Kansas City Skyline from Liberty Memorial

Kansas City, Missouri, is often abbreviated as "KC" ( abbreviations often refer to the metro area). It is officially nicknamed the City of Fountains. With over 200 fountains, the city claims to have the second most in the world, just behind Rome.^[6] The fountains at Kauffman Stadium, commissioned by original Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, are the largest privately-funded fountains in the world.^[7] The city also has more boulevards than any city except Paris and has been called "Paris of the Plains." Residents are known as Kansas Citians. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as the Heart of America as it is near both the population center of the United States and the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.

History

Kansas City, Missouri officially incorporated on March 28, 1853. The territory straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered a good place to build settlements.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 318.0 sq mi (823.7 km²). 313.5 sq mi (812.1 km²) of it is land and 4.5 sq mi (11.6 km²) of it (1.41%) is water. Much of urban Kansas City sits atop bluffs overlooking the rivers and river bottoms areas. Kansas City proper is bowl-shaped and is surrounded to the north and south by limestone and bedrock cliffs that were carved by glaciers. Kansas City is situated at the junction between the Dakota and Minnesota ice lobes during the maximum late Independence glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch. The Kansas and Missouri rivers cut wide valleys into the terrain when the glaciers melted and drained. A partially filled spillway valley crosses the central portion of Kansas City, Missouri. This valley is an eastward continuation of Turkey Creek valley. Union Station is located in this valley.^[12] The city's municipal water was recently rated the cleanest among the 50 largest cities in the United States, containing no detectable impurities.^{[citation needed]}

Climate

Kansas City lies near the geographic center of the contiguous United States, at the confluence of the second largest river in the country, the Missouri River, and the Kansas River (also known as the Kaw River). This makes for a climate that can, depending on the criteria used, be classified as a humid continental climate (Koppen Dfa) or a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with moderate precipitation and extremes of hot and cold. Summers can be very humid, with moist air riding up from the Gulf of Mexico, and during July and August daytime highs can reach into the triple digits, doing so on an average of about 5 days per year, and surpassing 90 °F (32 °C) 44 days per year.^[13] Winters vary from mild to bitterly cold, with lows dipping below 0 °F (−17.8 °C) for 5 to 10 nights a year.^[13] Snowfall averages at 12.6 inches (32 cm), but this figure varies widely, as the median amount is 5.9 inches (15.0 cm).^[13]

Kansas City is situated in "Tornado Alley", a broad region where cold air from the Rocky Mountains and Canada collides with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the formation of powerful storms. Kansas City has had many severe outbreaks of tornadoes, including the Ruskin Heights tornado in 1957,^[14] and the May 2003 tornado outbreak sequence, as well as other severe weather, most notably the Kansas City derecho in 1982. 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.^[15] Kansas City and its outlying areas are also subject to flooding, including the Great Flood of 1993 and the Great Flood of 1951.

Cityscape

Panoramic view from the top of Liberty Memorial looking North to downtown. Union Station is in the foreground, and Crown Center to its right.

Brush Creek on the Country Club Plaza at Night

Kansas City, Missouri, is organized into a system of more than 240^[18] neighborhoods, some with histories as independent cities or the sites of major events. Downtown, the center of the city, is currently undergoing major redevelopment with new condos, apartments, offices and The Power & Light District (shopping/entertainment development) complete with bars, restaurants, a grocery store with a tony roof-top pool club called The Jones, a theatre and The Sprint Center. All these things have made downtown/midtown a more viable residential option more than ever. Near Downtown, the urban core of the city has a variety of neighborhoods, including historical Westport, Ivanhoe, Hyde Park, Squire Park, the Crossroads Arts District, 18th and Vine Historic District, Pendleton Heights, Quality Hill, the West Bottoms, and the River Market; one up-and-coming "newer" neighborhood just minutes from downtown is upscale Briarcliff, though it is in the so-called "North-land" or simply "North of the River". Two other "near" downtown neighborhoods that are very popular and have unique appeal include the Country Club Plaza (or simply the "Plaza"), south Plaza and nearby Brookside.

