OP or LS?
 

We are about to be in the market to buy a house. My wife is leaning Lee's Summit (my parents live there, no thanks lol jk) but not sold on yet. I'm set on Overland Park.

Settle this, CP.

Lee's Summit is up and coming for sure. A lot nicer than it used to be. Overland Park is closer to downtown and the plaza. And it has Google Fiber. But it's also in Brownbakistan, so Missouri wins there.

Overland park because no sales tax and google fiber. Also in Kansas so you can deal with nice people.

OP

Be my neighbor, nut! Lol ;)

Weather is much better in Olathe.

ROFL

Not sure what Nut is talking about, OP definitely has sales tax and its high. Lee's Summit has Google fiber too.

In OP, he can see Tarbaj, the Egyptian Magician. He fills up balloons with poisonous gas and tries to get a stranglehold on the audience by threatening to break those balloons if they don't applaud.

Perhaps it's changed, but when I lived in OP there was a city tax in addition to the federal and state taxes.

LS has Google Fiber, too.

Crime in LS is way up. Go with OP

If you have to drive to the airport, Lees Summit is really far away. I can get to MCI in 37 minutes from OP.

Go with the one closest to your job, silly.

Nut can get him on at Taco Bueno

Have you checked out Independence at all? Really up and coming area I think you'd like!

Driving I-35 to and from OP every day with regular business hours would be ****ing awful if you're working downtown. Can't speak to I-70, but I'm sure it kind of sucks too.

42 minutes from LS to the airport. I-35 in rush hour vs I-70 at rush hour is advantage LS but not by much on some days. Both have Google fiber or will at some point. Both have good schools although KS seems to not care about them as much. Both have their fair share of chain restaurant/store areas. I love downtown Lee's Summit.

KS re-elected Brownback which would be a deal breaker for me.

LMAO

Yikes, really?

I've lived here for 16 years, very little crime. Our neighborhood is very quiet.

When we moved to the KC area in late-1999 all they wanted to show us was JOCO, but I was lucky because I had made a number of trips to the area in advance of the permanent move - so we decided to rent for a year before deciding.

I'll be honest I thought we'd settle on western JOCO, but then we say LS. Since I came from an area with tons of traffic (the tidewater area of Virginia) where sitting in traffic was a daily thing, it was an easy decision to pick LS.

THAT being said, I'd take all the partisan bullshit these other people have tossed your way and make a lot of the decision on where you both will work.

• If you work in JOCO, live there!!!
• If you fly a lot for work, live up North. A regret I actually have about LS. But Execucar has helped in that regard..
• If you work in the Northland, live in the Northland.
• If you work in downtown KC, of the choice is only between OP and LS, I still think LS is the better choice (because of daily traffic).
• If you both Telework and her family is in LS (and you like them), you might very-well want to look south in the Belton area.
• Have you considered Parkville? Nice!

I know that we moved a LOOOOONG way away from family so it just didn't matter, but I'd encourage you to strongly consider that element if you have kids. All joking aside, my kids know their grandparents, but they don't KNOW their grandparents.. While Kansas City, or its 'burbs at least, is a FAAAAAAR better place to raise kids that the coast, it did come at the price of a close relationship with their grandparents.

I know that traffic is a HUGE concern for me (I HATE it - hence I Telework a LOT when I'm in town), and I also rather loath fake people, so JOCO tended to sour on me in that year.

As it has grown crime has increased too, but that's simple a "duh" sort of deal. I'd put it to the door-lock test, and we've not locked our house doors "regularly" (other than when we're going on vacation or something) since 2001.

Not a long-term trend, but helpful if crime is what concerns you.

LS
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mo/lees-summit/crime/

OP
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ks/...nd-park/crime/

I would say check out the northland to those two spots unless you work in south KC or OP.

Go with the one that is east of your work. That way you don't drive into the sun to work or from work.

Do you have kids? Keep them out of Kansas and what Brownback is doing to the school districts. Lee's Summit all the way if you have kids or are planning on having kids.

And Valiant is right - check out north of the river. Boomtown up there with great school districts.

