Dan Minette wrote:
>The Kansas City Metro Area is 5500 sq miles? From traveling through there
>and looking at maps, I'd guess maybe 1500 sq. miles. 300 people per sq.
>mile is a very low population density for an urban area.
1) I got most of those facts and figures from
http://www.visitkc.com/about_kc/facts.html so it's not my fault ;-)
2) Maps can be deceiving. Independence, MO is the 4th largest city in
Missouri, but is also considered part of the KC metro area, as is
Leavenworth, KS (home of Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary and Fort
Leavenworth). From where I work in downtown KC MO, I can get to
Independence in 30 minutes or so (but not during rush hour), but it would
take me about an hour to get to Leavenworth. I'm not sure that I've never
been to Miami County in Kansas (which is south of Johnson County), but it is
officially considered part of the metro area, although many people who live
in KC MO wouldn't necessarily agree. There are a lot of rural areas
including some substantial amounts of farmland in what is technically
considered the KC metro area. The population density varies widely within
the metro.
3) From a quick look at 2000 census figures, the population actually looks
closer to 1.8 million than 1.9 million to me, if I (and Excel) did the math
correctly. I believe Kansas City still rates as the 25th largest city in
the US, although I'm not sure if that counts just the city or the whole
metro area.
By the way, the state line split in the middle of the metro causes some
unusual difficulties. For example, anything that we want to do as a metro
area that has to be approved by a state legislature actually has to be
approved by *2* state legislatures, one in heavily Republican Kansas and the
other in traditionally Democratic-leaning Missouri. In spite of obstacles
like that, we have managed to pass more than one bi-state tax initiative
(one recently to renovate Kansas City's "Historic Union Station").
Reggie Bautista
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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