Tell me about St. Louis

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

That would put you right on the borderline of the county seat of Clayton and the well-to-do-suburb of Ladue. Overall a very nice neighborhood. Just to the north and west its residential, to the south and east it’s business. You’ll be within walking distance of two (maybe three) supermarkets, dry cleaners, Starbucks, newsstands, a very nice park and all the things you’d expect. You’ll be about a mile away from the Galleria mall, and a half-mile from where the new Metrolink extension will go.

And yes, you will be able to fly from Texarkana to St. Louis. You’ll just have to change planes in Dallas.

Not to slam Texarkana (I’ve been there) but if that’s your main point of reference for entertainment, culture, weather and political viewpoint, St. Louis is going to be a BIG step up.

22

That would be Clayton, which is adjacent to the city. Like TheFifthYear says, it’s the county seat, and has essentially replaced downtown St. Louis as the business center. Quite expensive to live there, but it’s a nice central location, and close to two major highways, so it’s easy to get to from almost anywhere.

23

Hey! You’ll be so close, you can come to the Columbia Dopefests!

Yes, yes, yes. Take the job. I can’t wait to meet you!

('Cuz hanging out with me is the best reason to take a job in St. Louis, right?) :cool:

Besides, if you move to St. Louis, you’ll be a lot easier to find when I win the lottery and need to kidnap you and deliver you to swampbear. :smiley:

24

Yeah, Clayton is a great location. Expensive to live there, but as already mentioned it’s pretty central. If you can afford it, it’s a nice place to live, or you could easily live in the CWE, or someplace like Webster Groves or Shrewsbury, or Richmond Heights or Brentwood and still have an easy drive to work.

Oh, I know of one place to buy homebrewing supplies–

http://www.wormsway.com/stores/MO.asp

But I haven’t made beer for ages, so I’m not sure where else you’d get the stuff. This shop is north of Clayton, but not really hard to get to. Are you a member of AAA? You should be able to get a map of St. Louis that will show all the different little municipalities in the county. Also, the local daily paper is at

And the local free weekly, with most of the “going out” type information is

I’m going to agree with peasea about the Catholic thing. The city is very heavily Catholic, but the folks who get in your face are generally evangelicals. I’ve never been to Texarkana, but I imagine you already experience much worse. My favorite JESUS sign, btw, is gone now. It was out I-44 eastbound on the way back from Washington in a cluster of other signs, so what you saw, coming down the highway, was

JESUS
EXIT HERE

25

I grew up on the “east side” (Illinois), but both of my parents are St. Louis natives. I only got occasional exposure to St. Louis growing up, but coming from a small, blue-collar community, the “big city” seemed pretty cool to me as a kid and a teenager.

I left for the Army in '86, wound up in Texas in '88, and went native. I’ve only been back to St. Louis for Christmas until my Mom was diagnosed with cancer last summer. I moved up from Texas and helped her as best I could until she passed away on January 6th. I considered moving back to Texas, but wound up staying as the last of my blood kin is still here.

Between Mom’s illness and death, I haven’t looked up and around enough to get a really good feel for the area, except to say that I think it is an old, crowded, run-down, ugly Industrial-boom/post-Industrial bust city. Ugly aesthetically and ugly culturally. I remembered Forest Park, The Arch and Fox Theater as being beautiful, neat attractions, but have been warned off from them by friends and relatives because of the robberies, murders, drug dealers, prostitutes and crooked police shaking people down.

The racial tension can be cut with a knife (and it didn’t get any better with the Catholics importing Bosnians by the thousands); the employment situation is horrendous (partly because of the aforementioned Bosnians undercutting the job market); the evening news is mostly an on-going violent crime report; the personal property taxes are mind-boggling, and the city-versus-county-versus-state politics are simply a mess.

To illustrate: the state recently passed a concealed carry law, which was immediately challenged by numerous counties as an “unfunded mandate.” Okay so far, no real problem with this on my part. But the St. Louis county chief has flaty refused to accept applications for the concealed carry permit, and both city and county chiefs have vowed to arrest anyone [that they catch] from any other county in Missouri with a valid state-approved concealed carry permit. They have vowed to search every vehicle they stop for concealed weapons.

It is so bad that an off-duty city police officer was recently arrested in the county for carrying concealed, even though city police departmental policy either allows or requires off-duty officers to be armed.

Now I don’t have a concealed carry permit, and am not interested in getting one, but this is just one example of the numerous internecine conflicts between St. Louis city, St. Louis county, and the rest of the state of Missouri.

And it isn’t just a “gun issue” with me. Another example: South I-270 from I-55 to J.B. Bridge is torn up and left in a mess because of politics. The contractor doing the construction had the specifications for the cement changed in the middle of his job by an MDOT bureaucrat of the opposite political persuasion, and was told that he’d have to cover the cost of tearing up all the work his company had done and replacing it out of their own funds. It went to court and was resolved, as work has recently resumed, but it was at a standstill for 6 months before I moved up here last July.

On Bosnians: Your company may be an exception, but you might expect to have to deal with Bosnians who don’t speak English, refuse to learn English, and frankly resent the hell out of you for even implying that they be expected to converse with you in English in the course of their job.

