May be promoted and relocated to the St. Louis area. Wanting to know what living there is like. Anywhere from weather, cost of living, activities, travel, animal friendly?, family friendly?, healthy? is there culture? I don’t know much of it. Just want to be happy if we end up there. I have a pit ridgeback mix a toddler and one on the way. We are a low key, liberal, friendly family hoping to live somewhere with lot’s of activities and thriving atmosphere. Any insight is much appreciated. 
The summers are almost unbearably hot and humid. July 11 PM and the heat index was still high 90s. OK, this was late 80s so it can only be worse now!
Oh, and I can alert the mods to move this to IMHO.
St. Louis is very affordable and there are some nice suburbs but the overall picture is fairly bleak. It resists the label “Detroit South” but it is hard not to see the similarities even though the scale is different.
Its livability rating is currently “barely livable” according to this site with completely failing grades for crime, education and employment. That said, I have friends that live there (in the nicer suburbs) and they like it well enough. St. Louis used to be one the major American cities within living memory and going through a long-term decline like it has is never easy.
Here is an article from the newspaper trying to defend against the label “Detroit South”.
I lived there from 1994 to 2014. So 20 years.
It depends hugely on where the OP is coming from. For somebody used to the Midwest it’s a slow version of Chicago. For somebody from LA or NYC it’s bovine stasis.
It’s very important when talking about anything in St. Louis to distinguish between the St. Louis city proper, the St. Louis county, and the surrounding counties. They all share the weather. They don’t share much else. The city has nasty-high crime statistics but that’s largely because the place has been largely depopulated. 3/4ths of people who work in the city live in the burbs. So when they get mugged the numerator of muggings goes up, but the denominator of city residents doesn’t. So the number looks much worse than it really is. Many of the surrounding towns are real safe & comfy provided you like whitebread suburbia.
The weather, despite the whining above, is vastly better than Chicago, Cleveland, or Indianapolis. It does suck compared to LA or Miami. Winter has snow, but it doesn’t stay more than a few days at most, and is often gone in 24 hours; not like up North at all. Summer is hot, but not hot like Texas or the southwest (or Chicago) is hot.
The cost of living is quite low. Buying a house expecting to sell it with the next transfer is probably not a smart idea because selling them is hard. Overall it is not a dynamic growing MSA. More like inward-looking and the few major corps based there are all going to die or be takeover targets within 15-20 years. As such executive or upper management employment is cratering. Which has a big impact on selling the McMansion you can buy now for a song compared to the same thing elsewhere.
Generic 4br suburban houses can be rented cheaply. There are older inner-ring burbs full of 1920s or 1940s houses, big mature trees, etc. Very pretty.
It is often described as a great place to raise kids. St. Charles county particularly is one giant bedroom community of happy little couples pumping out kids.
It’s also often described as “a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there.” Once you find the local gems of culture, entertainment, activities you’ll be plenty busy. Until then you’ll wonder what anyone does for recreation except eat waaay too many carbs.
There are plenty of parks, places to bike, etc. But it is NOT an outdoor culture. If you’re coming from Denver, SF, etc., you’ll find enough physical for yourself to do as a solo, but don’t expect to find big active biking clubs, hiking, etc. The main local sport is going out to eat at sports bars.
“Liberal” and “family” don’t really go together. There are liberals in the trendy hipster enclaves in the city. Which aren’t too much family friendly. The burbs are 90% Republican Protestants who assume you are too. Plus 10% Republican Catholics who assume you’re probably a Protestant until you tell them otherwise; they know you’re a Republican. Unlike Texas, they’re not in-your-face hostile. They just bovinely assume you’re a member of their Borg too. Isn’t everyone? :smack:
If you tell us more about where in town the job is or about how much you expect to earn we can give more specific pointers.
I came there after growing up in LA and living in several other cities. If you’d told me before getting there that I’d spend 20 enjoyable years there I’d have said you were nuts. But I did. You can easily be a big fish in a smallish, somewhat stagnant pond. One with an excellent live music scene, excellent BBQ, great baseball, and a low cost of living whether you go urban trendy, suburban white picket fence, or rural ranchette or wooded hunting preserve.
I wonder if there could ever be a thread where LSL Guy didn’t have a thoughtful contribution to make…
By the way, winters are getting warmer in St Louis, and I presume in the surrounding communities as well. FWIW.
