KCK

KCK is an acronym for Kansas City, KS. This city sits on the border of Kansas and Missouri, along the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. It is just west of KCMO (Kansas City, Missouri). Although a separate city from KCMO, KCK and KCMO are nearly indistinguishable. The border between the two is often unnoticeable, even to locals. And the two cities comprise the urban core of the Kansas City metropolitan area, a metro of 2 million people in 2007. Combined, KCK and KCMO have about 600,000 people so they are the anchor cities for the metro area, similar to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. KCK has had a renaissance of sorts in the past decade and many more people are not only moving to KCK, but it has also become a tourist magnet for the region. The Kansas Speedway opened in 2001 and has spurred other developments in the city such as The Legends shopping center which is part of the bigger Village West district, an area of shops, restaurants, hotels, bars, and entertainment venues. The new Schlitterbahn Vacation Village water park is set to open nearby in 2009 or 2010. This water park in KCK will be one of the biggest and most impressive water parks in the United States.