simply "KC"
(both abbreviations often refer to the metro
area
). It is officially nicknamed the
City of
Fountains. With over 200 fountains,
the city claims to have the second most in the world, just behind
Rome.
The
fountains at Kauffman
Stadium
, commissioned by original Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, are the largest
privately-funded fountains in the world. The city also has more
boulevards than any city except Paris and has been called "Paris of
the Plains
."
Informal nicknames include
BBQ Capital of
the World, and residents are known as
Kansas Citians.
It is
sometimes referred to colloquially as the Heart of America
as it is near both the population center of the
United States and the geographic center
of the 48 contiguous states.
History
Kansas City, Missouri officially incorporated on March 28, 1853.
The
territory
straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas
at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered
a good place to build settlements.
Exploration and settlement
[[Image:Westport Pioneers Statue.jpg|thumb|175px|left|Kansas City
Pioneer Square monument in Westport features
Pony Express founder
Alexander Majors,
Westport/Kansas City founder John Calvin McCoy and Mountainman Jim Bridger who owned Chouteau's Store.]]
The first documented European visit to Kansas City was
Étienne de Veniard,
Sieur de Bourgmont, who was also the first European to explore
the lower Missouri River. Criticized for his handling of a Native
American attack of
Fort Detroit, he had
deserted his post as commander of the fort and was avoiding the
French authorities.
Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife
in the Missouri village about east
near Brunswick,
Missouri
, and illegally traded furs.
In order to clear his name, he wrote "Exact Description of
Louisiana, of Its Harbors, Lands and Rivers, and Names of the
Indian Tribes That Occupy It, and the Commerce and Advantages to Be
Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony" in 1713
followed in 1714 by "The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri
River." In the documents he describes the junction of the "Grande
Riv[iere] des Cansez" and Missouri River, being the first to refer
to them by those names. French cartographer
Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to
make the first reasonably accurate map of the area.
The French took over the region in the
Treaty of Paris but were not to play
a major role in the area other than taxing and licensing all
traffic on the Missouri River. The French continued their fur trade
on the river under Spanish license.
The Chouteau
family operated under the Spanish license at St.
Louis
in the lower Missouri
Valley as early as 1765, but it would be 1821 before the
Chouteaus reached Kansas City, when François Chouteau established
Chouteau's Landing.
After the
Louisiana Purchase,
Lewis and Clark visited the
confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, noting it was a good
place to build a fort.
In 1833
John McCoy established West
Port
along the Santa Fe
Trail, three miles (5 km) away from the river.
Then in
1834, McCoy established Westport Landing
on a bend in the Missouri River to serve as a
landing point for West Port. Soon after, the Kansas Town
Company, a group of investors, began to settle the area, taking
their name from an English spelling of "Cansez." In 1850 the
landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas.
By that
time, the Town of Kansas, Westport, and nearby Independence
, had become critical points in America's westward
expansion. Three major trail – the
Santa Fe, California, and Oregon – all originated in Jackson
County
.
On February 22, 1853, the City of Kansas was created with a newly
elected mayor. It had an area of and a population of 2,500. The
boundary lines at that time extended from the middle of the
Missouri River south to what is now Ninth Street, and from Bluff
Street on the west to a point between Holmes Road and Charlotte
Street on the east.
Civil War
The area was rife with animosity as the
Civil War approached during a period
known as
Bleeding Kansas. Already
situated in a state bitterly divided on the issue of slavery,
southern sympathizers in Missouri immediately recognized the threat
of Kansas petitioning to enter the
Union under the new doctrine of
popular sovereignty. Infuriated
by the idea of Kansas becoming a free state, many from the area
crossed into Kansas to sway the state towards allowing
slavery, at first by ballot box and then by
bloodshed.

During the Civil War, the City of
Kansas and its immediate environs were the focus of intense
military activity. Although the
First Battle of Independence in
August 1862 resulted in a Confederate victory, the Southerners were
unable to follow up their win in any significant fashion, as the
City of Kansas was occupied by Union troops and proved too heavily
fortified for them to assault. The
Second Battle of Independence,
part of
Sterling Price's
Missouri expedition of 1864, also resulted in a
Confederate triumph.
Once again the Southern victory proved
hollow, as Price was decisively defeated in the pivotal Battle of
Westport
the next day, effectively ending Confederate
efforts to occupy the city.
Moreover,
General Thomas Ewing, in response
to a successful raid on nearby Lawrence, Kansas
, led by William
Quantrill, issued General Order No.
11, forcing the eviction
of residents in four western Missouri counties—including
Jackson—except those living in the city and nearby communities and
those whose allegiance to the Union was certified by Ewing.
Post-Civil War
After the Civil War, the City of Kansas grew rapidly.
The selection of the
city over Leavenworth,
Kansas
, for the Hannibal & St. Joseph
Railroad bridge over the Missouri River brought about
significant growth. The population exploded after 1869, when
the Hannibal Bridge, designed by
Octave
Chanute, opened. The boom prompted a name change to Kansas City
in 1889 and the city limits to extend south and east. Westport
became part of Kansas City on December 2, 1897. According to the
US Census in 1900, Kansas City was the 22nd
largest city in the country, with 163,752 residents.
Kansas City, guided by architect
George
Kessler, became a forefront example of the
City Beautiful movement, developing a network
of boulevards and parks around the city.
