Baltimore vs St. Louis Vs Memphis (live, state, better, rates)
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I have the option to move to either Memphis, Baltimore, or St. Louis...
I want to be in a thriving city or at least a good/decent city.
I know that there is roughly a
-.5% decrease in population in Memphis (From 2000-2010)
-4.6% in Baltimore (From 2000-2010)
and
-8.3% in St. Louis (From 2000-2010) All from US Census.
Now my question is will any of these cities have a positive increase in population? All my friends say they are dying. I am mainly looking at Baltimore... How does it look? What about the other 2?
I do not care about crime rates or race. Please leave that out in your responses.
EDIT
I thought I put this in City vs City but I obviously did not my apologies.
I have the option to move to either Memphis, Baltimore, or St. Louis...
I want to be in a thriving city or at least a good/decent city.
I know that there is roughly a
-.5% decrease in population in Memphis (From 2000-2010)
-4.6% in Baltimore (From 2000-2010)
and
-8.3% in St. Louis (From 2000-2010) All from US Census.
Now my question is will any of these cities have a positive increase in population? All my friends say they are dying. I am mainly looking at Baltimore... How does it look? What about the other 2?
I do not care about crime rates or race. Please leave that out in your responses.
EDIT
I thought I put this in City vs City but I obviously did not my apologies.
Do you mean city in the sense of only the city boarders (St. Louis's is pretty small at 66 sq miles) or the metro as a whole like people usually mean? As for the metro, St. Louis has never decreased in population. It continues to slowly grow and is set to break 3 million, no one I know would ever consider it to be dying...
EASY. Baltimore. You can go to the beach in Delaware for a day-trip. It has a neat Inner Harbor.
Seconded. St. Louis is ugly, and is in a geographical pit. Memphis is even worse, and right next to the New Madrid fault. Baltimore may have a very slummy portion (one of the worst in the country, IMO), but it's a neat place, has a cool downtown area, good sports teams (well, good in the sense that they have a decent history and nice facilities), and is close to both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia for day-trips.
EASY. Baltimore. You can go to the beach in Delaware for a day-trip. It has a neat Inner Harbor.
No, it is not easy at all, St. Louis and Baltimore in particular are actually quite comparable and it will depend on what you are looking for. I personally give the edge to St. Louis for the metros themselves, but as you hint at Baltimore has some cool stuff that is close by.
Seconded. St. Louis is ugly, and is in a geographical pit. Memphis is even worse, and right next to the New Madrid fault. Baltimore may have a very slummy portion (one of the worst in the country, IMO), but it's a neat place, has a cool downtown area, good sports teams (well, good in the sense that they have a decent history and nice facilities), and is close to both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia for day-trips.
O please tell me all about your extensive experience in St. Louis. Central West End, Lafayette Square, Soulard, Benton Park, etc. St. Louis has some seriously beautiful and historic neighborhoods all over the city. Have you even been there, did you just stay in your hotel downtown?
Around it, umm the Ozark Mountains, several major rivers that are surrounded by bluffs (and lots of vineyards in the west), rolling hills everywhere, IL is pretty flat though.
Sports teams? I'd def go with St. Louis on this one by a lot... Although I like the St. Louis Browns too, I mean the Balt. O's!
Close to St. Louis: Chicago, KC, Indy, Memphis, Nashville, Cincy, Louisville, etc.
Wait, you mention the New Madrid fault line as a reason... lol, what the? Ok, maybe you shouldn't elaborate on your thoughts....
I like all 3. I'm from Memphis, I love St. Louis and I visit very often, and I've never been to Baltimore, but it seems like my kind of city. It's supposedly similar to St. Louis.
About the population decline in St. Louis. As mentioned, St. Louis' city limits are only 60 sq miles. That's small compared to a city like Memphis (300 sq miles). 319,000 people live in the city limits, while 999,000 people live in neighboring St. Louis County. St. Louis County is considered suburban, but it's actually almost as densely populated as the city of Memphis. So if you want to compare St. Louis to Memphis, it's better to compare Stl city+county, which brings it to a population of 1,318,000, with a population density of 2,310 ppsm. Compared to Memphis with 663,000 and 2,200 ppsm. The population of Stl city+county declined about 4.5% from the 2000 census. So yes, there was a decline, but it wasn't huge.
Baltimore & Baltimore County are also separated like St. Louis & St. Louis County, and I think that their combined population actually increased between 2000 & 2010, but I dont feel like calculating that right now.
O please tell me all about your extensive experience in St. Louis. Central West End, Lafayette Square, Soulard, Benton Park, etc. St. Louis has some seriously beautiful and historic neighborhoods all over the city. Have you even been there, did you just stay in your hotel downtown?
Lived in O'Fallon in Illinois for 3 years and commuted into downtown every day.
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Around it, umm the Ozark Mountains,
Glorified hills.
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several major rivers that are surrounded by bluffs
Gee, no other cities have rivers with bluffs. FYI, the ones on the Palisades Parkway north of Newark are a hell of a lot more impressive than any near St. Louis.
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Sports teams? I'd def go with St. Louis on this one by a lot... Although I like the St. Louis Browns too, I mean the Balt. O's!
I'd take Baltimore's facilities any day of the week over those in St. Louis, particularly the football stadium. The Ravens are a far superior team than the Rams (who have been in discussion as a possible relocation prospect to L.A. as of late -- you guys sure love your football, eh?), and the Orioles are at least having a decent start to the year.
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Close to St. Louis: Chicago, KC, Indy, Memphis, Nashville, Cincy, Louisville, etc.
Close to Baltimore (and closer than Chicago is to St. Louis): D.C., Philly, New York City, Hartford, Harrisburg, Wilmington (DE), Richmond, Pittsburgh.
Extend that range by 100 miles in you drag in Boston, Raleigh and Cleveland. I'll take that list over yours any day of the week.
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Wait, you mention the New Madrid fault line as a reason... lol, what the? Ok, maybe you shouldn't elaborate on your thoughts....
It was the source of one of the most major earthquakes in our nation's history only two hundred years ago -- a drop in the bucket in geologic time (and before you say 'it's an inactive fault,' here's a map of regional quakes charted since 1974. Yeah, that totally seems inactive). Another, similar quake today would kill thousands of people, and would absolutely devastate Memphis, and severely damage St. Louis, neither of which has been AT ALL constructed to withstand that kind of disaster.
But, hey, you go ahead and stick your head in the sand. It'll never happen again, right?
Last edited by JMT; 05-25-2012 at 05:30 AM..
Reason: Removed "Are you drunk?"
^ the big one happens every 300-500 years. This year, it's been 200 years since the last big one. I'm not too worried. Yeah, it could happen in my lifetime, but so could a lot of other things.
it's a matter of personal preference. memphis is significantly smaller and less impressive than baltimore and st. louis. the latter two cities are very similar in many ways and have a lot of parallels. baltimore has the luxury of being part of the bos-wash megalopolis, so it is very well connected to other major cities and vacation destinations. st. louis is a beautiful historic city in the center of the country that has an incredible wealth of cultural amenities. st. louis is the single most underrated and misunderstood city in the united states in my opinion.
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St. Louis has some seriously beautiful and historic neighborhoods all over the city. Have you even been there, did you just stay in your hotel downtown? 
