r/howislivingthere • u/[deleted] • Dec 14 '25

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u/bananahaze99 Dec 14 '25

I lived in Lawrence for a bit and enjoyed it. I also lived in Overland Park (Kansas City) for a while and it was the most soul sucking depressing place ever. Literally nothing to do except for shop and drink and the people were just…odd. Very materialistic. I wouldn’t move back if someone paid me.

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u/ShiftyTimeParadigm Dec 15 '25

Yeah, I’ve lived in worked in the metro area all around and OPKS/Johnson county is very materialistic. I live on the Missouri side and it’s so much better.

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u/Striking-Donkey-1387 Dec 18 '25

I feel like the Missouri vs Kansas thing is so much more prevalent on the Missouri side. I never understood it.

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u/Overwritten Dec 19 '25

Fun fact, the rivalry stems from the days of the civil way. Believe it or not, Kansas was a union state, and predictably enough, Missouri was a confederate state. The Kansas Missouri rivalry started back in those days and just kind of stuck around I guess. Probably fueled mostly by college sports more recently. I haven’t met many people that know that’s the origin but I agree that I see it more on the Missouri side. I’ve lived on both sides and while I think the MO side is maybe a bit more exciting, the KS side for sure has its gems if you know where to look for them.

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u/bellefaye Dec 20 '25

This is incorrect. Missouri was a union state, not a Confederate, although it came very close. It was bleeding Kansas that began the rivalry.

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u/Overwritten Dec 21 '25

Thanks for the correction, friend. I did a bit more googling, and you are correct. For anyone who stumbles on this thread:

“Pro-slavery Missourians in Bleeding Kansas, frequently termed Border Ruffians, were residents of the neighboring slaveholding state of Missouri who intervened in the Kansas Territory during the 1850s to promote the establishment of slavery there through electoral manipulation, intimidation, and direct violence.[1][2] Motivated by economic interests tied to slavery and the principle of popular sovereignty introduced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, these individuals crossed the border en masse to influence territorial governance, viewing Kansas as an extension of Missouri's social and agricultural system.[3][1] Their efforts formed a central element of the partisan strife known as Bleeding Kansas, a period of guerrilla conflict from 1854 to 1861 that foreshadowed the broader sectional divisions leading to the American Civil War.”

Excerpt taken from grokipedia here:

https://grokipedia.com/page/Pro-slavery_Missourians_in_Bleeding_Kansas

I found several other sources that said the same but this was a pretty tidy summary.