The relocation of
Union
Station
to its current location in 1914 and the opening of
the Liberty
Memorial
in 1923 gave the city two of its most identifiable
landmarks. Further spurring Kansas City's growth was
the opening of the innovative Country Club Plaza
development by J.C. Nichols in 1925 as part of his
Country Club District plan.
Pendergast era
At the
turn of the century,
political machines attempted to gain clout in the city, with the
one led by
Tom Pendergast emerging as
the dominant machine by 1925. A new city charter passed that year
made it easier for his Democratic Party machine to gain control of
the city council (slimmed from 32 members to nine) and appoint a
corrupt city manager.
Several
important buildings and structures were built during this time, to
assist with the great depression—all led by Pendergast, including
the Kansas City
City Hall
and the Jackson County Courthouse—both added new
skyscrapers to the city's growing skyline. The machine fell
in 1939 when Pendergast, riddled with health problems, pleaded
guilty to
tax evasion. The machine,
however, gave rise to
Harry S.
Truman, who quickly became Kansas
City's favorite son.
Post-World War II sprawl
Kansas City's sprawl and the creation of suburbs originally began
with the invention and implementation of streetcars into the city
and the surrounding areas.
Streetcar
suburbs began to pop up and more and more detached, single
family homes were built away from the main part of town. The city's
first "Suburbs" were in the neighborhoods of Pendleton Heights and
Quality Hill. However, the real sprawl and creation of suburbs
didn't start until after the second world war.
After
World War II, the city experienced considerable sprawl, as the
affluent populace left for suburbs like
Johnson County, Kansas, and
eastern Jackson
County, Missouri
. However, many also went north of the
Missouri
River
, where Kansas City had incorporated areas between
the 1940s to 1970s. The population of the urban core
significantly dipped, while the metropolitan area as a whole gained
population.
The sprawl of the city mainly took shape after the "race riots" of
the Civil Rights Movement in Kansas City. The assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr. was a
catalyst for the
1968 Kansas City
riot. At this time, slums were also beginning to form in the
inner city, and those who could afford to leave, left for the
suburbs and outer edges of the city. The post-World War II idea of
suburbs and the "American Dream" also contributed to the sprawl of
the area. As the city continued to sprawl, the inner city also
continued to decline.
In 1940, the city had about 400,000 residents; by 2000, the same
area was home to only about 180,000. From 1940 to 1960, the city
more than doubled its physical size, while increasing its
population by only about 75,000. By 1970, the city had a total area
of approximately , more than five times its size in 1940.
The
Hyatt
Regency walkway collapse
was a major disaster that occurred on 17 July 1981
killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others during a tea
dance. At the time it was the deadliest structural collapse
in U.S. history.
Geography
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 318.0
sq mi (823.7
km²). 313.5 sq mi (812.1 km²) of
it is land and 4.5 sq mi (11.6 km²) of it (1.41%) is
water. Much of urban Kansas City sits atop bluffs overlooking the
rivers and river bottoms areas. Kansas City proper is bowl-shaped
and is surrounded to the north and south by
limestone and
bedrock
cliffs that were carved by
glaciers. Kansas
City is situated at the junction between the
Dakota and
Minnesota ice lobes during the maximum
late
Independence glaciation
of the
Pleistocene epoch. The Kansas and Missouri rivers
cut wide valleys into the terrain when the glaciers melted and
drained. A partially filled spillway valley crosses the central
portion of Kansas City, Missouri. This valley is an eastward
continuation of Turkey Creek valley.
Union
Station
is located in this valley. The city's
municipal water was recently rated the
cleanest among the 50 largest cities in the United States,
containing no detectable impurities.
Climate
Kansas
City lies near the geographic center of the contiguous United
States, at the confluence of the second largest river in the
country, the Missouri
River
, and the Kansas River
(also known as the Kaw River). This makes
for a
humid continental
climate (
Koppen
climate classification Dfa) with moderate
precipitation and extremes of hot and cold.
Summers can be very
humid, with moist air riding up from the Gulf of Mexico
, and during July and August daytime highs can reach
into the triple digits. Winters vary from mild days to
bitterly cold, with lows rarely reaching into the teens below
zero.
Kansas
City is situated in "Tornado Alley", a
broad region where cold air from the Rocky Mountains and Canada collides with
warm air from the Gulf of
Mexico
, leading to the formation of powerful
storms. Kansas City has had many severe outbreaks of
tornados, including the
Ruskin Heights tornado
in 1957, and the
May 2003 tornado outbreak
sequence, as well as other severe weather, most notably the
Kansas City derecho in 1982. The
region is also prone to
ice storms, such
as the
2002 ice storm
during which hundreds of thousands lost power for days and (in some
cases) weeks. Kansas City and its outlying areas are also subject
to flooding, including the
Great
Flood of 1993 and the
Great
Flood of 1951.
Cityscape
Kansas City, Missouri, is organized into a system of more than 240
neighborhoods, some with histories as
independent cities or the sites of major events. Downtown, the
center of the city, is currently undergoing major redevelopment
with new condos, apartments, offices and The Power & Light
District (shopping/entertainment development) complete with bars,
restaurants, a grocery store with a tony roof-top pool club called
The Jones, a theatre and The Sprint Center. All these things have
made downtown/midtown a more viable residential option more than
ever.
