Census Data showing jobs migrating

[BoomBoxing]

Originally Posted by topospace

Wow, aren't you just the internet tough guy?

If you thought that was bad, you should've seen the PM where I threatened to beat them up and steal their milk money!

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by jskirwin

Is that a good thing? No, but I don't see how to save it. Lacledes Landing. Soulard. The Central West End. DeBaliviere. Tower Grove - the city has attempted at one time or another to revitalize these areas. Has it succeeded?

I was kind of beat to it, but is this supposed to be a joke?

The city has absolutely succeeded in gentrifying those neighborhoods and multiple others to boot!

You obviously didn't go. I imagine you listened to your relatives who moved to Jeff County about what a hole St. Louis is: I'm guessing they haven't been there in a long time either, because no one (and I literally mean no one) who has been in the Central West End could call it anything other than one of the most vibrant, gorgeous, walkable neighborhoods in the Midwest.

And the idea of only going to the city cultural institutions once or twice in a lifetime is so unbearably sad to me.

The Botanical Garden does free jazz concerts under the stars every Wednesday night of the summer. A friend of mine -- who lives in St. Charles by the way -- comes in for at least 4 or 5 of them a year.

I could go to the Zoo every week and love every minute of it.

The Muny does 7 different shows a year and I know loads of people with season tickets.

I could easily go on about another 10 or 20 institutions in St. Louis that people go to multiple times a year.

[RichMonk]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I could easily go on about another 10 or 20 institutions in St. Louis that people go to multiple times a year.

I am always impressed by the number of things to do in the city of St. Louis. Makes my city look like a one horse town

[moorlander]

Originally Posted by jskirwin

FWIW I grew up in St. Louis in the 1970s/80's and have lived elsewhere for the past 25 years or so. I still visit my family once a year, and I've been amazed at how things have changed. Everyone seems to live further and further away from the city. My family, which originated on the south side, now lives in Jefferson County or the far western part of St. Louis county. The areas that were considered on the edges of the suburbs back in the 1980s (Chesterfield, Arnold, St. Charles) are now at the heart of the burbs. It's almost like the city is a bulls-eye with people starting at the center and moving further and further away. 270 used to be a ring around the sprawl, now it's almost at its inner edge. The last time I visited I had no reason to venture within that ring except to hit the City Museum (a true gem).

It's an organic trend, and one that will most likely reverse on its own. But when? I do wonder if the city's future is more like Detroit - with the central areas becoming so depopulated that there's talk of physically moving the people out of them and making the city smaller.

You'll run into some families like that. but you'll also run into a lot of people who never travel west of inner belt (170) too.

St. Louis City and the inner ring burbs just have a ton going on. And the housing stock rocks!

[stlcitygirl]

^Amen, and yes, All those neighborhoods listed have been gentrified, with many others on the way.

[jskirwin]

I'm happy to hear that the areas I mentioned are thriving. I have very good memories of CWE - West End Wax, Euclid Records - and of course U-City with the Tivoli and Vintage Vinyl. Laclede's Landing too - with Mississippi Nights and the restaurants.

But that doesn't explain the facts in the original article that jobs are leaving the city. People too. The census figures I found on Google show the city at 347k - down a thousand from 2000. It's not exactly a scramble to the city limits, but by way of comparison when I lived and went to school there in 1980 there were 450k residents. So all these projects - most of which were kicked off in the 1970's and 80's - haven't stopped the bleeding.

My visits to the area are brief and centered on family and at my current stage of life I am more comfortable with open spaces and rural America than I am with urban areas. But I'm just reporting the changes as I see them, and the city isn't healthy and hasn't been for awhile. I'm not sure what the answer is to revitalizing it (merging it with the county might help - but snowball's chance of that...)

Spirited discussion. It's nice to see people defending St. Louis instead of making excuses about living there. There is plenty to defend.

[aragx6]

Areas of North St. Louis nearly emptied out over the last decade (after also seeing significant losses in the previous decade)-- that's where the vast majority of population comes from. It's actually black flight to the county -- and given the conditions and the crime in the neighborhoods in which they were previously living that trend makes an awful lot of sense. Is it a good thing? Absolutely not -- but it's a trend you're seeing repeated in many areas of the country -- Chicago is a perfect example. Its west side has been emptying since the race riots of the '60s. Simply put -- it's more important to build a creative class, bring young people and young families back to the city, so while we might not like to see the problems of the North Side, they in no way signify the city dying.

Additionally, there were small population losses in many south city neighborhoods, but that's actually a sign of health. Gentrification causes neighborhood population drops -- think about it this way: There are a bunch of big ol' houses in St. Louis in places like Benton Park and Tower Grove South that for years were split into multi-family units and where larger, poorer families lived. The neighborhoods have actually been rebounding, and those multi-family homes are being replaced by young singles, couples and small families.

Other neighborhoods -- like downtown -- had wonderful success in raising their population. Downtown's population actually increased by an astounding 359%. Gorgeous Lafayette Square grew by 18% because of (wildly expensive) new construction condos in the neighborhood. Soulard and Central West End each saw modest gains of 8 and 2% respectively. And Old North St. Louis -- where Crown Candy still operates -- saw a very impressive 28% increase.

http://mayorslay.com/docs/Census2010_Neighborhoods.pdf