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South kansas cityKansas City, Missouri - Wikipedia
It could be the belly dancing, the live music, the breaking of dishes, or the truly authentic Greek food — or all of the above. Tasso and Katina Kalliris moved to Kansas City in from Greece and eventually were able to save enough to open up their own restaurant. The food is great any night of the week, but belly dancing performances are on Friday and Saturday evenings. You can never go wrong with authentic Mexican food, and Dos De Oros certainly delivers.
We recommend checking out the gigante margarita, as well. He later added a groceria, delicatessen and pizzeria, creating an Italian neighborhood right in the middle of the Midwest. Rockhurst University Rockhurst is a Jesuit University with both undergrad and graduate programs. It offers a variety of programs focused in the liberal arts and is in close proximity to downtown, midtown, and south KC.
Quaint coffee shops and retail stores will have you wandering and window shopping all day long! Waldo The Waldo neighborhood is full of history, culture, and tons of fun and mostly free events throughout the year. Martin City Great beer.
Great coffee. Great pizza. Highview Estates Highview Estates is home to historical landmark Vale Tunnel, which has now been incorporated by the county into the Missouri Rock Island Rail Trail , a new state park trail as of just last year!
Oakwood This village was originally founded in ! Hillcrest Blue River lines the small suburb and green space of the Hillcrest area. Living and working in South Kansas City is a true delight. With just a short drive, you can get just about anywhere in 10 minutes!
South KC is one of the quietest places to live here. Surrounded by parks and green space, South KC is perfect for young families or couples who prefer sounds like wind through the trees over bustling cars and friendly crowds. Robert A. Long , president of the Liberty Memorial Association, was a driving force in the funding for construction. Long was a longtime resident and wealthy businessman.
He built the R. Nichols in , as part of his Country Club District plan. The Kansas City streetcar system once had hundreds of miles of streetcars running through the city and was one of the largest systems in the country. The last run of the streetcar was on June 23, , but the tunnel still exists. At the start of the 20th century, political machines gained clout in the city, with the one led by Tom Pendergast dominating the city by Several important buildings and structures were built during this time, including the Kansas City City Hall and the Jackson County Courthouse.
During this time, he aided one of his nephew's friends, Harry S. Truman in a political career. Truman eventually became a senator, then vice-president, then president.
His biographers have summed up Pendergast's uniqueness:. Pendergast may bear comparison to various big-city bosses, but his open alliance with hardened criminals, his cynical subversion of the democratic process, his monarchistic style of living, his increasingly insatiable gambling habit, his grasping for a business empire, and his promotion of Kansas City as a wide-open town with every kind of vice imaginable, combined with his professed compassion for the poor and very real role as city builder, made him bigger than life, difficult to characterize.
Kansas City's suburban development began with a streetcar system in the early decades of the 20th century. The city's first suburbs were in the neighborhoods of Pendleton Heights and Quality Hill.
Many also went north of the Missouri River , where Kansas City had incorporated areas between the s and s. Troost Avenue , once the eastern edge of Kansas City, Mo. This led to the dominating economic success of neighboring Johnson County. In , African Americans represented At this time, slums were forming in the inner city, and many who could afford to do so left for the suburbs and outer areas of the city.
The city's population continued to grow, but the inner city declined. The city's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic whites, [23] declined from In , the city had about , residents; by , it was home to only about , From to , the city more than doubled its physical size, while increasing its population by only about 75, By , the city covered approximately square miles km 2 , more than five times its size in The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse was a major disaster that occurred on July 17, , killing people and injuring more than others during a tea dance in the story Hyatt Regency hotel in Crown Center.
It is the deadliest structural collapse in US history other than the September 11 attacks. One of the main goals is to attract convention and tourist dollars, office workers, and residents to downtown KCMO.
By , the arena was being converted to a sports complex under the name Hy-Vee Arena. Construction was scheduled to start in early with Loews as the operator. From to , downtown residential population in Kansas City quadrupled and continues to grow. The area has grown from almost 4, residents in the early s to nearly 30, as of [update].
While the residential population of downtown has boomed, the office population has dropped significantly from the early s to the mids. AMC and other top employers moved their operations to modern office buildings in the suburbs. High office vacancy plagued downtown, leading to the neglect of many office buildings. Swiss Re, Virgin Mobile, AutoAlert, and others have begun to move operations to downtown Kansas City from the suburbs as well as expensive coastal cities.
