Impression of St. Louis, MO

[jamestroll]

During my travels and living in different states, I noticed St. Louis generally gets a bad rap. But there is a significant minority who speaks of the area very positively. Generally people who have been to St. Louis will speak of it positively.

I have no plans to ever live there again until I am very old but it isn't that bad.

[bagelman]

It's a dying rust belt city with a redshifting metro. Known mainly for troubled neighborhoods likes Ferguson and an odd prejudice against the word pop. Once a rival of Chicago. The urban population has dropped below 300k and crime rate remains high, but better than it was in the 2000s. I've never been there though and I'm sure there's some cool things about it I'm missing.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

'Meh' overall.
Kind of like a diamond long lodged in mud.

[Santander]

I basically have the same conclusion - I have no desire to live there, but it is not the worst place.

I have strong (negative) feelings about the Gateway Arch becoming a National Park, but that doesn't change my opinion of the city itself.

[TheReckoning]

A national embarrassment.

[It’s so Joever]

Crime but based bcuz of Bosnians. Oh I think there’s an arch there as well.

[Sol]

Punches well above its size in culture.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Once they get rid of Hawley and put Kunce in FF

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I had Hooters wings there for breakfast in 2014.

...

My God, that was over 9 years ago.

[T'Chenka]

Never been. From an outsider perspective, it seems to be a bit of a s__thole.

[jamestroll]

Never been. From an outsider perspective, it seems to be a bit of a s__thole.

Punches well above its size in culture.

Its surprisingly clean, even in much of the inner city, then you would expect. There is a lot to do in culture and even nature compared to the areas image, size, and geographic location. Springs are very flowery, summers are quite lively and green, falls are stunning in the area. The culture via largely free museums and interesting neighborhoods such as The Hill are interesting and strong pros of the region, but they are not a major part of daily life.

Because I grew up in St. Louis as a young kid, museums and zoos generally bore me. That is because St. Louis has such an amazing zoo and museums. Even Washington DC seems subpar to me in that regard. To be fair though, I lived in that area during covid. Everything north of the Potomac was largely closed.

If I ever lived in St. Louis area (unlikely for the foreseeable future), I would really only care to live in the areas I circled below roughly.



Crime is stunningly horrible, but I will note that I walked around in late evening the central city, downtown, and even north city and never been bothered.  In 2017, 2018, and 2019 there was a sense of anarchy in the city that seems to have gotten worse since that time.


It is a great area to live in if you are WHITE. If you are black it's a horrible place to live. Blacks are targeted by local police, not much economic opportunity, and have horribly ran neighborhoods.

The local municipal governments and often the very bizarre people who live and even run the areas can be quite shocking. Where do you think I got the phrase "roll around the floor screaming". That comes from my two times in St. Louis in which I literally saw people roll around the floor screaming.

Projects there often fail from the Pruitt–Igoe to the Delmar loop trolley.

It just always had a sinking ship feeling to me, and I hope maybe one day it redeems itself.  

[Suburbia]

Never been. From an outsider perspective, it seems to be a bit of a s__thole.

Punches well above its size in culture.

Its surprisingly clean, even in much of the inner city, then you would expect. There is a lot to do in culture and even nature compared to the areas image, size, and geographic location. Springs are very flowery, summers are quite lively and green, falls are stunning in the area. The culture via largely free museums and interesting neighborhoods such as The Hill are interesting and strong pros of the region, but they are not a major part of daily life.

Because I grew up in St. Louis as a young kid, museums and zoos generally bore me. That is because St. Louis has such an amazing zoo and museums. Even Washington DC seems subpar to me in that regard. To be fair though, I lived in that area during covid. Everything north of the Potomac was largely closed.

If I ever lived in St. Louis area (unlikely for the foreseeable future), I would really only care to live in the areas I circled below roughly.



Crime is stunningly horrible, but I will note that I walked around in late evening the central city, downtown, and even north city and never been bothered.  In 2017, 2018, and 2019 there was a sense of anarchy in the city that seems to have gotten worse since that time.


It is a great area to live in if you are WHITE. If you are black it's a horrible place to live. Blacks are targeted by local police, not much economic opportunity, and have horribly ran neighborhoods.

The local municipal governments and often the very bizarre people who live and even run the areas can be quite shocking. Where do you think I got the phrase "roll around the floor screaming". That comes from my two times in St. Louis in which I literally saw people roll around the floor screaming.

Projects there often fail from the Pruitt–Igoe to the Delmar loop trolley.

It just always had a sinking ship feeling to me, and I hope maybe one day it redeems itself.  

1)Why would an inner city be a good place to live for a white person?
2) Black St Louisans commit the majority of the crimes there, so yes, they obviously would be targeted, although it is not fair and profiling...What do you want, for the police to sit back and do nothing?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I went last summer and didn't feel like it was anywhere I would want to live or spend a lot of time in.  A few blocks around downtown were nice enough, but it didn't really feel like there was much to see beyond the Arch and the ballpark.  We did the riverboat by the Arch too, and I didn't feel like that was worth it.  The Arch was cool, and I'm glad we did it, but not something that you would want to go to frequently.  We also stayed in a hotel in Chesterfield, and I didn't think it seemed as nice as similar corporate parts of suburban areas outside of other cities.

