Why should I move to Kansas City?

[mrburns]

Of all the cities in the US, why would I move to Kansas City? What makes it special?

[Jason_Preu]

There are a million and one reasons to move to KC (and a million and one not to). Here's my list of things that make be proud of my city and have kept me here for 20+ years:
1) Arts & Creativity. I have lived all over (military background) and have found no city like Kansas City when it comes to a thriving arts community (obviously, I'm talking cities of comparative size). Creatives here are incredibly diverse, seek collaboration, and have a DIY attitude toward making things happen and fostering community that I don't see very often. We have an absurd amount of performing arts venues for a city our size, a very happening underground literary scene, film happenings, a major annual comics convention, plenty of music venues for bands at all stages in their career, a million and one art galleries, a very active and engaged maker population...
2) Affordable housing. Crazy, crazy cheap to have a house here: http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/missouri/kansas_city. You'll pay a bit more in transport costs the further out you are from the city proper (provided you're working downtown), but crazy cheap compared to coastal cities.
3) Food. Best BBQ in the country. I didn't like BBQ until moving here. One of our BBQ joints was named by Bourdain as one of the top 13 places to eat before you die. We've a host of other fantastic spots for foodies, too. My wife and I can barely keep up.
4) Centrally located. It is incredibly fast and easy to travel anywhere in the country from here (plane, train, car) without incurring jet lag or breaking your bank.
5) People. KC proper trends hard left. The suburbs and rural outskirts trend right. It makes for an interesting dynamic but all the people here are friendly, smart, not that pretentious, and rarely too busy to slow down and talk or help out.
6) Traffic. When I drive to Minneapolis, I want to kill people. When I drive to Atlanta, I want to kill myself. When I drive to Chicago, I park an hour away and hop a train. I know, those are much larger metros than KC, but traffic here is just never that thick and I am always thankful for that.
You can google "reasons to move to kansas city" to get a million more lists: sports, tech, etc., but the above are why I continue to stay here year after after. Also, as I mentioned, there are plenty of things you may hate here (I sure do) but the positives overwhelmingly win out in the end.
Cheers and if you wind up moving here, look me up.

[Stephen_S_Hassard]

I moved here four years ago - from London funny enough (Go Green Lanes!) - and I love it here. KC is a large city with a small town feel. These are some of the things that make it special for me:

• Great digital infrasturucte - a large chunk of the city is covered by Google Fiber

• Cost of living - homes here are relatively cheap compared to other similar sized cities and most of the things you would want to access are no more than a 30 minute drive away usually. Older parts of the city are really walkable for a big US city. Areas like Brookside/Waldo have a very small village feel but are right on the doorstep of the plaza (a fun downtown collection of stores and restaurants)

• Food - there is a great variety of food here. The BBQ is amazing (Jon Russell Burnt Ends are amazing) and even the ethnic food scene is good (Korma Sutra blows away anything I've eaten on Brick Lane).

• People - The people here are really friendly and welcoming.

If you have any specific questions I'm happy to provide more details or provide some London-based analogies to things out here.

[Ali_Al-Rubaie]

Of all cities that ive been too its the most representative of the heart of america. The mix of the beautiful busy downtown and the vibrant suburbs are the best representation of the country. Kansas city is a middle ground, not too large and not too small, with all the amenities of a big city with little of the hassle.