Kansas City

Kansas City is a sizable, important Midwestern metropolis that straddles the Missouri-Kansas border and has a population of around 2 million. The metro area’s primary metropolis is Kansas City, Missouri, the state’s biggest city, with a population of around 450,000. Across the state line lies Kansas City, Kansas, often referred to locally as “KCK,” with a population of 150,000. Additionally, both sides of the border include a number of suburbs.

Kansas City is a city that does a good job of concealing itself from visitors. It is claimed to have more boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any other city in the world save Rome, and it may be a lovely city as well. It is also unusual in that it is divided in half by the Kansas-Missouri state boundary.

The suburbs are mostly located south of the core city, while the region north of the Missouri River (dubbed the Northland locally) is seeing comparable expansion to the south. The divide of east/west streets starts at the Missouri River and ends at Main Street. Westport is located around 40th Street, the Plaza is located around 47th Street, Brookside is located around 55th, and Waldo begins at Gregory (71st St.).

Due to the absence of a big body of water nearby, KC has a continental climate with huge temperature swings and extremes. Winters range from temperate to very cold, with substantial snowfall and temperatures sometimes dropping to single digits and below zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius). On average, snow accumulates 3-5 times each year, sometimes surpassing a foot (31 cm).

KC has some of the most excellent spring and fall weather in the country, but suffers from hot, humid summers. During July and August, it is not unusual for temperatures to remain over 90°F (32°C) for weeks at a time. Due to the heat, practically every building in Kansas City has air conditioning. While Kansas City has a somewhat high humidity level, the most of the time the weather is clear with nearly entirely blue sky. Although the bulk of rain occurs between April and June, even during these wettest months, rainfall is quite low in comparison to other cities in the vicinity.

The city is 319.03 square miles (826.28 km2) in total, with 314.95 square miles (815.72 km2) of land and 4.08 square miles (10.57 km2) of water. Bluffs provide a bird’s eye view of rivers and river bottom habitats. Kansas City’s central business district is bowl-shaped and is flanked on two sides by glacier-carved limestone and bedrock cliffs.

Kansas City is located at the meeting point of the Dakota and Minnesota ice lobes during the Pleistocene epoch’s maximum late Independence glacial. When the glaciers melted and emptied, the Kansas and Missouri rivers carved broad valleys through the topography. The core city is bisected by a partly filled spillway valley. This valley is a continuation of Turkey Creek Valley to the east. It is the closest large city to the contiguous United States’ geographic core, or “Lower 48.”

The federal government is the area’s main employer. There are about 146 federal agencies represented there. Kansas City is one of the US government’s 10 regional headquarters cities. In Kansas City, the Internal Revenue Service has a large service facility covering almost 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2). It is one of just two locations that still accept paper returns. In Kansas City, the IRS employs roughly 2,700 full-time personnel, which increases to 4,000 during tax season. The General Services Administration employs around 800 people. The majority are situated in South Kansas City’s Bannister Federal Complex.

Additionally, the Bannister Complex is home to Honeywell’s Kansas City Plant, a National Nuclear Security Administration site. Honeywell employs over 2,700 people at its Kansas City plant, which manufactures and assembles 85 percent of the non-nuclear components for the US nuclear arsenal. The Social Security Administration employs more than 1,700 people in the Kansas City metropolitan region, including more than 1,200 at the Mid-America Program Service Center in downtown Kansas City (MAMPSC). In Kansas City, the United States Postal Service maintains post offices. 300 West Pershing Road is the address of the Kansas City Main Post Office.

Ford Motor Company owns a sizable manufacturing site in Claycomo called the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant, where the Ford F-150 is now manufactured. The nearby Kansas City, Kansas, is home to the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant. Smith Electric Cars manufactures electric vehicles at Kansas City International Airport’s old TWA/American Airlines maintenance facility.

The Sanofi-Aventis facility, one of the biggest in the United States, is situated in south Kansas City on a site created by Ewing Kauffman’s Marion Laboratories. It has lately focused on creating academic and economic institutions dedicated to animal health sciences, an endeavor strengthened by the selection of Manhattan, Kansas, as the location for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which conducts research on animal illnesses.

Numerous agricultural businesses are based in the city. Dairy Farmers of America, the nation’s biggest dairy cooperative, is headquartered here. The Kansas City Board of Trade is the primary market for hard red winter wheat, which is the primary component in bread. Kansas City is home to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Two major business journals, the Kansas City Business Journal (weekly) and Ingram’s Magazine (monthly), as well as smaller media, including a local society journal, the Independent, serve the business community (published weekly).

The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank constructed a new facility near Union Station in 2008. Missouri is the only state that is home to two of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks (the second is in St. Louis). Kansas City’s desire to acquire the bank was aided by former mayor James A. Reed, who broke a tie to enact the Federal Reserve Act in his capacity as senator.

Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national offices are located just south of Downtown.

With a Gross Metropolitan Product of $41.68 billion in 2004, Kansas City’s economy (excluding Missouri) accounts for 20.5 percent of the state’s Gross State Product. Kansas City was rated sixth for real estate investment in 2014.

Three worldwide law firms are headquartered in the city: Lathrop & Gage, Stinson Leonard Street, and Shook, Hardy & Bacon.