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Coordinates: 39°06′N 94°35′W / 39.10°N 94.58°W / 39.10; -94.58
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"Kansas City" redirects here. For other uses, see Kansas City (disambiguation).
Kansas City metropolitan area
Nickname(s): 
City of Fountains, KC, Heart of America, Paris of the Prairie
Population
(2015) 2,159,159

The Kansas City metropolitan area is a 15-county metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri, that straddles the border between the U.S. states of Missouri and Kansas. With a population of about 2,340,000, it ranks as the second largest metropolitan area with its core in Missouri (after Greater St. Louis). Alongside Kansas City, the area includes a number of other cities and suburbs, the largest being Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; and Independence, Missouri; each over 100,000 in population. The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) serves as the Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the area.

Geography

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Metro Overview

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Kansas City satellite map. The larger Missouri River is zigzagging from west to east; the much smaller Kansas is approaching from the south and joins it at Kaw Point. Kansas City, Missouri, is located immediately south of their intersection; North Kansas City, Missouri, is to its northeast; and Kansas City, Kansas, is to the west.

The larger Kansas City Metropolitan Area as seen on a map can be visualized roughly as four quadrants:

The map's northeast quadrant is locally referred to as "north of the river" or "the Northland". It includes parts of Clay County, Missouri including 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 river band's sharpest part forms a peninsula containing the Kansas City Downtown Airport.

The southeast quadrant includes Kansas City, Missouri and surrounding areas in Missouri. It includes the notorious Grandview Triangle.

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 quadrant 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. 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.

Divisions

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The metro is divided into a number of incorporated cities and geographical areas.

Downtown

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Main article: Downtown Kansas City

Downtown almost always refers to downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Downtown is the Kansas City's historic center, located entirely within Kansas City, Missouri, and containing the city's original town site, business districts and residential neighborhoods. Downtown is bounded by the Missouri River on the north, the Missouri-Kansas state line on the west, 31st Street on the south and the Blue River on the east. The downtown area includes the Central Business District and its buildings, which form the city's skyline.

Notable places in Downtown Kansas City include the Kansas City Convention Center, Municipal Auditorium, City Hall, the Sprint Center and the College Basketball Experience both within Power & Light District, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Crossroads District, Union Station, Crown Center, the National World War I Museum, Liberty Memorial, the River Market and Richard L. Berkeley Riverfront Park, and the Kemper Arena.

Midtown

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Midtown is entirely within Kansas City, Missouri, just south of downtown, and bounded by 31st Street on the north, the state line on the west, West Gregory Boulevard (71st Street) on the south, and Troost Avenue on the east. Midtown is the core of the metropolitan area, as it contains numerous cultural attractions, shopping and entertainment areas, large hospitals, universities, and the metro area's most densely populated neighborhoods.

Midtown consists of numerous distinct and historic neighborhoods such as Westport, Hyde Park, and Southmoreland. Shopping is centered on the Country Club Plaza, which contains numerous luxury retailers, hotels, and restaurants. Brookside and Westport also contain smaller-scale, neighborhood-oriented, and niche-market retailers. Midtown is home to Saint Luke's Hospital and Research Medical Center. Cultural attractions include the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Uptown Theater, Starlight Theater, the Kansas City Zoo, Loose Park, and Swope Park. The last of these contains a soccer complex that is home to FC Kansas City of the National Women's Soccer League and the Swope Park Rangers, a United Soccer League team that is the official reserve side for the area's Major League Soccer club, Sporting Kansas City. Major educational institutions include the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Rockhurst University, Kansas City Art Institute, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Midwest Research Institute, and Penn Valley Community College.

South Side of the Metro (or "South KC")

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Also known as "South Kansas City", this area consists of the southern half of Kansas City, Missouri, as well as the suburbs of Grandview, Harrisonville, Belton, Loch Lloyd, Peculiar and Raymore.

The Northland

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The Northland is the area north of the Missouri River, bordered by the Kansas state line on the west and Missouri Highway 291 on the east. The southern half of Platte County, and much of Clay County make up the area. The economy of the Northland is dominated by Kansas City International Airport, Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant, the Zona Rosa shopping community and three riverboat casinos. The metro area's largest amusement park, Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, is located in the Northland. Communities of the Northland outside the city limits include Parkville, Kearney, Liberty, Platte City, Gladstone , Riverside, Smithville, and North Kansas City.

