Kansas City is in Missouri

7 October 2009 12 Comments

The other day I watched an old episode of “Criminal Minds” in which the team flew to Kansas City to investigate a serial killer. As in Kansas City, KS… which was portrayed as the main city, “across the river” from the Missouri side.

These two fallacies irritated me at the time. Then, today, I was looking to to see what exactly Star Wars In Concert is all about, and under Tour Dates I saw the following:

“Kansas City, KS — Sprint Center”

This annoyed me enough that I typed the phrase “kansas city is in missouri” into Google to see what I would find. Some of the results are astoundingly ignorant. Check out these gems of “facts”!

kansas city missouri started in kansas. just south of kansas city there is a town called westport — get it west port — founded back when they bought the Louisiana purchase. it was the last port to the west that later was called kansas city which grew into missouri around the civil war. the part of later kansas city was call 2 things independence and liberty missouri. in the start of 1900’s they changed the whole thing to kansas city.
Kansas City is actually one city — it just had the misfortune of being formed across two states, so you have Kansas law controlling one side and Missouri law controlling the other.
Kansas City, Missouri does stretch into Kansas, but the suburbs have their own names and are considered to be separate cities.
Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs, is on the Missouri side of the river.
The two kansas citys are divided by the missouri river.
The [Kansas City] Chiefs play in Missouri, just like the New York Jets actually don’t play in New York, they play in New Jersey
Below is a list of St. Louis City and County Schools who won the Gold Star award this year. Those listed as being in Kansas City are included because part of Kansas City is in Missouri, and falls within the St. Louis Public School District.
Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Ironically, the former is a state capitol city and the latter is not.

Wow.

So, to set the record straight:

Kansas City started in Missouri, not Kansas.

Westport is not west of Kansas City and is not in Kansas. Before becoming part of Kansas City, it was south of the original Kansas City.

Kansas City existed first, then the state of Kansas was organized later and took the same name, hence the confusion. The suburb Kansas City, KS came third.

Independence, MO and Liberty, MO have always been completely separate cities from Kansas City… and still are!

The border between the two Kansas Cities is a road, not a river. The only place where the Missouri River (or any river for that matter) is the boundary is a few miles in the northwest-centeral area, between Platte and Wyandotte counties. The entire border between the main parts of the two cities is dry land.

Kansas City, Missouri, does not stretch into Kansas. That doesn’t even make sense!

Neither Kansas City has ever been a state capitol.

Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri. Kansas City, KS is only about a third the side of its Missouri neighbor and is not the largest city in Kansas.

The Kansas City Chiefs play in Missouri because that’s where Kansas City is located!

Kansas City is not one city split in two by a state line. They are both completely separate cities, with their own governments, their own downtowns, and their own histories and ordinances.

Of COURSE the suburbs are their own individual cities, just like anywhere else!

And, finally, no part of Kansas City falls anywhere within the St. Louis school district. That’s almost 250 miles away! How anyone came up with a statement that ignorant completely astounds me.

Ok, rant over. :) For more, go to: http://www.kansascityisinmissouri.com/

12 Comments »

smh said:

“Kansas City is actually one city — it just had the misfortune of being formed across two states, so you have Kansas law controlling one side and Missouri law controlling the other.”

Perhaps the author of this gem really meant to say “metropolis” instead of “city”. Wouldn’t that fix the issue?

# 7 October 2009 at 3:15 pm

The D said:

HEY!!! How about a “SPOILER ALERT”!!! For the Criminal Minds info. Thanks for spoiling the whole episode DUDE!

# 7 October 2009 at 3:20 pm

DKC said:

If you have an accident in the middle of State Line Road, which side should you drag the wreckage to?

# 7 October 2009 at 4:11 pm

ScooterJ (author) said:

Hah!! (for the spoiler). Don’t worry, it wasn’t one of their better episodes. :)

# 7 October 2009 at 4:13 pm

Chris said:

I don’t know that I’d be bragging about being on the Missouri side. ;) ;)

# 7 October 2009 at 5:25 pm

meesha.v said:

The difference is only relevant to people who live here.Like pronouncing Arkansas without “s” or calling Miami,OK “MiamA”.Before I came here I saw two Kansas City’s on the map and wondered why that is,but in the bigger scheme of things it really doesn’t matter.

# 7 October 2009 at 7:22 pm

MoxieMamaKC said:

This is one of my super biggest pet peeves. I hate trying to explain it to people. Next time, I’ll just send them to this post. Argh.

# 8 October 2009 at 8:25 am

Anonymous said:

“Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri. Kansas City, KS is only about a third the side of its Missouri neighbor and is not the largest city in Kansas.”

I’m not certain about the KS information, but Kansas City is far from the largest city in Missouri. I believe St. Louis actually is larger both in actual population and square miles covered.

# 8 October 2009 at 1:19 pm

ScooterJ (author) said:

If you are talking about metro areas (as in, adding in the suburban cities) then yes, St. Louis is larger. But in terms of the population and land area of the actual city proper, Kansas City is larger in both:

St. Louis
———
Population: 354,361 (2008)
Square miles: 66.2 square miles

Kansas City, MO
—————
Population: 451,572 (2008)
Square miles: 318.0 square miles

# 8 October 2009 at 1:47 pm

Jason O'Neill a.k.a. Jay said:

Thank God for this. Kansas City is in Missouri! And Anonymous, Really….I mean really….please think before you write. Please. Get em Scoot!

# 13 October 2009 at 10:44 am

talea said:

I grew up in Raytown and have been away on either coast for the last 25 years. I just moved back.

This the no. 1 misconception I often had to correct. That and letting people know that, indeed, Arkansas had trees.

Don’t ask.

# 13 October 2009 at 6:39 pm

talea said:

Just did some checking. Yes, the St Louis MO-Ill MSA is larger than Kansas City MO/Overland Park KS MSA. But it is indeed true that KC itself is larger in population (by a good amount) than St. Louis. (I didn’t check the square mile figures.)

I didn’t know that. What surprised me more is that Portland OR (by itself) is one of the larger cities in the country, whereas its MSA is about the same size as KC’s.

# 13 October 2009 at 6:52 pm