Architecture

Community Christian Church, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and located adjacent to the Country Club Plaza

The city's skyline is what one might envision for a major Midwest city, with some notable exceptions. The Nelson-Atkins Museum opened the stunning Euro-Style Bloch addition in 2007. The towering Power and Light Building is influenced by the Art Deco style and contains a glowing sky beacon. The new world headquarters of H&R Block is a 20 story all glass oval which is bathed from top to bottom in a soft green light. The four Industrial art works atop the support towers of the Kansas City Convention Center (Bartle Hall) were once the subject of ridicule but now define the night skyline near the new Sprint Center along with One Kansas City Place (the tallest office tower structure in Missouri), the KCTV-Tower with its hundreds of lit bulbs (the tallest freestanding structure in Missouri), and the Liberty Memorial, a WWI memorial and museum, which flaunts simulated flames and smoke billowing into the night skyline. Kansas City is home to significant national and international architecture firms including ACI/Boland, BNIM, 360 Architecture, Ellerbe Becket, HNTB, Populous. Frank Lloyd Wright designed two private residences and the Community Christian Church.

Crown Center, fountains at Crown Center

Kansas City contains a collection of over 200 working fountains, second only to Rome.^{[citation needed]} Some of the most notable are on the Country Club Plaza. From French inspired traditional to modern, these fountains offer visitors to the city an unexpected bonus. Among the most notable: the Black Marble H&R Block fountain in front of Union Station with its synchronized water jets shooting high into the air, the Nichols Bronze Horses at the corner of Main and JC Nichols Parkway at the entrance to the Plaza Shopping District and the unique "family friendly" walk through fountain at Hallmark Cards World Headquarters in Crown Center.

City Market

Since its inception in 1857, the City Market has been one of the largest and most enduring public farmers' markets in the midwest, linking growers and small businesses to the Kansas City community. In addition, more than 30 full-time merchants are open year-round and offer specialty foods, fresh meats and seafood, restaurants and cafes, floral, home accessories and much more.^[19]

Downtown

The city's tallest buildings and characteristic skyline are roughly contained inside the downtown freeway loop (shaded in red). Downtown Kansas City itself is established by city ordinance to stretch from the Missouri River south to 31st Street (beyond the bottom of this map), and from I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins

A look down Downtown Kansas City streets today.

Downtown Kansas City is an area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 km²) bounded by the Missouri River to the north, 31st Street to the south, Bruce R. Watkins Drive (U.S. Highway 71) to the east and I-35 to the west. Areas near Downtown Kansas City include the 39th Street District is known as Restaurant Row^[20] and features one of Kansas City's largest selections of independently owned restaurants and boutique shops. It is a center of literary and visual arts and bohemian culture. Crown Center is the headquarters of Hallmark Cards and a major downtown shopping and entertainment complex. It is connected to Union Station by a series of covered walkways. The Country Club Plaza, or simply "the Plaza", is an upscale, outdoor shopping and entertainment district. It was the first suburban shopping district in the United States,^[21] designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile,^[22] and is surrounded by apartments and condominiums, including a number of high rise buildings. The associated Country Club District to the south includes the Sunset Hill and Brookside neighborhoods, and is traversed by Ward Parkway, a landscaped boulevard known for its statuary, fountains and large, historic homes. Kansas City's Union Station is home to Science City, restaurants, shopping, theaters, and the city's Amtrak facility.

After years of neglect and seas of parking lots, Downtown Kansas City currently is undergoing a period of change. Many residential properties recently have been or currently are under redevelopment. The Power & Light District, a new, nine-block entertainment district comprising numerous restaurants, bars, and retail shops, was developed by the Cordish Company of Baltimore, Maryland, Its first tenant opened on November 9, 2007. It is anchored by the Sprint Center, a 19,000 seat complex that has become a top draw for sports and musical entertainment. Elton John was the first performer to play at the Sprint Center.

