Quality of Life

Looking for a place with easy access to work? The Kansas City region has more highway miles per capita than any other American city, one reason the average commuting times in the region are generally less than 20 minutes.

Looking for a place with great schools? The metropolitan area is laced with first-class K-12 public school districts, supplemented by a network of stellar private schools, and infused with post-secondary options on a broad scale.

Looking for a place that’s safe and clean? Like virtually all other urban centers, some of Kansas City’s older, core neighborhoods have their concerns. But the safety and security of this region’s suburbs have been huge factors in their growth for 60 years, and counting.

Looking for museums, theater, sporting venues, parks and more? Again, by virtue of its expansion across the region, the thriving communities that make up this region have incorporated many of the latest municipal metrics that reinforce a high quality of life.

When you combine those factors—plus the wide range of health-care services available and the sharply lower cost of buying a home here—Kansas City as a region is tough to beat when it comes to picking a place to live. A common refrain from transplanted residents goes something like this: “I’d heard about Kansas City, but until I got here, I didn’t really understand how terrific a place to live it really is.”

Those of us who’ve been fixed in place since our youth couldn’t agree more. But we’re a funny lot: A self-deprecating community that sometimes apologizes a bit too quickly for its own perceived shortcomings, whether they involve geography (yes, it’s pretty flat here), high theater (there’s a reason the country has only one New York) or higher-end dining (after all, once you’ve had original KC barbecue, is anything out there, anywhere, really better?).

Kansas City’s best-kept secret has long been the small-town lifestyle its many communities have been able to maintain, even as part of a bigger metropolis, with many of the amenities one comes to expect in big cities. True, our public transportation system isn’t particularly refined, but that’s long been more a function of demand—or lack thereof—than lack of resources to build one.

Near the top of the list of those small-town characteristics are the overall low rate of crime, clean air and rock-bottom cost of living. The latter is particularly true when it comes to the costs of groceries; we live awfully close to where the cattle, hogs, hens and commodities are raised, so there’s not a lot of transportation cost built into much of what we eat.

As with any large area, some parts of this region can be pricier than others, but again, on average, our total living expenses are consistently ranked in the lowest 25 percent of the nation’s states.

The best example of that may lie in housing. Show someone from either coast a classified ad for even higher-end homes in the Kansas City region, and they’ll likely as not drop their jaws in amazement. As a result, more people can—and do—own homes here than in most other regions of the country. You simply get more home, and a better class of digs, for your dollar.

Education, health care and other critical services are available in quality and quantity. The area’s status as the economic and cultural center for a multi-state, largely rural, regional area of the country has tended to nurture development of these services.

What about the weather? We’re probably not your choice if Southern California’s climate is your idea of ideal. We’ve got four distinct seasons—if you’re here in the spring and the fall, we’ll put our days up against the LA Basin’s: 70-degree days and seasonal changes that draw tourists for miles to see fall colors and spring blooms.

There’s enough of winter and of spring, with their occasional extremes, to sustain a healthy appreciation for the periods around each annual equinox. Otherwise, though, we have an ample supply of county or local state lakes and parks right in the area, with access to large boating venues within easy driving distance, particularly with the renowned Lake of the Ozarks that boasts more shorline than the state of California, less than three hours away.

Sports? Kansas City’s Truman Sports Complex, twin stadiums that have recently undergone extensive makeovers, is home to major-league baseball with the Royals, to pro football, with the NFL’s Chiefs. And for nearly a decade, this has been NASCAR country, as well, with racing to our west at the Kansas Speedway. And now open: The $200 million LiveStrong Sporting Park, home of the city’s professional soccer team.

And, for the college sports buff, we sit smack on Interstate 70, which links three Big 12 athletic programs, at the universities of Missouri and Kansas, as well as Kansas State University, all within easy drives.

Museums? A point of community pride—and international reputation—is the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It sits on a sprawling green space that abuts another defining jewel in the Kansas City crown, the Country Club Plaza, known worldwide for more than 80 years as the first planned retail center on the planet, and still a powerful magnet for local residents’ shopping, dining and entertainment yens.

Other big cities have their selling points, but when it comes time to debate the merits of individual cities, folks here like to think that argument is stacked in their favor.