Moving to Kansas City
Archived Q&A and Reviews
Moving to Kansas City
June 2009
My husband's mid-western roots are pulling our family to Kansas City. As a life-long Californian, I am nervous but trying to remain open-minded. Does anyone have any advice about living in KC? I'd love to get neighborhood and school recommendations (we have a 5 and 8 year-old). Are there safe,tree-lined neighborhoods where people walk to school and shops? Are there farmers markets, parks, bike lanes, and whole foods stores? I am hoping to find a strong community where the children are safe and happy but nervous that we will end up living in a suburb of cookie-cutter homes where everything is a long drive away. And what do people do in the winter?
future mid-westerner
I grew up in Kansas City and still have lots of family there. It's a wonderful city. Wonderful tree lined neighborhoods, cheaper housing, many great parks. Better public schools in many neighborhoods than here. Summers are hot, winters are cold. Would be happy to give you advice. There was no email listed for you.
love KC
I grew up in Kansas City, and now frequently travel there for work. Kansas City is not Berkeley. But I think you can find what you need. There's a difference between the suburbs in KCMO and the suburbs on the Kansas side. You may find more of what you want in terms of community and walking to shops and parks someplace like the Morningside or Brookside areas of KCMO. But the public schools in KCMO need serious help. On the Kansas side, the schools are very good, but there's more of a suburban feel, and lots of SUVs. My son thinks it's crazy that his cousin's neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks, and that the cousins want to drive three blocks to see grand parents.
Yes there are Whole Foods, but no Trader Joe's. Yes there are farmer's markets, but nowhere near the variety of fruits and veggies. In the summer it's hot,and it's best to have a place to go swim. In the winter it's cold, and sometimes it's fun to skate of sled. Yes there's a strong art community, but no, not every one knows about it, or really cares. You'll get a lot more house for your money, but you won't find the diversity of people. There are lots of compromises, but many of them are okay.
It would probably be best for you to email me directly, and then I can be more specific towards what you need to know. I can even give you the names and numbers of real estate agents or other resources, if that would help. cbw
After many years of talking about doing it, my family and I finally moved away from the Bay Area two and a half years ago. We started out like you, wanting decent weather, but ended up moving to Kansas City, Missouri. We pretty much did a nation-wide search (on the Internet) and narrowed it down to Portland, OR and KCMO. We LOVED Portland but in the end we decided to go with the total financial game-changer. (My husband joked that they pretty much give you a house when you get off the plane in KC.) The cost of living is SO much less. We're starting to get used to it, but we spent the first year or so just laughing at the price of gas (paid $1.95 a gallon for my last fill up). We bought a house in a beautiful neighborhood and our mortgage is significantly less than our Bay Area rent (and our house is twice the size). We are able to save some money and overall feel financially stable which is not a feeling we ever had in the East Bay. Life is much simpler here. Errands are so easy - you pull up, find a parking spot on your first try, get what you need, wait in line with one or two friendly Midwesterners and then you're out of there. There's next to no traffic. The city has a great art scene and a very strong foodie culture. Many touring concerts and shows stop here and it's easy to go see them or our professional sports teams. (Every time we drive 20 minutes home from a Royals game we laugh about the time it took us nearly 2 hours to get back to Berkeley from a Giants game.) So that's the good news.
The hard part is that we miss the Bay Area weather and really, really miss our friends. That's for sure the hardest part. I built a lovely community over the 28 years that I Iived on the Peninsula and in the East Bay. (My husband grew up in Marin and has never lived outside of California until now.) It's been hard to recreate that community here. If we had moved when our son was younger, it may have been easier, but he started 4th grade a few days after we arrived. People are perfectly friendly, but I think it's just hard to move to a new place. Finally, the weather . . . this is our third winter and it's been the worst winter, weather-wise, that Kansas City has seen in 10 years. Oddly though, it's actually been easier for us than our first two winters here. We think we're starting to get the hang of it it in terms of what to wear and when to venture out. Overall, everything that we drove us nuts about the Bay Area is much better in Kansas City. On the other hand, much of what we did like is missing here. In the end, we made the right choice for us because of the financial freedom and overall lack of stress. And now we have enough money to come visit every year! Good luck with your search.