Columbia: a Resident's Assesment (St. Louis, Springfield: hotels, construction, high school)

[hanswolfgangmercer]

If any of you are thinking of moving to Columbia or want to know more about it, let me offer my humble assessment.

If Columbia were a person, it would be an awkward teenager. The whole town has been a sleepy college town for a very long time but has oddly started to grow very fast lately, leaving its infrastructure hard put to keep up. Columbia Transit operates well beyond its budget and the outskirts of town have become a confusing sprawl.

Everything is always crowded. Student's families come to town along with alumni and every high school sports tournament, making it hard to get service at many restaurants and downright impossible to find lodgings. I have to take the bus to get to town and find it to be no less crowded than a New York subway.

That said, it is kind of exciting to be in a prospering town. I wouldn't go so far to say that there is a boatload of jobs to be had here, but companies are investing in the place. Downtown has several new large buildings under construction that might do a lot to spruce up an already exciting downtown. I personally know someone who is considering bringing two jamba juice locations to town, not that I know what Jama Juice is, mind you.

It's a very liberal town, if that's your sort of thing. I personally hate it, but if your a liberal in Missouri, this is one of the few places you can feel like a majority. Dreadful place to be a conservative though.

Well, that's my unsolicited two cents. What do you think?

[MoNative34]

Those are the things that go along with a prosperous city. Crowded restaurants and hotels reaching capacity is a good thing. Commerce. The same can be said for high levels of ridership numbers on transit. I'd choose it over the opposite any day.

I don't find it to be as liberal as some people say it is, though. I'd call it purple.

[hanswolfgangmercer]

You are right. I don't mean to sound so critical of economic activity. I guess one does well to remember to count their blessings.

[GraniteStater]

It is the best smaller sized city in Missouri. Nothing else even comes close.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by hanswolfgangmercer

You are right. I don't mean to sound so critical of economic activity. I guess one does well to remember to count their blessings.

I completely understand what you're saying. I live in a city that's been growing so fast for a very long time and keeping up with the infrastructure is impossible. Traffic gets bad, places are crowded, etc. It gets a bit frustrating sometimes, but I also found a great job here that would be next to impossible to get in other cities.

What is CoMo's population nowadays? I remember when it was only 50K.

[aragx6]

If it weren't for the drive to a major airport, it'd be a place I'd consider living someday -- enjoyed my 4 years in college there, but wish now that I'd lived closer to downtown. It's definitely grown quite sprawl-y and I lived in one brand new duplex complex waaayyy out on Brown School Rd. - most places wouldn't even deliver to us!

Any college town is bound to lean to the left politically, but as MoNative said, I'm not sure, after living in much more blue places, if I could really call it super liberal or anything.

The weirdest thing about Columbia is that the constant influx of new college students makes it the town that never ages -- I've been out of college for 5 years now and might not have thought I changed all that much, but spending a few weekends there recently made me feel plain old!

[stepka]

It's my hometown that I've lived away from for 25 years and I agree with the OP. The best thing about Columbia is that it has the most thriving downtown of any town I've seen in the US, and that's despite the fact that it's where Sam Walton graduated from high school. Also has some of the prettiest scenery of anywhere I've been in MO and plenty of places to hike. My mother had the nicest neighbors I've seen anywhere.

The biggest negative is that the streets are always crammed and to drive anywhere is an ordeal and it's a real pain to sit through 3 stoplights before you can finally go. On one of the newer streets recently I almost got into an accident turning left b/c I couldn't see a car coming over a hill and it was going about 50.

[STLCityMike]

The 2010 census listed Columbia as 108,500. Quickly becoming one of the larger cities in the states (KC, St. Louis, Springfield, Independence, and now Columbia). Columbia will likely pass Independence in the next official census.

[stlouisan]

Columbia is basically is a once-quiet Midwestern town that is now beginning to grow a bit louder with Mizzou and the increasing presence of businesses there.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by STLCityMike

The 2010 census listed Columbia as 108,500. Quickly becoming one of the larger cities in the states (KC, St. Louis, Springfield, Independence, and now Columbia). Columbia will likely pass Independence in the next official census.

Which is crazy because the old population signs up from the last census said 85,431!