I'm from St. Louis. (Kansas City, Springfield: neighborhood, university, live in)

[btoverdrive]

I am from Arkansas, moved to St Louis (Ballwin) from Houston, and had nothing but good experiences for the 16 years that I lived there. Worked downtown and did not mind the commute after fighting Houston traffic for 4 years.

Got transferred to Omaha and spent 7 miserable years there before retiring and moving back to Arkansas but still have many good friends in St Louis that we still see and talk to often.

People that have never been to St Louis or lived there mostly base their opinions on those stupid crime polls.

[Amercity]

Depends.
Californians and most west coasters- Where is st.louis? Usually they have no idea where st.louis is or anything about it other then a arch

Southerners-You are from the big city, st.louis is a yankee town, Another liberal city, full of posh white people

People from the southwest (arizona, new mexico, utah, nevada)- Wow how old is your house? 200, 300?!? Are the streets made out of bricks instead of cement? Usually they assume that st.louis is very old.

Northeast-Hickville, bible belt, ghetto, black and white, no diversity, how many cows do you see a day? Are there any skyscrapers there? Why would you live in a burnt out ghetto like that? Usually they assume its either hickville, USA somewhere in the south or they assume its just like their city except everything is broken or abandoned

New England-Same as east coast except they assume we try to mimic Boston and try to act hip when we are far from it

Great Plain states- A lot like southerns assumptions. Although more about how we are big city people.

Also i have noticed California and west coasters stereotype st.louis the least as they know the least while east coast and especially the northeast and New England stereotype the most. Southwest and the southeast seem to make st.louis twice its size in population at least.

What im really surprises me about peoples perception is how people in China and Brazil would know st.louis is a american city and in Missouri but not know a single thing about the city.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by Amercity

Depends.
Californians and most west coasters- Where is st.louis? Usually they have no idea where st.louis is or anything about it other then a arch

Southerners-You are from the big city, st.louis is a yankee town, Another liberal city, full of posh white people

People from the southwest (arizona, new mexico, utah, nevada)- Wow how old is your house? 200, 300?!? Are the streets made out of bricks instead of cement? Usually they assume that st.louis is very old.

Northeast-Hickville, bible belt, ghetto, black and white, no diversity, how many cows do you see a day? Are there any skyscrapers there? Why would you live in a burnt out ghetto like that? Usually they assume its either hickville, USA somewhere in the south or they assume its just like their city except everything is broken or abandoned

New England-Same as east coast except they assume we try to mimic Boston and try to act hip when we are far from it

Great Plain states- A lot like southerns assumptions. Although more about how we are big city people.

Also i have noticed California and west coasters stereotype st.louis the least as they know the least while east coast and especially the northeast and New England stereotype the most. Southwest and the southeast seem to make st.louis twice its size in population at least.

What im really surprises me about peoples perception is how people in China and Brazil would know st.louis is a american city and in Missouri but not know a single thing about the city.

Maybe in the rest of the South, but that's not the impression here in Memphis. Many people dont know that it's not in the South. And the ones who know it's not in the South dont consider is Yankee like the Northeast. Lots of people here are big Cardinals fans so I dont think they would cheer for a team from a city that they had a negative impression of. And I dont think most people in Memphis realize how much bigger St. Louis is. Most people here think Nashville is bigger than Memphis when it's not.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by Smtchll

Maybe in the rest of the South, but that's not the impression here in Memphis. Many people dont know that it's not in the South. And the ones who know it's not in the South dont consider is Yankee like the Northeast. Lots of people here are big Cardinals fans so I dont think they would cheer for a team from a city that they had a negative impression of. And I dont think most people in Memphis realize how much bigger St. Louis is. Most people here think Nashville is bigger than Memphis when it's not.

From my own personal experience of living in Memphis for 5 years is the impression depend upon the person.

Most think of it as a northern city. Very very few will say its Midwestern. I heard very few negative comments about the city except a disappointing downtown. (Obviously those are not the people who have been there is recent years).

Most Memphians come to St. Louis for a game or six flags. Few would go to the zoo. No talk about the festivals or the neighborhoods.

Most Memphians think of Nashville as an up and coming city that is better than they are. I personally disagree. Memphis has more soul than Nashville. Nashville has more toys. Funny thing I saw a video where Nashville thought that it was on par with St. Louis.

Anyway this is just my take from my little personal experience.

[jgardener]

I grew up in St. Louis, but have lived most of my adult life in Chicago. Honestly, I don't hear a lot of negative comments about St. Louis, most people I run into have a neutral to somewhat positive view of it. Part of this has to do with the large number of transplants that live in the neighborhoods I've lived and the number of native Chicagoans who have relatives in St. Louis. Most of the positives are about the architecture and lower cost of living; the few negatives I've heard have been the smaller size in comparison to Chicago and sports rivalry related stuff. I hear more negative comments about Iowa and Indiana from Chicagoans than anything about St. Louis.

My mother is a native of Brooklyn, NY and when my grandmother first visited St. Louis she was shocked that all the houses weren't on stilts. Her only reference point for St. Louis was the Mississippi River and Flooding. She later came to like St. Louis and spent her last few years living there. Her only complaints were that everyone talked too slowly and mumbled (she was only 5ft tall, but you could hear her whisper from 100 yards away).

I occasionally hear negative comments from friends andvrlatives in New York about St. Louis being tiny or not significant, but mostly I've heard positives or people who don't know what state its in or where it is located. I went to camp in Maine one summer with kids from DC, New York, New Jersey, and Boston and most of the kids thought St. Louis was somewhere near Oregon or Montana.

When I lived in Seattle, most people either had no opinion or maybe wondered about high crime or conservative politics.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by jgardener

When I lived in Seattle, most people either had no opinion or maybe wondered about high crime or conservative politics.

I remember many saying St. Louis was conservative when living there. Some would say it was unbearably conservative. When I moved away to North Carolina, I learned what conservative really meant.

[Blacksun5000]

I was born and raised in Kansas City, MO, went to college Fulton, MO (Westminster College), and have lived in the St.Louis Hills neighborhood since 1999. So I have the experience to say that there is an abnormally high jerk-contingent in St. Louis. I literally experienced culture shock when I first moved here.

When I was in college, for some reason we had a very large number of people from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas -- they were great people. But even then, I noticed that the St.Louis kids were a bit off. And then I moved here, and, wow. And its too bad too, the town itself is great: tons of really cool stuff to do, you are only about an hour or so from some really great forests and rivers.

I have my thoughts on why this is, but Im not sure whats allowable on this site.

[topospace]

I was at a conference in Singapore and someone asked where I lived. I said St. Louis and he said "Oh, aren't there a lot of blacks there?"

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by topospace

I was at a conference in Singapore and someone asked where I lived. I said St. Louis and he said "Oh, aren't there a lot of blacks there?"

Are you kidding me? What is that supposed to mean?

[jskirwin]

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

I'm from the South originally and I've found that Southerners have a generally apathetic to positive view of St. Louis. They tend to associate it with Chicago as being one of those "big Northern cities." When my friends come up to visit they're usually really surprised at how cool it is.

I'm just another yankee. Most people around here don't think about STL much, although a few are familiar with the Cardinals since some of their farm teams are this way, and I do see quite a few Cardinals caps.

Still, STL isn't on people's radars the way big cities on the coasts are.