Quality of Life
From a stable economy to a wide range of eductional, entertainment and cultural options, the Kansas City region has much to offer.
What constitutes a truly outstanding quality of life? There’s perhaps only one way to answer that correctly: “It depends.”
To somebody dealing with $2,800-a-month rent for a studio apartment in New York Tribeca district, another poor soul trapped in rush-hour traffic for more than an hour every day in L.A. or San Francisco, or someone dealing with the public-safety nightmare that confronts Chicago, quality of life can be measured in many different ways—and not all of them positive.
Residents of the Kansas City area, then, can be thankful that none of those scenarios resonates here. In fact, just the opposite:
• Various Web sites show average rents of $485 for studio apartments on locations as popular as the Country Club Plaza, with three-bedroom units going for less than a third of that New York studio’s price.
• The average commute time of 22.6 minutes—covering an average of just 9.2 miles—means residents here can hit the snooze button in the morning or be home for dinner well in advance of their coastal counterparts.
• And while certain neighborhoods of Kansas City do have their public-safety issues, FBI crime statistics show that the KC MSA overall experiences nearly one-third less violent crime than cross-state St. Louis, and on par with communities like Bridgeport or New Haven, Conn.
But there’s so much more to the quality of life here.
Start with the weather. We have four distinct seasons here, with winters that, yes, can get cold and occasionally snow, but not enough to land us in the Top 100 cities for annual snowfall. In fact, no community from either Kansas and Missouri cracks that National Weather Service list. Summers will have their spells of unpleasant heat, but again, with just three days a year above 99 degrees, on average, it’s manageable.
And when it comes to the spring and fall? Year and year out, close to 50 percent of the year is borderline spectacular with April in bloom as major-league baseball starts each season, or October’s cool, colorful embrace of football season. Each is a welcome shift between the more extreme seasons of the year.
Other slices of life, many of them covered in greater detail elsewhere in this issue:
Education
Immediate access to all manner of quality K–20 instruction and continuing education certification. From large public universities to small private colleges, from community college work-force and certification programs to outstanding public and private schools options, there’s no shortage of access to affordable quality education here.
Employment Opportunities
Thanks to the stability of the overall economy, a diversity that helps prevent wild swings in either direction, an education work force and a work ethic that in many cases is just one or two generations removed from the farm—if that—Kansas City generally boasts an unemployment rate a full percentage point below the national average in any given month.
Culture and Entertainment
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a $414 project completed in 2011, was almost entirely financed with private donations, and serves as a lynchpin for a regional arts revival. The most dramatic recent example of that has been a $70 million fund-raising drive launched to move the Conservatory of Music and Dance from the UMKC campus near the Plaza into Downtown.
Tourism Attractions
Sure, the tourists can take in a Chiefs or Royals game, check out professional soccer at the best sporting venue of its kind with Sporting Kansas City’s new stadium, or enjoy a rich tapestry of museums and family-oriented entertainment options like Worlds of Fun or Schlitterbahn Water Park—but the locals certainly enjoy those amenities, too.
Affordability
Simply put, paychecks go farther in Kansas City than they do in most major metropolitan areas. Driven by the comparatively low prices for homes and rents here, as well as for food, people have more disposable income for what we’ll call … the funner things in life.
The Great Outdoors
We’ve all heard the lament about the lack of mountains and beaches around Kansas City. But this region is a bike-rider’s dream—with the exception of some leg-burning hills that can challenge the will of even advanced riders. Walking/biking trails lace the region, and Kansas City itself has recently embarked on a street-striping project to designate certain lanes of key arterials as bike lanes.
R&R
Kansas City is close to some outstanding aquatic venues, particularly the Lake of the Ozarks, one of the American Heartland’s strongest vacation attractions and weekend-getaway magnets. Flood-control projects initiated by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s and ’60s have ringed the area with reservoirs and camping opportunities. Within an hour’s drive are Smithville Reservoir to the north, Clinton Reservoir west of Lawrence, and Hillsdale Reservoir in northern Miami County. All provide boating, fishing, hiking and camping opportunities.
All of that, and more, comes wrapped up in a collection of many urban neighborhoods and small municipalities that offer a small-town flavor throughout a city brimming with opportunities to enjoy life.
Other big cities have their selling points, but when it comes time to debate the merits of individual cities, folks here believe that argument is heavily stacked in their favor. 