Southern or Midwestern? (St. Louis, Columbia, St. Charles: neighborhood, new construction, public schools)

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Having lived in both cities, I have to say.... I dunno about that. The river thing, yes! But the German-Irish Catholic culture? Being a 6th generation STL German Catholic, I never saw anything in Louisville like what we have in STL, and I looked, I was homesick!
Historic areas are a bit similar, with Louisvilles being much smaller, of course, but still nice.
The one thing Louisville had it all over STL on, is, of course, the Derby. Louisville has pretty much ignored its riverfront until recently, the Belevedere was meant to bring folks down there, but I always felt it cut one off from the river.
Just my observations, of course, but just dont see a whole lot of comparisons.

You didn't look hard enough then...and not to turn this to a city versus city thread, but the current state of Louisville's waterfront is infinitely nicer than that in STL. Maybe it was different when you lived in Louisville, but boy has that changed. STL has nothing like this park on the river:
Welcome to Waterfront Park!

As for the German/Irish heritage of the city, you can look that up just as easily. Here are just a few of the historic Irish/German areas, which of course look much different today as do similar areas of STL:

Butchertown, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Germantown, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irish Hill, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Limerick, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Courier-Journal.com: Places in Time


In fact, it looks like the city was 14% German by the end of the Civil War...it never had the make up of your typical "southern" city....which is why the place is an anomaly today. KY is decidedly a southern state, but calling Louisville an exclusively southern city is not at all correct. I have traveled all around STL, and I see Louisville's urban neighborhoods as being very similar to those in STL, albeit on a smaller scale.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by stx12499

You didn't look hard enough then...and not to turn this to a city versus city thread, but the current state of Louisville's waterfront is infinitely nicer than that in STL. Maybe it was different when you lived in Louisville, but boy has that changed. STL has nothing like this park on the river:
Welcome to Waterfront Park!

As for the German/Irish heritage of the city, you can look that up just as easily. Here are just a few of the historic Irish/German areas, which of course look much different today as do similar areas of STL:

Butchertown, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Germantown, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irish Hill, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Limerick, Louisville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Courier-Journal.com: Places in Time


In fact, it looks like the city was 14% German by the end of the Civil War...it never had the make up of your typical "southern" city....which is why the place is an anomaly today. KY is decidedly a southern state, but calling Louisville an exclusively southern city is not at all correct. I have traveled all around STL, and I see Louisville's urban neighborhoods as being very similar to those in STL, albeit on a smaller scale.

I lived there from '85 to '90, Butchertown had just started being rehabbed,there really was no German culture happening, except for a German fest at the Belevedere, Waterfront Park was just a gleam in someones eyes..... all that has come into being since I left. As I said, I looked, it was just not there yet.
I am glad to see the work is still going, we rehabbed a house in Saint James Court, I go back quite frequently to Louisville.
Did you ever live there?

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

I lived there from '85 to '90, Butchertown had just started being rehabbed,there really was no German culture happening, except for a German fest at the Belevedere, Waterfront Park was just a gleam in someones eyes..... all that has come into being since I left. As I said, I looked, it was just not there yet.
I am glad to see the work is still going, we rehabbed a house in Saint James Court, I go back quite frequently to Louisville.
Did you ever live there?

Yes in Louisville now. Have been here a few years after living all over the country and being raised as a military brat. I have a cousin currently living in Chesterfield, MO. Nice area, but two sprawly for me. As far as urban neighborhoods rehabbing, it seems like STL is in a similar situation as Louisville was 10 or 15 years ago. The city itself is still bleeding population and too many suburbanites are scared to death of the place. My favorite areas are probably Soulard (which has become quite upscale actually) Central West End, and the Hill (best Italian hood in the Midwest). Still, STL has loads of work to do to get people back downtown in earnest. I wasn't in Louisville in the 1980's but I suspect it was similar to STL back then, bleeding population and manufacturing jobs. And the riverfront on both sides is simply not attractive in STL. I have seen pictures and it used to look like STL, but boy has that changed!

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by ajf131

Another thing to note...I grew up in St. Louis County, there are NO hillbillies around here

Well of course...not anymore; that was my point And being half-hillbilly myself, I only use that term affectionately

Originally Posted by ajf131

...the part of the state in between Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arkansas and Tennessee being Southern.

That's a really good point! If I haven't looked at a map in awhile, it's easy to forget that Kentucky and Oklahoma are separated by only ONE state—namely the part of Missouri you're taking about...

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by LancasterNative

Well of course...not anymore; that was my point And being half-hillbilly myself, I only use that term affectionately

Let me tell ya, the hillbillies down here make the ones there look erudite! and I consider myself 1/2 hillbilly myself, on moms side, SE Mo.....

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Let me tell ya, the hillbillies down here make the ones there look erudite! and I consider myself 1/2 hillbilly myself, on moms side, SE Mo.....

LOL! I'll PM you here in a minute...

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by stx12499

The city itself is still bleeding population and too many suburbanites are scared to death of the place.

Actually the city is gaining residents for the first time since 1950.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Ya. It seems like the city has pretty much stopped the bleeding and is starting to gain population again.

[GraniteStater]

The Census Data shows that St. Louis County has still lost population since 2000.

[aragx6]

I was talking about the city

...maybe those county folk are moving back to the city - the census data there shows an increase of about 5k in 6 years... not bad for a city that used to have over 850,000 people.