Spring Break
Kansas City - Home sweet ... something or other
Alexia Lang
Issue date: 6/1/09 Section: Forum
Reality check. Pinches all around.
I have thought a lot of things about Kansas City over the years - it's dangerous, it's dumpy, it's a waste of formerly beautiful buildings and homes that have been abused by residents, it's an embarrassing blemish on the Kansas City Metro as a whole.
But maybe - just maybe - the blinders I have put up for so long have kept me from seeing any of its good (truly good) features.
Perhaps, my sheltered and prim upbringing has deprived me from knowing what the real world is like, and, in turn, kept me from having any concept of the situations people deal with.
To give some background, I am from a little town where my neighbors were always referred to as Mr. and Mrs. So and So.
It was rare to meet someone who did not know my name, I could not check the mail without someone being nosy and the most disgraced person in town was a soft-core pot dealer.
Although I moved around a little while growing up, I landed in Johnson County and I've been there ever since.
As a teenager, friends loved to sing, "Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world" to me.
The tune often echoes in the back of my head to this day when I feel uncomfortable with the city environment.
Silly, I know. But that's who I am.
And with that background, I believe everyone deserves a safe place to live - a place where you know your kids are OK playing out in the yard, a place where you can go to the grocery store day or night without being frightened of being mugged or worse, a place where parks are for kids, not prostitutes and drug dealers.
The past year I have been going to school and working in Kansas City has certainly given me a new perspective on the city.
I no longer look at it with disdain. I no longer think of it as the slums and, for the most part, I feel comfortable in this environment I have come to know well.
Listening to Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser give his State of the City speech last week sparked a sense of hope in me for the future of the city.
I have thought a lot of things about Kansas City over the years - it's dangerous, it's dumpy, it's a waste of formerly beautiful buildings and homes that have been abused by residents, it's an embarrassing blemish on the Kansas City Metro as a whole.
But maybe - just maybe - the blinders I have put up for so long have kept me from seeing any of its good (truly good) features.
Perhaps, my sheltered and prim upbringing has deprived me from knowing what the real world is like, and, in turn, kept me from having any concept of the situations people deal with.
To give some background, I am from a little town where my neighbors were always referred to as Mr. and Mrs. So and So.
It was rare to meet someone who did not know my name, I could not check the mail without someone being nosy and the most disgraced person in town was a soft-core pot dealer.
Although I moved around a little while growing up, I landed in Johnson County and I've been there ever since.
As a teenager, friends loved to sing, "Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world" to me.
The tune often echoes in the back of my head to this day when I feel uncomfortable with the city environment.
Silly, I know. But that's who I am.
And with that background, I believe everyone deserves a safe place to live - a place where you know your kids are OK playing out in the yard, a place where you can go to the grocery store day or night without being frightened of being mugged or worse, a place where parks are for kids, not prostitutes and drug dealers.
The past year I have been going to school and working in Kansas City has certainly given me a new perspective on the city.
I no longer look at it with disdain. I no longer think of it as the slums and, for the most part, I feel comfortable in this environment I have come to know well.
Listening to Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser give his State of the City speech last week sparked a sense of hope in me for the future of the city.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Brian Dear
posted 7/15/09 @ 12:55 PM CST
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. (Continued…)
anonymous female
posted 8/25/09 @ 6:06 AM CST
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. (Continued…)
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