Indy or St. Louis? (Indianapolis, Evansville: crime, credit, how much)

[macreek1]

I'm currently a student at USI and want to move to a big city after a graduate. I have lived in SW Indiana near Evansville my whole life. My two choices are Indy and St. Louis. I would appreciate it if you could suggest some advantages you believe Indy has over St. Louis. How do the downtown areas compare? Other neighborhoods? How is residential market downtown?

Obviously, one huge advantage is Indy is in the Hoosier state, while in StL Hoosier means "white trash".

Also, do you get FSN Midwest (Cardinals) on cable in Indy, or at bars? (Also love Colts and IU, so Indy wins there).

I appreciate input even if you aren't familiar with St. Louis.

[GojuMatt]

I would recommend Indy. I lived in Indy for 2 years (I'm now in San Diego, CA) and my brother still lives there. My sister lives in St. Louis. The St. Louis downtown is not as nice and it is harder to get to. The traffic is aweful in St. Louis. My sister even admits to not liking it there.

I actually miss Indy and would like to move back. So, IMO, Indy is the better choice.

[REM]

STL has a higher crime rate. I'm not going to lie indy's downtown is better and bigger. As far as events go i'm sure we are about matched but i would say indy has a little bit more going on.

[chitownwarrior]

Originally Posted by REM

STL has a higher crime rate. I'm not going to lie indy's downtown is better and bigger. As far as events go i'm sure we are about matched but i would say indy has a little bit more going on.

strolling around and ran across this thread.

Here's my response to REM:
"hahahahahaha..." and end it with a "wow."

i think stl is a no brainer on this one for you. Now if it were stl or minneapolis or stl or baltimore, etc. there'd be a little more discussion.

[mod edit .. don't be so insulting]

I've been to both, maccreek. Went to school for a while just north of Indy and spent a lot of time in indy on weekends. The thing with Indy is that all it has is downtown, which is mediocre at best. The city's population is extremely misleading as it is the WHOLE county. St. Louis' downtown is not the only central business district, there's clayton as well which if it had taller towers could probably compete with indy's downtown, and its probably bigger than cities like Omaha's downtown. Apart from the landing, it's not the entertainment area at all...its the WHOLE city. STl's downtown isn't supposed to be viewed as only place to go, for it is a financial center, where it closes down after 5 pm. I believe they are trying to change that with some new billion $ developments rolling out in the next few years

I would say Indy is a on lower tier of major cities than stl or minneapolis or detroit, and it feels a lot smaller....without a doubt. When you're in stl, you feel like you're in a city. The crime statistics are misleading because stl city is separate from stl county...if combined like indy would be close to 1.5 million people...twice as big...and crime wouldn't be as skewed. Stl is made up with a bunch of neighborhoods like chicago (not to the extent as here) and in a way "chicago light"...where everything is in lighter scale. You can find peruvian cuisine, or a number of brasilian steak houses, euro clubs, casinos, foreign languages, hipsters, etc....not to the extent of chicago though. (my cousins live there and i used to go every summer).

Now being around Indy, after visiting some of the museums and watching some bball games, i must admit i was frustrated with diversity...i felt like everything was the SAME. It was hard to embark on adventures and explore the city... cause outside of downtown it seems like the suburbs start, and their isn't that "urban" feel like other cities. But to contrast, in stl, i STILL get amazed at stuff to discover and do (and ive been like 20 times), where the dt, although empty seeming is surrounded by dense urban neighborhoods. -- have you ever been to downtown dallas after work hours? its a ghost town! we here in chicago and cities like seattle and boston and san fran don't realize that most other cities' downtowns become deserted after 6pm.

Transportation in stl: I went back a few months ago to stl and got along without a car. Took the metro and bus everywhere...and used a bike. It was extremely easy...not as easy as chicago or DC...but pretty decent considering stl's position.

Indy is surrounding by flat farmland, while stl has diverse geography, with the ozarks starting just southwest of it with foothills and gorgeous scenery and amazing summer road trips/hiking, wineries, canoeing and kayaking, low grade rapids, trout fishing, beautiful ozark waterfalls... Great wilderness period.

[domergurl]

I love St. Louis. It has history and culture. Indianapolis is nice, but it lacks character. St. Louis has public transit (and all of you know how I feel about that subject). They also have a wonderful city park.

Indy may be cheaper, and it's a huge sports town. You'd definitely get your fill of most every sport.

If possible spend a weekend or two in both, see which one fits.

