Ask anybody who currently uses public transit without the benefit of toy train track . . . Meeting new and interesting people in Kansas City proper is usually a mistake:
Does Our City Bring Strangers Together, Or Keep Them Apart?
And important bit of naval gazing from local public radio:
"Central Standard asked whether the people of Kansas City encounter strangers often enough in their day-to-day lives. Does Kansas City's built environment facilitate or prohibit these kinds of interactions?"
To be fair, bigger, better cities are typically worse about stranger danger and fear in Kansas City. This cowtown clings to long-ago friendly rural culture that has outlived its usefulness. Meanwhile, most locals ahead of the curve know that making eye contact is usually a mistake.
More in a bit . . .
Kansas City people are polite but they're not considerate.
ReplyDeleteLet's call this "phony friendly."
ReplyDeleteKansas City is much friendlier to strangers than St. Louis. In St. Louis if you didn't grow up there and didn't go to the right high school NO ONE will speak to you.
ReplyDeleteWELCOME TO DETROIT
ReplyDelete114 bodies say were ain't too kindly
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure what "the built environment" has to do with how friendly residents are to strangers. It sounds like yet another approach by the urban futurist industrial complex to convince the airheads at city hall to spend a few more hundred million on the latest scheme to prevent KCMO from "being left behind".
ReplyDeleteOne thing you CAN say about downtown KCMO is that it has to be one of most sterile and human unfriendly places you can find and even the new buildings have huge solid blank walls that aren't exactly welcoming.
Maybe a few planters, some trees with lights, and more rah rah from Sly would help.
I think the city needs to build a visitor's center at 31st and Prospect.
ReplyDeletePeople who lived in KC back in the 70s and still do are a hoot. Folks here act like KC is this pace setting, thriving metroplex. Give it a break! Whatever it was that made KC a happening town did long ago. Today KC is a place where people suffer from terrible government, high taxes, a broken school system, racial animosity, a low standard of living, a hunger for arts and entertainment that don't exist and the exhaustion of 60 hour work weeks. Not a damn thing special period.
ReplyDeleteNot in Johnson county! we moved there and found out real quick that if the nieghbors don't think your good enough they won't even give you the time of day. We moved to Belton and its alot friendlier.
ReplyDeleteIn St. Louis if you didn't grow up there and didn't go to the right high school NO ONE will speak to you.
ReplyDeleteUm it's exactly the same in KC. Probably worse in some ways. It's really tough trying get taken seriously here. Everything in this city from neighborhoods to big biz is run by cliques.
A lot of people are kind of simple. Fairytale religious, racial and political beliefs prevail. The weather sucks about 10 months a year. But the cost of living makes up for a lot. That's how I explain KC to people.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on what you want. I don't care. I stay in the Midwest not for what it has, but for what it doesn't have. No one here cares about what you do till you give people a reason to get up in your business. It is very very small. Everyone knows everyone. Also, many people are related. So it is a very very small spread out big town. The majority of people are easy going, but education and class are big barriers. People generally don't care about each other, and that seems fine.
ReplyDeleteCentral Standard, the parking cronies? I doubt they asked this question or even care. This is a planning question; not a parking question. The City hates personal interaction in that it's mostly unwalkable.
ReplyDeleteCliquish. That's the best word to describe KC.
ReplyDelete