The University News

I'm reading this story from Seoul, Korea and it makes me look back fondly on my year I lived in Kansas City. The snobbery of the JoCo crowd was always confusing because the reasons I love Kansas City are the reasons the JoCo crowd seems to view it frequently with disdain. I love the culture, the artistic life of the city and the old buildings and Hemingway history. I loved living in the 39th Street area and being able to walk to coffee shops and first class restaurants without having to drive 20 minutes in Overland Park traffic. I love it that every neighborhood doesn't look as if cut from the same catalog. I didn't like the JoCo area because it looks and feels and acts just like every other "white-flight" suburb in the US. I've lived around the world and traveled considerably and yet, I am drawn back to Kansas City. Yes, it has its problems, but those problems are also much of what makes Kansas City, Kansas City. I can't wait to move back and I think that I too will appreciate even more the great city that I now claim as my new "home."

I'm with you Brian. JoCo freaks me out... I would seriously never want to live somewhere like that. Driving around there makes me think of The Stepford Wives and I hate how everything looks the same and it's impossible to walk anywhere. Also everyone is so freakin scared all the time for no reason. Very annoying. I would feel like I'd cheated my children if I raised them somewhere so devoid of culture. I also think that small town America has a LOT more culture, individuality and flavor than JoCo (or the thousands of other places like it in the US). I would rather raise my kid in a small town (or urban area) any day than subject them to that mess...