Parks and boulevard system

J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, by Henri-Léon Gréber, in Mill Creek Park, adjacent to the Country Club Plaza

Kansas City has 132 miles (212 km) of spacious boulevards and parkways, 214 urban parks, 49 ornamental fountains, 152 ball diamonds, 10 community centers, 105 tennis courts, five golf courses, five museums and attractions, 30 pools, and 47 park shelters, all overseen by the city's Parks and Recreation department.^[23][24]

The parks and boulevard system winds its way through the city. Much of the system, designed by George E. Kessler, was constructed from 1893 to 1915. Cliff Drive, in Kessler Park on the North Bluffs, is a designated State Scenic Byway. It extends 4.27 miles (6.87 km) from The Paseo and Independence Avenue through Indian Mound on Gladstone Boulevard at Belmont Boulevard with many historical points and architectural landmarks. Ward Parkway, on the west side of the city near State Line Road, is lined by many of the city's most handsome homes. The Paseo is a major north–south parkway that runs 19 miles (31 km) through the center of the city beginning at Cliff Drive. It was modeled on the Paseo de la Reforma, a fashionable Mexico City boulevard.

Swope Park is one of the nation's largest city parks, comprising 1,805 acres (2.82 sq. mi.), more than twice as big as New York's Central Park.^[25] It features a full-fledged zoo, a woodland nature and wildlife rescue center, two golf courses, two lakes, an amphitheatre, day-camp area, and numerous picnic grounds. Hodge Park, in the Northland, covers 1,029 acres (1.61 sq. mi.). This park includes the 80-acre (320,000 m²) Shoal Creek Living History Museum, a village of more than 20 historical buildings dating from 1807 to 1885. Riverfront Park, 955 acres (3.86 km²) on the banks of the Missouri River on the north edge of downtown, holds annual Fourth of July celebrations and other festivals during the year.

At one time, nearly all residential streets were planted with a solid canopy of American elms, but Dutch elm disease devastated them.^{[citation needed]} Most were replaced with varieties of other handsome shade trees. A program went underway to replace many of the fast-growing sweetgum trees with hardwood varieties.^[26]

Culture

Performing arts

The Country Club Plaza ("The Plaza") the center of many cultural events in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the metropolitan area's top professional theatre company and the Starlight Theatre, 8,105-seat outdoor theatre designed by Edward Delk are a popular theatre company and theatre respectively. The Kansas City Symphony, founded by R. Crosby Kemper Jr. in 1982 to superseded the Kansas City Philharmonic, which was founded 1933. The symphony currently is located at the Lyric Theatre in Downtown Kansas City, but will move to the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, also downtown, when it is completed in December 2010. The current music director and lead conductor of the symphony is Michael Stern. Lyric Opera of Kansas City, founded in 1970, offers one American contemporary opera production during its annual season consisting of either four or five productions. The Lyric Opera also is located at the Lyric Theatre, and also will move to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in 2010. The Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, performs at the Folly Theater in downtown, and the UMKC Performing Arts Center.

The Kansas City Ballet, founded in 1957 by Tatiana Dokoudovska, is a ballet troupe comprising 25 professional dancers and apprentices. Between 1986 and 2000, it was combined with Dance St. Louis to form the State Ballet of Missouri, although it remained located in Kansas City. From 1980 to 1995, the Ballet was run by dancer and choreographer Todd Bolender. Today, the Ballet offers an annual repertory split into three seasons which ranges from classical to contemporary ballets.^[27] The Ballet also is located at the Lyric Theatre, and also will move with the Symphony and Opera to the Kauffman Center in 2010.

