Relocating To Kansas City? Learn More About The Best Kept Secret In The Midwest.
Welcome to the ‘BEST KEPT SECRET IN THE MIDWEST” – Kansas City, Overland Park, Leawood and its surrounding metropolitan area, with its comfortable suburbs and picturesque communities! Many newcomers still have visions of the Wild West when they consider moving here! It doesn’t take long for them to figure out that Kansas City is a cosmopolitan metroplex with plenty to do and a wide variety of interesting neighborhoods in which to live. Besides, our area is complimented with world class shopping, dining, and many cultural attractions! One of the most enjoyable features is the warm and friendly people who inhabit the city. Our population is close to 2 million across the city, with the ever-widening suburban sprawl and the redevelopment of the urban core. Our metro area offers many opportunities for varied housing as well as living experiences. So, if your stereotype image of Kansas City is still somewhere in the Wizard of Oz with farms, tractors, dusty country roads, and tornadoes, then you are in for a very pleasant surprise!
Kansas City has many secrets. One of them is that we have one of the best art museums in the entire country (Nelson Atkin), with a rich collection of Asian pieces. Other surprises include a highly acclaimed repertory theater, miles of lush boulevards, more fountains than Rome, a superb symphony, excellent ballet, elegant mansions, superb choices of schools, and all with a quality of life that is delightful! Harry S. Truman Library offers history buffs lots of food for thought and exploration, and don’t be surprised when people who live here look you in the eye when they say “Good Morning” to you, even if you have not made their acquaintance.The new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is literally a world-class venue where so many of our cultural activities have found a new home. Kansas City also boast the only World War I Memorial in the entire nation. The Liberty Memorial provides hours of history of the war and many treasures from the era which have been lovingly and carefully maintained and displayed. Recently refurbished, it is a real treasure for anyone to enjoy. Its surrounding grounds offer a comfortable venue for many outdoor events throughout the year.
Once you are here, you will enjoy being a sports enthusiast! We have so many professional sports teams that call Kansas City home. For those baseball fans, we have the Kansas City Royals; for the Football fans we have the Kansas City Chiefs. Our indoor soccer enthusiasts will enjoy the Kansas City Comets, and for our outdoor soccer fans, we have the brand new Live Strong Park which is home to the Sporting Kansas City soccer team, a world-class competitor every year. If Hockey is your choice of combat, then you will enjoy the Kansas City Mavericks, who play at our new Convention Center in Independence, Mo., on the eastern side of the metroplex. All across the area we have stadiums and arenas designed for the fan to enjoy a thoroughly delightful experience! And getting across the area is a breeze, especially when compared to other cities around the country. OUr brand new Kansas Speedway has brought Nascar enthusiasts from all around the country here for special races and camradery.
We Shine on Shopping Here! Our exclusive Country Club plaza was one of the first shopping districts developed as such in the country. It provides a unique Spanish motif with its architecture and quaint outdoor cafes, making it a shopping experience like no other! The holidays provide an added attraction as the switch is flipped on a pletheura of lights which provide a festive holiday spirit. Horse-drawn carriage rides, many unique and delicious restaurants, and stores of all varieties and types beckon shoppers from many miles around! Leawood Town Center and Hawthorne Plazaoffer another upscale shopping and dining experience in Johnson County. The Legends in Kansas City, Ks, (close to the Kansas Speedway), offers many shops, restaurants, and outlet stores for its customers. Zona Rosa, to the northwest of our city in Parkville, Missouri, close to the airport, with its unique and assorted shops and dining pleasures fills the needs on that side of town! Independence Center in the eastern part of the City offers a mall experience to those in the Independence, Lees Summit and Blue Springs, Missouri, area. Oak Park Mall is in the heart of Johnson County, Kansas, and boasts over 100 stores for your shopping convenience.
