For generations now, the American Dream has meant a home in the suburbs. But today there are so many to choose from.
Some are quiet bedroom communities, like Leawood and Raymore. Some have quaint downtowns, like Parkville and Independence. Some are bursting with growth, like Olathe and Lee’s Summit. And some are far-flung small towns, like Grain Valley and Spring Hill.
So which ones offer the best overall quality of life?
The Kansas City Star set out to find out. The result: Kansas City’s first-ever comprehensive suburban ratings.
Beginning today, and continuing for the next week, The Star counts down the top 10 places to live in the area outside Kansas City. All 40 suburbs larger than 3,500 people were included.
Kansas City neighborhoods were not - it’s difficult to compare them to suburbs using the same statistical measures. The Star will take a closer look at Kansas City’s neighborhoods in the future.
The ’burbs were compared in some two dozen different ways, from crime rates to property tax rates, from school test scores to neighborhood diversity scores.
In the end, all these comparisons should help us understand what makes a good suburb.
Like it or not, the suburbs aren’t a phenomenon anymore. They’re mostly where we’ve chosen to live. The suburbs in the seven counties surrounding Kansas City hold two-thirds of the area’s population.
And for the most part, these aren’t your parents’ bedroom communities. The ’burbs have grown up. They’re where almost all the biggest new stores open and where most new tech jobs are created. Homes once derided as boxy and ticky-tacky are now desirable. Trees even tower over houses now in southern Johnson County.
To be sure, Kansas City’s center is growing stronger - a new arena and entertainment district are going up, and old buildings have found new life as residential lofts.
Yet, even with downtown’s new energy and momentum, sprawl remains the preferred lifestyle here and across the country, despite its legions of detractors.
"The battle’s over," social trends analyst Joel Kotkin writes about metropolitan areas. "Now it’s time to call it a day and declare a winner.
"The winner is, yes, sprawl."
In Kansas City, we’re pretty comfortable with that, whether it’s newer sprawl or older sprawl, small cozy ’burbs or larger spread-out ones. When The Star asked local suburban residents in an opinion poll about their quality of life, an overwhelming proportion said they were very or somewhat happy. Plus, some surveys show suburbanites here are more satisfied with their quality of life than suburbanites elsewhere.
After The Star crunched numbers, reviewed polls and talked with suburban officials, one thing’s for certain: No matter where people live around this metropolis, we love our suburbs.
Savoring area’s charms
Tom and Roxee Beaver are born and bred East Coasters. They expected to retire there. But when their children ended up attending college in Missouri and then moving to the Kansas City area, the Beavers moved too, to eastern Jackson County.
Now they tell friends and family this is the best place they’ve lived.
In their previous location, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Tom hated his commute. The beltway was a parking lot. The couple had a small home; it was all they could afford. And in nearly a decade there, they never went over to their next-door neighbor’s house.
Here, the first weekend they were in their Lee’s Summit home, the next-door neighbors invited them over. Tom’s commute to downtown is a breeze. And the couple lives on a lake in a house that’s the envy of their East Coast friends.
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