OP...not even close.


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I cannot even fathom why someone would want to live in Overland Park, but Lee's Summit wouldn't be my choice either. Admittedly, I'm not a deep 'burbs kind of guy.

I see you are from St. Louis...

That explains your post.

Excepting the fact that I spent my first 22 years in KC and my family still lives there, yes, I did in fact live in St. Louis for 16 years. I now live in Louisville, and am still curious what point you're trying to make.

Johnson County has well deserved reputation for being filled with snobs.

What's the difference in property and car registration between the two?

All things being equal, choose closer to work as 435 can be a real biotch, especially in winter. And yes, Brownbeck has made a real mess of Kansas. So glad we sold out and moved out.

This (too)...

I'd think long and hard about the school situation in Kansas if you have kids.

The Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley school districts are still strong, but that's more and more of a burden to the parents, and considering the way Kansas is treating it's teachers (this week delayed payments to the pension fund of KPERs and is threatening to cut it altogether... Think teachers are going to start exiting the state.


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So LS over OP?

Yeah we have a baby daughter now. School is very important.

Definitely. Not sure the schools in OP hold up over time.

Park Hill is also an excellent spot, as some have mentioned.

There's houses for sale in East KC for $1

What has happened? I haven't lived in KC in 9 years. What is going on with Brownback?

Why are even considering a move?

Nearly perfect weather, a fairly quick drive to National Parks, the ocean, Disney and so much more.

Why live in -5 winters?

We just love KC. We have one kid, we plan on having more. Schools are shit here. Better place to raise a family back in KC to us. Phoenix is ok...to visit. But that's it. Dirty place overall. But I see why people would like it. Different strokes. We prefer four seasons actually as crazy as it sounds lol. It'll probably change when we retire like every other old couple.

I live in LS and I love it. I'm in the far south part of the city, but it's still close access to all of the LS stuff (downtown LS has some great shops and bars, the 291 retail strip, Chipman shopping area), but I can also get to the cool parts of OP in about 10-13 minutes (Prairie Fire, etc). I like the history in LS, There is a ton for our daughter to do (playing soccer and softball right now, summer camps), although that is everywhere. The schools are good (We've been very happy with her teachers, although she's only in 1st grade).
We have google fiber, and aside from very few snags, we love it.
I "grew up" in Independence (the middle class part, not the methy part) and loved it, how it was centrally located and easy to get to anywhere due to I-70. But I prefer LS at this point in time, because Indep is becoming a little overgrown.

Not sure about LS, but you couldn't pay me to live in OP. Traffic sucks down there, and it sucks bad.

BTW, Liberty is the place to be, but don't come here, because the traffic isn't bad, and the awesome schools aren't screwed up with over population yet.

We bought a house in Western Shawnee, and we really like that area: especially Mill Valley High School.

Brownback is simply destroying the Kansas educational system with his tax cuts aimed at helping small business owners. It worked literally the opposite as he sold it, and now he's bleeding the public school districts to make up the shortfall in revenue, forcing these districts to beg to raise taxes in their said districts. It's a mess. I wouldn't live in Kansas with a small child on a dare right now.

That said, Blue Valley still is a very highly regarded school district right now, but for how long remains to be seen. There is an exodus beginning of teachers leaving Kansas for Missouri (and Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado.....). Do some serious research on the subject if Johnson County is your dream location.

I don't know Phoenix well but I thought that Scottsdale was basically like Johnson County, minus the harsh winters.

This. Brown back has created his tax free Republican utopia. it's not going well.

His legislature is also threatening to impeach Supreme Court members for making rulings the legislature dislikes (like ruling it unconstitutional for the state leg to fail to find schools as agreed upon).

Oh, and then there are the hikes on sales tax, including food, to try to make up the shortfalls - which pass more tax burden to the people who can least afford it.

The city of Overland Park is also facing budgetary issues, I'm told. It has skated by for years on annexing new locales to make up for lack of business tax revenue (due to sweetheart deals to entice businesses to OP). There's nowhere left to expand now...

I don't understand why this is even a question. Lees Summit is still in Missouri is it not? Seems like OP is a no brainer.

