Kansas City Metropolitan Area

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:

1 Quadrants
2 Local place names and navigation guidelines
3 Counties
4 Major employers
5 Headquarters
6 Local organizations

Quadrants

Large printable map

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 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 includes Kansas City, Missouri and surrounding areas in Missouri. Sometimes called "the southland". It includes the Grandview Triangle, a freeway interchange known for traffic delays.

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

Shawnee Mission, Kansas is an area recognized by the United States Postal Service that includes many towns in Johnson County, Kansas.
Numbered streets in Wyandotte are north south streets while in the rest of the metro area on both sides of the state line the numbered streets are east west streets.
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 39th St. east of State Line Rd. and the University of Kansas Hospital that has many restaurants, bars and shops.
KU Medical Center (KUMED) is a former name of the University of Kansas Hospital.
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 District is a recently defined area North of Union Station and centered around the intersection of 19th St. and Baltimore in Kansas City, Missouri. It 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:

Major employers

The Kansas City Metropolitan Area's largest private employer is Sprint, 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 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, 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
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays KC
Kansas City Iraq Task Force
KC Chapter of National Lawyers Guild
Kansas City Independent Media Center
Kansas City Industrial Workers of the World GMB
Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation

Categories: Kansas City metropolitan area | Kansas | Missouri