The area has seen additional development through various transportation projects, including improvements to the Grandview Triangle , which intersects Interstates and , and U. Route In , voters approved the formation of a TDD to expand the streetcar line south 3. Citywide, voter support for rail projects continues to grow with numerous light rail projects in the works.
In , Jackson County, Missouri, acquired unused rail lines as part of a long-term commuter rail plan. For the time being, the line is being converted to a trail while county officials negotiate with railroads for access to tracks in Downtown Kansas City. The city has an area of Kansas City proper is bowl-shaped and is surrounded to the north and south by glacier -carved limestone and bedrock cliffs. Kansas City is at the confluence 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 city.
This valley is an eastward continuation of the Turkey Creek Valley. It is the closest major city to the geographic center of the contiguous United States, or "Lower 48". Kansas City, Missouri, comprises more than [37] neighborhoods, some with histories as independent cities or as the sites of major events.
The four industrial artworks 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 T-Mobile Center along with One Kansas City Place Missouri's tallest office tower , the KCTV-Tower Missouri's tallest freestanding structure and the Liberty Memorial , a World War I memorial and museum that flaunts simulated flames and smoke billowing into the night skyline.
Kansas City hosts more than working fountains, especially on the Country Club Plaza. Designs range from French-inspired traditional to modern. Since its inception in , City Market has been one of the largest and most enduring public farmers' markets in the American Midwest, linking growers and small businesses to the community. More than 30 full-time merchants operate year-round and offer specialty foods, fresh meats and seafood, restaurants and cafes, floral, home accessories and more.
Downtown Kansas City is an area of 2. Areas near Downtown Kansas City include the 39th Street District , which is known as Restaurant Row, [39] 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, [40] designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile, [41] 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. Many residential properties recently have been or are under redevelopment in three surrounding warehouse loft districts and the Central Business District. Its first tenant opened on November 9, It is anchored by the T-Mobile Center , a 19,seat sports and entertainment complex.
Kansas City lies in the Midwestern United States , near the geographic center of the country, at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. The city lies in the northern periphery of the humid subtropical zone, [43] but is interchangeable with the humid continental climate due to roughly air frosts on average per annum.
The warmest month is July, with a hour average temperature of The average window for freezing temperatures is October 31 to April 4, while for measurable 0.
Kansas City is located in " Tornado Alley ", a broad region where cold air from Canada collides with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the formation of powerful storms, especially during the spring.
The Kansas City metropolitan area has experienced several significant outbreaks of tornadoes in the past, including the Ruskin Heights tornado in [48] and the May tornado outbreak sequence. The region can also experience ice storms during the winter months, such as the ice storm during which hundreds of thousands of residents lost power for days and in some cases weeks. The Historic Kansas City boundary is roughly 58 square miles km 2 and has a population density of about 5, people per sq.
During the s and s, Kansas City annexed large amounts of land, which are largely undeveloped to this day. Between the and Census counts, the urban core of Kansas City continued to drop significantly in population. The areas of Greater Downtown in the center city, and sections near I and I in the south, and Highway in the north are the only areas of Kansas City, Missouri, to have seen an increase in population, with the Northland seeing the greatest population growth. From to the Kansas side of the area had over double the GDP growth as the Missouri side at More than federal agencies maintain a presence there.
Kansas City is one of ten regional office cities for the US government. The General Services Administration has more than employees. This move was considered controversial at the time of announcement, and resulted in multiple people leaving the agencies. The new location for these agencies will be in the downtown area. Additionally, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research engages in medical basic science research.
Numerous agriculture companies operate out of the city. 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 other publications, including a local society journal, the Independent published weekly.
Missouri is the only state to have two of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank headquarters the second is in St. Kansas City's effort to get the bank was helped by former mayor James A. Reed , who as senator, broke a tie to pass the Federal Reserve Act. The national headquarters for the Veterans of Foreign Wars is headquartered just south of Downtown.
According to the city's Fiscal Year —15 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, [75] the top ten principal employers are as follows:. Residents are known as Kansas Citians. Kansas City, Missouri is officially nicknamed the " City of Fountains ". The fountains at Kauffman Stadium , commissioned by original Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, are the largest privately funded fountains in the world.
Soccer's popularity, at both professional and youth levels, as well as Children's Mercy Park 's popularity as a home stadium for the U. The city is called 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.
