SperlingViews - St._Joseph, Missouri

St. Joseph, MO is nestled along the mighty Missouri river on the far western side of the state. It has rolling hills and the river banks are gorgeous in fall and spring. The people here are warm and friendly, the cost of living is very low compared to the national average (one of the lowest housing costs)and the schools are very good. One downside is the weather during the summer and winter. We have huge temperature extremes, for example it will be in the 20s one day then jumps up to the 50s the next! The summers are hot and humid to the point you need another shower the moment you walk outside! The other downside is the lack of recreational activities, there simply are not many. In the winter there is shopping, eating, bars, bowling and movies. That pretty much sums it up. In summer you can add golfing, public swimming pools and lake activity. We do have a couple museums but they are limited at best and definatley not something you can do every weekend. There is very little in the Arts and life here can be very boring. If you are looking for a quiet, inexpensive, laid back, friendly community and you don't mind weather fluctuations and won't miss recreational activities this is the place for you![read more...]

For years now St. Joseph has given alot of lip service to exploiting its historic and architectural assets to enhance the economy and quality of life here. But we really haven't moved past "Where the Pony Express Started and Jesse James Ended" (a tourism slogan from our local chamber). Slogans aside, except for a lot of bars in our "historic downtown" that found real estate prices and a burgeoning concentration of low income housing (a trend that accounts for virtually every effort at "historic rehabilitation of older structures in this city) hard to resist, no one has actually put a dent in developing the incredible number of older and architectually facinating neiborhoods here. That is unless a DENT can be read to mean a policy of demolishing old buildings, many with lots of remaining potential and structual soundness, as quickly as our fine city could dispatch a crew. Politically we have a vacuum of vision and leadership looming over this community. Our historic preservation planner is only marginally qualified to hold the job and is even less interested in his work. Our city council is interested only in seeing how fast they can dish up tax credit and abatement programs - originally designed to provide an incentive to developers to invest in our older less attractive census tracts - to developers of shopping centers and high end real estate in the "slam dunk" parts of town. If there was one thing I could change about this town it would be the backward thinking city governors and administrators who think that you can just let the "market" take care of the problems facing our downtown and surrounding neighborhoods while they take every opportunity to steer interest away from the opportunities inherent there. It's looking a lot like the Wall Street problem: the foxes are minding the hen house.[read more...]

Great place that is close to a big city, near to tiny towns, and falls somewhere in between. There is a small town atmosphere without the feeling of knowing EVERYONE. However, any time I go any where in town, I ALWAYS run into someone I know, and I've only lived here for six years. That might say a lot about me, but it also tends to bore me a bit. There's not very much growth potential here, career-wise, because the town is not growing. It's old and has a rich history, but it's falling behind the times and taking too long to catch up.[read more...]

St. Joseph is a great place for growing families & even retired people to live. The crime rate is low here & many people that like the party life & larger cities move away as they become of age,as it's quiet here & it doesn't have the party atmosphere that many larger cities have. The schools are top notch as are the housing options. We have a large college here, Missouri Western State College, plus we have a few smaller colleges & trade schools. St. Joseph is large enough to find many things to do, but it's small enough to be typically quiet. The jobs are plentiful so the unemployment rate is small. I would choose no other place to live & I feel very safe here.[read more...]

I visited for a few days recently and even though I found it quite hot and humid for June (I live in the desert) I found it to be an overall very clean and quaint town. Green and nice, reasonable cost of living. They seem a bit excited to begin getting the big stores and chain restaurants...the small restaurants I ate at that were local were not impressive. Folks seem nice and welcoming to out of towners. Only 45 minutes to heart of Kansas City. Seems like nice small town living with big city services a reasonable drive away.[read more...]