St. Louis isn't that Racist...But it does suck hard culturally! (high crime, homes)

[Central Illinois 1]

St. Louis still has the smaller town attitude by alot of people. For instance, it is not uncommon for people to judge you by what high school you went to and then to cop a smug attitude if you respond with the wrong school (oh, you went to Sumner? I went to Chaminade...). The same thing applies to what part of the county you live in. STL is a good town overall, but that attitude is annoying and very small-townish.

[RichMonk]

Originally Posted by Central Illinois 1

St. Louis still has the smaller town attitude by alot of people. For instance, it is not uncommon for people to judge you by what high school you went to and then to cop a smug attitude if you respond with the wrong school (oh, you went to Sumner? I went to Chaminade...). The same thing applies to what part of the county you live in. STL is a good town overall, but that attitude is annoying and very small-townish.

I don't think that is very fair. While I was surprised by the level of importance people from St. Louis put on where one went to HS, this is hardly different from anywhere else when people try find out what neighborhood you came from. That kind of behavior exists from coast to coast and from small city to big city.

[Central Illinois 1]

Originally Posted by RichMonk

I don't think that is very fair. While I was surprised by the level of importance people from St. Louis put on where one went to HS, this is hardly different from anywhere else when people try find out what neighborhood you came from. That kind of behavior exists from coast to coast and from small city to big city.

You are probably right about the neighborhood thing. But I have never seen the high school thing take on that level of importance in any other city that I have visited or lived in. Maybe that's because most people stay around the area and relatively few people move into the area from other places (in comparison with high growth areas and larger metro areas). As i said in my post, I like STL very much and lived there for quite awhile. but I find the high school thing to be juvenile and very small townish.

[ilmd]

Sorry- but I lived in south STL for several years. Almost all of my family lives there. (by Grant's Farm). I would love to live there again- except for the shopping- or rather lack of it!
I find people there to be very mixed, friendly and in general, very educated.
I cannot imagine you not being 'accepted' in Mexico- after all, your AA/Mexican heritage just by color is exactly like everyone else there.. you should fit right in!
Sounds like you 1. Feel superior to everyone else 2. Feel sorry for yourself
If you are so well educated, well traveled, you shouldn't have a diffucult time finding a position.....maybe you are overestimating yourself.

[AJohnston_STL]

^ I understand that St Louis may lack some retail that you'd like to a see in a city, but I hardly think there's a lack of shopping here.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by Central Illinois 1

St. Louis still has the smaller town attitude by alot of people. For instance, it is not uncommon for people to judge you by what high school you went to and then to cop a smug attitude if you respond with the wrong school (oh, you went to Sumner? I went to Chaminade...). The same thing applies to what part of the county you live in. STL is a good town overall, but that attitude is annoying and very small-townish.

Trust me, it matters for naught after a bit! I had a big laugh about that the other day with the owner of a gourmet goodie shop here. After she found out where I hailed from, she asked! ( and she is not a native) I summoned up my haughtiest attitude and replied,' Chaminade"......... she busted me! Love it!

[jlgrimes11]

Originally Posted by desperad0stl

a. I've lived here most of my life.
b. I have family in these bombed out areas...R.I.P. but my own cousin was shot and killed on the north side of st. Louis...i know these neighborhoods
c. St. Louis has made progress but is still way behind...Chicago made a giant leap but st. louis still hasnt crossed the hurdle.
d. Cicero is not the city but was my launching point into the city...its very close.
e. I have spent a lot of time in the ****ty neighborhoods...I am content with walking through the roughest Chicago neighborhoods and the roughest St. Louis neighborhoods.

Much of chicago looked bombed out but they made a huge turn around on that city...St. Louis still has most of North St Louis to tackle...do you hang around there much?
The south side is pretty divided...many areas are very nice but some areas still have some catching up to do...
Don't even get started on the east side.

The Ground Floor: Urban Crisis or Urban Rebirth? (http://thegroundfloor.typepad.com/the_ground_floor/2007/07/urban-crisis-or.html - broken link)

One thing I found out is that urban blight is a problem in almost all big cities and St. Louis does have its share.

I moved from St. Louis to Atlanta and was amazed at how cleaner the city looked (weren't as many boarded up buildings and as much broken glass and what not). It wasn't until I ventured further into Atlanta and found out it has just the same type of urban blight in some neighborhoods notably the Bankhead neighborhood which has the same bombed out housing look with trash everywhere, with the addition though of gravel backroads and questionable characters. Atlanta's urban blight problem area is much smaller than St. Louis's area though (and a large part of Atlanta's inner city looks somewhat suburban).

That said just about every city I've been to had some type of urban blight in some form or another (except maybe Orlando and Calgary and maybe because they are newer cities). I'm in Nyc right now and had to get used to the level of the trash in the city. Trashbags seem to be on the ground daily and the city has a one of a kind smell which is a combination of cooked food, trash, sewage, old metal, and cigarette smoke. You can even smell the subway as they run up under you. Then NYC has the high rise tenement buildings (which St. Louis also has a few but nowhere on the magnitude of NYC).

North St. Louis is a problem area for the city though. I used to pass out campaign fliers out there as a teenager and ran into blocks of streets where hardly anyone seemed to live on, because the houses were in so much bad shape. St. Louis has the ghost town syndrome in many places where when the housing gets bad or more affordable elsewhere the people move away to the better housing (notably the suburbs) and kind of leave the old houses behind.

St. Louis is improving though (although pretty slowly), I usually come to St. Louis at least once a year and always do see some changes for the better.


Crime is bad in Atlanta too. The murder rate is pretty high there as well.



I do get your initial point though that St. Louis isn't as diverse as other areas. I actually see a little more diversity in Atlanta than St. Louis. But I think that more has to do with the fact that St. Louis usually isn't the first choice for immigrants coming into the country in most cases.

[RichMonk]

Originally Posted by jlgrimes11

That said just about every city I've been to had some type of urban blight in some form or another (except maybe Orlando and Calgary and maybe because they are newer cities). I'm in Nyc right now and had to get used to the level of the trash in the city. Trashbags seem to be on the ground daily and the city has a one of a kind smell which is a combination of cooked food, trash, sewage, old metal, and cigarette smoke.

Newer cities tend to have less urban blight b/c they were built with more of an eye towards suburban living relying on highways. Older cities had to transition from being healthy urban centers to becoming sprawling metropolises. Thus the forgotten urban core of many cities.

As for trash on the streets in NYC, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they don't really have any alleys like STL and Chicago do. While Chicago has its fair amount of trash it does make things seem a bit cleaner when trash bins and such can be hidden in an alleyway.

[AJohnston_STL]

I can see why you would think that about Atlanta, too...you have to consider, though, that Atlanta grew by 20% from 2000 to 2007.

And if you get on the Orlando forum, you'll see that a lot of people are very dissatisfied with the crime in the city.

Good post though!

[sixtwobaldguy]

A cities qualities are not measured solely by how diverse or not it is. I spent a summer in Lima, Peru which is not very diverse at all for a city of millions! Sure there are people from all over the world there but outside of Miraflores there is a 95 out of 100 chance the person next to you will be Peruvian and speak Spanish! Yet I found the place great and the people the best I've known anywhere. It's time to stop being closed minded by insisting diversity counts as anything more than one of many variables that can be interesting about a place. People everywhere are racist. I've had AAs in North County hurl racial insults at me and the same thing has happened in North Amsterdam by Middle Eastern People living there. I don't define my experience in those places simply by the racists verbal attacks I encountered, to do so would be very small minded IMO