Kansas City Metropolitan Area
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The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area located on the border of Missouri and Kansas. The area includes the following communities and suburbs:
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Quadrants
Map_of_Kansas_City.png
The core of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area can be visualized roughly as four quadrants:
The northeast quadrant is locally referred to as "north of the river" or "the Northland". It includes parts of Clay County, Missouri including the northern half of Kansas City, Missouri, Liberty, Missouri, and North Kansas City, Missouri. North Kansas City is bounded by a bend in the Missouri River that defines a border between Wyandotte County, Kansas and Clay County, Missouri running approximately North-South and a border between North Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri running approximately East-West. The sharpest part of the river bend forms a peninsula containing the Kansas City Downtown Airport.
The southeast quadrant is the core of metro area and includes the southern half of Kansas City, Missouri and the Jackson County suburbs of Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, and Blue Springs. Sometimes called "the southland". It includes the majority if the metro area's businesses, visitor attractions, cultural institutions, and urban neighborhoods.
The southwest quadrant includes all of Johnson County, Kansas, which includes the towns in the area known as Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Interstate 35 runs diagonally through Johnson County, Kansas from the southwest to downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The northwest quandrant contains Wyandotte County, Kansas and parts of Platte County, Missouri. Wyandotte County, Kansas, sometimes referred to as just Wyandotte, which contains Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs, Kansas and Edwardsville, Kansas is governed by a single unified government similar to a consolidated city-county. Often the Wyandotte government is referred to simply as "The Unified Government". Another bend in the Missouri River forms the county line between Wyandotte County, Kansas and Platte County, Missouri to the north and northeast.
In all, about 1.8 million people live in the metropolitan area. It is difficult to state exactly the size of the population because there are no natural boundaries and suburban expansion (or "sprawl") is ongoing.
Local place names and navigation guidelines
- "Northland" refers to the area of the metro area that is north of the Missouri River, comprising Clay and Platte counties in Missouri. This area includes the northern half of Kansas City, Missouri, which is referred to as "Kansas City, North" to distinguish it from the rest of the Northland.
- "North Kansas City" is a small, independent suburb that is completed surrounded by Kansas City, Missouri. It is often referred to as "Northtown" or "NKC."
- Shawnee Mission, Kansas is an area recognized by the United States Postal Service that includes many towns in Johnson County, Kansas.
- The city is on a grid system with most east-west streets numbered and north-south streets named. The grid starts at the Missouri River in Downtown Kansas City, MO. Main Street separates the east-west streets and the river separates north-south streets. Wyandotte County, Kansas is the main exception, with an opposite grid. Some suburbs use completely independent numbering schemes.
- Waldo refers to the Waldo Residential District in Kansas City, Missouri near 75th St. and Wornall Rd.
- The Country Club Plaza (called "the Plaza" by locals) is an upscale shopping district built by the J.C. Nichols Co. in the 1920s.
- 39th St. usually refers to the small section of West 39th St. between State Line Road and Southwest Trafficway in Kansas City, Missouri. It has many restaurants, bars and shops, and is just across the state line from the University of Kansas Medical Center.
- University of Kansas Hospital (KUMED) is corporate name of the hospital on the KU Medical Center campus.
- Benton Curve, a site of many accidents, is a curve on Interstate 70 where it crosses Benton Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Grandview Triangle is the intersection of three major highways: Interstate 435, Interstate 470, and 71 Highway (Bruce R. Watkins Drive). Notorious for fatal accidents, as of February 2005, improvements and upgrades on the Triangle have mostly been completed
- Bruce R. Watkins Drive. is the name of the new 71 Highway in Kansas City, Missouri. The old 71 Highway ran mostly on Prospect Ave.
- Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd. is comprised of recently renamed portions of 47th St. and Brush Creek Blvd. in Kansas City, Missouri.
- 18th and Vine refers to the 18th and Vine Historic District that contains the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum.
- The Library District is a recently defined district around the new Central Library in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Strawberry Hill is a historical area in Kansas City, Kansas.
- Hospital Hill (Kansas City, Missouri) is the area near 23rd and Holmes in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Argentine is a part of Kansas City, Kansas near 30th and Argentine.
- The Crossroads Arts District is a Downtown neighborhood between the Central Business District and Union Station, centered around the intersection of 19th St. and Baltimore in Kansas City, Missouri. It contains dozens of art galleries and is considered by many to be the center of the arts culture in the metropolitan area. Local artists sponsor exhibits there on the first Friday of each month.
- Quality Hill is the area on top of a hill across the river and south of the Kansas City Downtown Airport.
- Washington-Wheatley is a historically Black neighborhood southeast of the 18th and Vine District.
Counties
The Kansas City metropolitan area includes all or part of the following counties:
- Cass County, Missouri
- Clay County, Missouri
- Jackson County, Missouri
- Platte County, Missouri
- Johnson County, Kansas
- Wyandotte County, Kansas
Major employers
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area's largest private employer is Sprint Corporation, the international telecommunications corporation headquartered in southern Overland Park. During 2003 in the five-county metropolitan area, the company employed nearly 18,500 people with wages of more than $1.16 billion generating $58 million in local and state income taxes. Sprint spent more than $21 million on property taxes and $1.74 billion for goods and services from area businesses.
Other major employers are Hallmark Cards, Harley-Davidson, General Motors, Honeywell and Ford Motor Company. Kansas City also has a large pharmaceutical industry, with companies such as Bayer and Aventis having large presences.
Headquarters
The following companies and organizations are headquarted in the area:
- Hallmark Cards
- H&R Block, financial corporation and former parent company of CompuServe
- Kansas City Southern Industries, operators of a Class I railroad
- Interstate Bakeries Corporation, makers of Twinkies and Wonder Bread
- Russell Stover Candies
- American Century Companies, an investment firm
- Wolferman's bakery
- Burns & McDonnell, an architectural firm
- Applebee's restaurant chain
- Community of Christ church
- Garmin, makers of GPS-based electronics
- Sprint Corporation, one of the world's largest telecommunication companies.
- Cerner, leading supplier of healthcare information technology solutions.
Kansas City has a Federal Reserve Bank.
Local organizations
- Independent Film Coalition of Kansas City
- Community LINC
- Kansas City Direct Action Network (http://www.kcdirectaction.net)
- Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays KC (http://www.pflagkc.org/)
- Kansas City Iraq Task Force (http://www.kciraqtaskforce.org/)
- KC Chapter of National Lawyers Guild (http://www.geocities.com/nlgumkc/)
- Kansas City Independent Media Center (http://www.kcindymedia.org/)
- Kansas City Industrial Workers of the World GMB (http://kcdirectaction.net/IWW/)
- Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation (http://www.kcbikefed.org/)
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) www.naic.orgpl:Kansas City