St Louis vs Kansas City (St. Louis, Independence: homes, landscaping, neighborhoods)

[anr_black]

It's true the violent crime in St. Louis is mainly limited to just a few areas of the city.
What I see as the defining factor is your budget. You'll have a very hard time finding a 4 bedroom house in a great school district for under 200K here. For that reason, I'd probably move to KC if I were in your shoes.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

You can get fairly cheap in the city of St. Louis, though I'm not sure that would offset the cost of a private school.

Here's a cute 4 BR in the Holly Hills area of St. Louis. I'm not sure how much a private school would cost, though.



http://www.cbgundaker.com/search/adv...27195&type=res

I didn't do the advanced search by school district. You can do that, though. You can get a 4BR cheaper, but this one caught my eyes. I've heard pretty good things about Holly Hills.

[aragx6]

What a cute little house. Holly Hills is a great family neighborhood, and it's often not too hard to get your kid into a magnet.

To the previous poster explaining the crime stats - it is an absolute fact that you are more likely to be a victim of a crime in the city of St. Louis than the city of Kansas City. But what you're missing is that much of what is technically the city of Kansas City is incredibly suburban because Kansas City's city limits are so big. St. Louis is itty bitty and very urban through all of the city limits, which skews things. It's comparing apples to oranges.

If you take the 75 sq miles circumference of inner KC, you'll find the numbers far more comparable.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

According to Morgan Quitno, St. Louis Metro is safer than Kansas City Metro.

[luzianne]

St. Louis scares me. Have driven through and just didn't feel safe there, and worse when you cross over into Illinois. Have heard the crime rate is high in St. Louis as well. Having said that, I grew up in Kansas City, but on the Kansas side. I probably would never live on the Missouri side of Kansas City. Maybe a suburb like Blue Springs or the newer areas up north, but definitely not Kansas City proper; too much crime and not maintained like other areas like Johnson County on the Kansas side. Plus schools in KCMO are not good. Don't know about St. Louis schools.

[northbayeric]

Well the St. Louis city public schools are, I have to say, in very dire straits and have been for quite some time. But I would not write off the entire city of St. Louis, just as I wouldn't write off all of Kansas City. The part of KC outside of Jackson County seems fine as far as I can tell.

In St. Louis, it's not good along I-70, but along I-44 and I-55 it's quite a bit nicer, as is most of the metro area on the Missouri side; and when you get over to the Edwardsville area on the Illinois side, same thing.

[northbound74]

Originally Posted by luzianne

St. Louis scares me. Have driven through and just didn't feel safe there, and worse when you cross over into Illinois. Have heard the crime rate is high in St. Louis as well. Having said that, I grew up in Kansas City, but on the Kansas side. I probably would never live on the Missouri side of Kansas City. Maybe a suburb like Blue Springs or the newer areas up north, but definitely not Kansas City proper; too much crime and not maintained like other areas like Johnson County on the Kansas side. Plus schools in KCMO are not good. Don't know about St. Louis schools.

It highly depends on where you are on the Missouri side. I live in Independence, and it's just fine, in spite of the stereotypes JOCOer's give us. Lee's Summit's supremely nicer than Blue Springs, which isn't too shabby itself. The only part of KC I don't like is between Troost and the east leg of 435, from the river down to the south leg of 435. In other words, east KC. I'll take Brookside or West Plaza over any place in JOCO any day.
I also like KC MUCH better than St. Louis, overall. Yes, I've been all over St. Louis, and have seen every tourist trap they have to offer. It's not bad, just not a place I'd ever want to live in.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I've never been to Kansas City, though my cousin lived and went to school in KCMO. I'm not sure which High School it was.

I love St. Louis and its character. It has some grit and some rough neighborhoods, but every city its size does. You just have to know where you're going and what you're doing. There are some good magnet schools in St. Louis City, as well as private schools if you can afford it. There are some suburbs that aren't extremely cookie cutter as well.

If I had to choose I'd take St. Louis by a long shot, but I'm a big Cardinals and Blues fan, so that's part of it.

St. Louis Metro is bigger. Kansas City's city itself is bigger in population, but it's boundaries are also larger. It's just a matter of preference. With 3 major sports (hopefully soccer by around 2010), there might be more to do in St. Louis.

[blueatari]

KC and STL are as different as night and day. I really think the statement that, 'KC is the eastern-most western city and STL is the western-most eastern city' holds very true.

They both should be appreciated, And MO is really fortunate to have two major metros.

That being said, STL is far more recongnized as being the "Missouri's Big City".

[northbound74]

^^Kansas City has to split it's fame into two states, considering roughly half of the metro's population is in Kansas. So, a lot of people not from the area think that KC is in Kansas. When in fact, most of the stuff one associates with KC is in Missouri, like the sports teams and all the touristy stuff.
The big majority of St. Louis' overall population is in Missouri, so yes, people think of it as Missouri's big city.