Near Downtown, the urban core of the city
has a variety of neighborhoods,
including historical Westport
, Ivanhoe, Hyde Park, Squire Park, the Crossroads
Arts District
, 18th and Vine Historic
District
, Pendleton Heights
, Quality Hill, the
West
Bottoms
, and the River Market
; one up-and-coming "newer" neighborhood just
minutes from downtown is upscale Briarcliff, though it is in the so-called
"North-land" or simply "North of the River". Two other "near"
downtown neighborhoods that are very popular and have unique appeal
include the Country
Club Plaza
(or simply the "Plaza"), south Plaza and nearby
Brookside.
Architecture
The city's skyline is what one might envision for a major Mid-West
city, with some notable exceptions.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum
opened a stunning Euro-Style addition in 2008, The
towering Power and Light building with its Art-Deco style and a
glowing sky beacon. The new World Headquarters of H&R
Block is a 20 story all glass oval which is bathed from top to
bottom in a soft green light.
The four Industrial art works atop the
support towers of the Kansas City Convention Center (Bartle Hall)
were once the subject of ridicule but now define the night skyline
near the new Sprint Center, One Kansas City Place
(the tallest office tower structure in Missouri),
as well as the KCTV-Tower
with its hundreds of lit bulbs (the tallest
freestanding structure in Missouri) and the Liberty
Memorial
The National World War I Memorial & Museum with
its simulated flames and smoke billowing into the night skyline,
Kansas City is home to significant national and international
architecture firms including ACI/Boland, BNIM, 360 Architecture, Ellerbe Becket, HNTB and
HOK Sport. Frank Lloyd Wright designed two private
residences.
Kansas City contains collection of over 200 working fountains,
second only to Rome. Some of the most notable are on the County
Club Plaza. From French inspired traditional to modern, these
fountains offer visitors to the city an unexpected bonus. Among the
most notable : the Black Marble H&R Block fountain in front of
Union Station with its synchronized water jets shooting high into
the air, the Nichols Bronze Horses at the corner of Main and JC
Nichols Parkway at the entrance to the Plaza Shopping District and
the unique "family friendly" walk thru fountain at Hallmark Cards
World Headquarters in Crown Center.
Downtown
Downtown Kansas City is an area of bounded by the Missouri River to
the north, 31st Street to the south, Bruce R. Watkins Drive
(
U.S. Highway 71) to the east and I-35 to the
west. Areas near Downtown Kansas City include the
39th Street District is known as
Restaurant Row and features one of Kansas City's largest selections
of independently owned restaurants and boutique shops. It is a
center of literary and visual arts and
bohemian culture.
Crown Center
is the headquarters of Hallmark Cards and a major downtown shopping
and entertainment complex. It is connected to Union Station
by a series of covered walkways.
The Country Club Plaza
, or simply "the Plaza", is an upscale, outdoor
shopping and entertainment district. It was the first
suburban shopping district in the United States, designed to
accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile, and is surrounded by
apartments and condominiums, including a number of high rise
buildings. The associated
Country
Club District to the south includes the
Sunset Hill and
Brookside neighborhoods, and is
traversed by
Ward Parkway, a landscaped
boulevard known for its statuary, fountains and large, historic
homes.
Kansas City's Union
Station
is home to Science City
, restaurants, shopping, theaters, and the city's
Amtrak facility.
After years of neglect and seas of parking lots,
Downtown Kansas City currently is
undergoing a period of change. Many residential properties recently
have been or currently are under redevelopment.
The Power &
Light District
, a new, nine-block entertainment district
comprising numerous restaurants, bars, and retail shops, was
developed by the Cordish Company of
Baltimore
, Maryland
, Its first tenant opened on November 9,
2007. It is anchored by the Sprint Center, a 19,000 seat
complex that has become a top draw forsports and musical
entertainment. Elton John was the first performer to play at the
Sprint Center.
Parks and boulevard system
Kansas City has of spacious boulevards and parkways, 214 urban
parks, 49 ornamental fountains, 152 ball diamonds, 10 community
centers, 105 tennis courts, five golf courses, five museums and
attractions, 30 pools, and 47 park shelters, all overseen by the
city's Parks and Recreation department.
The parks and boulevard system winds its way through the city. Much
of the system, designed by
George
E. Kessler, was constructed
from 1893 to 1915. Cliff Drive, in Kessler Park on the North
Bluffs, is a designated State Scenic Byway. It extends from The
Paseo and Independence Avenue through Indian Mound on Gladstone
Boulevard at Belmont Boulevard with many historical points and
architectural landmarks.
Ward Parkway,
on the west side of the city near
State
Line Road, is lined by many of the city's most handsome homes.
The Paseo is a major north–south parkway
that runs through the center of the city beginning at Cliff Drive.
It was
modeled on the Paseo de la
Reforma, a fashionable Mexico City
boulevard.
Swope Park
is one of the nation's largest city parks,
comprising 1,805 acres (2.82 sq. mi.), more than twice as
big as New York's Central Park. It features a full-fledged
zoo, a woodland nature and wildlife rescue
center, two golf courses, two lakes, an
amphitheatre, day-camp area, and numerous
picnic grounds. Hodge Park, in the Northland, covers 1,029 acres
(1.61 sq. mi.). This park includes the Shoal Creek Living
History Museum, a village of more than 20 historical buildings
dating from 1807 to 1885.
Riverfront Park, on the banks of the
Missouri
River
on the north edge of downtown, holds annual Fourth
of July celebrations and other festivals during the
year.
At one time, nearly all residential streets were planted with a
solid canopy of
American elms, but
Dutch elm disease devastated them.
Most were replaced with varieties of other handsome shade trees. A
program went underway to replace many of the fast-growing
sweetgum trees with
hardwood varieties.
