Money Magazine's Best Places to Live: Overland Park

When seeing Money Magazine's "Best places to live," I was not surprised that Overland Park, Kansas, was in the top ten. Being a suburb of Kansas City it is not only one of the more inexpensive places to live, it is one of the few towns is Kansas with abundant activities: bars, pubs, clubs, high-end shopping, art, music, and theater. I have lived in the Kansas City area most of my life, but travel frequently. I have had the opportunity to compare many of the Money Magazine's top communities to one another and have found that Overland Park is certainly worthy of the top ten best places to live. After moving from Lee's Summit, Missouri, (ranked #79 on Money's list) to briefly reside in Columbia, Missouri, (Ranked 76 in 2007), I am returning to the Kansas City area in August to live in Overland Park. I'll tell you why.

The first thing anyone visiting Overland Park will notice is how clean it is. The streets are wide, well lit and perpetually trash free. I used to drive around the town looking at big houses and perpetually green lawns, happy to have street lights every hundred feet on the largest, busiest streets and the most minor neighborhood roads. The next thing noticed is the uncommonly clean tap water. It's noticeable in appearance and taste, by far the best water I've had anywhere. Most people don't know how bad the water they previously drank was until they come to the Kansas City area.

It's important to mention the surrounding communities as well. On Money Magazine's "Best Places to Live," Overland Park's nearest neighbor, Olathe, is 11^th and boasts one of the best movie theaters in the country, barely five minutes from Overland Park. The next closest neighboring town, Shawnee, is 39^th on the list, and barely across the Missouri-Kansas border is Lee's Summit, 79^th. Everything in these very nice communities is less expensive than most places in the USA, including lower gas prices (about thirty cents below average).

Money Magazine weighs a city's crime statistics against other cities, but they don't mention that in Overland Park has good cops. I got pulled over a few times there. The police don't hassle those that nominally speed. They're fair and cordial and do their jobs without bias. In general, I've found that people around the area are that way: nice, generous, and candid.