Kansas City is a city covering parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties in Missouri, USA. Although it is the largest city in Jackson County, the suburb of Independence is the county seat. Situated at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, it lies along the boundary between Missouri and Kansas, and is directly opposite Kansas City, Kansas.
Often abbreviated KCMO, Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri and 27th in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 441,545. Combined with Kansas City, Kansas, the population is 588,411, but the entire metropolitan area (in both states) is approximately 2 million. As the city and surrounding metropolitan area is consistently growing, the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network, a project of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom recently designated Kansas City a city with the potential of attaining world city status.
The current mayor of Kansas City, Missouri is Kay Barnes, the city's first female mayor. Elected in March 1999 and again in March 2003, her second of two terms will expire in April 2007.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 823.7 km2 (318.0 mi2). 812.1 km2 (313.5 mi2) of it is land and 11.6 km2 (4.5 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 1.41% water.
The Kansas City area is relatively flat, with a few riverside bluffs and rolling hills that reach no higher than 300 feet above the plains. The Kansas and Missouri rivers have cut shallow valleys into the terrain, and some areas have small, rocky cliffs (such as the bluff directly across the river from downtown, where the old downtown airport is).
As of the census of 2000, there are 441,545 people, 183,981 households, and 107,444 families residing in the city. The population density is 543.7/km2 (1,408.2/mi2). There are 202,334 housing units at an average density of 249.2/km2 (645.3/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 60.68% White, 31.23% Black or African American, 1.85% Asian, 0.48% Native American, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 3.21% from other races, and 2.44% from two or more races. 6.93% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 183,981 households out of which 28.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.0% are married couples living together, 16.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 41.6% are non-families. 34.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.35 and the average family size is 3.06. Growth in Kansas City is increasing, with 3,618 housing permits granted in 2004 and 2005. As of 2005, about 210,000 households exist.
In the city the population is spread out with 25.4% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 32.5% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 93.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $37,198, and the median income for a family is $46,012. Males have a median income of $35,132 versus $27,548 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,753. 14.3% of the population and 11.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.2% of those under the age of 18 and 10.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Significant non-native settlement of the area dates to 1831, when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("LDS Church"; see also Mormon) coming from Kirtland, Ohio and New York State purchased about 2,000 acres (8 km2) of land in the Paseo and Troost Lake areas. Conflict between the LDS members and southern Missouri residents led to the expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County in 1833, although there is still a notable presence of LDS members in the KC area.
About this time a dock was established on the Missouri River to land supplies for Westport Landing (now Westport). The land surrounding the dock was bought by "Town Company" in 1838. The area outside of Westport Landing was renamed the Town of Kansas, after the local Kanza Indians, in 1839. The town was incorporated by the state of Missouri as the City of Kansas on March 28, 1853. At the first municipal election in 1853 there were sixty-seven voters from a population of 2,500. In 1889, with a population of around 60,000, the city adopted a new charter and changed its name to Kansas City. In 1897, Kansas City annexed Westport, which now serves as an entertainment and shopping disctrict.
The City was connected to the telegraph system in 1858, to the railway in 1864 and the first aircraft landed at the Municipal Airport in 1927. In 1867, Kansas City beat nearby Leavenworth, Kansas (then over twice Kansas City's size) for a railroad bridge over the Missouri River. The Hannibal Bridge, designed by Octave Chanute, opened in 1869. With that, the city's population quadrupled in fifty years.
Due to its central location, Kansas City became and remains the second largest railroad hub in the United States, ahead of St. Louis and behind Chicago, Illinois. Union Station, built in 1914, was the largest passenger terminal in the country. The station deteriorated significantly in the second half of the 20th Century, however, and was renovated in the late 1990s. It now houses a museum, theaters, shops, and restaurants, adjacent to an increasingly active arts district known as the "Crossroads".
Initially, the city's major industry was cattle. By the 1860s it had one of the largest cattle markets in America, earning the nickname "Cowtown." That industry peaked in the early 20th century. Kansas City's cattle stockyards in the city's West Bottoms neighborhood closed in 1984.
The Country Club Plaza shopping district and neighborhood, begun in 1922 by developer J.C.Nichols, is dominated by the 130-foot-tall bell tower designed after the original Giralda Tower in Seville, Spain, and decorated with countless more European fountains, sculptures and Spanish architecture. Although the Plaza once contained mostly hometown shops, today it contains almost exclusively hypermaterial national chain stores such as Tiffany's, Coach, Sharper Image and others; the Plaza also contains a great amount of pedestrian traffic and increasingly modern architecture.
Source:
KansasCityUSA.com
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