Culture
Performing arts
The
Kansas City Repertory
Theatre, the metropolitan area's top professional theatre
company and the Starlight Theatre
, 8,105-seat outdoor theatre designed by Edward Delk are a popular theatre
company and theatre respectively. The
Kansas City Symphony, founded by
R. Crosby Kemper Jr. in 1982 to superseded
the Kansas City Philharmonic, which was founded 1933.
The symphony
currently is located at the Lyric Theatre in Downtown Kansas City,
but will move to the new Kauffman
Center for the Performing Arts
, also downtown, when it is completed in December
2009. The current music director and lead conductor of the
symphony is
Michael Stern.
Lyric Opera of Kansas
City, founded in 1970, offers one American contemporary opera
production during its annual season consisting of either four or
five productions. The Lyric Opera also is located at the Lyric
Theatre, and also will move to the Kauffman Center for the
Performing Arts in 2009.
The Civic Opera Theater of Kansas
City, performs at the Folly Theater
in downtown, and the UMKC Performing Arts
Center.
The
Kansas City Ballet, founded
in 1957 by Tatiana Dokoudovska, is a ballet troupe comprising 25
professional dancers and apprentices. Between 1986 and 2000, it was
combined with Dance St. Louis to form the State Ballet of Missouri,
although it remained located in Kansas City. From 1980 to 1995, the
Ballet was run by dancer and choreographer
Todd Bolender. Today, the Ballet offers an
annual repertory split into three seasons which ranges from
classical to contemporary ballets. The Ballet also is located at
the Lyric Theatre, and also will move with the Symphony and Opera
to the Kauffman Center in 2009.
Entrance of the American Jazz Museum
Kansas City jazz in the 1930s marked the transition from big bands
to the bebop influence of the 1940s. In the 1970s, Kansas City
attempted to resurrect the glory of the jazz era in a sanitized
family friendly atmosphere.
In the 1970s, an effort to open jazz clubs
in the River Quay area of City Market along the Missouri ended in a
gangland war in which three of the new clubs were blown up in what
ultimately resulted in the removal of Kansas City mob influence in
the Las
Vegas
casinos. The annual "Kansas City Blues and
Jazz Festival", which attracts top jazz stars nationwide and large
out-of-town audiences, has been rated Kansas City's "best
festival." by pitch.com
Live
music venues can be found throughout the city, with the highest
concentration in the Westport
entertainment district centered on Broadway and
Westport Road near the Country Club Plaza
, as well as the 18th & Vine area (jazz
music). A variety of music genres can be heard and have
originated in Kansas City and direct surrounding areas, including:
Rock groups
Puddle of Mudd,
Shooting Star,
The
Get Up Kids,
Shiner,
Flee The Seen,
The Life and Times,
Reggie and the Full Effect,
Coalesce,
The
Casket Lottery,
The Gadjits,
The Appleseed Cast,
The Rainmakers,
The Esoteric,
Vedera,
The Elders,
Blackpool Lights and
The Republic Tigers and Rappers
Tech N9ne,
Krizz
Kaliko,
Kutt Calhoun,
Skatterman & Snug Brim,
Mac Lethal, and
Solè.
Irish culture
There is a large community of
Irish
in Kansas City which numbers around 250,000 . The Irish Community
includes a large number of bands, multiple newspapers, the numerous
Irish stores, including Browne's Irish Market, the oldest Irish
owned business in North America, and the
Irish Museum and Cultural
Center is the new center of the community. The first book that
detailed the history of the Irish in Kansas City was Missouri
Irish, Irish Settlers on the American Frontier, published in
1984.
Casinos
Missouri
voters approved riverboat casino gaming on
the Missouri
and Mississippi
Rivers by referendum with a 63% majority on November 3,
1992. The first casino facility in the state opened in
September 1994 in North Kansas City by
Harrah's Entertainment. The combined
revenues for the four casinos successfully operating in Kansas City
exceeded $153 million per month in May 2008. The four casinos are
Ameristar Kansas City,
Argosy Kansas City,
Harrah's North Kansas City,
Isle of Capri Kansas City. A fifth
area casino, the 7th Street Casino, opened in Kansas City, KS in
2008.
Cuisine
Kansas City is most famous for its
steak and
barbecue.
During the heyday of the
Kansas
City Stockyards, the city was known for its Kansas City steaks
or
Kansas City strip steaks.
The most
famous of the steakhouses is the Golden Ox in the Kansas City
Live Stock Exchange
in the stockyards in the West Bottoms
. The stockyards, which were second only to
those of Chicago in size, never recovered from the
Great Flood of 1951 and eventually
closed. The famed Kansas City Strip cut of steak is largely
identical to the New York Strip cut, and is sometimes referred to
just as a
strip steak. Along with Texas,
Memphis & North Carolina, Kansas City is a "world capital of
barbecue." There are more than 90 barbecue restaurants in the
metropolitan area and the
American
Royal each fall hosts what it claims is the world's biggest
barbecue contest.
The
classic Kansas City-style barbecue was an inner city phenomenon that evolved from the pit
of Henry Perry from the
Memphis,
Tennessee
, area in the early 1900s and blossomed in the
18th and
Vine
neighborhood. Arthur
Bryant's
was to take
over the Perry restaurant and added molasses to sweeten the recipe. In 1946
Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q was
opened by one of Perry's cooks. The Gates recipe added even more
molasses. Although Bryant's and Gates are the two definitive Kansas
City barbecue restaurants they have just recently begun expanding
outside of the Greater Kansas City Area.
