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you clearly have the wrong impression of st. louis if you actually think most of it is blighted and abandoned. if that's your perception, there is really no point in continuing this discussion because clearly you suffer from complete ignorance of the city.
the catholic culture in st. louis is not unlike the catholic culture in philadelphia, where i am from. it tends to be ethnic and cultural more than practical. this does not feel like the bible belt; in fact st. louis feels almost unilaterally against the oppressive religious zeal that pervades much of the central plains and midwest. look at voting patterns in the st. louis area for further evidence of this fact.
charlotte and st. louis are as different as any two cities in this country. the former is much more conservative and immersed in christian religiosity than st. louis. most people in any city tend to be some christian denomination to varying degrees, but in only one city have i been assumed to have been christian. that is charlotte. that is my experience and that is something that i will remember. the church question is offensive, presumptive and simply bizarre. there is no defending it. st. louis is comfortable to me, as it has a large secular and active non-christian population. in fact st. louis has the second largest ethical humanist community in the united states after new york.
really? St. Louis strikes me as one of the few devoutly Catholic big cities in the US. Maybe not St. Louis city itself (most urban cores of cities in the US aren't devoutly anything) but the St. Louis metro as a whole. I see anti-abortion billboards with the Virgin Mary on them in St. Louis. Also, the Lifeteen movement (a Catholic youth ministry known for incorporating contemporary Christian music into mass) is really big in St. Louis, especially in the suburbs. I think almost every suburban parish has a Lifeteen mass, or some variety of it. So there's your Evangelical-Bible Belt influence on Catholicism.
And as far as the more traditional Catholicism, you won't see this kinda stuff in many other cities. And notice, there's not just old people in the procession...
I realize that St. Louis city is pretty liberal and non-religious, but when talking about the St. Louis metro as a whole, it seems to have a lot of devout Catholics. It's probably as Catholic as Memphis is Baptist. And I do realize the cultural aspect you are talking about. Many Catholics in St. Louis are culturally Catholic and they treat it like a social club rather than a religion.
you clearly have the wrong impression of st. louis if you actually think most of it is blighted and abandoned. if that's your perception, there is really no point in continuing this discussion because clearly you suffer from complete ignorance of the city.
I realize that you weren't responding to me (since I didn't mention blight and decay) but there is quite a bit of it, as chronicled on the site Built St. Louis: Home . I love St. Louis and think very highly of the city, but when people start crowing about the "built up" density of it in an attempt to show dominance over another city, then the truth has to come out. St. Louis was once booming like Charlotte, but lost 2/3 of it's population and that left much of it either empty or uninhabitable...that's not to put the city down, but just a sad fact. It's great that St. Louis is making such strides to rebound, but it will take a little while and a lot of effort.
others with well known processions include detroit, philadelphia, chicago, boston, los angeles, baltimore and washington, dc. all of these events attract all ages. there goes your theory.
as i said earlier, st. louis is indeed a heavily catholic city and metro area, as are most older major cities in the northeast and midwest. i do not notice any more or less devoutness here than anywhere else i've lived.
I realize that you weren't responding to me (since I didn't mention blight and decay) but there is quite a bit of it, as chronicled on the site Built St. Louis: Home . I love St. Louis and think very highly of the city, but when people start crowing about the "built up" density of it in an attempt to show dominance over another city, then the truth has to come out. St. Louis was once booming like Charlotte, but lost 2/3 of it's population and that left much of it either empty or uninhabitable...that's not to put the city down, but just a sad fact. It's great that St. Louis is making such strides to rebound, but it will take a little while and a lot of effort.
sure st. louis has blight, what city doesn't. if you honestly think 2/3 of the city is abandoned, you are quite simply just ignorant. many people on this board seem to think that raw numbers alone tell the entire story. have you considered the overall reduction of household size in america over the past 70 years? think about it for a while. and i also recommend actually visiting the city before posting as an authority about it. built st. louis is a great site that documents the decay of a few select neighborhoods. it's a much bigger city than just that. there are neighborhoods in north philadelphia, south side of chicago, south bronx and every other post-industrial city in america that would look much the same.
others with well known processions include detroit, philadelphia, chicago, boston, los angeles, baltimore and washington, dc. all of these events attract all ages. there goes your theory.
as i said earlier, st. louis is indeed a heavily catholic city and metro area, as are most older major cities in the northeast and midwest. i do not notice any more or less devoutness here than anywhere else i've lived.
ok you got me on that one. But the fact that Lifeteen is so big in St. Louis sets it apart from all the other cities you mentioned. It represents a more Evangelical approach to Catholicism (which you can find more in the Sunbelt), where people are more open and expressive about their Catholic religion, rather than the traditional Catholicism of the Northeast, where people keep it to themselves.
and anti-abortion billboards, I've never seen them anywhere until I visited St. Louis.
sure st. louis has blight, what city doesn't. if you honestly think 2/3 of the city is abandoned, you are quite simply just ignorant. many people on this board seem to think that raw numbers alone tell the entire story. have you considered the overall reduction of household size in america over the past 70 years? think about it for a while. and i also recommend actually visiting the city before posting as an authority about it. built st. louis is a great site that documents the decay of a few select neighborhoods. it's a much bigger city than just that. there are neighborhoods in north philadelphia, south side of chicago, south bronx and every other post-industrial city in america that would look much the same.
I didn't say that 2/3 of the city is abandoned...I said that St. Louis has lost 2/3 of it's peak population. Yes, every city has blight but yours has quite a lot...and Built St. Louis does more than "documents a few select neighborhoods". I've delved very deeply into that site for hours at a time, so I'm very familiar with it.
If you will please notice I stated that I had visited St. Louis twice, and I certainly don't pretend to be an authority on it - but I'm far from ignorant on the subject as well. You can stop throwing that word around in reference to your city...you come across as very defensive about it when I'm not in any way attacking it. I was being very diplomatic and you're responding as if a 2nd Grader on the playground.
you clearly have the wrong impression of st. louis if you actually think most of it is blighted and abandoned. if that's your perception, there is really no point in continuing this discussion because clearly you suffer from complete ignorance of the city.
I didn't say that most of St. Louis is blighted or abandoned. But it has significantly more blight/decay than either Charlotte or Raleigh.
Have to note with development in St. Louis, the city has very contsrainted city limits that have been fixed since the 1870's. There are a number of areas outside of the city limits that are developed no differently than inside to the point where you would have a hard time distinguishing the two.
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