Entrance of the American Jazz Museum

Kansas City jazz in the 1930s marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. In the 1970s, Kansas City attempted to resurrect the glory of the jazz era in a sanitized family friendly atmosphere. In the 1970s, an effort to open jazz clubs in the River Quay area of City Market along the Missouri ended in a gangland war in which three of the new clubs were blown up in what ultimately resulted in the removal of Kansas City mob influence in the Las Vegas casinos. The annual "Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival", which attracts top jazz stars nationwide and large out-of-town audiences, has been rated Kansas City's "best festival." by pitch.com ^[28]

Live music venues can be found throughout the city, with the highest concentration in the Westport entertainment district centered on Broadway and Westport Road near the Country Club Plaza, as well as the 18th & Vine area (jazz music). A variety of music genres can be heard and have originated in Kansas City metro area, including: Rock groups Puddle of Mudd, Isaac James, Shooting Star, The Get Up Kids, Shiner, Flee The Seen, The Life and Times, Reggie and the Full Effect, Coalesce, The Casket Lottery, The Gadjits, The Rainmakers, Vedera, The Elders, Blackpool Lights and The Republic Tigers and Rappers Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Skatterman & Snug Brim, Mac Lethal, and Solè.

Municipal Auditorium and Bartle Hall Convention Center, Kansas City

Casinos

Missouri voters approved riverboat casino gaming on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers by referendum with a 63% majority on November 3, 1992. The first casino facility in the state opened in September 1994 in North Kansas City by Harrah's Entertainment, now Caesar's Entertainment.^[30] The combined revenues for the four casinos successfully operating in Kansas City exceeded $153 million per month in May 2008.^[31] The four casinos are Ameristar Kansas City, Argosy Kansas City, Harrah's North Kansas City, Isle of Capri Kansas City. A fifth area casino, the 7th Street Casino, opened in Kansas City, KS in 2008.

Cuisine

Kansas City is most famous for its steak and barbecue.

The American Hereford Association bull and Kemper Arena and the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange Building in the former Kansas City Stockyard of the West Bottoms as seen from Quality Hill

During the heyday of the Kansas City Stockyards, the city was known for its Kansas City steaks or Kansas City strip steaks. The most famous of the steakhouses is the Golden Ox in the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange in the stockyards in the West Bottoms. The stockyards, which were second only to those of Chicago in size, never recovered from the Great Flood of 1951 and eventually closed. The famed Kansas City Strip cut of steak is largely identical to the New York Strip cut, and is sometimes referred to just as a strip steak. Along with Texas, Memphis & North and South Carolina, Kansas City is a "world capital of barbecue." There are more than 90 barbecue restaurants^[32] in the metropolitan area and the American Royal each fall hosts what it claims is the world's biggest barbecue contest.

The classic Kansas City-style barbecue was an inner city phenomenon that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry from the Memphis, Tennessee, area in the early 1900s and blossomed in the 18th and Vine neighborhood. Arthur Bryant's was to take over the Perry restaurant and added molasses to sweeten the recipe. In 1946 Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q was opened by one of Perry's cooks. The Gates recipe added even more molasses. Although Bryant's and Gates are the two definitive Kansas City barbecue restaurants they have just recently begun expanding outside of the Greater Kansas City Area. Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue is well-regarded by many both locally and nationally. In 1977 Rich Davis, a psychiatrist, test-marketed his own concoction called K.C. Soul Style Barbecue Sauce. He renamed it KC Masterpiece and in 1986 he sold the sauce to the Kingsford division of Clorox. Davis retained rights to operate restaurants using the name and sauce.

Sports

Truman Sports Complex, with Arrowhead and Kaufmann Stadiums, opened in 1972–73.

Sprint Center opened in 2007 and hosts concerts and sports events downtown.

Professional sports teams in Kansas City include the Kansas City Chiefs in football, the Kansas City Royals in baseball, and Sporting Kansas City in soccer.

In college athletics, Kansas City has been the home of the Big 12 College Basketball Tournaments. Men's basketball has been played at Sprint Center since March 2008, and women's basketball is played at Municipal Auditorium. Arenas in Dallas and Oklahoma City have also historically hosted the tournament. Arrowhead Stadium serves as the venue for various intercollegiate football games. It has hosted the Big 12 Championship Game five times. On the last weekend in October, the Fall Classic rivalry game between Northwest Missouri State University and Pittsburg State University takes place here. The Bearcats of Northwest and Gorillas of Pitt State are frequently ranked one-two in the MIAA conference. In 2005, other games at Arrowhead included Arkansas State playing host to Missouri, and Kansas hosting Oklahoma.