Fiorella's Jack Stack
Barbecue is well-regarded by many both locally and nationally.
In 1977
Rich Davis, a psychiatrist,
test-marketed his own concoction called K.C. Soul Style Barbecue
Sauce. He renamed it
KC Masterpiece
and in 1986 he sold the sauce to the Kingsford division of
Clorox. Davis retained rights to operate restaurants
using the name and sauce.
Sports
Kansas City is often the home of the
Big 12
College Basketball Tournaments.
Men's Basketball will be played at Sprint Center
beginning in March 2008, while women's Basketball
will be played at Municipal Auditorium
. Lately, arenas in Dallas and Oklahoma City
have hosted the tournament.
Arrowhead Stadium
serves as the venue for various intercollegiate
football games. Often it is the host of the
Big 12 Football
Title Game.
On the last weekend in October, the Fall
Classic rivalry game between Northwest
Missouri State University
and Pittsburg State University
takes place here. Usually, the Bearcats
of Northwest and Gorillas of Pitt State are ranked one-two in the
MIAA
conference.
In 2005, other games at Arrowhead included
Arkansas
State
playing host to Missouri
, and Kansas
hosting Oklahoma
.
Kansas City used to have an
NBA team.
The team's original
name was Kansas City-Omaha Kings because it played home games in
both Kansas City and Omaha
.
However, after 1975 the team would exclusively play in Kansas City.
After
1985, the Kansas City Kings would move to Sacramento
to become today's Sacramento Kings. In 1974, the NHL ended its first expansion period by adding teams in Kansas
City and Washington,
D.C.
Although they were better than their
expansion brethren the
Washington
Capitals (who won only eight games in their inaugural season),
the
Kansas City Scouts began to
suffer from an economic downturn in the Midwest. For their second
season, the Scouts sold just 2,000 of 8,000
season tickets and were almost $1 million in
debt.
Due
to their various on- and off-ice disappointments, the franchise
moved to Denver
and was renamed the Colorado Rockies.
Media
Print media
The Kansas City Star
is the area's primary newspaper.
William Rockhill Nelson and
his partner, Samuel Morss, first published the evening paper on
September 18, 1880. The
Star competed heavily with the
morning
Times before acquiring it in 1901. The "Times"
name was discontinued in March 1990, when the morning paper was
renamed the "Star."Weekly newspapers include
The Call
(African American focused) and several weekly papers, including the
Kansas City Business
Journal,
The
Pitch and the bilingual paper "Dos Mundos".The city is
served by two major faith-oriented newspapers: The Kansas City
Metro Voice, serving the Christian community, and the Kansas City
Jewish Chronicle, serving the Jewish community. Also,
"
The Kansas City Call[2471]" or simply "The
Call" paper was established in 1919 and has been in publication
weekly since. It is mainly geared toward Kansas
Cities African American community.
Broadcast media
The Kansas City media market (ranked 32nd by Arbitron and 31st by
Nielsen) includes 10 television channels, along with 30 FM and 21
AM radio stations. Kansas City broadcasters have been a stepping
stone for many nationally recognized television and radio
personalities, including
Walter
Cronkite,
Rush Limbaugh, and
Mancow Muller.
Film community
Kansas
City has also been a locale for Hollywood
productions and television programming. Also,
between 1931 and 1982, Kansas City was home to the
Calvin Company, a large movie production
company that specialized in the making of promotional and sales
training short films and commercials for large corporations, as
well as educational movies for schools and training films for
government. Calvin was also an important venue for the Kansas City
arts, serving as training ground for many local filmmakers who went
on to successful Hollywood careers, and also employing many local
actors, most of whom earned their main income in other fields, such
as radio and television announcing. Kansas City native
Robert Altman got his start directing movies
at the Calvin Company, and this experience led him to making his
first feature film,
The
Delinquents, in Kansas City using many local thespians.
The 1983
television movie The Day
After was filmed in Kansas City and Lawrence,
Kansas
. The 1990s film
Truman starring
Gary Sinise was also filmed in various parts of
the city.
Other films shot in or around Kansas City
include Article 99, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Kansas City, Paper Moon, In Cold Blood, Ninth Street, and Sometimes They Come Back (in
and around nearby Liberty, Missouri
). More recently, a scene in the
controversial film
Bruno was filmed in the
historic Hotel Phillips downtown.
Economy

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank "J"
insignia on the dollar bill
Greater Kansas City is headquarters to four
Fortune 500 companies (
Sprint Nextel Corporation,
H&R Block,
Embarq Corporation, and
YRC Worldwide Inc.) and additional
Fortune 1000 corporations
(
Interstate Bakeries
Corporation,
Great Plains
Energy,
Aquila,
AMC Theatres,
DST
Systems,
Garmin
International,
Cerner Corp. and
Russell Stover Candies). Three
international law firms, Lathrop & Gage, Stinson Morrisson
& Hecker, and
Shook, Hardy
& Bacon are also based in Kansas City.
Hallmark Cards's gross revenues certainly
would qualify it for both lists, but it cannot be included because
it is privately owned by the
Hall
family. Numerous agriculture companies operate out of the city
.
Dairy Farmers of America,
the largest Dairy Co-op in the United States is located here.
