Yep, the job is in Chesterfield, but not being from St Louis that dosn’t mean much to me. I’ve heard homes in Chesterfield are expensive.
The good news is, it sounds like you’ll be working in a nice neighborhood. Chesterfield can be a more expensive than the average, but working there doesn’t mean you have to live there. Plus, you won’t be in the city, so you don’t need to look for somewhere close to downtown.
You could look for something in North County (Hazelwood, Florissant, Bridgeton) or St. Charles that would be more affordable, but still relatively close to your work.
Just to reinforce the avoid East St. Louis part of this…
I worked at a bank for a few years in the collections dept. and we had a branch in East St. Louis. When we would ask some customers to drop off their payment in the night deposit at the branch there they would usually say "Are you nuts I wouldn’t go there during the day!!"
That and the hookers working the drive-thru…
HAVE WE SCARED LABDUDE ENOUGH???
Look, here’s the bottom line. St. Louis is a whole string of neighborhoods that go under a single name. The neighborhoods range from lousy and old to gorgeous and old to new and expensive and everything in between.
Traffic is generally better than most major cities that I’m familiar with, although one accident during rush hour and you’ll be two hours late. The West County areas generally have less infrastructure, so traffic can get tied up worse.
If you like the city experience, there are some great neighbrohoods. If you feel more suburban, most of the areas in the county have older Ozzie and Harriet type neighborhoods pretty close to newer areas, so you can choose that, too. If your job is in Chesterfield, you can find a place east of there and go against traffic, or you can live out in St. Charles County. It’s a long way into the heart of the city, but it’s pretty close to Chesterfield and housing costs less.
It can be conservative and stuffy, but you’ll find thriving little subcultures that counteract that nicely.
We’re more sports-oriented than you’d expect from a place this size, but if you aren’t into sports we have a world-class symphony, a good theater scene, and plenty of art galleries. We’re mostly on the B-list for rock concerts, with some A-list tours, but we make up for it with Broadway shows.
If you like Italian food, we’re one of the best places in the U.S. Maybe we aren’t as strong with other ethnic specialties, but you won’t starve for lack of choices.
You’ll need a car. Public transportation is terrible, except for the limited light rail routes (and they don’t go where you’ll be working). Bicycling is for recreation, not transportation.
As noted, we have a problem saving our old buildings, which is a shame, because they could be really gorgeous. But there’s plenty of architecture left to give the place a lot more flavor than, say, Houston or Atlanta.
Once you get past East St. Louis there are nice places on the east side of the river. Some of them have an even more small-town feeling, if you like that.
And if you’re looking for a supermarket, it’s a battle between Schnucks and Dierbergs. Between the two of them, they’ve managed to drive out every national chain.
Want to continue your education? You can do it here. Need a heart transplant? We can handle that. Want to fly somewhere else? People may not like TWA, but at least they have plenty of destinations.
Hope this puts it into a little better perspective.