Single female looking for nice and convenient place to live? help please? (Walker: rental, lofts)

[aragx6]

I'm not sure Chesterfield has many apartment complexes -- my guess would be if there are some they're concentrated near Chesterfield Mall and whatever the hell they call that super duper long strip mall off 40 -- what do they call it? I always want to say Boone's Farm (guess I've drank a bit too much cheap-o wine in my day) but I actually think it's Boone's Crossing or something like that.

I think that if you think it makes the most sense to live out there first, then go for it, just promise us you won't be back on here in 6 months talking about how much you hate St. Louis even though you haven't spent any time in the actual city (::cough SCB cough:

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by lotus921v

So, here's the deal. I'm relocating from Buffalo, NY to the St Louis area, and have never even been there before. I'm going to be working in Chesterfield, but would prefer to live in an area closer to the city. I'm fine with commuting about 20 minutes to work because I expect to be travelling a lot as well, and convenience to the airport would be handy as well. I've seen the loft district, and it's GORGEOUS, but wayyyy too far to commute to Chesterfield every day.

I will have just finished grad school, and even though I'm 31, I still want to be a cabs ride away from a fun area to go out. I've heard the CWE is a fun trendy area, any opinions on that? Any other suggestions?

I'd like to live in a nice suburb, with a more educated/professional vibe, and am alright with spending 900-1000/month on a 2 bedroom apartment. Convenience to shopping, supermarkets, and a nice gym (are there any Gold's out there?) would be awesome.
I figure an apartment community would give me more of an opportunity to meet friends as I don't know a single person out there... any suggestions?

Also, I'm pretty sure I want to take up kickboxing as well. Are there any good training gyms or studios that anybody has heard of? LOL, I'm looking for the hitting the bag kind, not the bounce around cardio kind

Lots of questions, I know, but ANY help at all would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I'll go back to the original post one more time.

Chesterfield is an outer rung St. Louis suburb, safe, clean, modern, though some parts are older. It's about 30 minutes hwy drive to downtown, perhaps slightly less if you know how to drive.(just a joke people), and shouldn't be much more than that minus a really bad traffic day once in a while, or post hwy 40 construction project which will be January 1 2010, or even December 2009.

Chesterfield is a good place to be a little kid up through age 17. It's also a good place to be a parent raising kids. It is family land. It's upper middle class.

It has a traditional mall, and it has the "Valley" which is a flat long few mile stretch of new strip malls, and tons of chain eating and chain shopping, large cinema, big box stores, etc.. However, contrary to what has been mentioned here, there are some very good non-chain restaurants in Chesterfield as well in a variety of cuisines.

Everything you will be going to in Chesterfield and away from Chesterfield will be via your car, lots and lots of driving. If you live in Chesterfield, I would choose near the traditional mall, or near the "Valley." Chesterfield is trying to incorporate a new downtown area filled with parks, etc..and it is in its very early stages.

It has a good public library, and a YMCA next to that, both modern and new.

Chesterfield is also close in proximity to several other upper middle class to wealthy parts of St. Louis. These are family burbs with 7 figure homes.

If you want to be out of the way of the hustle and bustle, in an outer rung burb, Chesterfield is your spot. It has all the amentities you will need.

What it does not have is a lot of young people, and young single people between the ages of 18-40 or so. If it does, those people are married with kids.

Yes there is Logan for Chiropractic school, but it's not as if there are thousands of young students walking around, no.

There is no problem with living in Chesterfield in an apt, (yes they do exist there) for your first 6-12 months, because you will be close to work, close to possible new gyms, close to other amentities. You can then move to areas that more closely suit your needs as you research them in person over the course of your first few months. My advice would be bring very little to your Chesterfield move, so you won't have to move much again, if that is your plan.

I do not believe you will meet your friends in St. Louis in an apt community. I believe you will meet them exploring your interests.

You should decide if you are interested in city/urban living, inner rung burb living, or outer rung burb living. All three are very different. Your first request seemed to be inner rung burb, educated, etc...which can be a wide variety of places, but if you are single, you would do better close to Clayton, U.City, and the areas near there, for public transportation purposes, central location, and proximity of other people in your situation. Other people here have chimed in to say that you could and possibly should also consider the city as well, especially if you are single, and especially considering some of the things you mentioned. Those were reasonable suggestions.

Just pick something, and if you want to move again in 6-12 months, it isn't the end of the world.

[wustu87]

I was going to state that there are actually quite a few young adults living in apartments in Chesterfield, but I believe Fishtacos has explained the environment there very well. Chesterfield has grown so much in the past 20 years that they do have a reasonable number of educated, working young adults living in rentals (even if it is not a huge percentage of the city's population), and most likely many of them will get married, buy a lovely house in Chesterfield or some nearby West County area, and settle down and raise a nice family in the suburbs. There is nothing wrong with that picture, it is simply the lifestyle they choose. Many people were raised their whole lives in suburbia, went to college in suburbia, go to work in suburbia and love everything about suburbia! I think there is nothing wrong with renting near your job and then exploring different neighborhoods in the metro area and see where you would like to live. I have visited folks living in an apartment in Chesterfield before (the Chesterfield Village Apartments close to the mall), and it seemed like a perfectly reasonable place to live.

[lotus921v]

Thank you everybody for your help! I feel welcome to the area already

[stl_63123]

Originally Posted by lotus921v

Thank you everybody for your help! I feel welcome to the area already

Wait until after you get here. St Louis is a segregated community. It will depend on your community you live in to feel welcome.

[Brickmama]

What did you decide?

[OSU_FAN]

If you haven't decided yet, I would really recommend checking out the loft district if that interests you. I just moved here about 2 months ago and I absolutely love my loft! I am in within walking distance to almost everything I need (bank, post office, gym, restaurants, bars (ok, so I don't need bars) but you get the point. I rarely even have to take my car out unless I want to go somewhere like the grocery store (by the way, as someone already pointed out, Schnuck's is opening one up downtown..yipppee!!). I feel very safe here and there is definitely a vibe of the hip, professional type but not snobby..everyone is quite nice. You can find a really nice loft with great amenities in your price range as well. Whatever you decide, welcome to St. Louis!

[Brickmama]

Awesome!!! Another loft dweller. Welcome to the neighborhood. Hopefully Lotus can join us.

[lotus921v]

the loft area sounds awesome, and my gut instinct says i'll love it there, but until i get a bit more used to the area, and until that highway opens back up, i'm thinking it wouldn't be the best idea to sign on for a commute like that right off the bat. spending 40-45 mins in a car each way to chesterfield seems like a lot
i DO like urban/hip/interesting areas... it's looking like i'm probably going to look for a place in the clayton and CWE areas. at least that way the commute won't be so bad initially, and then i can always move to a loft at a later date.
ugh
i hate moving though!

[lotus921v]

yeah, it's going to be a bit before i start working in chesterfield, so i'm back to thinking about the loft district. it's what, about a 40 minute drive currently from there to chesterfield? what's the projection once that highway opens back up?

are there any blocks i should be looking for in the loft district that are better than others? any particular buildings that people would recommend?
i'm looking to pay under 1000/month, but can push it up a little bit if it includes stuff like internet, tv, gym membership etc.
those fashion square lofts are allllllll over craigslist, anybody know anything about them?