Kansas City Board of
Trade is the principal trading Exchange for hard red
winter wheat — the principal ingredient of
bread. Kansas City is also home the
headquarters of
Commerce
Bancshares,
UMB Financial
Corporation,
American
Century Investments,
BNIM,
HNTB,
Burns
and McDonnell Engineering,
Novastar Financial, and
J.E. Dunn Construction Group.
The business community is serviced by two major business magazines,
the
Kansas City Business Journal (published weekly) and
Ingram's Magazine (published monthly), as well as numerous
other smaller publications, including a local
society journal, the
Independent
(published weekly). Kansas City is literally "on the money."
Bills issued by the Federal
Reserve Bank of Kansas City
are marked the letter "J" and/or number
"10." The single dollar bills have Kansas City's name on
them. The Kansas City Federal Reserve built a new bank building
that opened in 2008 and relocated near Union Station. Missouri is
the only state to have two of the 12
Federal Reserve Bank headquarters (St.
Louis also has a headquarters). Kansas City's effort to get the
bank was helped by former Kansas City mayor
James A. Reed who
as senator broke a tie to get the
Federal Reserve Act passed.
One of the largest drug manufacturing plants in the United States
is the
Sanofi-Aventis plant located
in south Kansas City on the campus developed by
Ewing Kauffman's
Marion Laboratories.
Of late, it has been
developing some academic and economic institutions related to
animal health sciences, an effort most recently bolstered by the
selection of Manhattan, Kansas
, at one end of the Kansas City Animal Health
Corridor, as the site for the National Bio and
Agro-Defense Facility, which is tasked, among other things, to
research animal-related diseases.
Ford Motor Company operates a large
manufacturing facility just outside of Kansas City in Claycomo
, which currently builds the Ford Escape, Mazda
Tribute, Ford F-150, and Mercury Mariner. General Motors'
Fairfax Assembly Plant is located in adjacent Kansas City,
Kansas
.
Demographics
At the 2005–2007 American Community Survey Estimates, the city's
population was 64.5% White (57.6% non-Hispanic White alone), 30.6%
Black or African American, 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native,
2.4% Asian, 0.2% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 3.6%
from some other race and 2.4% from two or more races. 8.8% of the
total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
[2472]
As of February 6, 2009, it was revealed that the US census had
underestimated Kansas City's population, and re-released it to be
475,830 [6] with a metro area of over two million.[7]As of November
12, 2009 there were over 480,000 residents.
Law and government
City government
- See also: List of
mayors of Kansas City
- See also: Alcohol laws
of Missouri
Kansas City is home to the largest
municipal
government in the state of Missouri. The city has a
city manager form of government, however the
role of city manager has diminished over the years following
excesses during the days of
Tom
Pendergast. The mayor is the head of the
Kansas City City Council,
which has 12 members (one member for each district, plus one at
large member per district), and the mayor himself is the presiding
member. Kansas City holds city elections on odd numbered years
(every four years unless there is a special reason). The last major
city-wide election was May 2007, meaning the next one will be in
May 2011. The city council currently has a female majority for the
first time in the city's history.
From the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, Kansas City's
municipal government was controlled by often corrupt political
machines. Tom Pendergast was the most infamous leader of the party
machine. The most nationally prominent Democrat associated with
Pendergast's machine was
Harry S
Truman, who became a Senator,
Vice President of the United
States and then
President of the United
States from 1945–1953. Kansas City is the seat of the
United States District Court for the Western District of
Missouri, one of two
federal district courts in
Missouri (the other, the
Eastern District, is in St. Louis).
It also is the seat
of the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, one of
three districts of that court (the Eastern District is in St. Louis
and the Southern District is in Springfield
).
There are 230,897 registered voters.
National political conventions
Kansas
City has hosted the 1900 Democratic National
Convention, the 1928 Republican National
Convention, which nominated Herbert
Hoover from Iowa
for
President, and the memorable 1976 Republican National
Convention, which nominated Kansas U.S. Senator
Bob Dole for Vice President. Kansas City
consistently votes Democratic in Presidential elections, however on
the state and local level Republicans often find some success,
especially in the Northland and other parts of Kansas City that are
predominantly suburban.
Federal representation
Kansas City is represented by two members of the
United States House of
Representatives:
The
United States Postal
Service operates post offices in Kansas City. The Kansas City
Main Post Office is located at 300 West Pershing Road.
Crime
Some of the earliest violence in Kansas City erupted during the
American Civil War. Shortly after
the city's incorporation in 1850, the period which has become known
as
Bleeding Kansas erupted,
affecting
border ruffians and
Jayhawkers, who both lived in the city.
During the war, Union troops
burned all occupied
dwellings in Jackson County south of Brush Creek and east of
Blue Creek to Independence in an attempt to halt raids into Kansas.
After the war, the
Kansas City
Times turned outlaw
Jesse
James into a folk hero in its coverage.
James was born in the
Kansas City metro area at Kearney, Missouri
, and notoriously robbed the Kansas City Fairgrounds
at 12th Street and Campbell Avenue.
In the early 20th century under
Democratic political "Boss"
Tom Pendergast, Kansas City became
the country's "most wide open town", with virtually no enforcement
of
prohibition.
While this would give rise to
Kansas
City Jazz, it also led to the rise of the Kansas City
mob (initially under
Johnny
Lazia), as well as the arrival of
organized crime.