Eastern Jackson County

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East Side of the Metro is primarily eastern Jackson County which is an area of the Kansas City Metro that contains the far-eastern urban side of Kansas City, Missouri and the following large suburbs of Blue Springs, Independence, and Lee's Summit. Also included in this area is western Lafayette County Missouri and the far northeast portion of Cass County Missouri. The East Side of Metro includes the following Missouri suburbs of Independence, Blue Springs, Raytown, Lees Summit, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, Sugar Creek, River Bend, Lake Lotawana, Lone Jack, Greenwood, Unity Village, Buckner, Pleasant Hill, Bates City, Odessa, and Lake Tapawingo. Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and Kauffman Stadium, home of the MLB's Kansas City Royals are located on the eastern edge of Kansas City. The Silverstein Eye Centers Arena home of the ECHL's Missouri Mavericks and the MASL's Missouri Comets is located in Independence.

Kansas City Kansas and Johnson County

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In Wyandotte County lies Kansas City, Kansas, which is locally called "KCK" to distinguish it from the larger Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO). It contains many residential neighborhoods, the Fairfax Industrial District, and the Village West entertainment district. The General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant is located in the Fairfax Industrial District. Village West contains many area attractions. This includes many sporting venues such as Children's Mercy Park, home of the area MLS soccer team Sporting Kansas City, the Kansas Speedway, which hosts many NASCAR races, and Community America Ballpark, home of the independent baseball team, the Kansas City T-Bones. Other Village West attractions include the Legends shopping district, the Providence Medical Center Amphitheater, and Schlitterbahn Waterpark.

Johnson County, Kansas is home to many local suburbs. These suburbs include Overland Park, Olathe, Shawnee, Leawood, Lenexa, Prairie Village, Gardner, Merriam, Mission, Roeland Park, Fairway, Lake Quivira, Mission Hills, Mission Woods, Westwood, and Westwood Hills. Many local area attractions and shopping districts are located in Johnson County, such as Oak Park Mall, Town Center Plaza, and Prairie Fire.

Anchor city
Municipalities with 100,000+ inhabitants
Municipalities with 50,000-99,999 inhabitants
Municipalities with 20,000-49,999 inhabitants
Municipalities with 10,000-19,999 inhabitants
  
Municipalities with 5,000-9,999 inhabitants
Municipalities with 1-4,999 inhabitants

Counties

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The MSA covers a total area of 7,952 sq mi (20,600 km2) including 97 sq mi (250 km2) of water.

Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area
County 2015 Estimate 2010 Census Change
Jackson County 687,623 674,158 +2.00%
Johnson County 580,159 544,179 +6.61%
Clay County 235,637 221,939 +6.17%
Wyandotte County 163,369 157,505 +3.72%
Cass County 101,603 99,478 +2.14%
Platte County 96,096 89,322 +7.58%
Leavenworth County 79,315 76,277 +3.98%
Miami County 32,553 32,787 −0.71%
Lafayette County 32,701 33,381 −2.04%
Ray County 22,810 23,494 −2.91%
Clinton County 20,609 20,743 −0.65%
Bates County 16,446 17,049 −3.54%
Linn County 9,536 9,656 −1.24%
Caldwell County 9,014 9,424 −4.35%
Total 2,087,471 2,009,342 +3.89%

Parks

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The metro area has 214 urban parks, much of which designed by George E. Kessler, were constructed from 1893 to 1915.

Swope Park is one of the nation's largest city parks, comprising 1,805 acres (730 ha), more than twice the size of New York City's Central Park.[70] It features a zoo, a woodland nature and wildlife rescue center, 2 golf courses, 2 lakes, an amphitheatre, a day-camp, and numerous picnic grounds. Hodge Park, in the Northland, covers 1,029 acres (416 ha) (1.61 sq. mi.). This park includes the 80-acre (320,000 m2) Shoal Creek Living History Museum, a village of more than 20 historical buildings dating from 1807 to 1885.

Berkely Riverfront Park, 955 acres (3.86 km2) on the banks of the Missouri River on the north edge of downtown, holds annual Independence Day celebrations and other festivals.

Associated areas

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Often associated with Kansas City, the cities of Lawrence, Kansas, and St. Joseph, Missouri, are identified as separate Metropolitan Statistical Areas.[1]

The Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas Combined Statistical Area, which encompasses the Kansas City MO-KS MSA, the Warrensburg, Missouri Micropolitan Statistical Area (µSA) (in Johnson County, Missouri), and the Atchison, Kansas µSA (in Atchison County, Kansas), covers a total area of 9,220 sq mi (23,900 km2) including 103 sq mi (270 km2) of water.