Moved from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem, moderator
Good friends of mine live in University City, which is a suburb on the near west side, close to Washington University, and I suspect that their neighborhood is the sort which you’re describing. They live in an utterly gorgeous house little house, of 1930s vintage, and it’s a beautiful neighborhood.
They’re also very heavy-duty crunchy-granola liberals, both with PhDs. They find it’s a very friendly city for them, culturally and politically, but they’re closely tied in with the university communities (he teaches at St. Louis University, she does postdoc research), and I don’t think they have any interaction with those bovine suburbs. 
While I can’t disagree with much of what LSLGuy says, I will add that there are some “inner suburbs” that aren’t nearly as Protestant Conservative as the outer ones. If you are, roughly speaking, inside the I-270 belt you are more likely to be in a more liberal area. Webster Groves and Kirkwood being two examples - both have at least somewhat walkable areas with restaurants and outdoor spaces.
There are number of nice civic features. Forest Park (with the Zoo, History Museum, Art Museum, Science Center) being #1.
But yeah, the weather is marginal at best and the city itself is pretty dead and more than a little dangerous unless you know where to be and when.
I lived in the CWE for 10 years and mostly hung out there, U-City, & South Grand with a smattering of Webster. A darn good and convivial time can be had by a lefty couple or even a couple with pre-school kids. We sure did. We used to say civilization ended at I-170.
Then, in search of something completely different, we moved 30 miles to western St. Charles county and lived there 10 years. We sure did find different. It had a completely different set of pros & cons. Much more sedate. But lots more righty & overtly religious.
I’m glad I got to try both.
I pretty much agree with LSLGuy too. I grew up in the St. Louis area, moved away for a while, then recently moved back. I now live in a suburb that probably leans conservative Protestant overall, but my neighborhood is predominantly Jewish, and largely leftish from what I can tell.
I think the description “nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there” is pretty good. There are a good number of cultural things for a smallish city, but you will need to drive between all of them. StL is the poster child for urban sprawl. But there is a lot of great family stuff to do, some fun arts and entertainment districts, and some outdoorsy stuff not too terribly far away. StL does have some fantastic restaurants, though of course not as many as Chicago or NYC.
StL does have its problems. A depopulated core, segregation, and some truly awful ghettos are among the problems that show no signs of going away. But in spite of all the things I hate about it, I love it too. It’s home.
If you do relocate, what part of town would you be working in? Traffic can be brutal in some places, so you want to think about your commute.
Except for one gap, I’ve lived in St. Louis for more than 50 years. Much of what** LSLGuy** says fits my experience, as well.
There’s actually a pretty good arts scene – an excellent symphony, very good museums, a surprising amount of live theater, a fairly strong local music scene. You’ll find plenty of stuff for the kids to do ranging from arts to sports (youth soccer is practically a religion around here.) Good barbecue (not as good as KC, but good) and outstanding Italian food.
Contrary to popular belief, there are excellent places to live in the City proper. However, the city schools are not the best. If you’re Catholic or Lutheran, there are neighborhood schools. If you aren’t, the private schools aren’t quite as expensive as some other places.
The hot real estate right now is a corridor along I-64 (which the locals still call Highway 40.) That’s the spine of the tech-medical-university industries and the favored spots of millennials and empty nesters. Parents usually look further west or southwest.
As for pets, I have a standard poodle. There’s plenty of places he can go for exercise, but if you’re talking about taking your dog shopping with you, that’s a little too far out for most places.
Regarding politics, a St. Louis liberal isn’t necessarily the same as what you’ll see in other places. The social issue liberals co-exist rather uneasily with the organized labor liberals. One tip to getting along with everyone – you root for the Cardinals in summer, the Blues in the winter and you officially hate the NFL.
I lived within 3 hours of St. Louis for almost a decade. One thing I noticed whenever I visited was that fast-food and other low-wage behind-the-counter workers were almost exclusively black and/or Hispanic, except for the manager, who was almost always Caucasian. 
It didn’t matter what part of the metroplex you went to - I saw that pretty much everywhere.
Other people have told me the same thing.
I do recommend checking out the Global Foods grocery store. It appears to have relocated since I was last there; back then, it was on Lindbergh.
I also liked a place called Winslow’s Home, which interestingly is in the same neighborhood as a Scientology temple. Until then, I didn’t think Scientologists existed outside Hollywood, although I have no idea how many Scientologists actually live in that region. It’s a restaurant with a small deli counter.