Kansas City used to have an NBA team, which was itself originally located first in Rochester, New York (as the Rochester Royals), and then in Cincinnati (as the Cincinnati Royals). The team was originally called the Kansas City-Omaha Kings because it played home games in both Kansas City and Omaha. However, after 1975 the team would exclusively play in Kansas City. After 1985, the Kansas City Kings would move to Sacramento to become today's Sacramento Kings.

In 1974, the NHL continued its expansion period by adding teams in Kansas City and Washington, D.C.^[33] Although they were better than their expansion brethren the Washington Capitals (who won only eight games in their inaugural season), the Kansas City Scouts began to suffer from an economic downturn in the Midwest. For their second season, the Scouts sold just 2,000 of 8,000 season tickets and were almost $1 million in debt. Due to their various on- and off-ice disappointments, the franchise moved to Denver and was renamed the Colorado Rockies. Today they are known as the New Jersey Devils.

Airports

Kansas City International Airport

Kansas City International Airport was built to the specifications of TWA to make a world hub for the supersonic transport and Boeing 747. Its passenger friendly design in which its gates were 100 feet (30 m) from the street has, since the September 11, 2001 attacks, required a costly overhaul to retrofit it to incorporate elements of a more conventional security system. Recent proposals have suggested replacing the three terminals with a new single terminal situated south of the existing runways, thus allowing the airport to operate during construction and to shave miles off the travel distance from downtown and the southern suburbs. Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport was the original headquarters of Trans World Airlines and houses the Airline History Museum. It is still used for general aviation and airshows.

Public transportation

Like most American cities, Kansas City's mass transit system was originally rail-based. An electric trolley network ran through the city until 1957. The rapid sprawl in the following years led this privately run system to be shut down. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) was formed with the signing of a Bi-State compact created by the Missouri and Kansas legislatures on December 28, 1965. The compact gives the KCATA responsibility for planning, construction, owning and operating passenger transportation systems and facilities within the seven-county Kansas City metropolitan area. These include the counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte in Missouri, and Johnson, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte in Kansas. Kansas City doesn't have a subway or light rail system. Several proposals to build one have been rejected by voters in the past. Voters approved the last light rail proposal but it was struck down by the city council. Kansas City has a long history with streetcars and trolleys. From 1870–1957 Kansas City's streetcar system was among the top in the country, with over 300 miles (480 km) of track at its peak. Following the decision to scrap the system, many of its former streetcars have been serving other American cities for a long time. In 2007, ideas and plans arose to add normal trolley lines, as well as possibly fast streetcars to the city's Downtown for the first time in decades.

In July 2005, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) launched Kansas City's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line called "MAX" (Metro Area Express). MAX links the vibrant River Market, Downtown, Union Station, Crown Center and the Country Club Plaza. This corridor boasts over 150,000 jobs, as well as some of the area's most prestigious real estate and treasured cultural amenities.^{[citation needed] [67]} By design, MAX operates and is marketed more like a rail system than a local bus line. A unique identity was created for MAX, including 13 modern diesel buses and easily identifiable "stations". MAX features state-of-the-art technology to deliver customers a high level of reliability (real-time GPS tracking of buses, available at every station), speed (stoplights automatically change in their favor if buses are behind schedule) and comfort.^[68]

Education

Colleges and universities

Many universities, colleges, and seminaries are located in the Kansas City metropolitan area, including:

• University of Missouri–Kansas City, one of four schools in the University of Missouri system, serving more than 14,000 undergraduates
• Rockhurst University, a notable Jesuit university founded in 1910.
• Kansas City Art Institute, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885.
• Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.
• Avila University, Catholic university of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
• Park University, private institution established in 1875; Park University Graduate School is located downtown.
• William Jewell College, private liberal arts institution founded in 1849.
• Metropolitan Community College (Kansas City), a 2-year college with several branches in the suburban metropolitan area.
• Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Convention
• Nazarene Theological Seminary, Church of the Nazarene
• Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary
• Saint Paul School of Theology, Methodist
• DeVry University

Primary and secondary schools

Kansas City is served by 15 school districts including 9 Public School Districts. There are also numerous private schools; Catholic schools in Kansas City are governed by the Diocese of Kansas City.

