A youth infusion for St. Louis? (STLToday) (Kansas City, Memphis: fit in, transplants)

[BoomBoxing]

Strongly thought about posting as a reply to another thread but it doesn't quite fit in with the other topics.

A youth infusion for St. Louis?

A funny thing happened here in the past few years. More young adults moved into the St. Louis region than moved out.
Not as many as in some so-called “cooler” cities, and maybe only because fewer people were moving in general from 2008 to 2010 as the nation wrestled with a deep recession and weak recovery.
But in each of those three years, according to new Census data crunched by the Brookings Institution, on average, 870 more people age 25 to 34 came to the St. Louis metro area than left it. That is the opposite of what happened the previous three years and runs counter to the general trend of recent decades.

A 23-year-old from Kansas City, Miller moved here in April for an advertising job. Her boyfriend lives here, so that didn’t hurt, but she looked in other cities, too. Now she lives near Tower Grove Park, and likes that she can go to nice parks and free museums, or go out to dinner without spending a lot. She got some teasing from friends back home about “how I’ll probably get shot,” but that hasn’t happened, either.
“I like St. Louis more than I thought I would,” she said.
Miller is not sure she’ll stay forever. The bright lights, and bigger professional opportunities, of a city like New York or Chicago do hold some appeal, she said. But for now, the combination of low price and high quality of life works well for her.
“It’s almost like St. Louis is this hidden gem,” she said. “I had no idea before I lived here.”

Shannon, do you post here?

[flynavyj]

cool article.

[moorlander]

St. Louis is a hidden gem. One of the coolest things about living here is that most outsiders just have no clue what the're missing. Hell, a lot of out metro residents don't know what they're missing.

[stlcitygirl]

Dont tell Chicagoerin!

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by moorlander

St. Louis is a hidden gem. One of the coolest things about living here is that most outsiders just have no clue what the're missing. Hell, a lot of out metro residents don't know what they're missing.

This is so true. I think transplants generally like the city better than natives. It seems that a lot of native St. Louisans don't really realize how cool the city is, but transplants can see it better. My friends who visit me here from other places are always shocked at how great St. Louis is. They really had no idea.

[stlcitygirl]

^I agree with this. Some of my native friends don't really get it. My friends that have lived in other cities, realize what a gem STL is.

[JeepVeteran]

Well, that's an interesting article but one thing for starters is that I don't consider adults in that age range of 25-34 to be youth. I am thinking more along the lines of what are the numbers for those who are age 17-24 who decide to move here every year? That would be more relevant. St. Louis has alot of unique neighborhoods and places to see/visit but if I were to raise a family it wouldn't be here. When I compare a larger city like Atlanta to St. Louis, I find that ATL has much more to offer and more exciting things to do. New York City, Miami, LA, etc. Those places and many others have so much more to offer, it's crazy. St. Louis still has alot of growing up to do.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by JeepVeteran

Well, that's an interesting article but one thing for starters is that I don't consider adults in that age range of 25-34 to be youth. I am thinking more along the lines of what are the numbers for those who are age 17-24 who decide to move here every year? That would be more relevant. St. Louis has alot of unique neighborhoods and places to see/visit but if I were to raise a family it wouldn't be here. When I compare a larger city like Atlanta to St. Louis, I find that ATL has much more to offer and more exciting things to do. New York City, Miami, LA, etc. Those places and many others have so much more to offer, it's crazy. St. Louis still has alot of growing up to do.

25-34 year olds are generally people who have their lives together (or are starting to) and can decide where they want to live. 17-24 year olds are either in high school/college or just got out of college and started working. They usually don't move wherever they want until they get other things figured out first. So I think the 25-34 range is more relevant. 17-24 year olds who move to STL mostly just move there for school, and I don't think that counts as actually moving to STL (as far as statistics are concerned)

And you can't compare STL to ATL. ATL has a metro area of 5.2 million. STL's is 2.8 million. STL is in the Midwest, ATL is in the Sunbelt. STL is old, ATL is new. Very different cities for very different people.

I'm not from STL but I personally like it better. I like the strong sense of identity and tradition that you cant find in an area that's full of transplants. I like that it's more old-school. I like the people. They're actually friendlier than what I'm used to in Memphis. I like that people are more conservative (not as in politics, but in general demeanor) I like that even very wealthy people aren't flashy about it (Lenox Mall in ATL....)

[JeepVeteran]

Originally Posted by Smtchll

25-34 year olds are generally people who have their lives together (or are starting to) and can decide where they want to live. 17-24 year olds are either in high school/college or just got out of college and started working. They usually don't move wherever they want until they get other things figured out first. So I think the 25-34 range is more relevant. 17-24 year olds who move to STL mostly just move there for school, and I don't think that counts as actually moving to STL (as far as statistics are concerned)

And you can't compare STL to ATL. ATL has a metro area of 5.2 million. STL's is 2.8 million. STL is in the Midwest, ATL is in the Sunbelt. STL is old, ATL is new. Very different cities for very different people.

Actually ATL is older, not STL. They're comparable on several levels but everyone's taste is different. Georgia was inducted as a US state way before Missouri was & the actual name for Atlanta was something else before it was even conceived as ATL. St. Louis was founded after Atlanta was. That's no biggy though as both are old enough.

Adults in the 25-34 range aren't just figuring stuff out usually. Actually most people nowadays don't even graduate college until they're 27 but that doesn't mean they haven't already started their life many years before as most are either married, divorced or have a family. So 17-24 would be more relevant for many reasons aside from what I've mentioned.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by JeepVeteran

Actually ATL is older, not STL. They're comparable on several levels but everyone's taste is different. Georgia was inducted as a US state way before Missouri was & the actual name for Atlanta was something else before it was even conceived as ATL. St. Louis was founded after Atlanta was. That's no biggy though as both are old enough.

Adults in the 25-34 range aren't just figuring stuff out usually. Actually most people nowadays don't even graduate college until they're 27 but that doesn't mean they haven't already started their life many years before as most are either married, divorced or have a family. So 17-24 would be more relevant for many reasons aside from what I've mentioned.

St. Louis is older in that by 1900 it already had nearly 600,000 people and was one of the largest cities in the US. By that time, ATL didn't even have 100,000 people. To this day, the city itself has never gotten as big as St. Louis City did. So I meant that it is an older city in that it boomed waaaay earlier. That's why everything about the city is older. ATL's boom was more recent, so everything about it is newer.

Even if you dont think that the 25-34 year olds have their lives figured out, how does what you just said help your point at all?? If they dont have their lives figured out, then the 17-24 year olds sure as hell dont have their lives figured out and they cant move to wherever they want. So they're not relevant in this discussion at all. Like I said, the 17-24 year olds that move to STL mostly move there for college, so that doesn't count as permanently moving to the area.