Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is the county seat of Wyandotte County. Kansas City is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. About two million people live in this region. The city is part of the "Unified Government". This also includes the cities of Bonner Springs and Edwardsville. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 146,867. The city is at Kaw Point, which is the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.

History
Kansas City formed in 1868. It was first officially mentioned in October 1872. The Kansas-Missouri border area became the first battlefield in the conflict over slavery that led to the American Civil War. The first city election was held on October 22, 1872. It resulted in the election of Mayor James Boyle. The mayors of the city after its organization have been James Boyle, C. A. Eidemiller, A. S. Orbison, Eli Teed and Samuel McConnell. John Sheehan was appointed Marshal in 1875. He was also Chief of Police. He had the control over five policemen. In June 1880, the Governor of Kansas made the city of Kansas City a city of the second class with the Mayor Samuel McConnell present. James E. Porter was Mayor in 1910.

It was one of the 100 largest cities for many US Census counts, from 1890 to 1960, including 1920, when it had over 100,000 residents for the first time. In 1997, voters approved a proposition to unify the city and county governments.

On March 30, 2011, Internet search company Google Inc. announced that Kansas City had been selected as the site of an experimental fiber-optic network that Google will build at no cost to the city. Kansas City was chosen from a field of 1,100 US communities that had applied for the network. Google plans to have the network in operation by 2012.

Government
Mayor/CEO
 Joe Reardon

Board of Commissioners
 At-Large District 1, Mayor Pro Tem, Rev Mark Holland
 At-Large District 2, John J. Mendez
 District 1, Nathaniel Barnes
 District 2, William J (Bill) Miller
 District 3, Ann Brandau-Murguia
 District 4, Mark Mitchell
 District 5, Mike Kane
 District 6, Particia Huggins Pettey
 District 7, Thomas R. Cooley
 District 8, Benoyd M. Ellison

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 127.8 sq mi (331.0 km2). 124.3 sq mi (321.8 km2) of it is land and 3.5 sq mi (9.2 km2) of it is water.

Cityscape
Kansas City is organized into a system of neighborhoods, some with histories as independent cities or the sites of major events.

Neighborhoods of Kansas City, Kansas
 Downtown Kansas City, Kansas
 Argentine, former home to the silver smeltery for which it was named.
 Armourdale, formerly a city, consolidated with the city of Kansas City in 1886.
 Armstrong, a town absorbed by Wyandotte.
 Bethel
 Fairfax District, an industrial area along the Missouri River.
 Muncie
 Maywood
 Nearman
 Piper
 Pomeroy, late 1800s-early 1900s Train Depot, Trading Post, Saw Mill, and river landing for barges to load-unload.
 Rosedale
 Stoney Point
 Strawberry Hill
 Turner, community around the Wyandotte-Johnson County border to the Kansas River north-south, and from I-635 to I-435 east-west.
 Vinewood
 Wolcott
 Welborn

Parks and parkways
 City Park
 Wyandotte County Park
 Wyandotte County Lake Park

Climate
Kansas City is near "Tornado Alley", a region where cold air from the Rocky Mountains and Canada meets warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. This situation causes the formation of powerful storms. The most recent tornado to strike Kansas City itself was in May 2003. The region is also prone to ice storms, such as the 2002 ice storm during which hundreds of thousands lost power for days and (in some cases) weeks. The MoKan area was subject to flooding, including the Great Flood of 1993 and the Great Flood of 1951.

People

As with Kansas City, Missouri, the percentage of the city's biggest ethnic group, non-Hispanic whites, has gone down from 76.3% in 1970 to 40.2% in 2010.

Educational institutions

Colleges and universities

Private
 Donnelly College
 University of Saint Mary

Public
 Kansas City Kansas Community College
 University of Kansas Medical Center (Home of KU's Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health)

Public and private school districts
 Kansas City Kansas Public Schools
 Piper Unified School District #203
 Turner Unified School District #202
 Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas Catholic Schools

Secondary schools
 Bishop Ward High School, Kansas City
 Fairfax Learning Center
 J. C. Harmon High School
 Kansas City Kansas Community College: Technical Education Center (Formerly Kansas City Kansas Area Technical School, merged with Kansas City Kansas Community College in 2008)
 Piper High School, Kansas City (Piper, Kansas)
 F.L. Schlagle High School, Kansas City
 Kansas State School for the Blind, Kansas City
 Sumner Academy of Arts & Science, Kansas City
 Turner High School, Kansas City (Turner, Kansas)
 Washington High School, Kansas City
 Wyandotte High School, Kansas City

Crime

Sister cities
Kansas City has four sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:

  Linz, Austria
  Karlovac, Croatia
  Limerick, Ireland
  Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico

References

Other websites

 Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas
 Kansas City, KS/Wyandotte County Convention and Visitors Bureau
 Kansas City, Kansas Public Libraries

County seats in Kansas
 
1868 establishments in Kansas