Sad City that Could be Great
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9/6/2020
I've lived here and keep coming back for family. This city could have been great and is changing but has been a ghetto for some time. The crime is high; property values depressed. Family bought a home in a gated neighborhood (3 story historical mansion) for $350k. You can barely get a townhome in Colorado for that price. There is a reason.
Pros:
1. Food. Way better than Denver. Ted Drewes, Rigazzis, it is the home of the toasted ravioli. The Italian market with the greatest coffee in the country. There are a ton of good brunch places.
2. Parks. Like Denver, this city loves its parks. Forest Park is great. A new greenway is going up over the former projects (why you shouldn't do anything St. Louis does for black people is in the cons section and [hint] it was racism)
3. Museums and Culture. Not on par with Chicago which is better than DC when it comes to museums but pretty great. You still have the Dread Scott courthouse (Seeing the theme yet), Arch, old Budweiser Brewery, the Omni, and more.
4. Universities. SLU literally bought half the dang ghetto. Its med school is among the best. Wash U in St Louis is a top 20 in the world school and you have respectable state school campuses.
5. Tech. The city has a decent tech employment sector. Wash U is the school for biotech after all. You have fintech, brew tech, recruiting companies, the works. Boeing was moving back at least until the whole debacle too. The city really prided itself in Lindbergh (theme of impending doom continues)
6. Nice suburbs. Chesterfield and some of the suburbs are really nice and mostly affordable compared to Denver.
7. Housing prices. The pro in the con. My relatives bought a 100+ year old $350k mansion in a gated neighborhood with three stories near forest park for the price of a 600 sq ft town home in all of Colorado except the plains and Pueblo (although.... Pueblo is gentrifying and Jesus I thought I'd never say that)
8. People. The people are mostly nice. It's like a cross between Southern charm and Midwest hospitality. Like your neighbor friend letting you use his pool.
9. Lakes, dams, and fishing are so close. MO is really the land of lakes. Avoid Mark Twain though it is filled with oil and God knows what.
Cons:
1. Racism. It destroyed the city. With Ferguson, it literally has. If you walk into the area where (yep this apparently happens in the US) the blacks were relegated you will be met with spite from centuries of abuse. It's real here and it really made this city a complete disaster by the 2000s.
2. This is the city that could have been. Downtown kinda turned around a little but man did this place fall apart since the time my grandparents were kids. The stories of St. Louis as a world class city are depressing.
3. Crime. My aunt recently saw a police officer get killed by being pinned between 2 cars. She lives in an areas that was middle class when she was a kid. New Yorkers talk like they live in St. Louis County, New Orleans, or West Chicago.
4. Sports. Hockey is great (my favorite) but no basketball or anything else outside of college sports now. Guess why they don't have a basketball team. Yup, racism.
Andrew | Colorado Springs, CO