There are more things to do in St. Louis than their are in Kansas City.
Used to be called Monsanto, Illinois!
Global foods is still on Lindbergh. It hasn’t moved - drove by it less than an hour ago. The section of Lindbergh that runs through Kirkwood is called Kirkwood Rd. But it’s still Lindbergh. It’s a St. Louis thing. (Kind of like the highway 64/highway 40 thing mentioned in a previous post.)
I’m not sure. I lived in KC, but I moved away 20 years ago. IIRC, I think the cities were very comparable. KC seemed to have a bit more going for it inside the city proper. But considering the whole metro area, StL is a skosh bigger and maybe has more offerings by a little.
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)
Does East St Louis have anything going for it? I’ve never read anything positive about the place. it always sounds so bleak and helpless.
When I worked for Monsanto back in the 90s, I used to go over to Sauget to visit the plant there. And I now work in a plant that used to be part of the larger Monsanto plant.
There’s a creek behind the plants that used to catch on fire every summer, because it was so impregnated with phosphorus that when the water dried up it exposed the phos to air = flame. (decades before me.) At one time, Monsanto had the longest-running court case in US history denying it was their fault… even though that plant made phosphorus products.
Really, don’t live in Sauget or East St. Louis. And it is kinda bleak, though there’s not not the running gun battles envisioned by lurid imaginations elsewhere. I drive through “downtown” East St. Louis (a few city blocks, basically) not too infrequently, and don’t fear gunshots or getting my hubcaps stolen while I’m at a stopsign. But I’ve had ladies of negotiable affection approach my car while at a stopsign. And I wouldn’t recommend getting lost in the area. Probably comparable to the more impovrished parts of Chicago.
20 minutes away, there are people living in million+ $ homes. It’s a little weird, even having grown up here.
You have to look closely at statistics for “St. Louis”. Sometimes, they mean “St. Louis City”, which has a comparatively small population. Sometimes they mean “Greater St. Louis Area”, which includes the city and the suburbs in both Missouri and Illinois - and that’s a sizable metropolitan-sized population.
Much like Chicago, the high crime zones of the larger St. Louis region are limited to a few isolated areas.
I’ll second (fourth?) the fine comments of Bayard, kunilou and Lightray as well.
My job brought me to St. Louis. As it did for most of my co-workers who hailed from all over the US. Learning to decode the answers to “Which high school?” is one of the tests you have to pass to get your native’s card. Took me 5 years and 3 tries to pass the test. 
One of my non-STL-native pals lived in Des Peres amongst the McMansioned doctors and upper-middle managers. When asked The Question at some cocktail party or another he always answered “Vashon”. 
He loved telling stories about the responses he got.
The one and only reason to visit Sauget is to attend the Sauget Ballet*. I’ve been many times, and usually at the less-safe hours of the day. Never had a problem.
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- A cluster of “gentlemen’s clubs” nestled amongst the refineries. It helps to know that Sauget is properly pronounced “Saw-ZHAY”. “Saw-ZHAY bah-LAY” just rolls off the tongue.
Miles Davis was born there. His dad was a middle-class dentist. Probably a bit more livable in 1925.
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.
I’ve lived 20 miles east of STL in Illinois since 1977 except for 4.5 years when I was station in England. One of my children lives in the city and another just moved out 3 years ago.
Unless you are working in Illinois, do not move there. Taxes are higher than in Missouri (with the exception of cars being part of property tax in MO) and going to get higher yet. Of course if you are liberal, you should enjoy paying taxes.
Speaking of taxes, if you live in St. Louis city OR work there, you have to pay a 1% income tax. So if you don’t work in the city, don’t move there.
You have a toddler? Don’t live in the city. The school system is terrible. No make that horrible. That’s why my son moved out of the city and my daughter is planning to in the next couple of year as she has a 9 month old.
There are plenty of nice suburbs south and west of STL. For the most part avoid anything north of the city.
As far as the weather, it can be hot and humid in the summer with temps sometimes exceeding 100°F. In the winter it can get below 0°F with snow and sometimes ice. Spring and Fall are usually very nice.
Plenty of recreational activities especially if you like baseball and hockey. The Fox Theater and Muny both have a lot of nice plays and musicals. The STL Zoo is free and it’s great. Forest Park is nice and there are plenty of other parks around. The Katy Trail is a favorite of mine for bicycle riding and walking. There’s a good music scene with most major acts having somewhere near STL on their tours. The Pageant is one of the best places in the USA to see musicians who haven’t quite hit the big time.
What LSLGuy said.
Don’t forget the St. Louis Municipal Opera - known universally as the “Muny Opera”. It’s an outdoor opera held in an amphitheater in Forest Park, and has been presenting shows and light opera for decades. I know, back before WWII, my parents used to take me there several times a year. Really professional presentations.
It’s first presentation was Robin Hood, way way back on June 16, 1919. The Mayor of St. Louis played the part of King Richard.
Important thing about the Muny: the back few rows in the amplitheatre are free seats, available on a first-come basis. You’ll want to arrive really early, and want to bring lots of water since it’ll be miserable humid and hot, but you can watch the Muny shows all summer long for free.
“Where’d you go to high school?” is either a friendly way to establish something in common, or a sneaky, vicious way to instantly fit someone into a rigid caste system. We don’t just want to know where you went to high school, we want to know what year you graduated, so we can figure out whether your neighborhood was on the way up or down when you lived there.:eek:
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. The locals had no trouble deciphering it!
Love the Muny. I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1995.
12 years ago, when my husband was in Iraq, I spent most shabbeses with an Orthodox community in a suburb already mentioned called University City. It was, at that time, very generally dog-friendly, but specifically Pit Bull unfriendly. I recommend you check the breed-specific laws, and maybe be prepared to tell people your dog is “half terrier,” or if it really looks bully, maybe lie and say half Boxer.
That’s pretty funny. But my Catholic all boys school wasn’t on it! :mad: Esto vir!
(Actually I hated HS and didn’t bother to go to any of the reunions. But I still figured Chaminade would show up. Maybe we weren’t as big a deal as we thought.)
That link is awesome!!
As to Chaminade, it’s actually a hidden branch just before St. Louis Priory for people with very small family staffs. Sheesh Dad! *Everybody *knows that. Duh!!
My family was very working class, and we lived way out in St. Charles County. I don’t really know how, or why, my folks cobbled together the money to send me there. I should’ve gone to St. Dominic like my brothers.
I mean, my dad had a decent union job, and my mom was a couple notches above a receptionist. We weren’t scraping bottom by any means, but probably around the median household income on a good year (i.e., when my dad wasn’t laid off). But IIRC the tuition when I was there was somewhere around $3500 or $4000. Maybe mom and dad were dealing drugs on the side.
I felt so out of place there and had a massive chip on my shoulder. I probably would have hated HS no matter where I went. I was just a screwed up kid. But Chaminade was not really the place for me, probably.
Anyway, to the OP, there are a lot of good schools here. Like a lot of cities, there are some crappy districts. But you can find a lot of good public districts as well as private schools. We’re in the Parkway district. My son just started K this year, but so far we’ve been happy with it.