@Evade5415 @nostupidquestions We should rename Kansas to Ur-Kansas. You know, to avoid confusion.

That's what I learned to call it growing up in Kansas.

I grew up in NJ and I have never heard anyone say it that way unironically.

I think most of those "this is how the locals say it" things are clinging to a fading past. My favorite was a Kitchen Nightmares episode where the owner tells Gordon Ramsay that New Orleans is pronounced "Naw-Lins" (with some drawl, not sure how to write that exactly), but every other time before and after, he says "New Orleans".

I grew up near Baltimore, which people variously insisted should be "Bee-mer", "Balmer" or... A couple others. The only one I've seen actually play out is residents of NYC primarily referring to it as "The City", but that one is also pretty normal, so it makes sense that it would survive.

I assume Houston Street is named after a man that pronounced his name House-ton. Houston the city was named for Sam Houston, the first President of the Republic of Texas. He pronounced it Hews-ton, so that's what we call it.