Transportation

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Highways

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The Kansas City metropolitan area has more freeway lane miles per capita than any other large metropolitan area in the United States (over 27% more than the second-place Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex), over 50% more than the average American metro area, and nearly 75% more than the large metro area with the least: Las Vegas.[2]

Interstates

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The Kansas City area is a confluence of four major U.S. interstate highways:

Other interstates that cross through the area include:

  • I-435 – A bi-state loop through the city's suburbs in Missouri and Kansas. It is the second-longest single-numbered beltway in the U.S., and the fourth-longest in the world.
  • I-470 – Connects South Kansas City with Lee's Summit and Independence.
  • I-635 – Connects the Kansas suburbs with Kansas City, Kansas, and I-29, I-70, and I-35.
  • I-670 – A southern bypass of I-70 and the southern portion of the downtown loop. The roadway is designated on road signs as East I-70, when exiting from I-35 while traveling north.

US Highways

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U.S. Highways serving the Kansas City Metro Area include:

  • US 24 – Running from Independence Ave. and Winner Rd., between downtown Kansas City and Independence, Missouri, it serves as a street-level connection to Independence.
  • US 40 – U.S. 40 is one of six east-west U.S.-numbered routes that run (or ran) from coast to coast. It serves as a business loop and an alternate route for I-70.
  • US 50 – Enters the area in southern Johnson County, follows I-435 from the west to I-470, then splits off of I-470 in Lee's Summit to continue eastward to Jefferson City and St. Louis as a regular highway. Its former route through Raytown and southeast Kansas City was renumbered as Route 350. U.S. 50 is also one of the six east-west highways that run coast-to-coast through the United States.
  • US-56 - Enters the area concurrent with I-35 until the Shawnee Mission Parkway exit. It runs east along the Parkway into the Plaza area of Kansas City before terminating at US-71.
  • US 69 – Connects Excelsior Springs, Missouri, in the north and serves as a freeway in the suburbs of Johnson County.
  • US 71 – In the north, concurrent with I-29 to Amazonia, Missouri, and serves as a freeway (Bruce R. Watkins Drive) south from downtown, joining with I-49 at the Grandview Triangle.
  • US 169 – Connects Smithville, Missouri, in the north.

Kansas state highways

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Kansas highways in the area include:

  • K-5 – A minor freeway bypassing the north of Kansas City, Kansas, connecting the GM Fairfax plant with I-635. K-5 continues as Leavenworth Road west to I-435 then on to Leavenworth, Kansas.
  • K-7 – A freeway linking Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Johnson Counties in Kansas.
  • K-10 – A freeway linking I-435 to De Soto, Eudora and Lawrence.
  • K-32 – A highway that links Leavenworth and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.

Missouri state highways

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Missouri highways in the area include:

  • Route 7 - An important state highway serving the eastern suburbs of the metro. Primarily running north and south through Jackson and Cass Counties. Connecting the following communities: Independence, Blue Springs, Lake Lotawana, Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville. It is the commercial backbone for Blue Springs, Lake Lotawana and Pleasant Hill.
  • Route 9 – A minor freeway northwest of North Kansas City, and serves as a commercial backbone to North Kansas City, Riverside, Platte Woods and Parkville.
  • Route 45 – Known as Tom Watson Parkway in the Kansas City vicinity until it intersects with I-435, it is a highway that spans 42 miles from I-29/US-71 to US-59/MO-273 in Lewis & Clark Village, Missouri (right east of the larger city of Atchison, Kansas). It is also known as NW 64th Street from NW Klamm Drive to I-29/US-71. The highway runs through the northern part of Parkville, Missouri and across Riss Lake. The National Golf Course is located off of MO-45.
  • Route 58 - A state highway serving the southern suburbs of Belton and Raymore.
  • Route 150 – A highway linking southern Lee's Summit and Grandview to the Kansas suburbs at State Line Road.
  • Route 152 – A freeway contained entirely in Kansas City's Northland, stretching from Liberty in Clay County west until it intersects with I-435 near Parkville, Missouri.
  • Route 210 – A minor freeway east of North Kansas City that, as a two-lane road, stretches to Richmond, Missouri.
  • Route 291 – Formerly an eastern bypass route of U.S. 71, this minor freeway connects Harrisonville and Lee's Summit to Independence, Sugar Creek, Liberty and Kansas City North. The roadway is designated on road signs alongside I-470 north of Lee's Summit.
  • Route 350 – This road crosses through Raytown as Blue Parkway.