Newcomers are prone to call us the City of Surprises! “I never thought of Kansas as being so hilly” is often heard to come from the mouths of visitors who think of the area as flat and barren, as often portrayed in old western movies. Never thinking of the effect that the confluence of two great rivers, the Missouri and the Kansas, has on the terrain of our area. We are noted for stability and growth, comfortable lifestyle, low unemployment, and affordable cost of living as well. We boast nationally recognized schools, flourishing suburbs, lots of parks and green space, which offer everything from picnic opportunities to frisbie golf courses, and theater under the stars in the Summer. Speaking of golf, there are a large number of nationally renowned golf courses in our area, designed by everyone from Tom Watson to Jack Nicklaus. Public and private courses abound, so finding a course for the afternoon is as easy as making a phone call.
A Little of our Heritage: trappers and fur traders first settled the area. From a small boat landing on the Missouri River to what you see today, Kansas City, has been a draw for all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds. You can still see signs of our livestock heritage in the “River Bottoms” area where Kemper Arena hosts the American Royal Rodeo and Livestocke Show every year in the Fall for almost a month! Near the river is the 150 year old River/City Market area that has been revitalized and flourishes today with many urban dwellers in warehouses converted to lofts, an open air fresh market, and lots of boutiques and unique restaurants providing a charming neighborhood setting. And let us not forget the Kansas City Board of Trade, one of the largest indoor grain and commodities exchanges in the world!
Our weather definitely has four seasons! Here in K.C. we experience everything from mild and inviting Springs that bring us brilliant displays of color and buddings. Warm and winsome Summers provide opportunity for those wanting to swim, boat, garden or explore the out-of-doors. Autumn Days that revitalize your energy and send your spirits soaring to the outdoors for pumpkin hunts and cider mill visits, and Winter days often filled with sunshine and just enough snow to build an occasional snowman or have a snowball fight! Usually mild winters can sometimes turn on us, but here in the Midwest we have a saying, “If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour……” because it is ever-changing!
Attractions? We have plenty! Choices from theme parks, casinos, museums, professional sports, and parks galore. We have lakes for boating and fishing, a Zoo which delights the hearts of young and old alike. Jazz is still very much alive and well here. You will find several hot spots in the Westport area and the 18th & Vine Jazz Districts. For generations, people have enjoyed the music and theater under the stars in the Summer at Starlight Theater, located in Swope Park, close to the K.C. Zoo. In the Fall, we have our annual Renaissance Festival and smaller ethnic neighborhood festivals, celebrated with lots of fun and good food. One of our newer attractions is Union Station, our elegant 100+ year old train station which has been reinstated to its former glory and now houses a science museum, miniature train exhibit, restaurants, and many others exhibits to enjoy. Powell Gardens, located just a few miles East of the metroplex, is a beautiful place to spend a lazy Summer afternoon exploring the treasures nature has to offer, and its Butterfly Festival gets bigger and better every year!
Dining If you like fine dining, you have come to the right place! It is a matter of many choices, from excellent juicy steaks (of course) to fabulous barbecue to an assortment of all types of cuisines from Italian to French and everything in between. Seafood is also a specialty around here, even though we don’t live close to any ocean. The best of the basics are here and many specialties as well.
Kansas City has many quality undergraduate and post graduate institutions in the area. Both public and private institutions offer programs, technical schools such as DeVry, have a home here, Universities such as Rockhurst, Avila, Baker, and Ottawa have programs which enroll many students. Special interests such as the Kansas City Art Institute, University of Kansas Regents Center, University of Kansas Medical School, University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) are just some of the establishments which are highly respected in the field of academia who offer higher education degrees. School districts across the area boast schools of excellence and have many nationally renowned schools, scholars, and educators. You can find more in-depth information on our school districts at our website: www.CindyDTeam.com
Housing is as unique and varied as everything else! You have the urban areas with their lofts and condos designed from old warehouses, to the sprawling suburban homes with their lawns and landscapes. You will find our cost of housing very favorable when compared to other cities in the country, as well as our cost of living.
So once again we say welcome to Kansas City, you are in for a big surprise! We hope you will settle down and grow with us!