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Old 08-22-2012, 08:05 PM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
4,009 posts, read 6,824,865 times
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I am so stoked, and amazed that Florissant has made the top 100 list, coming in at #76:

Florissant, MO - Best Places to Live - Money Magazine

Considering my husband and I are in the process of buying in Florissant (counting down the days til closing!) this is wonderful news!

Now if only FloMo could make more of it's 'Old Town' I'd be even happier!



P.S. O'Fallon and St. Charles also made the Top 100 (slightly above Florissant)- but FloMo is the only St. Louis County suburb to get picked this year that I could see!
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Old 08-23-2012, 05:28 AM
 
Location: Saint Louis, MO
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Good stuff, and agree with you about their old town...just wish it was larger, and it'd be great. Hendel's is a nice place to grab some grub however.
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Old 08-23-2012, 05:40 AM
 
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Florissant is very underrated.
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Old 08-23-2012, 08:03 AM
 
Location: 32°19'03.7"N 106°43'55.9"W
9,328 posts, read 20,666,117 times
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I've always wondered about Florissant. The downtown area does seem quaint, residential streets clean, and full of character, however, the school rankings here are almost always at the bottom. The homes and neighborhoods look nicer than say Mehlville or Affton, but I guess I put too much emphasis on the school rankings.
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Old 08-23-2012, 08:21 AM
 
Location: Tower Grove East, St. Louis, MO
12,063 posts, read 31,469,745 times
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^I mean honestly, their test scores aren't great, but they're not the worst either. I was just looking at their test scores and they're only slightly worse than Olathe schools here in the KC metro and everyone says those schools are fine bordering on good.

As far as comparisons to SDs like Mehlville go, you're right that the schools fare far worse, and it's pretty easy to see why if you look at the key student stat: 57% of the students at McCluer are eligible for free or reduced lunches. At Mehlville that number is 5%.

Given how much emphasis Money magazine seems to put on schools, I'm actually really suprised they made the list. They must have been off the charts high on some other criteria.
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Old 08-24-2012, 11:30 PM
 
Location: St Louis County, MO
711 posts, read 2,098,574 times
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I hate these lists as much as any other list. Negative or positive, they are always flawed as all get out. I don't think the average person on these boards would look to O'Fallon Missouri or St Charles to be a "great place to live". If you like sitting in traffic, living in a cookie cutter home, in a town with no downtown that sprawls to ridiculous levels, and has a ton of people who want to appear to be rich because they can buy 3k sq ft for $180k, then yeah, I guess it's a great place to live. I wouldn't live in O'Fallon MO for anything. Places like Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Clayton are infinitely better places to live IMHO, but they won't make the list despite their excellent schools and low crime, I assume, because it is expensive to live in those cities.

Edit: I seem like a really big jerk in this post. I do not intend to offend anyone who chooses to live in St Charles or O'Fallon...I'm just saying that using some random methodology you invented to name the "best cities" is silly. They obviously have good qualities about them, especially if you work AND live there.
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Old 08-25-2012, 01:20 AM
 
1,478 posts, read 2,398,334 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AJohnston_STL View Post
I hate these lists as much as any other list. Negative or positive, they are always flawed as all get out. I don't think the average person on these boards would look to O'Fallon Missouri or St Charles to be a "great place to live". If you like sitting in traffic, living in a cookie cutter home, in a town with no downtown that sprawls to ridiculous levels, and has a ton of people who want to appear to be rich because they can buy 3k sq ft for $180k, then yeah, I guess it's a great place to live. I wouldn't live in O'Fallon MO for anything. Places like Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Clayton are infinitely better places to live IMHO, but they won't make the list despite their excellent schools and low crime, I assume, because it is expensive to live in those cities.

Edit: I seem like a really big jerk in this post. I do not intend to offend anyone who chooses to live in St Charles or O'Fallon...I'm just saying that using some random methodology you invented to name the "best cities" is silly. They obviously have good qualities about them, especially if you work AND live there.
Agree with you that there are other places in the metro area I'd rather live and that any methodology you put together will be somewhat arbitrary (its not a one size fits all thing), but keep in mind that Money Mag does different best places lists on a rotating basis. Some years it's smaller cities and towns, some years it is everyone. This year it is medium sized cities (non core city of a major metro between 50K and 250K in population). There are only 11 cities in MO that meet the population criteria and places like Kirkwood, Webster Groves, and Clayton aren't among them. The other 8 that didn't make the list:

Independence, Lee's Summit, Springfield, Columbia, Joplin, St. Joseph, Blue Springs, and St. Peters. Money puts a big emphasize on proximity to a wide variety of jobs, so the non-metro cities are in for an uphill battle. On the KC side, they chose a couple of KS cities over the 3 cities on the MO side, and in STL, they chose 3 of the 4 who were eligible. Kind of misleading.
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Old 08-25-2012, 09:34 AM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
4,009 posts, read 6,824,865 times
Reputation: 4607
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJohnston_STL View Post
I hate these lists as much as any other list. Negative or positive, they are always flawed as all get out. I don't think the average person on these boards would look to O'Fallon Missouri or St Charles to be a "great place to live". If you like sitting in traffic, living in a cookie cutter home, in a town with no downtown that sprawls to ridiculous levels, and has a ton of people who want to appear to be rich because they can buy 3k sq ft for $180k, then yeah, I guess it's a great place to live. I wouldn't live in O'Fallon MO for anything. Places like Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Clayton are infinitely better places to live IMHO, but they won't make the list despite their excellent schools and low crime, I assume, because it is expensive to live in those cities.

Edit: I seem like a really big jerk in this post. I do not intend to offend anyone who chooses to live in St Charles or O'Fallon...I'm just saying that using some random methodology you invented to name the "best cities" is silly. They obviously have good qualities about them, especially if you work AND live there.
I agree with you about O'Fallon & St. Charles with the exception of St. Charles historic downtown... neither place are my thing.

As for other cities 'not meeting criteria'- that may not necessarily be the case. Webster Groves made the list in 2011- it was Number 61 as ranked by CNN. I was super surprised that it didn't make the list again in 2012- as the economy hasn't really changed within the past year!

I do agree though that Florissant's cost of living (low housing cost) probably factored big into their calculations this year.
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Old 08-25-2012, 10:25 AM
 
1,478 posts, read 2,398,334 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glamatomic View Post
I agree with you about O'Fallon & St. Charles with the exception of St. Charles historic downtown... neither place are my thing.

As for other cities 'not meeting criteria'- that may not necessarily be the case. Webster Groves made the list in 2011- it was Number 61 as ranked by CNN. I was super surprised that it didn't make the list again in 2012- as the economy hasn't really changed within the past year!
As I said earlier, the population grouping alternates between years. This year, they are focusing exclusively on medium sized cities over 50K. Last time around, they weren't. You can sort by population on the best of list. Not a single city under 50,000 for 2012. This isn't a coincidence.
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Old 08-25-2012, 11:34 AM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
4,009 posts, read 6,824,865 times
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I just noticed in the articles that in the 2012 list that Florissant is in, it's entitled Best Small Cities whereas the 2011 list that Webster Groves made it onto was entitled Best Small Towns. So you're right- they're different criteria entirely... because they're a different classification of list
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