Where do you think the best places in Kunming are for street photography?

details? what are you looking for?
the 'old' area near the Bird and Flower market is interesting. Nanping jie is often busy if you want to photograph authentic local scenes. parts of Beijing lu are good for traffic photos.

I am looking for places that both scene but also authentically capture the local life of people in Yunnan. I am hoping to find out about some lesser known places.

I quite like to slowly venture and take pictures of activities in migrant villages (镇), especially those that have well-frequented food markets or street vendors. Or there's dianchi, cuihu (and its dancers), the new beijing lu (especially on weekend nights), hongshan donglu vegetables/fruits street market, the market in the north east that sells lots of dogs (north flower market?), whenhua xiang for local student life, xiaoximen before all the vendors are gone, zhengyi lu, major crossroads with a brouhaha of diandongchi when the light goes green anytime right after work hours, shaokao/mixian spots.
Or Longquan Lu after 10pm if you like monster trucks shows and dust.

Fengning rd westside past jinhuapu rd anytime around dinner. Then nearby Shenghaowang barbeque city around 10pm or later.

@Andrew D: the local life is the one you see everywhere - Chinese modernity. My guess is that you really want to photo things that have been around for awhile and that are different from modernity elsewhere - fine, but everything changes, and it is change that is the authenticity - the Chinese/nonchinese dichotomy is a deceptive one, and much exaggerated by everybody concerned - which is not to say that there's anything wrong with your project - historically-derived variations on a global theme, which will continue to develop, be stomped, and take other hybrid forms. No likely end to it.

If you want authentic modern life. Travel along any county level road to any small town. There are several between Kunming and Anning. Take the county road not the highway.
Just outside Kunming on the west side of Dianchi are several small villages, this is how most of the people live.

IMHO not very photogenic. Typically, a few old ladies in traditional dress, a few old dudes in Zhou En Lai suits (Mao Suits), everyone else wearing modern clothes, a few manual workers wearing suits, mostly 70's 80's concrete and brick structures, new cars, a few tuck tucks and lots of dust.

There are lots of places that are quaint, but that is not really modern China.

If you want rural, there is lots of that, but you need to go to the villages in the hills. Even these have concrete, cars, and dust now.

If you want remote rural, with lots of ethnic interest, you need to travel further but this is rapidly becoming less typical of life for the vast majority.
If you want specifically, agrarian, then people can no doubt direct you where to find this.

My wife's home-town it typical. Popn. 30 000. It has old wooden houses remaining, less than 1% of the buildings. Concrete buildings usually under 6 storeys, including modern but poor quality hotels, supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, too many/much taxis, cars, vans trucks, traffic jams, noise, pollution, dust, and grime. 90% of the shops have a modern façade. Only a few still only have steel roller shutters.
But you can see all this in the older districts of Kunming.

The reality is that internal combustion engines, electricity, mobile phones, televisions, and modernity have painted the landscape liberally.