Other notable roads

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Other notable roads in the area are:

  • 18th Street Expressway – a freeway carrying US-69 through central Wyandotte County from I-35 to I-70.
  • Ward Parkway – A scenic parkway in Kansas City, Missouri, near the Kansas-Missouri state line, where many large historic mansions and fountains are located.
  • Broadway – A street that runs from the west side of downtown Kansas City to Westport. The street has long been an entertainment center, with various bars, live jazz outlets, and restaurants located along it. It also forms the eastern border of Quality Hill, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kansas City.
  • The Paseo – Part of the city's original system of parks and boulevards developed beginning in the late 1880s, it is the longest of the original boulevards, and the only one that runs the entire length of the pre-World War II city boundary, from the Missouri River bluffs in the north to 79th Street on the south.
  • Shawnee Mission Parkway – Former alignment of K-10 serving the Johnson County, KS suburbs in the area.
  • Troost Avenue – A north-south thoroughfare located 11 blocks east of Main Street, named for an early Kansas City settler and dentist, Benoist Troost. The street roughly divides the city's mostly black neighborhoods to its east from its mostly white ones to its west.
  • Swope Parkway – Running on the south side of the Brush Creek valley eastward from The Paseo, then southward from its junction with Benton Boulevard, this street is the main route from the city's midtown to its largest city park, Swope Park.
  • North Oak Trafficway – A major road located in the Northland. The roadway is designated as MO-283 from MO-9 to I-29. It is a major commercial road in the Northland and serves as the main street in Gladstone, Missouri.
  • Barry Road – Runs along the former route of Military Road, which ran from Liberty to Fort Leavenworth. It is now a major commercial street in the Northland, although it has been paralleled by MO-152 for its entire route and effectively replaced it east of Indiana Avenue.
  • 87th Street Parkway – a major parkway that extends from Overland Park to De Soto.

Air

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The Kansas City metropolitan area is served by two airports. It is primarily served by Kansas City International Airport, located 15 miles northwest of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, was built to serve as a world hub for the supersonic transport and Boeing 747. The airport's gates were positioned 100 feet (30 m) from the street; however, since the September 11, 2001 attacks, these have undergone expensive overhauls, retrofitting it to incorporate elements of conventional security systems.

The much smaller Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, located to the immediate north of downtown near the Missouri River, was the original headquarters of Trans World Airlines (TWA) and houses the Airline History Museum. It served as the area's major airport until 1972, when Kansas City International (then known as Mid-Continent International Airport and was home to an Overhaul Base for TWA) became the primary airport for the metropolitan area after undergoing $150 million in upgrades that were approved by voters in a 1966 bond issue. Downtown Airport is still used to this day for general aviation and airshows.

Rail and bus

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Union Station serves as a hub for Amtrak, which maintains daily service by long-distance trains to and from Kansas City, Missouri.

Public transportation in the Kansas City area is only provided by city buses operated by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA). The Metro Area Express (MAX) went online as Kansas City, Missouri's first bus rapid transit line in July 2005, and operates and is marketed akin to a rail system as opposed to a local bus line; the MAX links the River Market, Downtown, Union Station, Crown Center and the Country Club Plaza.[3][4] Buses in Johnson County, Kansas, are operated by Johnson County Transit (known as "The JO").

The Kansas City Downtown Streetcar is a 2.2-mile modern streetcar line in downtown Kansas City opened to the public in May 2016, and is maintained and operated by the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, a non-profit corporation made up of private sector stakeholders and city appointees. A ballot initiative to fund construction of the $102 million line was approved by voters on December 12, 2012.[5] The system will run between River Market and Union Station, mostly on Main Street,[6] with extensions to the starter line planned for addition at a later date.

Local navigation tips

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See related article: voy:Kansas City (Missouri) at Wikivoyage

Street numbers

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The Missouri side of the metropolitan area shares a grid system with Johnson County on the Kansas side. Most east-west streets are numbered and most north-south streets named. Addresses on east-west streets are numbered from Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri, and on north-south streets from St. John Avenue (or the Missouri River, in the River Market area). The direction 'South' in street and address numbers is generally implied if 'North' is not specified, except for numbered 'avenues' in North Kansas City. In the northland, east-west streets use the prefix N.E. or N.W., depending on the side of N. Main on which they lie.