[rvegas8]

I'm a student at Purdue, and I'm from a suburb in St. Louis. All the kids from Detroit, Minneapolis, and other big cities laugh at Indianapolis. While it is nice, theres only one thing to do. That's to head downtown.They really don't have much to offer as even compared to other cities its size like Memphis or Kansas City. In my personal opinion it's def. not as fast paced, and theres way more culture and districts in St. Louis. From first glance when we moved there(st. Louis), I thought it was going not be that great. But after living there you can def. tell the difference. My family sure can. I used to live Indiana for 11 years, and we used to think Indy was huge. My dad recently laughed while he was dropping me off(at school), saying how small he thinks the city(Indianapolis) actually is. St. Louis has Clayton(which has another downtown with high rises), Forest Park,and the central west end(check these out,i love going to these places,plus don't forget about the loop!!!). Just to name a few places. But if you feel comfortable in Indianapolis,then you should live there. They've got small but really nice downtown. The circle center is nice. Carmel is also very nice,too. They've also got some cool museums. But then again so does St. Louis, and did I mention that a lot of museums are free in the area? St. Louis is def. not Chicago, New York, or New Orleans, but it's still pretty nice. You just have to make up your mind what's best for you.

[REM]

Give indianapolis some credit. I mean we are one of the only cities with out any large sorce of water near us. We have only been building our downtown since what 1980 at the most? Indianapolis sure isn't a new york or los angeles but if you think memphis or kansas city is better than indy think again. You two really don't know much about indy if you think downtown is the only place to be. Carmel, fishers, geist, greenwood, broad ripple, woodruff place, irvington (can be debated), and the entire northside is something to see. The IMA even right now has art from the louvre on display. and our dowtown mediacore? I don't think so. For one building wise it is way bigger than STL. Indiana ave, foustain square, the mall, the zoo, borders, amazing dining place are all good places downtown better than that dump/freeway system that is downtown stl. Carmel also has a good financial district and all together is better than clayton with a tiny pop of 12,000. Crime is bad in STL no matter which way you look at it. Indy is more diverse than you think. I myself see people from estonia, serbia, croatia, mexico ( that's every where tho) poland, india, and arabs. And that's just in my school. you can't even go to the zoo with out hearing at least 4 different languages. also domegurl can you tell me what you edited? please.

[chitownwarrior]

Originally Posted by REM

Give indianapolis some credit.

Sorry, can't do it.

And your points are just kind of ...ok...and....

Indy has a LOOOONG way to go before it can start competing with much larger and older cities like stl, minneapolis, and detroit.

also carmel > clayton???? i dont know about that, its totally discretionary, but how would you define "better"? In terms of culture, economics, and urbanness, i would bet all of my money, on a poll of people that have experienced both areas, on which they think was "better". I'm 100% positive, unless peopel were smoking dope, they would vote for clayton. That's like comparing an Acura to a Geo Prism.

Sorry REM, indy's got some great things like founatin square and indiana ave, and a few museums but that's IT....plus, you'd be joking to compare stl's zoo's to indy's. St. Louis zoo is one of the top zoos in the country if not world, beating out san diego from time to time....

They are completely different types of cities, stl being more cultured and historic and molded, while indy still young and still trying to develop its culture.

For me, i'm extremely glad i no longer live in indiana, and for indy residents that have lived there their whole lives that think its "great"...well, i guess ignorance is bliss.

(sorry to sound so harsh, but its the darn truth, and to my experiences, MANY people feel the same way about indy)

[Stretchad]

I think it all depends on what kind of lifestyle you want to live when you move. They're both mid-sized midwestern cities, so I imagine that they'll be equally down-to-earth. The thing about indianapolis is that it's a lot about what you make of it. If you want a quiet suburban lifestyle, you can have it. If you want a college-ey vibe you can achieve that (live near broad ripple!). If you want a more urban experience, but still live in a pretty safe location downtown, you can have that too (mass avenue). I don't know St. Louis that well, but I do know that there are probably similar opportunities to create your own experience the way you want it.

My suggestion would be to go where either you have family & friends close by, OR, wherever your current and future job prospects are the best. I've found that my industry and job of choice is not very prevalent in Indianapolis and therefore I'm moving. I'm not going to lie, I will miss it. It's easy to live there. I don't feel like there are lots of areas that I can't go to, I can get pretty much anything I want in the city (as far as shopping & entertainment go). And, it's super cheap (but so is St. Louis). Seriously the one reason I personally wouldn't move to St. Louis is because they seem to suffer from sweltering heat & humidity in the summer, and always get hit with ice and sleet storms in the winter ;-)

[domergurl]

Yes, it is unbelieveable how much more humid it is in St. Louis than Indianapolis. And I don't think Indy aspires to be like Minneapolis/St. Paul or Detroit, but I do think that Indy and St. Louis are comparable and honestly, what it boils down to is which one feels better to the person in question.