Sothern , and Robert Mantell. Theater troupes in the s toured the state performing in cities or small towns springing up along the railroad lines. Rail transport had made touring easy allowing theater troupes to travel with costumes, props and sets. As theater grew in popularity after the mids that number increased and by ten new theaters had been built in Kansas City. By the s Kansas City was the center of the vaudevillian Orpheum circuit. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre is the metropolitan area's top professional theatre company.
The Starlight Theatre is an 8,seat outdoor theatre designed by Edward Delk. The Kansas City Symphony was founded by R. Crosby Kemper Jr. The symphony performs at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Michael Stern is the symphony's music director and lead conductor. Lyric Opera of Kansas City, founded in , performs at the Kauffman Center, offers one American contemporary opera production during its season, consisting of either four or five productions.
The Kansas City Ballet , founded in by Tatiana Dokoudovska, is a ballet troupe comprising 25 professional dancers and apprentices. Between and , it combined with Dance St. From to , the Ballet was run by dancer and choreographer Todd Bolender. Today, the Ballet offers an annual repertory split into three seasons, performing classical to contemporary ballets. The chorus performs an annual concert series and a concert in Phoenix each year with their sister choir, the Phoenix Chorale.
The Chorale has made nine recordings three with the Phoenix Chorale. Kansas City jazz in the s marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the s. The documentary The Last of the Blue Devils portrays this era in interviews and performances by local jazz notables. In the s, Kansas City attempted to resurrect the glory of the jazz era in a family-friendly atmosphere.
In the s, an effort to open jazz clubs in the River Quay area of City Market along the Missouri ended in a gang war. Three of the new clubs were blown up in what ultimately ended Kansas City mob influence in Las Vegas casinos.
The annual "Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival" attracts top jazz stars and large out-of-town audiences. It was rated [ when? Live music venues are 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 and Vine area's flourish for jazz music. As of , the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra , a big band jazz orchestra, performs in the metropolitan area.
The large community of Irish-Americans numbers over 50, Bernard Donnelly c. Kansas City is famous for its steak and Kansas City-style barbecue , along with the typical array of Southern cuisine. These stockyards were second only to those of Chicago in size, but they never recovered from the Great Flood of and eventually closed.
The Kansas City Strip cut of steak is similar to the New York Strip cut, and is sometimes referred to just as a strip steak. More than 90 barbecue restaurants [86] operate in the metropolitan area. The American Royal each fall hosts what it claims is the world's biggest barbecue contest.
Classic Kansas City-style barbecue was an inner-city phenomenon that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry , a migrant from Memphis who is generally credited with opening the city's first barbecue stand in , and blossomed in the 18th and Vine neighborhood. Arthur Bryant's took over the Perry restaurant and added sugar to his sauce to sweeten the recipe a bit. In one of Perry's cooks, George W. Bryant's and Gates are the two definitive Kansas City barbecue restaurants; native Kansas Citian and essayist Calvin Trillin famously called Bryant's "the single best restaurant in the world" in an essay he wrote for Playboy magazine in the s.
Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue is also well regarded. In , Rich Davis , a psychiatrist, test-marketed his own concoction called K.
Soul Style Barbecue Sauce. Davis retained rights to operate restaurants using the name and sauce, whose recipe popularized the use of molasses as a sweetener in Kansas City-style barbecue sauces. A majority of the Beard Award-winning restaurants are in the Crossroads district, downtown and in Westport.
The proportion of Kansas City area residents with a known religious affiliation is The most common religious denominations in the area are: [89]. They lived in a new home at Bellefontaine with a garage he built, in which Walt Disney made his first animation.
The Athletics baseball franchise played in the city from , after moving from Philadelphia , to , when the team relocated to Oakland, California. The city's current Major League Baseball franchise, the Royals , started play in , and are the only major league sports franchise in Kansas City that has not relocated or changed its name.
The Royals were the first American League expansion team to reach the playoffs in to reach the World Series in and to win the World Series in The Royals returned to the World Series in and won in They played in the independent Northern League from until and have been part of the independent American Association since It was renamed the Kansas City Wizards in They won the NWSL in and The team folded after the season and its assets were transferred to Utah Royals FC.
After the season, the Utah Royals folded and its assets were transferred to a new Kansas City team, now known as the Kansas City Current. The men's tournament has been played at T-Mobile Center since March The women's tournament is played at Municipal Auditorium. The program, historically known as the UMKC Kangaroos, adopted its current branding after the —19 school year. In addition to serving as the home stadium of the Chiefs, Arrowhead Stadium serves as the venue for various intercollegiate football games.
