The Lou aint so bad (St. Louis, Miami: neighborhoods, construction, median income)

[kshe95girl]

Having spent a solid week in STL in August, I must report that its demise is much overblown.
Is there crime? Oh, puleeze, come to Orlando, and lets discuss your experience there.
I was so pleased to see progress in the Compton Heights neighborhood, Layfayette of course, there are so many neighborhoods that are rebuilding, and marginal neighborhoods all over the place are coming back.
How do I know this? I went into several transitional neighborhoods that friends of all ethnic variations live in, did not get shaken down, and I am a middle-aged white gal.
Am I reporting just what I thought I saw?
No...... got my first degree from Mizzou, which taught me to report without persional opinion what I saw, which I am telling y'all about.
There is much to be heartened about in STL, but there is still much to be addressed.
I am sure that the good folks that are trying so hard to make a differnce in the transitional neighborhoods will prevail to pull STL out of its funk.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I'm glad you enjoyed the trip. Unfortunately, I've never really gotten to explore the city. My family would be too afraid to, and I'd be too afraid to look around by myself.

And whenever we do go it's just a weekend.

But you're right, from what I've seen St. Louis isn't the hellhole that some may think it is.

[ShadowCaver]

The times I have the pleasure of driving through [or to] St Louis, while realizing that she ain't perfect or where we/I'd like to see certain areas be, the vast majority are positive thoughts, and memories. People can give up and say nothing will ever get better or change, or they can fight the good fight, trying to improve upon what is there, and continue to make the city better. Of course, having those in leadership positions actually lead, passionately, for long term improvements, is definitely critical too.

kshe95lady - great thead... and great to see ya

[ucfjtm]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Having spent a solid week in STL in August, I must report that its demise is much overblown.
Is there crime? Oh, puleeze, come to Orlando, and lets discuss your experience there.

Tell me about it. I was in STL for just over a week in June, and I felt MUCH safer walking the streets downtown there than I do in our "downtown" of Orlando. I can't wait to make the move up there.. 1-1.5 years from now...

[westwind15]

I am taking the "bad city" reports with a real grain of salt, especially when I look at the board for my own city and see areas listed as 'terrible" and "unsafe" that I go in and out of all the time with never a single problem or fear. Just because it is not affluant does not mean it's scum. There is an awful lot of gray area in betwen the two.

[kshe95girl]

glad to see no one has tried to put the hammer down on my comments yet.
I saw work going on everywhere, as far as restoration and construction goes, which was heartining.
Here in my part of Floriduh, that kind of thing has pretty much ceased to exist.

[TNRyan23]

I spend about a week a year in St. Louis to hit as many Cards games as I can. It's a great city. It has it's problems, I don't know if I would ever live there but as a native Floridian myself, I'll agree and say Florida as a whole is a hellhole and anywhere is better then there.

[desperad0stl]

a lot of the city is very safe. West county is one of the best places to live in the midwest and has the best median income outside of Chicago's Lake shore...its just that most people who don't live in north st. louis and certain areas of south st louis + the east side wouldn't dare go into these neighborhoods and walk around and thats where our dangerous city statistics come from. Last night I was deep in the east side and there was a tow truck driver towing a car...Things are so bad over there that the tow truck driver required an escort of two mean looking police officers with full body armor and gigantic automatic machine guns keeping an eye and trying to look intimidating...There is a gigantic portion of the city you have not seen and there is no reason for people who don't live there to go there.
KSHE95GIRL i'm sorry but if you're driving down MLK or around Keokuk/Miami in the south side and god forbid that you are somewhere on the east side (that's not the oz or the surrounding clubs which I consider "The tourist's ESTL") you will most likely lock your doors and look for the quickest way out....the majority of the county is white picket fences and everything is all honky dory (parts of north county are messed up)

Every city has a different spot for its dangerous areas (if it has them) ours isn't downtown.

Sucks that STL was the 4th largest city in the nation and 2nd busiest port after new york with a lot of history...but when the heirarchy of STL refused to let outsiders come in and consequently let all of those industries go to Chicago, they let a great city die. STL has a TON of catching up to do after being in such a long rut. STL is suburbia way overblown and one of the very rare cases where the rich live outside of the city and not in and immediately around the city...its always the other way around all around the globe.

St. Louis did receive an international award for urban revitalization over some cities in india and latin america which is awesome...hopefully developers and investors can keep up the good work in the city.

[desperad0stl]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=868519451559529

just copy and paste the link in between those URL brackets...found this one...interesting

[skipcromer]

Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989

I'm glad you enjoyed the trip. Unfortunately, I've never really gotten to explore the city. My family would be too afraid to, and I'd be too afraid to look around by myself.

And whenever we do go it's just a weekend.

But you're right, from what I've seen St. Louis isn't the hellhole that some may think it is.

I honestly cannot imagine being scared to explore the city. Are there areas you probably don't want to go to? of course. That said, I have been to every part of the city and have never had an issue.

During late evening hours, I can understand not wanting to be out by yourself (particularly if you are female).