[dead0man]

I spent the first 21 years of my life in the area.

The zoo (and science center and a very nice art museum, all located near each other in a beautiful and large city park like NYC's Central Park, but bigger) is great and free.  The "good" parking spots you have to pay for, but it's in a park, there is plenty of free parking around, you just have to walk a bit.  But you're going to a zoo, you'll be doing plenty of walking, an extra 1000 feet ain't going to kill you (probably).

The crime, while high, is kept away from where regular people go.  Like most places.

They love their Cardinals and their Blues.  Some of the best fans in sport (heavily, heavily biased)


I'd never live there again.

[RFK 2024]

Ghetto as f*** and one of the fastest shrinking cities.  I don't see any redeeming qualities.  All the cities surrounding it are also terrible.  East St Louis is the most violent city in America.

[Vosem]

Charming city with very pleasant people but terrible pizza, just comically bad. I mostly didn't enjoy my time living there but that was because of stuff I was going through myself rather than any of the city's particular faults.

[Santander]

Some of the best fans in sport (heavily, heavily biased)

Husker fans are obviously the best.

[Green Line]

Ghetto, trash pizza (provel… WTF), overrated bbq, arch is scary.

Only redeeming quality is their mockery of the Cubs.  Love wearing my sox hat to cards games and bonding

[Suburbia]

Meh.

Gateway Arch is the best, and the Rams when they were there were good ('99 and '01 seasons)

The STL crime is probably why the Rams left...

Blues and Cardinals are more institutional there

[Progressive Pessimist]

I feel like it fits into the mold of other significantly declined urban areas like Cleveland or Detroit, sadly. But that's only going off of what I hear about it.

[dead0man]

Some of the best fans in sport (heavily, heavily biased)

Husker fans are obviously the best.

no

[jamestroll]

too much exaggeration how bad St. Louis is. Not good!

Never been. From an outsider perspective, it seems to be a bit of a s__thole.

Punches well above its size in culture.

Its surprisingly clean, even in much of the inner city, then you would expect. There is a lot to do in culture and even nature compared to the areas image, size, and geographic location. Springs are very flowery, summers are quite lively and green, falls are stunning in the area. The culture via largely free museums and interesting neighborhoods such as The Hill are interesting and strong pros of the region, but they are not a major part of daily life.

Because I grew up in St. Louis as a young kid, museums and zoos generally bore me. That is because St. Louis has such an amazing zoo and museums. Even Washington DC seems subpar to me in that regard. To be fair though, I lived in that area during covid. Everything north of the Potomac was largely closed.

If I ever lived in St. Louis area (unlikely for the foreseeable future), I would really only care to live in the areas I circled below roughly.



Crime is stunningly horrible, but I will note that I walked around in late evening the central city, downtown, and even north city and never been bothered.  In 2017, 2018, and 2019 there was a sense of anarchy in the city that seems to have gotten worse since that time.


It is a great area to live in if you are WHITE. If you are black it's a horrible place to live. Blacks are targeted by local police, not much economic opportunity, and have horribly ran neighborhoods.

The local municipal governments and often the very bizarre people who live and even run the areas can be quite shocking. Where do you think I got the phrase "roll around the floor screaming". That comes from my two times in St. Louis in which I literally saw people roll around the floor screaming.

Projects there often fail from the Pruitt–Igoe to the Delmar loop trolley.

It just always had a sinking ship feeling to me, and I hope maybe one day it redeems itself.  

1)Why would an inner city be a good place to live for a white person?
2) Black St Louisans commit the majority of the crimes there, so yes, they obviously would be targeted, although it is not fair and profiling...What do you want, for the police to sit back and do nothing?

1) St. Louis City has a slight plurality of whites. If you took all the North City wards out and accounted for crime statistics for central and south city, that area would be alone having a higher crime than national median. But still not considered "dangerous"

2) People can SCREAM, SHOUT, PREACH, LECTURE all they want that that gap between white and black crime is true statistically. I just never seen any real life evidence of such a large gap. Black people are oppressed. They may have a slightly higher rate of crime, but most of it is societal barriers.

black neighborhoods being dangerous is all hype. Almost as much of hype as covid was. Just the media needing attention.

[Badger]

Ghetto, trash pizza (provel… WTF), overrated bbq, arch is scary.

Only redeeming quality is their mockery of the Cubs.  Love wearing my sox hat to cards games and bonding

I'll give you the pizza, though I hear some locals say that's mostly just for tourists. But overrated ribs??

[JGibson]

As someone who has lived all their life in the St. Louis Metro area, more specifically Granite City in the Metro East part of it in Illinois, the St. Louis area and the city have a lot going for it.

Provel cheese on pizza (like Imo's) is awesome.

The Cardinals, Blues, STLCSC (debuted this year), and the BattleHawks are have solid support. The Rams, while in town, had decent to great support.

[Kleine Scheiße]

it's awesome