F that

Head for west Independence mate

Kansas City does not have harsh winters.

Still, 4.3% unemployment rate in Kansas.

I think public school system needs a complete overhaul, and funding needs to be curtailed. In almost every state. So, I'm fine with Brownback's initiative to cut school spending. Just not the way it's done now. It's not a great model to start off with. It's highly inefficient. Kansas spends around 14k per student, and that isn't enough? GTFO.

What I don't agree with is cutting teacher salary. The #1 key IMO to encourage learning is the teacher. The teacher needs to not only be smart, but enthusiastic and engaging. You could easily SAVE tons of money by paying teachers more and drastically lowering the infrastructure costs for schools. Every class doesn't need 25 ipads. There is already too much showmanship. The goal is to LEARN. I think you could even lower costs and IMPROVE the quality of education by utilizing a TA system where good high school student mentors get high school credit & pay (at their option) by helping out local elementary & middle schools. This would enable schools to have less actual teachers, but much better and higher paid ones. This would result in somewhat larger classes, but higher engagement. And less cost.

I didn't learn anymore or any less because my school was or wasn't a state of art building, or amazing architecture. The #1 thing that helped me learn, by far, was the instructor or teacher. We need to be more practical. More on teachers, more on people, and WAAAAAY less on infrastructure. We need to think differently on how to be not only more efficient but better educators.

Part of the problem is the ridiculous amount of administration staff, and how much they get paid. I heard a piece that said Shawnee Mission School District has 70 something employees who make 6 figures, none are teachers


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Your myopic stupidity knows no bounds

LMAO

Agreed.

Am I missing a bit of lexicon here? Like the sunny and 70 in Olathe?

Kansas is a glowing bomb of AIDS that has people so ignorant they re-elected the devil himself. Both Olathe and BlueValley have had superintendents quit and flee the state. Teachers are getting screwed over right and left. I would not listen to the forked tongues of the beakers, stay in Missouri

I get what he's trying to say though. They just keep throwing money at the problem, but money isn't always the solution. Sure, it could help, but it seems like a lot of bad operational choices are made.

Maybe these school districts or departments of education need to hire some black belts to come in and find places to cut out the fat.

So Missouri people are saying LS and Kansas people say OP, interesting

Not true. Some of us have said, "live where you work." But we've encouraged his to consider things like, family, schools (which are a wash IMO), the airport (if something that happens a lot), and even traffic (if you can't stand traffic).

I've lived in both OP and LS, and while I prefer LS over OP, I hate traffic with a passion, but I don't want to live on a farm to avoid it either. I'm neither tied to LS, nor would it be a lock if I were moving here today.

I think his biggest decision will be based on family, for his kids that's going to be HUGE!

Real far... Takes me 42 minutes. If I had that 10 minutes back it would be life changing.

But that stupid airport is far away from everything.

This..

Had I known I was going to travel as much as I do, I'd had picked the Northland almost based on that alone.. Monday's and Fridays can really suck becuase of it.

I have a close friend that's in the medical business, who lived his entire life at Lake Quivira, move to Liberty/KCMO for that reason alone.

The 435 always seems empty when I've visited but the drive is a long one from South JoCo.

45 minutes each way for me (but usually no stop-and-go traffic at the hours I travel). And that's too long for my liking. And the 45-55 minutes it now takes to get from my downtown office to home in LS at 5:00pm is WAAAY too long. I know that's a joke for you folks from L.A., but traffic (and my hate for it) is one of the reasons I gladly left the coast. I know people who spend 400+ hours a year in traffic, and that's just nuts. Thank God for teleworking!

Fortunately, I work from home. But the traffic in Hollywood is worse than ever, so even driving 3 miles roundtrip to pick up my kids from their respective schools each day is a 30-45 minute endeavor.

With eight new hotels and over 5 million square feet of office space going in less than 2 miles from my home, the traffic will eventually become unbearable.

But then the big question is, where do we go?

Obviously Lee's Summit. :D We have the Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC, and we have Google Fiber too... All your problems solved..

LMAO