The 1930s saw the
Kansas City Massacre at
Union
Station
, as well as a shootout between police and outlaws
Bonnie and Clyde at the Red Crown
Tavern
near what is now Kansas City
International Airport
. In the 1970s, the Kansas City mob was
involved in a gangland war over control of the River Quay
entertainment district, in which three buildings
were bombed and several gangsters were killed. Police
investigations into the mob took hold after boss
Nick Civella was recorded discussing gambling
bets on
Super Bowl IV (where the
Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings).
The war and
investigation would lead to the end of mob control of the Stardust
Casino
, which was the basis for the film Casino (although the Kansas City
connections are minimized in the movie).
As of
October 30, 2006, Kansas City ranks 21st on the
Federal
Bureau of Investigation
's annual survey of crime rates for cities with
populations over 400,000. Kansas City ranked sixth in the
rate of murders in that same study. The entire Kansas City
metropolitan area has the fourth worst violent crime rate among
cities with more than 100,000, with a rate of 614.7 violent crimes
per 100,000 residents.
On the other hand, many of the surrounding
cities in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area
reflect the opposite in crime
statistics.
Much of the city's murders and violent crimes occur in the city's
inner core. The Kansas City Gangs are
reasons why the violent crime rates in the core consistently have
driven the city and metropolitan area down on "livability" indices,
hindering initiatives in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to revive
downtown Kansas City. In the 2000s, Crime and Homicides spiked up
due to
organized crime or the gang
activity in the inner city. However, attempts at revitalizing the
downtown area have been more successful. Other parts of the urban
core with higher
poverty levels remain
places in which crime remains largely unabated.
According to an
analysis by The Kansas City Star
and the University
of Missouri-Kansas City
appearing in a December 22, 2007 story, downtown
has experienced the largest drop in crime of any neighborhood in
the city during the current decade.
In 2009 Zip Code 64130 which straddles
Brush Creek east of the Country Club
Plaza was reported to account for 20 percent of Kansas Citians in
prison for murder or voluntary manslaughter (101 killers).
Infrastructure
First, it was at the confluence of the Missouri River and Kansas
River and the launching pointing for travelers on the
Santa Fe,
Oregon,
and
California trails.
Then with the
construction of the Hannibal Bridge
across the Missouri
River
it became the central location for 11 trunk
railroads. More rail traffic in terms of tonnage still
passes through the city than any other city in the country.
TWA located its headquarters in the city and had
ambitious plans to turn the city into an air hub for the
world.
Missouri and Kansas were the first states to start building
interstates with
Interstate 70.
Interstate 435, which encircles the
entire city, is the second longest beltway in the nation. Today,
Kansas City and its metropolitan area has more miles of limited
access highway lanes per capita than any other large metro area in
the United States, over 27% more than second-place
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex,
over 50% more than the average American metro area and nearly 75%
more than the metropolitan area with the least:
Las Vegas. The
Sierra Club in particular blames the extensive
freeway network for excessive
sprawl
and the decline of central Kansas City. On the other hand, the
relatively uncongested freeway network contributes significantly to
Kansas City's position as one of America's largest logistics
hubs.
Airports
Kansas City
International Airport
was built to the specifications of TWA to make a
world hub for the supersonic
transport and Boeing 747. Its
passenger friendly design in which its gates were from the street
has, since the
September 11,
2001 attacks, required a costly overhaul to retrofit it to
incorporate elements of a more conventional security system. Recent
proposals have suggested replacing the three terminals with a new
single terminal situated south of the existing runways, thus
allowing the airport to operate during construction and to shave
miles off the travel distance from downtown and the southern
suburbs.
Charles
B.
Wheeler
Downtown Airport
was the original headquarters of Trans World Airlines and houses the
Airline
History Museum
. It is still used for
general aviation and airshows.
Public transportation
Like most American cities, Kansas City's mass transit system was
originally rail-based. An electric
trolley
network ran through the city until 1957. The rapid sprawl in the
following years led this privately run system to be shut down. The
Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) was formed with
the signing of a Bi-State compact created by the Missouri and
Kansas legislatures on December 28, 1965. The compact gives the
KCATA responsibility for planning, construction, owning and
operating passenger transportation systems and facilities within
the seven-county Kansas City metropolitan area. These include the
counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte in Missouri, and
Johnson, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte in Kansas. Kansas City doesn't
have a
subway or
light rail system. Several proposals to build one
have been rejected by voters in the past. Kansas City has a long
history with streetcars and trolleys. From 1870–1957 Kansas City's
streetcar system was among the top in the country, with over of
track at its peak. Following the decision to scrap the system, many
of its former streetcars have been serving other American cities
for a long time. In 2007, ideas and plans arose to add normal
trolley lines, as well as possibly fast streetcars to the city's
Downtown for the first time in decades.
In July 2005, the
Kansas City Area
Transportation Authority (KCATA) launched Kansas City's first
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line
called "MAX" (Metro Area Express). MAX links the vibrant River
Market, Downtown, Union Station, Crown Center and the Country Club
Plaza. This corridor boasts over 150,000 jobs, as well as some of
the area's most prestigious real estate and treasured cultural
amenities. By design, MAX operates and is marketed more like a rail
system than a local bus line. A unique identity was created for
MAX, including 13 modern diesel buses and easily identifiable
"stations". MAX features state-of-the-art technology to deliver
customers a high level of reliability (real-time GPS tracking of
buses, available at every station), speed (stoplights automatically
change in their favor if buses are behind schedule) and
comfort.
Education
Colleges and universities
Several universities, colleges, and seminaries are located in
Kansas City, including:
- University of Missouri–Kansas
City
, one of four University of Missouri
campuses, serving more than 14,000
undergraduates
- Kansas City Art Institute
, four-year college of fine arts and design
founded in 1885.
