Kansas City: Unheralded High-tech Success

"Kansas City's dependence on telecommunications-and thus its current short-term problems-is a direct product of the city's past role as a rail center. (Many telecommunications arteries today are built upon railroad right-of-ways.) This infrastructure, in turn, spawned a sizable software industry, with per capita employment in this critical industry towering 79% above the national average. The concentration of telecom services here-ranking the region 13th nationally in the concentration of high-tech services and first in the Midwest, according to a 2000 Milken Institute study-has also helped Kansas City place tenth among the nation's most "wired" cities, the highest standing of any city in the Midwest."