The one good thing I can say for St. Louis and Missouri: it’s not Illinois.

There may be worse places to live and raise a family, but I haven’t personally lived in any of them.

26

Doesn’t everyone? :slight_smile:

27

I had to change planes in Dallas flying from St Louis to KC once. I was going to have to change planes in Dallas flying from WICHITA to KC once. I got out of that one.

28

Yes! Listen to what ExTank says. He speaketh wisdom. If you look at a map of St. Louis, all the lands to the east just say “Here there be monsters!” No one lives there except me. It is a colossal wasteland that I call “home”.

So stay away from Illinois!

29

American eliminated a bunch of flights and TWA, who used a majority of the airport, eliminated all of their flights. There may be a similar number of people flying in and out but it’s no longer a major hub. Since it’s not a hub, the thousands of people a day who used to layover there are now going through Denver, Dallas or Chicago.

Haj

30

Homebrew, I am somewhat envious, as I grew up in St. Louis and often feel pangs of homesickness. I LOVE St. Louis, and particularly the area where your company is headquartered. My first apartment on my own was on a street where the dividing line between the city and Clayton was smack dab in the middle, so I got the best of both worlds – slightly lower rent because of the city zip code, but proximity to all the amenities, not the least of which is the incredible Forest Park and The Central West End.

Others have mentioned that the (award winning!) zoo, the art museum (with more than 100 galleries) and the Science Center are FREE, but leave out many details. For instance, Forest Park is approximately the 11th largest city park in the nation, at 1,371 acres (for a point of reference, Chicago’s Lincoln Park is 1,185 acres and New York’s Central Park is 840 acres.) It houses not only the zoo, science center and art museum, but an outdoor skating rink (ice skating in the winter, roller skating in the summer), an 18 hole golf course, a 12,000 seat outdoor theater (The Muny, which hosts Broadway musicals from June through August), The Thomas Jefferson Memorial (History Museum), The Jewel Box (an “art deco” floral conservatory), The McDonnell Planetarium (one of the nation’s leading space education facilities), a jogging/biking/skating path (with various “stations” for different exercises all along the course), paddleboat rentals, the annual Great Forest Park Balloon Race, and in the winter, sled riding down “art hill” in front of the museum. Basically, Forest Park Rocks!

And so does Clayton. You’ll find a bustling business district, beautiful residential areas, lots of fine dining (Cardwells is an old favorite - check out the Clayton Chamber of Commerce website for a comprehensive list) and fun galleries and museums. If you move soon, don’t miss the “Parties in the Park” on Wednesday evenings, which are also free and feature live bands (I see that the Soulard Blues Band will be performing this year – they’re great!), food, drink and mingling.

I feel bad that hajario seems to have missed out on so much great stuff St. Louis and the surrounding area has to offer. There’s Six Flags over Mid America, Grant’s Farm (a 281 acre wildlife preserve), the incredible Missouri Botanical Gardens, the St. Louis Union Station ("a National Historic Landmark with an expansive 11.5 acre trainshed… a hotel… shops, [an] assortment of fine restaurants and cafes, live entertainment and a lake with boats), the Anheuser Busch Brewery tour (don’t miss the amazing clydesdales), The Museum of Transportation, the riverboats, and OMog the list goes on and on and ON (others have already mentioned many other things).

And if you want to venture out for a weekend excursion, you’re just a couple of hours away from what was once the largest man-made lake in the world, Lake of the Ozarks, 92 miles end to end, with over 40 miles of unobstructed tributaries and over 1,300 miles of shoreline. You can visit Onondaga Cave State Park (very cool!); go to The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, MO; or, especially in the Fall when the scenery is so colorful, take a day trip to any of the various Missouri Wineries (or stay overnight in one of the charming bed and breakfasts).

Sure, you can find negatives, just like you can in every other city in the world (and I agree that losing TWA/American has really hurt the city). But St. Louis offers a rich history and tons of amenities. You can choose to focus on the bad stuff, or take advantage of all the benefits, of which there are many more than could ever be listed.

I’m trying to plan a trip home over Memorial Day weekend. If I do, perhaps we can have a Dopefest?!

31

Bean Counter: my comments were directed more towards the Illinois political climate than towards the people who live there; I came from the southern part, which is actually quite scenic and a bit more “southern” in flavor than the damnyank flatlanders in the northern 2/3 of the state.

In any case, long may you live and prosper in peace in The Land of Lincoln.

32

American bought out TWA (or they ‘merged’), but I don’t think any flights were eliminated then. That came just recently. But, true, it’s no longer a hub.

33

Thanks everyone. It’s starting to look like a move is in my future. I’d like to go up there and check it out for a few days. Besides Forest Park, what must I see on a scouting visit?

34

Explore St. Louis

35

I live 100 or so miles west of STL, halfway between it and KC. I haven’t been to STL in about 7 years because I hate it. I don’t have a list of specific reasons, I just hate it. I wouldn’t mind going to Chesterfield maybe, but not STL, and I wouldn’t live within 99 miles of the place :wink: