Kirkwood/Webster Groves/Clayton (St. Louis, Rea: shop, rating, children)

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by mike0421

Honestly? And I will plead TERRIBLY guilty here, and I apologize: the I-44 and I-55 'storefront' churches that seem to predominate, as well as the 'billboard' religion culture I see. I will tell you this, and I know I will offend some: I don't see the Catholic religion participating this way, however, the Protestant and the non-denominational, I see much more of this. The "REPENT" signs, and the different branches of churches I've seen driving by and through the smaller towns surrounding the metro.

(Cowering and ready to get spiked hard!)

That's really just a difference in the two branches of Christianity. Catholics don't need or, for the most part, really want to convert folks, which is different than the tenets of evangelism. And there are a few mega churches that have cropped up here in the last few years, but not nearly the numbers you see down south.

I do agree that I do see a good number of Catholic-based billboards in the area too -- they're feeling threatened and they're bringing out the big dogs.

But the culture here is heavily Catholic; if it hadn't have come up here in this thread, I'm certain it would have started dawning on you eventually.

[Dawn10am]

Cool, I'm from Collierville. You'd be amazed at some of the things I've heard Protestant Southerners say about Catholics. If they weren't so serious it'd be hilarious. You're right about the drive up to St. Louis, too. I love seeing the "Cape County Cowboy Church" and then about 100 miles closer to St. Louis you start seeing all the French names and the little church steeples sticking up over the towns. Definitely a shift.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by mike0421

I just learned something here, yet again, about this area. I was under the impression that most residents were/are Protestant.

I don't think there are more catholics, although everyone knows St. Louis is a heavily catholic area. I tried to find some stats online and found a link to a post on, of all places, city-data:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...-cities-9.html

Not exactly the final answer, but the poster cites (without a link) stats from the STL Arch Diocese saying that in 2009 22% of the population in St. Louis is catholic. I would have guessed higher, but not over 50%.

Just taking my hometown of Kirkwood as an example, we have two decent sized catholic parishes but there must be a dozen protestant churches of various denominations. Sure, some are small, but some are quite large. I think the prevalence of catholic high schools in the metro gives the impression that there are even more catholics than there really are.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

Cool, I'm from Collierville. You'd be amazed at some of the things I've heard Protestant Southerners say about Catholics. If they weren't so serious it'd be hilarious. You're right about the drive up to St. Louis, too. I love seeing the "Cape County Cowboy Church" and then about 100 miles closer to St. Louis you start seeing all the French names and the little church steeples sticking up over the towns. Definitely a shift.

Sure, some say all of us Catholics are going to hell and the Roman Catholic Church is a satanic cult.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

I don't think there are more catholics, although everyone knows St. Louis is a heavily catholic area. I tried to find some stats online and found a link to a post on, of all places, city-data:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...-cities-9.html

Not exactly the final answer, but the poster cites (without a link) stats from the STL Arch Diocese saying that in 2009 22% of the population in St. Louis is catholic. I would have guessed higher, but not over 50%.

Just taking my hometown of Kirkwood as an example, we have two decent sized catholic parishes but there must be a dozen protestant churches of various denominations. Sure, some are small, but some are quite large. I think the prevalence of catholic high schools in the metro gives the impression that there are even more catholics than there really are.

It might just count Catholics who are registered in a parish. I always use this website for religious data. It's from 2000, they should be coming out with another one soon.

It says that St. Louis County is 30% Catholic. St. Louis City is 20%. In both, the number of Catholics is higher than the combined number of Protestants, and Catholics are the largest denomination by far. So there are more Catholics than Protestants, but Catholics aren't the majority. Maybe a lot of the "unclaimed" people claim to be Catholic though.

The thing about Catholic churches is they look smaller than a lot of Protestant churches but they have a lot of masses. It seems that most Protestant churches only have 1 or 2 services, whereas most Catholic churches have at least 3 Sunday masses (including Saturday evening) there are some with up to 7.

[chicagobear]

While there are a lot of Catholics in St. Louis, there are still lots of Protestants as well as a meaningful Jewish population. I live in Chicago now and it seems like the great majority of whites that I encounter are Catholic, which was not the case in St. Louis.

[aragx6]

Because the census doesn't ask of people their religion I don't think there's any one good source for this information, and most of it is probably compiled using informal and statistically small surveys.

I will tell you there's no way in hell that 22% number is accurate. St. Louis' black population is significantly less Catholic, which I am sure is a big part of lowering those numbers and as Chicagobear said there's not an insignificant Jewish population, but most white people living in the metro, from my years of experience there, are either Catholic or only one generation removed from it.

Most of the non-Catholics I knew growing up were transplants.

Anecdotally, I actually sat here for a few minutes and tried to think of my little starter subdivision in St. Chuck and the religion of all of my friends and everyone I knew and I can think of 4 families -- only one of whom were St. Louis natives -- who weren't Catholic. We only had one black family and they were Catholic too. That's of about a dozen families I knew well enough to know their religion.

I can think of other assorted friends I had over the years who weren't Catholic, but many many more who were. And like I said, I know St. Charles has higher numbers of protestants than St. Louis County -- or at least the central chunk.

Bottom line: I feel confident that the plurality of St. Louis is Catholic even if it doesn't hit a technical majority.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

Seems to me that St. Louisans are generally pretty reserved about their political leanings. I've never had anyone try to throw anything in my face. Back down South the first question many people ask is "What church do you go to?" It's pretty nice not to have to deal with that here.

You cannot go 5 feet in Kirkwood without seeing a political sign in a yard. And every other house is either very conservative or very liberal or something else. Very mixed.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

Original poster, any of your choices are fine. The schools will be your question moving forward. To everyone else, I've always considered Webster a part of West St. Louis County. It's Southwest. St. Louis has inner rung suburbs and outer rung suburbs that are usually defined by West or East of 270. I've never thought of West of 270 as West St. Louis County alone. Webster is in the County, and it is partly West.

This was meant for the other thread about Webster. I thought I switched it, my bad.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Zimbochick

We are contemplating moving from Atlanta to St. Louis. My husband has a job offer which would be located out past the Spirit of Saint Louis Airport, near the intersection of the 64 and 94.

The types of neighborhoods that suit our sense of community and sensibilities would seem to be Kirkwood, Clayton, and Webster Groves.

Our needs:

1) Great public schools. We have a 6th and 4th grader.

2) Reasonable commute. Would his commute from the areas I mentioned be horrible?

3) Real sense of community, and walkability. My husband is a runner, so access to running areas is important.

4) Budget - under K$500

5) We are a very progressive family, so living in a conservative community would not work well for us.

6) Easy access to downtown, and as DH will be traveling a bit, reasonable airport access.

7) Diverse selection of kid activites, such as community pool, etc.

Many thanks for any input.

All 3 have what you seek. Progressive is relative. You will fid at least some people in all 3 areas that aren't. However they are among the most in St. Louis burbs.