The following Public School Districts serve Kansas City.^[69]

• Kansas City, MO School District
• North Kansas City School District
• Center School District
• Hickman Hills School District
• Grandview School District
• Liberty School District
• Park Hill School District
• Platte County R-111 School District.
• Raytown C-2 School District.

Libraries and archives

• Linda Hall Library, internationally recognized independent library of science, engineering and technology, housing over one million volumes.
• Mid-Continent Public Library, largest public library system in Missouri, and among the largest collections in America.
• Kansas City Public Library, oldest library system in Kansas City.
• University of Missouri-Kansas City Libraries, four collections: Leon E. Bloch Law Library and Miller Nichols Library, both on Volker Campus; and Health Sciences Library and Dental Library, both on Hospital Hill in Kansas City.
• Rockhurst University Greenlease Library.
• The Black Archives of Mid-America, research center of the African American experience in the central Midwest.
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Central Plains Region, one of 18 national records facilities, holding millions of archival records and microfilms for Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska in a new facility adjacent to Union Station, open to the general public in 2008.

Points of interest

Liberty Memorial by night.

• Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
• Kansas City Museum
• Worlds of Fun
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
• Thomas Hart Benton Studio State Historic Site
• Science City at Union Station
• Kansas City Zoo
• Sprint Center Home of the Big 12 Basketball Tournament
• KCI Expo Center
• Crown Center
• The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
• Kemper Arena
• Arabia Steamboat Museum
• Airline History Museum
• American Royal Museum
• Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
• Midland Theatre
• Hallmark Visitors Center
• Harris-Kearney House Museum‎
• American Jazz Museum‎

Media

The Kansas City Star 's new printing plant that opened in June 2006.

Print media

The Kansas City Star is the area's primary newspaper. William Rockhill Nelson and his partner, Samuel Morss, first published the evening paper on September 18, 1880. The Star competed heavily with the morning Times before acquiring it in 1901. The "Times" name was discontinued in March 1990, when the morning paper was renamed the "Star."^[45]

Weekly newspapers include The Call,^[46] which is focused toward Kansas City's African-American community, together with the Kansas City Business Journal, The Pitch, The Ink,^[47] and the bilingual paper Dos Mundos as well as a paper that exposes criminals within the city and surrounding areas called Kansas City's Most Wanted and The Slammer,.^[48]

The city is served by two major faith-oriented newspapers: The Kansas City Metro Voice, serving the Christian community, and the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, serving the Jewish community.

Broadcast media

Landmark KCTV-TV Tower on West 31st on Union Hill

The Kansas City media market (ranked 32nd by Arbitron^[49] and 31st by Nielsen^[50]) includes 10 television channels, along with 30 FM and 21 AM radio stations. Kansas City broadcasting jobs have been a stepping stone for many nationally recognized television and radio personalities, including Walter Cronkite, Rush Limbaugh, and Mancow Muller.

Film community

Kansas City has also been a locale for Hollywood productions and television programming. Also, between 1931 and 1982, Kansas City was home to the Calvin Company, a large movie production company that specialized in the making of promotional and sales training short films and commercials for large corporations, as well as educational movies for schools and training films for government. Calvin was also an important venue for the Kansas City arts, serving as training ground for many local filmmakers who went on to successful Hollywood careers, and also employing many local actors, most of whom earned their main income in other fields, such as radio and television announcing. Kansas City native Robert Altman got his start directing movies at the Calvin Company, and this experience led him to making his first feature film, The Delinquents, in Kansas City using many local thespians.

The 1983 television movie The Day After was filmed in Kansas City and Lawrence, Kansas. The 1990s film Truman starring Gary Sinise was also filmed in various parts of the city. Other films shot in or around Kansas City include Article 99, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Kansas City, Paper Moon, In Cold Blood, Ninth Street, and Sometimes They Come Back (in and around nearby Liberty, Missouri). More recently, a scene in the controversial film Brüno was filmed in the historic Hotel Phillips downtown.

