You should first visit the area for about a week. St Louis is comprised of 91 municipalities. Many of which you will miss if you blink. The inner-city school system is poor. The area (st louis as a whole) is segregated. It is family oriented with much to do for young kids. Areas to relo to depend on schools. That's how negihborhoods are sold and houses priced. Ladue, Clayton are your more prestigious city negihborhoods (you WILL pay to live there.) Chester field and West County areas are good (i.e.Kirkwood, Des Pres, Manchester) Stay away from South County. Don't seek to make friend easily - it won't happen. St louis is very small-town thinking and just has a lot of land space. Taxes are high b/c of the fighting municipalities (too many chiefs not enough indians). Depending on your industry, you may or may not be able to get another job in the unfortunate event you lose your current position. I know it all doesn't sound positive, but ultimately you are the deciding factor. Those are just the facts. It also depends on where you are relocating from and what you are used to.
Abhd | St. Charles, MO | Report Abuse

this came from a born and raised st louisian. I read it and i think you will definitely get a fair view of the city while you continue your research: "I wish my home town was a fantastic place to live, it's beautiful and full of history, but it's not so great. I graduated from St Louis University and when I was there it was rated the most dangerous college campus in the country based upon surrounding crime statistics. The crime rate is no joke and it's been bad for a very long time. The city is totally segregated and the people are generally pretty small minded and short sighted. I don't see the problem being solved any time soon. That being said, the county is so safe I know a lot of people who don't lock their doors. St. Louis city and St. Louis county are two very diferent places. (one has black people and one doesn't,you guess which it is...one has a fantastic public school system and one doesn't...one has etc. etc.) It is one of the largest Catholic diocese in the country and conservative Catholic values really color the local thinking.It's a hard place to live if your ideas or values are outside of the conservative status quo. By that I mean not being racist and feeling like abortion is acceptable. Social activities tend to revolve around either excessive drinking or sports. "Cultural" activities are provincial at best. (think Andrew Lloyd Weber) The populace is not friendly and tend to be distrustful, if not down right fearful, of anyone they don't know. One of the other commentors remarked upon St. Louisans tendency to ask where a person went to high school. That question is about socio-economics. Knowing what public or private school the person went to generally tells you how well off their family is. The segregation in St. Louis runs way deeper than just race. There are further social strata that start once blacks are cut out of the picture altogether, race is the first cut, then comes money and religion. It's a crazy place. Ask a local about "The Veiled Prophet" and "Fashionetta" balls. The weather sucks, way too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter. However.....there are some county neighborhoods that are pretty good for families. Webster Groves and Kirkwood are two traditionally integrated neighborhoods with high income levels, good public schools, and educated populations. Webster University is a great campus and they hold film festivals and events that are open to the general public. Cute houses, good architecture.... There's a fantastic walking/biking trail that abuts Webster groves. And my public school education was amazing. I came out of a free gifted education program and the International Baccalaureate system. My old school district, Lindbergh, is still very highly ranked, but South county is pretty bigoted and comsumerist. It's sort of an orgy of over weight housewives competing to buy the greatest number of goods made in China. Although one is beginning to see non-whites and foreigners in the stores there, which is an improvement. (We had race-riots and massive white flight to private schools at my high school when they were finally forced to integrate in the 1980's.) I left St. Louis for San Francisco in 1995, returned in 1997 to finish my education at SLU, left again in 2000 for LA, left LA in 2005 for New York, and just returned to LA a month ago. I prefer living in cities that are actual "destinations" for people from all over the US and the world. I feel like that way there's a selection process for the population. You get a larger percentage of the best and brightest, or at least the most interesting. Heh. ;o) So, I have my own biases. Good luck."
Abhd | St. Charles, MO | Report Abuse

First off most of the St.Louis bashing come from the elitists who would rather be somewhere they (and their sorority sisters) see as "Hip". Second, visiting St.Louis for a week does it no justice, I lived there for about 24 of the 33 years I've been on this planet and still haven't been to alot of places. After moving to the third world nation of North Carolina, I finally realized the cost of living couldn't be any better than St.Louis without sacrificing quality of life. To steal a thought for a local radio host Dave Glover, St.Louis has an inferiority complex in comparison to NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. Mostly though, people draw their conclusions from a vacation in these places and don't realize there are dozens of restaurants on the hill alone that are head and shoulders above the 5 star resort they are comparing St.Louis to. Wanna make a fair comparison, go visit Tuckers on So. Lindberg and the go find a bar and grill in Queens. St.Louis, like NY, is a metropolis including several Illinois counties within an hour or less drivetime. I myself lived in Waterloo Il (monroe county) and worked as a service plumber throughout St. Louis, St.Charles, and Jefferson counties without ever being more than an hour drive to anything in the St.Louis metro unless traffic dictated otherwise. The most accurate statement I've seen so far is that the CITY OF ST.LOUIS schools suck, I was a product of that joke of a school district and it's amazing I still qualify as literate. I may have walked away dumber for having attended. That was a combination of DE-SEGREGATION programs forcing those who could afford to leave out of the city and a certain political party having total control of the city for 40 years. The vast majority of the St.Louis metro residence live outside the city, they called it urban flight in the 80s, but basically whites evacuated the city in droves but of the yuppy crowd have started returning (I guess to prove they aren't racist). Contrary to some other post, South St.Louis county has several good school districts (even Hancock is good compared to city schools) but any school district bussing city kids in can expect trouble (mostly from said city kids). West county is were the most afluent reside, but there are affordable houses everywhere if you know what to look for. Florisant and Hazelwood are ok, but that depends on where you're from. I grew up just south of downtown St.Louis, was bussed into north St.Louis, and married a woman from Fayetteville NC so I've seen much lower on the evolutionary chart. Employment wise, St.Louis has a strong union base and very limited issues with illegal immigration. I'm sure my roofer and landscaper friend back home would gladly retort that statement, but in North Carolina they have driven wages for a plumber or HVAC technician below $24k a year (St.Louis averages $35-45k and there is no difference in cost of living). Again to rebut the psuedo-intellectual posting before me, the population is generally friendly. Granted, if you have tatoos on your neck and a chip on your shoulder, you're not gonna get a warm receiption. As you drive through neighborhoods you'll get a feel for people based on how they wave, some give you the "howdy neighbor" wave, and then there's the "you looking for crack or hooker" wave. Unless you are looking for crack or hookers, you're in a bad area and should look elsewhere if you get that look. As for the conservative catholic values comment (which I guess was supposed to be a slam on St.Louis), St.Louis was originally a catholic city (hence the name ST. LOUIS) and if christianity offends you as much as it bothered them, you might be uncomfortable. There is a strong jewish community there as well throughout the area and St.Louis boasts the largest Bosnian population outside of Bosnia (unverified, but there's alot of Bosnians). St.Louis is wonderful if you have a family because of an overwelming amount of child-based activities (zoo, science center, Grants farm, countless nature centers and too many things to mention) but if you are a socialist fascist looking to re-create San Fransisco you'll be quite dissatisfied. Otherwise cost of living, quality of life, and a small town vibe in a real city is hard to beat anywhere else in the country. I still suggest living outside the city, but to each their own.
Courtney | Wilmington, NC | Report Abuse