Highways

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  • Kansas Citians tend to express U.S. and Missouri highway designations with the number before the word "highway," (e.g., 40 highway, 71 highway). This colloquialism tends not to apply to interstates or Kansas route numbers (e.g., "I-70", "K-10").
  • 69 Highway, known as "The Overland Parkway", runs southbound on I-35 from Kansas City, Missouri towards Johnson County. There are two exits marked South 69 on the roadway. The first – or northern – exit on Metcalf Ave/I-635, is a left lane exit and leads to Metcalf, an at-grade trafficway, before turning west along Shawnee Mission Parkway, to rejoin I-35. The southern US-69 exit is a two-lane right lane exit between the 75th and 87th street exits and begins a four-lane highway known as the Overland Parkway.
  • Bruce R. Watkins Drive is the name of the new section of U.S. Route 71 in Kansas City, Missouri. The old U.S. 71 ran mostly on Prospect Avenue.
  • When traveling north on I-35 from Johnson County, the first signs that are designated as I-70 East actually guide drivers through the southern portion of I-670, which takes motorists into the southern part of the Downtown Freeway Loop, and runs underneath the Bartle Hall Convention Center and some downtown overpasses. This is sometimes referred to as "going under downtown".
  • The downtown freeway loop is a complex layout of freeways in downtown Kansas City, Missouri involving 23 exits, four Interstate highways, four U.S. highways and numerous city streets. Each exit in the freeway loop is numbered "2" and suffixed with every letter of the alphabet – except I, O and Z (which would resemble 1, 0 and 2 on the exit signs), although some of the exits are currently under construction/renovation and closed to traffic. The entire circumference of the loop is just over 4-mile (6.4 km)*.
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  • The KCTV-Tower is a 1,042 feet (318 m) pyramid-shaped television and radio tower used primarily by local CBS affiliate KCTV (channel 5). It is located at the corner of 31st and Main Streets, next to the studio facilities of PBS member station KCPT (which formerly housed the original studios of KCTV), and is visible from many parts of the city, especially at night due to the string of lights adorning the tower.
  • The twin red-brick towers of the American Century Investments complex are oriented north and south along Main at 45th Street, just north of the Country Club Plaza (the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is located slightly east, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is located east and slightly south).
  • Kansas City Community Christian Church, located at 4601 Main Street, has a group of lights that shoot a beam upwards to the sky at night. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1950s, it is located slightly south of and across the street from the American Century Investment Towers (the Nelson Atkins is located to the east, and the Kemper Museum is to the north and slightly east).
  • Bartle Hall has a section that somewhat resembles a north-south suspension bridge, crossing over I-670 at the southwest corner of the downtown loop. It has four towers, with metal sculptures on top of each tower.
  • The Veterans Affairs Medical Center, located near the intersection of I-70, Linwood Boulevard and Van Brunt Boulevard, has a large "VA" emblem.
  • The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 16th Street and Broadway (just south of the downtown loop), with its tiered glass and steel half-domes, has a design reminiscent of the world-famous Sydney Opera House.

Educational institutions

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Post-secondary

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Other nearby institutions:

Libraries

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  • Johnson County Library
    • Antioch
    • Blue Valley
    • Cedar Roe
    • Central Resource
    • Corinth
    • De Soto
    • Edgerton
    • Gardner
    • Lackman
    • Leawood Pioneer
    • Monticello
    • Oak Park
    • Shawnee Mission
    • Spring Hill
  • Kansas City, Kansas Public Library
  • Kansas City Public Library (Missouri)
  • Linda Hall Library
  • Mid-Continent Public Library
  • Olathe Public Library

Media

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The Kansas City Star is the metropolitan area's major daily newspaper. The McClatchy Company, which owns The Star, is also the owner of two suburban weeklies, Lee's Summit Journal and Olathe Journal.

The Kansas City Kansan serves Wyandotte County, having moved from print to an online format in 2009. Additional weekly papers in the metropolitan area include the Liberty Tribune, Sun Newspapers of Johnson County, The Examiner in Independence and eastern Jackson County, and The Pitch. The area is also served by two newspapers focused the area's faith-based population: The Metro Voice Christian Newspaper and the Jewish Chronicle. The city's Hispanic and Latino American community is served by Dos Mundos, a bilingual newspaper with articles printed in Spanish and English, and Mi Raza magazine, the area's only weekly Hispanic publication printed in Spanish. The Kansas City Call serves the African American community publishing its paper weekly.