- Rockhurst University, a
notable Jesuit, Catholic university founded in
1910.
- Avila University
, Catholic university of the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Carondelet.
- Park University, private
institution established in 1875; Park University Graduate School is
located downtown.
- Metropolitan
Community College , a 2-year college with several branches in
the suburban metropolitan area.
- Kansas City
University of Medicine and Biosciences.
- DeVry University

- Midwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Convention
- Nazarene Theological Seminary
, Church of the Nazarene
- Calvary Bible College and
Theological Seminary
- Saint Paul School of
Theology, Methodist.
Primary and secondary schools
Kansas City is served by several school districts, the largest
being the
Kansas
City, Missouri Public Schools. There are also numerous private
schools; Catholic schools in Kansas City are governed by the
Diocese of Kansas City.
Libraries and archives
- Linda Hall Library
, internationally recognized independent library of
science, engineering and technology, housing over one million
volumes.
- Mid-Continent Public
Library, largest public library system in Missouri, and among
the largest collections in America.
- Kansas City Public Library
, oldest library system in Kansas
City.
- University
of Missouri-Kansas City Libraries
, four collections: Leon E. Bloch Law Library
and Miller Nichols Library, both on Volker Campus; and Health
Sciences Library and Dental Library, both on Hospital Hill in
Kansas City.
- Rockhurst University
Greenlease Library.
- The Black Archives
of Mid-America, research center of the African American
experience in the central Midwest.
- National Archives and Records
Administration
(NARA), Central Plains Region, one of 18 national
records facilities, holding millions of archival records and
microfilms for Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska in a new
facility adjacent to Union Station, open to the general public in
2008.
Sister cities

Liberty Memorial by night.
As of April 2009, Kansas City has 13 sister cities:
- Seville
, Spain
(1967)
- Kurashiki, Japan
(1972)
- Morelia
, Mexico
(1973)
- Freetown
, Sierra Leone
(1974)
- Tainan City
, Republic of China
(Taiwan
)
(1978)
- Xi'an
,
People's
Republic of China
(1989)
- Guadalajara
, Mexico
(1991)
- Hannover
, Germany
(1993)
- Port Harcourt
, Nigeria
(1993)
- Arusha
, Tanzania
(1995)
- San
Nicolás de los Garza
, Mexico
(1997)
- Ramla
, Israel
(1998)
- Ville de Metz
, France
(2004)
See also
References
- Annual Estimates of the Population of Metro and
Micropolitan Areas
- A History of Kansas City, Missouri
- Kansas City Tornado Almanac, wdaftv4.com. Accessed
September 2006.
- KC powerless as icy barrage pummels the area,
leaves behind disaster zone, Accessed September 10, 2006.
-
http://www.kcmo.org/planning/pdf/focus/Neighborhood_Assessment_Reports/neighborhoodtypes.pdf
- Kansas City - Restaurants - Restaurant
Guide
- "A walk through Kansas City history",
Country Club Plaza website (online)
- Garvin, Alexander (2002): The American City: What Works,
what doesn't. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 0071373675. Pages
119-125
- Parks & Recreation, 2008 Reference
Book
- Parks & Recreation, About Parks &
Recreation
- TimeLine 150
- Focus Kansas City, Tri-Blenheim Neighbors
United, report date: 29 April 2000
- Deborah
Jowitt, Kansas City Ballet: Happy Fiftieth!, The
Village
Voice, March 18, 2008
- The Pitch, Best of 2007: "Best Festival" - Kansas
City's Blues and Jazz Festival.
- Missouri Gaming Commission: The History of Riverboat
Gambling in Missouri
- The Kansas City Star, June 13, 2008: Missouri
riverboat casinos’ revenue increases in May.
- http://www.experiencekc.com/barbeque.html
- Harry Haskell, Boss-Busters and Sin Hounds: Kansas City and Its
"Star" (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007) ISBN
9780826217691
- The
Call
- Arbitron, Inc., Spring '08 Blue Book,
"2008 Market Survey Schedule: All Markets,", p. 4
- TV by the Numbers, Nielsen People Meter
Markets, November 6th, 2007: "Rank, Designated Market Area,
Homes"
- A Foregone Conclusion: The Founding of the Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis by James Neal Primm - stlouisfed.org -
Retrieved January 1, 2007.
- U.S. Manufacturing Sheet - sanofi-aventis.us -
Retrieved August 25, 2008
- Kansas City Star - Kansas Tops List for Biodefense
Lab
- Registered Voters in Missouri 2008
- " Post Office Location - KANSAS CITY."
United States Postal
Service. Retrieved on May 5, 2009.
- 25 Safest Cities www.morganquinto.com Accessed
November 2006
- Kevin Collison, "FBI crime data paint grim
portrait", The Kansas City Star, September 26,
2006
- Kansas City Area Development Council
- Downtown News
- Murder Factory: 64130, the ZIP code of notoriety in
Missouri - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - January 26, 2009 (reprint
of original Kansas City Star article by Tony Rizzo)
- 1998 Sprawl Report- Sprawl - Sierra Club
-
http://www.kcsmartport.com/sec_news/media/documents/ShippingCentral.pdf
- http://www.kcata.org/maps_schedules/max/
-
http://www.kcata.org/light_rail_max/max_and_bus_rapid_transit/
- http://www.kcsistercities.org www.kcsistercities.org
External links