# What's it like to live in St. Louis, MO? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351 "2017-01-27T23:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/41 "2017-01-29T06:06:03Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A few years ago, one of the local papers printed [a handy chart to help non-natives figure out where they should have gone to high school.](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riverfronttimes.com%2Fmedia-archive%2F7642101.0.pdf) The locals had no trouble deciphering it! That was excellent! I was able to make my way to my school district on the first try. I haven’t lived in StL recently enough to have anything particularly productive to add to this thread. However, I can confirm that the “Where did you go to high school” question follows you wherever you might run into fellow former St. Louisians. Also, as adult who goes back to visit family regularly, I find it to be a nicer place to visit than live. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/42 "2017-01-31T01:29:52Z")
I moved to the StL area (IL side of the river) 5 years ago. Agree with all of the assessments above. I will add that people, at least on this side, can be extremely insular. If you did not grow up here, people are still friendly…but not really interested in your story. They’ll still be happy to tell you all about themselves, their lives, their stories, their jobs…but they won’t ask you about yours. You aren’t really on the radar, except as a sounding board… You’re not part of the tribe, so they just aren’t interested. My husband and I found this true of the adults, and my kids found it true of their classmates, even at the grade school level. One girl said to my daughter, “I don’t really talk to new kids.” When the Ferguson unrest was going on, my family and friends from MI were continually calling to see if we were all right. But my co-workers barely registered that anything was going on. That was on the other side of the river; might as well have been on the moon as far as they were concerned. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/43 "2017-01-31T02:28:41Z")
While all us Cards fans are having a fine reunion here I wonder if the OP will ever return to add anything or even to read our pearls of hard-won Gateway Gulch experience? His OP here is his one and only SDMB post. He hasn’t been back even to read since about when post #28 was posted to this thread. He’s gone Jim! would be my bet. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/44 "2017-01-31T02:31:00Z")
I wonder if we’ll see the contents of this thread in the upcoming article “13 Things You Didn’t Know About St. Louis! Number 6 is Jaw Dropping!” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/45 "2017-01-31T03:09:19Z")
Since #6 was the moderator moving the thread to IMHO, I’m sure that’ll surprise the heck out of the readers at home. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/46 "2017-01-31T05:49:39Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I’m probably wrong, but isn’t all the crime in East St. Louis and the only reason St. Louis now is considered one of the crime capitals of the country solely because over the past decade the FBI decided to lump both cities together in their reports (previously both cities were tallied separately) Um no. East St Louis is in Illinois so not lumped together with St. Louis. You are probably talking about St Louis North County which has the famous town of Ferguson. Ferguson is a really nice town of cul de sacs that used to be pretty upscale in the St Louis area. It has gotten a really bad rap because of, well you know. I canvassed there for Obama, not that he needed my help there. As an older white women walking the streets alone I felt no fear. The reality is not what you see on the news. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/47 "2017-01-31T05:58:54Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Huh. I hadn’t heard Sauget Ballet before. I like that! People in my circle just said “We’re heading to the East Side.” > > Back in the 80s, there was a college in Cahokia, just next door to Sauget. The smog from the copper plant, rubber reclaiming plant, Monsanto, etc., was always thick on campus. My brother went there and lived in town. He estimated that the experience shaved at least 10 years off his life. > > On the plus side, Cahokia has the fascinating Cahokia Mounds site. Parks College of Aviation and Engineering. I went to school there, met my husband there and eventually taught there. When the wind blew in the the wrong direction it was interesting. The college moved over to the SLU main campus in the late 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/48 "2017-01-31T13:17:45Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Parks College of Aviation and Engineering. I went to school there, met my husband there and eventually taught there. When the wind blew in the the wrong direction it was interesting. The college moved over to the SLU main campus in the late 90’s. Yeah, my brother went there in the mid 80s. He’s an aircraft mechanic. I think SLU has really shrunk the old Parks programs. My brother is pretty grumpy about how SLU managed Parks. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/49 "2017-01-31T16:32:00Z")
Here;s an interesting piece of trivia that might shed some light on the desirability of St. Louis as a place to live. Of the 9,000 deceased former major league baseball players, more are buried in St. Louis, by a very wide margin, than any other city. From which one can conclude that these ball players, coming from all over the country and playing for multiple teams, had a very strong tendency to settle in St. Louis after their playing careers were over. This, of course, will tell you more about the St. Louis of the past than of the present, but it is an interesting insight into the historical appreciation with which new St. Louis residents bonded with their city. You might even coin an adage “once a Cardinal, always a St. Louisan”. > **[Player Place of Birth and Death | Baseball-Reference.com](https://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/)** > > Player Place of Birth and Death ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/50 "2017-01-31T18:27:54Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Parks College of Aviation and Engineering. I went to school there, met my husband there and eventually taught there. When the wind blew in the the wrong direction it was interesting. The college moved over to the SLU main campus in the late 90’s. That reminds me – occasionally the wind would blow the scent of the Anheuser-Busch plant our way. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/51 "2017-01-31T18:33:20Z")
