I’ve traveled the seven seas; I’ve traversed the eight continents; I’ve been to the Great Wall of China. I have seen the pyramids of Egypt. And now, now I will provide for you: the reader; the curious; the Kirkophile; the definitive power ranking of the best Kirkwoods the world has to offer.
First however we must establish some rules. A sister city is defined as a city with which a special relationship is established in order to establish greater economic and cultural ties. Sister cities don’t have to share a name, in fact they usually don’t. St. Louis, for example has sixteen official sister cities (Rosario, Argentina; Brcko, Bosnia & Herzegovina; Nanjing, China; Wuhan, China; Lyon, France; Stuttgart, Germany; Georgetown, Guyana; Bogor, Indonesia; Donegal County, Ireland; Galway, Ireland; Bologna, Italy; Suwa, Japan; San Luis Potosi, Mexico; Szczecin, Poland; Samara, Russia; and St. Louis, Senegal) with only two sharing a name. But, sifting through random cities all over the world doesn’t work as well as an organizing theme for an article and so we’ll focus on our namesakes. A lot of Kirkwoods look like great haunts for American Pickers but aren’t… exactly towns. No, most of the Kirkwoods I’ve encountered in my Google Earth-assisted travels are more so five or six houses, kind of close together, on a two-laner surrounded by some fields. There are a few however, ones with character and cultural diversity that I think could offer a mutually beneficial relationship.
6. Kirkwood, New York
Kirkwood, New York probably wouldn’t have made the cutoff of legitimacy except for one fact: It is named after a certain James Pugh Kirkwood. Yes, this man hustled two cities into naming their town after him for routing some tracks in their direction. With that being said, the Scotland native seemed to have lived a pretty interesting life, I encourage you to read more about him. As for the town it seems to be little more than a spur of the larger town of Binghamton, New York, a stone’s throw further up the Susquehanna River. Binghamton seems cool enough but I’d skip Kirkwood.
5. Kirkwood, Pennysvania
Count me as a fan of Kirkwood, PA. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the aura and intrigue of Lancaster County and its accompanying Amish and Mennonite populations. Maybe it’s the old white washed farmhouses. Maybe its the feeling that a civil war site is inevitably located near by or maybe it’s the symmetry. I don’t know if I could ever live there myself but I’m glad someone does. Located at the intersection of Kirkwood Pike and Maple Shade Rd and surrounded by farms in every direction it’s the type of town that feels like a stiff breeze could blow into unbeing. Here’s to hoping that breeze never comes; here’s to you Kirkwood PA.
4. Kirkwood, California
Kirkwood CA, located just South of Lake Tahoe, is more of a ski resort than a town. Nonetheless it’s a ski resort, you know, just South of Lake Tahoe and all, and I therefore would be in favor of any sort of reciprocal we could arrange with them.
3. Kirkwood, Georgia
Kirkwood Georgia, much like our Kirkwood is a satellite of a much larger city. The streetcar suburb of Atlanta, however, seems to be more of a neighborhood than an full fledged town. With that being said, it is a neighborhood with a rich history and a real penchant for walkability. Plaques marking important location from the Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta serve to develop a sense of place while a road diet/streetscape redesign of the main drag through town (price tag $1.5 mil) greatly improved the walking and biking infrastructure.
2. Kirkwood, South Africa
Kirkwood South Africa seems like the single best choice for a sister city arrangement. Not only does Kirkwood SA’s culture seems to be a significant enough a departure from Kirkwood MO’s to make the proposition worthwhile but it also is a town of comparable size to our own, at least relatively speaking. Kirkwood has a lot more going on than some of these other entries so a wikipedia search is probably warranted but I’ll give some highlights.
Located an hour’s drive up the Sunday River from the major costal city of Port Elizabeth (metro population of 1,152,915), Kirkwood’s economy revolves around the citrus orchards that fill the valley. It has its own Kirkwood High School, golf course and even annual music festival (Known as Wildfees, every June Kirkwood’s population swells to 50,000 as visitors flood the city for international acclaimed acts and wildlife exhibits and auctions with all proceeds going to the nearby Addo Elephant National Park located twenty miles to the East). Its main street is seems quaint and walkable with small shops, pharmacies and restaurants lining its sidewalks and not a surface parking lot to be found. That’s not to say Kirkwood, SA is some utopia —income inequality seems severe and likely is a direct holdover from Apartheid— but instead that even these short comings could contribute to what both of our communities could learn from one another.
So let’s get it going. Let’s get their crest cemented in the plaza in front of City Hall. Let’s get a pen pal program going for our younger students and an exchange program so that high school kids can finally meet those pal’s. Let’s have a few informational plaques covering Kirkwood SA’s history in our parks, Let their students spend a semester here and their mayor tossing the coin at the Turkey Day game. Let’s go; I’m all in.
1. Kirkwood, MO
There’s no place like home, baby.