Kansas City is also home to a vibrant and active independent film community. The Independent Filmmaker's Coalition of Kansas City is an organization dedicated to expanding and improving independent filmmaking in Kansas City.

Economy

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank "J" insignia on the dollar bill

Greater Kansas City is headquarters to several Fortune 500 companies (Sprint Nextel Corporation, H&R Block, YRC Worldwide Inc., and International Assets Holding Corporation) and additional Fortune 1000 corporations Great Plains Energy, Aquila, AMC Theatres, Applebee's, DST Systems, Garmin International, Cerner, Seaboard Corporation, and Russell Stover Candies). Three international law firms, Lathrop & Gage, Stinson Morrisson & Hecker, and Shook, Hardy & Bacon are also based in the City. Hallmark Cards's gross revenues certainly would qualify it for both lists, but it cannot be included because it is privately owned by the Hall family. Numerous agriculture companies operate out of the city . Dairy Farmers of America, the largest Dairy Co-op in the United States is located here. Kansas City Board of Trade is the principal trading Exchange for hard red winter wheat — the principal ingredient of bread. Black and Veatch, Perceptive Software, Compass Minerals, Ash Grove Cement, Ferrellgas, and Bats Exchange, Inc are also based in the Kansas City area.

Kansas City, Missouri is also the headquarters of:

• 360 Architecture
• American Century Investments
• Andrews McMeel Universal
• Assurant Employee Benefits
• Barkley Inc.
• Bernstein-Rein
• BNIM
• Boulevard Brewing Company
• Burns and McDonnell Engineering
• Commerce Bancshares
• Copaken, White & Blitt
• Crawford Architects
• Handmark
• HNTB
• HOK Sport
• J.E. Dunn Construction Group
• Kansas City Southern Railway
• McCownGordon Construction
• Novastar Financial
• Smith Electric Vehicles
• UMB Financial Corporation
• Veterans of Foreign Wars
• VML, Inc.
• Walton Construction

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and The National Association of Basketball Coaches are based in Kansas City.

H&R Block's new oblong headquarters in downtown Kansas City

The business community is serviced by two major business magazines, the Kansas City Business Journal (published weekly) and Ingram's Magazine (published monthly), as well as numerous other smaller publications, including a local society journal, the Independent (published weekly). Kansas City is literally "on the money." Bills issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City are marked the letter "J" and/or number "10." The single dollar bills have Kansas City's name on them. The Kansas City Federal Reserve built a new bank building that opened in 2008 and relocated near Union Station. Missouri is the only state to have two of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank headquarters (St. Louis also has a headquarters). Kansas City's effort to get the bank was helped by former Kansas City mayor James A. Reed who as senator broke a tie to get the Federal Reserve Act passed.^[51]

One of the largest drug manufacturing plants in the United States is the Sanofi-Aventis plant located in south Kansas City on the campus developed by Ewing Kauffman's Marion Laboratories.^[52] Of late, it has been developing some academic and economic institutions related to animal health sciences, an effort most recently bolstered by the selection of Manhattan, Kansas, at one end of the ^[53] Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, as the site for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which is tasked, among other things, to research animal-related diseases.

Ford Motor Company operates a large manufacturing facility just outside of Kansas City in Claycomo at the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant, which currently builds the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Ford F-150, and Mercury Mariner. The General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant s located in adjacent Kansas City, Kansas. Smith Electric Vehicles builds electric vehicles in the former TWA/American Airlines overhaul facility at Kansas City International Airport.

The Kansas City Plant dedicated by Harry Truman and currently operated by Honeywell produces and assembles 85 percent of the non-nuclear components of the United States nuclear bomb arsenal.^[54]

The national headquarters for the Veterans of Foreign Wars is headquartered just south of Downtown Kansas City.

With a Gross Metropolitan Product of $41.68 billion in 2004, Kansas City's (Missouri side only) economy makes up 20.5% of the Gross State Product of Missouri.