Broadcast media

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Main article: Broadcast Media in Kansas City

According to Arbitron, about 1.5 million people over the age of 12 live within the Kansas City DMA, making it the 30th largest market for radio and 31st for television according to Nielsen. The Kansas City television and radio markets cover 32 counties encompassing northwestern Missouri and northeast Kansas.

Television

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Television stations in the Kansas City metropolitan area, with all major network affiliates represented, include:

The Kansas City television market is in very close proximity to two other media markets, St. Joseph and Topeka. As such, most of the television stations in the Kansas City area are receivable over-the-air in portions of both markets, including their principal cities; likewise, stations from Topeka are receivable as far east as Kansas City, Kansas and stations from St. Joseph are viewable as far south as Kansas City, Missouri's immediate northern suburbs.

Radio

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Over 30 FM and 20 AM radio stations broadcast in the Kansas City area, with stations from Topeka, St. Joseph and Carrollton also reaching into the metropolitan area. The highest-rated radio stations, according to Arbitron are:

  • KPRS (103.3 FM) – Urban
  • KCMO-FM (94.9) – Classic Hits
  • KQRC (98.9 FM) – Rock
  • KRBZ-FM (96.5) – Alternative
  • KMBZ (98.1 FM) – News/Talk
  • WDAF-FM (106.5) – Country
  • KZPT (99.7) - Adult Top 40
  • KCSP (610 AM) - Sports, Kansas City Royals flagship
  • KMXV (93.3) - Top 40
  • KFKF (94.1) - Country
  • KCFX (101.1) - Classic Rock, Kansas City Chiefs flagship
  • KCHZ (95.7 FM) – Top 40/Rhythmic
Public and community radio
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  • KCUR (89.3 FM) – NPR affiliate
  • KANU-FM (91.5) and KTBG (90.9 FM) – both college radio stations; also NPR affiliates
  • KKFI (90.1 FM) – Locally owned not-for-profit station
  • KGSP (1480 FM) – Park University college station
Specialty radio
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Hispanics, which account for 5% of the market's population, are served by three AM radio stations:

Business interests

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The Kansas City metropolitan area's largest private employer is Cerner Corporation.[9] Cerner, a global healthcare IT company which is headquartered in North Kansas City, employs nearly 10,000 people in the area with a total workforce of nearly 20,000 people including global employees. In August 2014, the company announced its acquisition of competitor Siemens Healthcare, which, if approved, will further increase Cerner's total number of employees.[10] Cerner has several campuses across the area with its World Headquarters building in North Kansas City, Innovations Campus in South Kansas City, and Continuous Campus in the Kansas City, Kansas area.

Other major employers and business enterprises are AT&T, BNSF Railway, Asurion, Sprint Corporation, Citigroup, EMBARQ, Farmers Insurance Group, Garmin, Hallmark Cards, Harley-Davidson, Husqvarna, H&R Block, General Motors, Honeywell, Ford Motor Company, MillerCoors, State Street Corporation, The Kansas City Star, and Waddell & Reed, some of which are headquartered in the metropolitan area. Kansas City also has a large pharmaceutical industry, with companies such as Bayer and Aventis having a large presence.

Headquarters

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The following companies and organizations, excluding educational institutions, are among the larger ones that are currently headquartered in or have since relocated from the metropolitan area (headquarters of most companies are located in Kansas City, Missouri, unless otherwise noted):

The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank is one of twelve such banks located in the United States.

Hospitals

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Shopping centers

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Local organizations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Bulletin" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. ^ "publicpurpose.com". publicpurpose.com. January 10, 2002. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  3. ^ "Maps and Schedules". KCATA. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
  4. ^ "Light Rail and MAX". KCATA. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
  5. ^ "Kansas City voters approve streetcar plan". Kansas City Business Journal. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  6. ^ "Kansas City streetcar rides will be free". Kansas City Business Journal. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  7. ^ "Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City". Mcckc.edu. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  8. ^ "Vatterott College - Kansas City, MO". Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  9. ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/gallery/54001?s=image_gallery&img_no=10
  10. ^ http://cerner.com/newsroom.aspx?id=17179877489&blogid=2147483710&langType=1033

Further reading

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  • Shortridge, James R. Kansas City and How It Grew, 1822–2011 (University Press of Kansas; 2012) 248 pages; historical geography
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