Kansas City, abbreviated as “KCK”, is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, the county seat of Wyandotte County, and the third-largest city of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 156,607. The city formed as a streetcar suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. It is situated at Kaw Point, the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. It is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the “Unified Government”. Wyandotte County also includes the independent cities of Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, a portion of Lake Quivira, and the unincorporated area known as Loring.

In October 1872, “old” Kansas City, Kansas, was incorporated. The first city election was held on October 22 of that year, by order of Judge Hiram Stevens of the Tenth Judicial District, and resulted in the election of Mayor James Boyle. The mayors of the city after its organization were James Boyle, C. A. Eidemiller, A. S. Orbison, Eli Teed and Samuel McConnell. In June 1880, the Governor of Kansas, John St. John, proclaimed the city of Kansas City a city of the second class with Mayor McConnell present.

In March 1886, “new” Kansas City, Kansas, was formed through the consolidation of five municipalities: “old” Kansas City, Armstrong, Armourdale, Riverview, Wyandotte. The oldest city of the group was Wyandotte, which was formed in 1857 by Wyandot Native Americans and Methodist missionaries.^{: 370, 384, 388}

In the 1890s, the city saw an explosive growth in population as a streetcar suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. This growth continued until the 1930s. It was one of the nation’s 100 largest cities for many U.S. Census counts, from 1890 to 1960, including 1920, when it had a population of over 100,000 residents for the first time.

As with adjacent Kansas City, Missouri, the percentage of the city’s most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic whites, has declined from 76.3% in 1970 to 40.2% in 2010. In 1997, voters approved a proposition to unify the city and county governments creating the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that employment in Wyandotte County, Kansas increased 4% from March 2011 to March 2012. The sharp rise in the number of workers resulted in Wyandotte County ranking 19th in the nation and 1st in the Kansas City metropolitan area for job growth as of September 28, 2012.

Kansas City is the home to the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant, which manufactures the Chevrolet Malibu and the Cadillac XT4. The Federal Bureau of Prisons maintains its North Central Region Office in the city. In addition, Associated Wholesale Grocers and Kansas City Steak Company are based within the city. The largest employer is the University of Kansas Hospital. The adjoining University of Kansas Medical Center, including the schools of medicine, nursing, and allied health, is also among the city’s largest employers (with a student population of about 3,000).

Village West is a business and entertainment district located at the intersection of Interstates 70 and 435. Anchored by the Kansas Speedway, tenants include Hollywood Casino,The Legends At Village West, AMC Theatres IMAX, Cabela’s, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Great Wolf Lodge, Monarchs Stadium, the home stadium of the Kansas City Monarchs of the American Association, over three dozen restaurants, and Children’s Mercy Park, the home stadium of the Sporting Kansas City Major League Soccer franchise. Schlitterbahn Vacation Village, a 370-acre (1.5 km²) resort and waterpark, opened across I-435 from Village West in June 2009, however it has been closed since the end of the 2018 season.

Kansas City was ranked in 2010 as the #7 best city in the U.S. to start over after foreclosure. Average rent in Kansas City is only $788, which is low in relation to the national average of $1,087 spent on rent.

On March 30, 2011, Google announced that Kansas City had been selected as the site of an experimental fiber-optic network that it would build at no cost to the city. Kansas City was chosen from a field of 1,100 U.S. communities that had applied for the network. The network became operational in 2012.Piper, Kansas, became the first full community in the nation (based on actual residential votes and pre-registration counts) to have residential broadband internet network infrastructures using fiber-optic communication of 1Gbit/s download and upload speeds provided by Google Fiber.

According to the City’s 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the largest employers in the city are:

Kansas City, Kansas, has a number of buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city is home to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, which covers 12,500 square miles (32,000 km²) in eastern Kansas.

Memorial Hall is a 3,500-seat indoor arena/auditorium located in the city’s downtown. The venue, which has a permanent stage, is used for public assemblies, concerts and sporting events. In 1887, John G. Braecklein constructed a Victorian home for John and Margaret Scroggs in the area of Strawberry Hill. It is a fine example of the Queen Anne style architecture erected in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Rosedale Arch, dedicated to the men of Kansas City, Kansas, who served in World War I, is a small-scale replica of France’s famous Arc de Triomphe. It is located on Mount Marty in Rosedale, overlooking the intersection of Rainbow and Southwest Boulevards.

Wyandotte High School is a public school building located at 2501 Minnesota Avenue. Built in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project, the school was later designated as a Historical Landmark by the city in 1985 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 1986. In 1889, the Wyandotte County Museum and Historical Society was established as a permanent repository of the county’s history. The Argentine Carnegie Library, the only Carnegie library that exists in the metropolitan area, was built in 1917. The library has moved the collections and staff from Argentine to the new South Branch, at 3104 Strong Ave., a few blocks to the west and north, which opened September 26, 2012. The library has turned over the building to the Kansas City, Kansas USD 500.

Other points of interest in the Kansas City, Kansas, area include Fire Station No. 9,Granada Theater,Hanover Heights Neighborhood Historic District,Huron Cemetery,Judge Louis Gates House, Kansas City, Kansas Hall, Kansas City, Kansas Fire Headquarters, Great Wolf Lodge, Schlitterbahn Vacation Village, Quindaro Townsite,Sauer Castle,Scottish Rite Temple,Shawnee Street Overpass, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building, St. Augustine Hall, Theodore Shafer House, Trowbridge Archeological Site, Westheight Manor and Westheight Manor District, White Church Christian Church, Wyandotte County Courthouse and the Muncie area.

Kansas City, Kansas, is part of a bi-state media market that comprises 32 counties in northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri. The Kansas City media market (ranked 32nd by Arbitron and 31st by Nielsen) includes 10 television stations, and 30 FM and 21 AM radio stations. Due to its close proximity to the Topeka media market, most of the television and radio stations from that city are receivable over-the-air in portions of the Kansas City, Kansas, area. KCTV CBS is licensed to Kansas City, Missouri, but operates out of Kansas City, Kansas.

Kansas City, Kansas is served by the Kansan, a daily newspaper which ceased its print publication and became an online-only paper in 2009. Newspapers serving the city’s suburbs include The Record (serving Turner, Argentine and Rosedale), Piper Press (serving Piper) and The Wyandotte West (weekly publication for western Wyandotte County).

Weekly newspapers include alternative publication The Pitch, faith-oriented newspaper The Kansas City Metro Voice, The Wyandotte Echo (which focuses on legal news), The Call (which is focused on the African-American community), business newspaper Kansas City Business Journal and the bilingual publication Dos Mundos.

The major U.S. broadcast television networks have affiliates in the Kansas City market, including WDAF-TV 4 (Fox), KCTV 5 (CBS), KMBC-TV 9 (ABC), KCPT 19 (PBS), KCWE 29 (The CW), KSHB-TV 41 (NBC) and KSMO-TV 62 (MyNetworkTV). Other television stations in the market include Saint Joseph, Missouri-based KTAJ-TV 16 (TBN), KCKS-LD 25, Lawrence, Kansas-based KMCI-TV 38 (independent), Spanish-language station KUKC-LD 20 (Univision), and KPXE-TV 50 (Ion Television).

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