Check out the Soulard Market as well; it’s in the downtown area.
The Illinois side is so different from the Missouri side, it might as well be in an alternate universe.
I grew up in Dardenne Prairie, just next door to the town I assume you took your username from 
I lived in the CWE for three years, probably the happiest time of my life. Also the drunkest. Dressel’s and Llewellyn’s were within crawling distance of my apartment. Now I have two kids and I live in Chesterfield because it’s close to my wife’s office and Parkway is a good school district.
To the OP, take a look at the calendar section of stltoday.com or the Riverfront Times. You’ll get a feel for the cultural stuff and other events.
As kunilou mentioned, there is a lot of live theatre, including the excellent Repertory Theatre in Webster Groves. As an aside, StL is becoming a serious chess hub, with Webster University being a powerhouse chess program.
How does St. Louis barbecue compare to Kansas City barbecue? If I visit my undergrad son at Mizzou, should I head east or west at dinnertime?
I’ve lived here ~40 years, and I’d agree with what LSLGuy and kunilou have said. Also, St. Louis is very balkanized and insular - it’s an accurate joke that the favorite question of natives is “What high school did you go to?” If you didn’t grow up here, they won’t be interested in your answer; what they’re looking for is clues to slot you into a social “tribe”. (e.g., if you went to a private high school, you’re probably Ruling Caste; if a public high school, it depends on where it was located to gauge your prestige - west county more prestigious, north county or city much less so.) It can also be quite racially segregated, as you can no doubt guess from the news.
People new to the area do best if they have family here, or if they’re younger. It takes more effort to cultivate a circle of friends - most newcomers seem to socialize with coworkers, or the parents of their kids’ friends.
However, there are a few enclaves that seem to break the mold. If you have kids, you’ll definitely want to consider where to live based on schooling requirements. Secondary to that, where your work is (travel along the I-270 corridor, or into the city from the bedroom communities of St. Charles or in southern Illinois is bad during rush hour).
With toddlers not yet in school, you might consider renting for a while to get a feel for the area - there are some areas of lofts and such downtown that are more youth-oriented, or the Central West End, but I’m not sure about childcare opportunities there and not many dog parks. Kirkwood and Webster Groves are both good communities for young families, but tend to be more expensive if you’re not renting. Further west in the county and near Clayton there are quite nice suburbs, but rents are high, apartments are rare, and home prices really high (unless you compare to the coasts). Also, those suburbs are really snobby.*
If you don’t mind the commute, there are also bedroom communities in southern Illinois that offer a more small-town environment.
Although the area isn’t as outdoorsy as say, Colorado, there are activities if you know what you’re looking for. Biking the Katy Trail, for example. And it’s real easy to get away to nature for a weekend - particularly if you’re a hunter. There’s also stuff like the St. Louis Zoo, which is free, and offers lots of activities (particularly if you become a member).
If you have an idea where you’ll be working, and examples of activities you like, I’m sure there’ll be more suggestions.
- And where I grew up.
Ike: Columbia has good food; have your son take you to Shakespear’s for pizza. BBQ is more ubiquitous in KC; in StL you have to do your research to find places like Sugarfire Smokehouse.
The City of East St. Louis is on the Illinois side. This has some distinguishing characteristics. One of these occurred a decade or so ago, when the City Council passed an ordinance that made it legal to run a red light if there was no cross traffic near.
This was to make your car somewhat less of a target for carjackers.
I wouldn’t recommend that anybody buy a house over there.
OK, I’ve never suggested one before, but we need a StL Dopefest. I just moved back here in June and I need an opportunity to meet people. Who’s up for it?
East St. Louis is its own alternate universe. When talking about places in southern Illinois to live, we mean places like Collinsville. It’s a bedroom community with a very rural feel, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the problems of East St. Louis.
(and I say this, working in Sauget IL, which is adjacent to East St. Louis. don’t live there, either.)
I lived in Columbia for the five or six years before moving back to StL. There are some good restaurants there. Shakespeare’s was a reliable go-to for us. Cafe Berlin was also a favorite. And you have to get an ice cream at Sparky’s. They have some, uh, inventive flavors.
I’m a vegetarian, but some of the meat eaters I know swear by Pappy’s BBQ in St Louis.