It has hosted the Big 12 Championship Game five times. The team works closely with Sporting Kansas City and splits home-games between Sporting's training pitch and Rockhurst University 's stadium. Kansas City briefly had four short-term major league baseball teams between and the Kansas City Unions of the short-lived Union Association in , the Kansas City Cowboys in the National League in , a team of the same name in the then-major league American Association in and , and the Kansas City Packers in the Federal League in and The city also had a number of minor league baseball teams between and In , Kansas City became a major league city when the Philadelphia Athletics baseball franchise relocated to the city in Following the season, the team relocated to Oakland, California.
The team left for Sacramento in The team moved to Denver in , then to New Jersey in where they have remained ever since as the New Jersey Devils. Kansas City has miles km of boulevards and parkways, urban parks, 49 ornamental fountains, ball diamonds, 10 community centers, tennis courts, 5 golf courses, 5 museums and attractions, 30 pools, and 47 park shelters.
Much of the system, designed by George E. Kessler , was constructed from to It extends 4. Ward Parkway , on the west side of the city near State Line Road , is lined by many of the city's largest and most elaborate homes. The Paseo is a major north—south parkway that runs 19 miles 31 km through the center of the city beginning at Cliff Drive. It was modeled on the Paseo de la Reforma , a fashionable Mexico City boulevard. It has been recently renamed Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard and now the city has voted to change it back to the Paseo. Swope Park is one of the nation's largest city parks, comprising 1, acres 3 sq mi , more than twice the size of New York City's Central Park.
Hodge Park, in the Northland, covers 1, acres ha 1. This park includes the acre , m 2 Shoal Creek Living History Museum, a village of more than 20 historical buildings dating from to Berkely Riverfront Park , acres 3. A program went underway to replace many of the fast-growing sweetgum trees with hardwood varieties. Other engineering advances included retaining walls, earth dams, subsurface drains, and an impoundment lake — all part of Kansas City's legacy that has influenced urban planning in cities throughout North America.
Kansas City is home to the largest municipal government in the state of Missouri. The role of city manager has diminished over the years. The non-elective office of city manager was created following excesses during the Pendergast days. The mayor is the head of the Kansas City City Council , which has 12 members elected from six districts one member elected by voters in the district and one at-large member elected by voters citywide.
The mayor is the presiding member. By charter, Kansas City has a "weak-mayor" system, in which most of the power is formally vested in the city council. However, in practice, the mayor is very influential in drafting and guiding public policy.
Kansas City holds city elections in every fourth odd numbered year. The last citywide election was held in May The officials took office in August and will hold the position until Pendergast was the most prominent leader during the machine politics days. Louis and the Southern District is in Springfield. The urban core of Kansas City consistently votes Democratic in presidential elections; however, on the state and local level Republicans often find success, especially in the Northland and other suburban areas of Kansas City.
Shortly after the city's incorporation in , so-called Bleeding Kansas erupted, affecting border ruffians and Jayhawkers. 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. In the early 20th century under Pendergast, Kansas City became the country's "most wide open town".
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. In the s, the Kansas City mob was involved in a gang war over control of the River Quay entertainment district, in which three buildings were bombed and several gangsters were killed.
The war and investigation led to the end of mob control of the Stardust Casino , which was the basis for the film Casino , though the production minimizes the Kansas City connections. As of November [update] , Kansas City ranked 18th on the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI 's annual survey of crime rates for cities with populations over , Revitalizing the downtown and midtown areas has been fairly successful and now these areas have below average violent crime compared to other major downtowns.
Kansas City is served by 16 school districts including 10 public school districts, with a significant portion being nationally ranked. 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, The Star competed with the morning Kansas City Times before acquiring that publication in The "Times" name was discontinued in March , when the morning paper was renamed the "Star".
It is the headquarters of the National Catholic Reporter , an independent Catholic newspaper. Kansas City broadcasting jobs have been a stepping stone for national television and radio personalities, notably Walter Cronkite and Mancow Muller. WDAF radio now at The Star sold off the WDAF stations in , following an antitrust investigation by the United States government reportedly launched at Truman's behest, following a long-standing feud with the Star over the newspaper's ownership of television and radio stations.
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