@ **jtur88** :Maybe. The megacorp I worked for in St. Louis brought in myself and my coworkers from all over the country. We were overwhelmingly male. One of the many words of locker-room wisdom passed around was “Never marry a St. Louis woman if you have any hope of ever moving anywhere else the rest of your life; they’ll never live far from their Mom, alive or dead.” It certainly seemed to be true. Many’s the man who married a local and was later forced to choose between divorce before moving away or staying there unto death while married. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/52 "2017-01-31T18:46:09Z")
Hah! I’m a husband who pressured his wife into moving back to StL. Mostly to be close to my elderly parents. But I figure we’re even since I moved to the Bronx and Cincinnati for her. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/53 "2017-01-31T18:55:12Z")
… And Cincinnati?? Now _that’s_ twue wuv! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/54 "2017-01-31T18:59:10Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The Illinois side is so different from the Missouri side, it might as well be in an alternate universe. I second the Illinois side. All the benefits of the city, being ten miles away, but with farms, woods, and suburbia at your fingertips. (You can get that on the west side of St. Louis, too, but since white flight settled there first, you’ll have to live much farther from downtown to be anywhere near nature or the country.) > [@Daylate](#): > > The City of East St. Louis is on the Illinois side. Stay away from “East Saint Boogie”, Sauget, Washington Park, Venice, Brooklyn, and other “towns” directly on the east riverfront. The next layer of towns over (Caseyville, Belleville, Collinsville, Maryville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Granite City) are all right. Caseyville (where I live) and Granite are marginal suburbs, poorer than the others I mentioned, but considerably safer and less bleak than East St. Louis or Washington Park. And the living is cheap! > [@Asuka](#): > > I’m probably wrong, but isn’t all the crime in East St. Louis and the only reason St. Louis now is considered one of the crime capitals of the country solely because over the past decade the FBI decided to lump both cities together in their reports (previously both cities were tallied separately) No, it’s kind of the opposite. St. Louis City split itself off from St. Louis County in the 1870s. Which made some sense at the time. But now it means all the safe, well off gentrified areas that offset crime statistics in other cities are now technically not part of the city at all. Which leaves the poorer, more crime ridden areas within the city limits over represented in the statistics. St. Louis has plenty of crime and poverty issues, but I think “murder capital of the world” is just a statistical artifact. I feel as safe there at night as I do in other cities. Don’t join a gang or try and screw people on large drug deals and you’ll probably be perfectly safe. > [@Bayard](#): > > On the plus side, Cahokia has the fascinating Cahokia Mounds site. Nope, that’s Collinsville, ten miles away from Cahokia, IL. Collinsville is the horseradish capital of the world. And also, once, the center of the largest and most important civilization in North America. Also, Mike Stipe of REM went to high school there with my mom. For reference, my friends and I found [this map](http://i.imgur.com/Pd3ze5G.png) surprisingly accurate. But all the good parts of the metro east are not shown. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/55 "2017-01-31T19:03:58Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I second the Illinois side. All the benefits of the city, being ten miles away, but with farms, woods, and suburbia at your fingertips. (You can get that on the west side of St. Louis, too, but since white flight settled there first, you’ll have to live much farther from downtown to be anywhere near nature or the country.) > Stay away from “East Saint Boogie”, Sauget, Washington Park, Venice, Brooklyn, and other “towns” directly on the east riverfront. The next layer of towns over (Caseyville, Belleville, Collinsville, Maryville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Granite City) are all right. Caseyville (where I live) and Granite are marginal suburbs, poorer than the others I mentioned, but considerably safer and less bleak than East St. Louis or Washington Park. And the living is cheap! > No, it’s kind of the opposite. St. Louis City split itself off from St. Louis County in the 1870s. Which made some sense at the time. But now it means all the safe, well off gentrified areas that offset crime statistics in other cities are now technically not part of the city at all. Which leaves the poorer, more crime ridden areas within the city limits over represented in the statistics. St. Louis has plenty of crime and poverty issues, but I think “murder capital of the world” is just a statistical artifact. I feel as safe there at night as I do in other cities. Don’t join a gang or try and screw people on large drug deals and you’ll probably be perfectly safe. > Nope, that’s Collinsville, ten miles away from Cahokia, IL. Collinsville is the horseradish capital of the world. And also, once, the center of the largest and most important civilization in North America. Also, Mike Stipe of REM went to high school there with my mom. > > For reference, my friends and I found [this map](http://i.imgur.com/Pd3ze5G.png) surprisingly accurate. But all the good parts of the metro east are not shown. I didn’t realize the Cahokia Mounds were actually in Collinsville. Huh. And I’ve been wanting to go to the horseradish festival for years. Maybe this is the year! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351/56 "2017-01-31T19:17:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > … > For reference, my friends and I found [this map](http://i.imgur.com/Pd3ze5G.png) surprisingly accurate. But all the good parts of the metro east are not shown. Damn that’s good. If you’re gonna brag on Collinsville (not that I would, but folks from there sure seem to), don’t forget this [http://www.catsupbottle.com/](http://www.catsupbottle.com/) and [http://www.internationalhorseradishfestival.com/](http://www.internationalhorseradishfestival.com/). I’ve been to both. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-live-in-st-louis-mo/778351.md?page=2)