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Old 04-20-2014, 03:56 AM
 
Location: South Park, San Diego
6,109 posts, read 10,897,405 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawn10am View Post
Does it bother anyone else that people keep saying it's a big city with a small town feel? Or that it's the biggest small town in America? I've never gotten that impression at all. If anything, I've always thought St. Louis actually has more going on than its size would suggest.
I think what is apparent when you visit is its relative dearth of population for its built infrastructure. It's a pretty awesome city; unparalleled architecture, cultural amenities and amazing, friendly neighborhoods but the downtown area seems a little dead for its size. Still, (and maybe this is just as an urban junkie, architecture aficionado and not someone who has ever lived there and experienced its sometimes notorious crappy weather, Midwestern provincialism- friendly, but not overtly open to outsiders- or crime issues) there is little not to love about the city.
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Old 04-20-2014, 02:41 PM
 
Location: USA
299 posts, read 557,114 times
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Default Yep....

The interesting thing about growing up in St. Louis, for me, was noting how many people wanted nothing more than to get away from the area. It was a VERY common thing for teens and 20-somethings to endlessly talk about down the St. Louis area and long for a chance to get a job in another city and get out.

A very large percentage of those who left, however, eventually came back. There's definitely something to be said about that.

Ultimately, I think St. Louis winds up a very "practical" place to live.... relatively low cost of living, family friendly things to see and do, big enough to offer most of the services or shops you could want, but still small enough so places aren't generally overcrowded and "over-shopped"....

I lived the vast majority of my life in St. Louis and spent a lot of time defending it against the "nay sayers". Now that I've moved away myself, I think I can still look back at it and reaffirm what I said all along. I'm not really interested in moving back, personally, but that's mainly because after spending 40 years or so there - I feel like I want to spend more time learning about life in other places now.

There are definitely things about St. Louis I don't miss much -- but some of those would be positives to other people. (For example, St. Louis is such a HUGE sports town. I'm not that into sports myself, and have a bit of a distaste for how much money is thrown into Major League sports, especially. In St. Louis, you can't throw a rock and not hit the side of a sports bar or restaurant, and you can't go out in public without hearing at least someone rattling off stats about a Cardinals or Blues hockey player, or discussing the last night's game.)


Quote:
Originally Posted by jskirwin View Post
That's the way I felt. I needed to get away and it took nearly 20 years living away from STL before I could appreciate it. The place isn't for everyone at every time in their lives, and there are people who really need to leave it and experience life elsewhere before they can see it for what it is.
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Old 04-20-2014, 06:28 PM
 
Location: St. Louis
1,221 posts, read 2,748,863 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tw71 View Post

There are definitely things about St. Louis I don't miss much -- but some of those would be positives to other people. (For example, St. Louis is such a HUGE sports town. I'm not that into sports myself, and have a bit of a distaste for how much money is thrown into Major League sports, especially. In St. Louis, you can't throw a rock and not hit the side of a sports bar or restaurant, and you can't go out in public without hearing at least someone rattling off stats about a Cardinals or Blues hockey player, or discussing the last night's game.)
I can TOTALLY sympathize with this. I love St. Louis, don't get me wrong, but I could also not give a flying hoot about sports of any kind and the obsession with sports (especially baseball) is probably the #1 most annoying thing about living here. However, I realize I am in the extreme minority and that would probably be the case in any city, so I don't let it color my perception of the city at all. What's really amusing to me is how St. Louisans have so much "hometown pride" in the Cardinals, despite the fact that almost none of the players on the team are actually from St. Louis
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Old 04-20-2014, 08:18 PM
 
Location: Saint Louis
188 posts, read 376,411 times
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I used to not give a damn about St. Louis sports or any sports when I moved here long ago. But then one day my alma mater came to St. Louis to play SLU in basketball. Then I started watching SLU basketball. Then I started watching cardinals during the world series. Then I started watching the blues during their miraculous recoveries recently. Crap I think I'm going native.
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Old 04-20-2014, 08:32 PM
 
536 posts, read 830,177 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawn10am View Post
I can TOTALLY sympathize with this. I love St. Louis, don't get me wrong, but I could also not give a flying hoot about sports of any kind and the obsession with sports (especially baseball) is probably the #1 most annoying thing about living here. However, I realize I am in the extreme minority and that would probably be the case in any city, so I don't let it color my perception of the city at all. What's really amusing to me is how St. Louisans have so much "hometown pride" in the Cardinals, despite the fact that almost none of the players on the team are actually from St. Louis
It's not really about the individual although we have had many players that will go down in history as individuals as much as they will having been a Cardinal. Stan Musial wasn't born here, but he became as much a St. Louisan as you can be. His funeral was testament of what he meant to this city, not to mention how revered he was when he was actually alive. It's really much more about the organization and the fact that we have won 11 world series and 19 national league pennants than the farm system and where players come from that join the team.
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Old 04-23-2014, 04:11 PM
 
1,201 posts, read 2,670,108 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jskirwin View Post
Actually I have been there, and I'm talking about northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. In fact I was just up there in December. While I'm not a historical demographer, I would guess that much of the immigration you refer to was along the coast, particularly during the booming economy of the whaling era. But leave the coast and move into the interior where farming and forestry dominated the economy, people tended to stay put.
The immigration I refer to is all over the place in MA. It has many, many, many recent Hispanic, Carribean, East and South Asian immigrants. And, they are not restricted to the coast. I'm not talking about white people from generations ago. Southern NE is one of the most diverse areas in the US, period.
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Old 04-23-2014, 04:18 PM
 
1,201 posts, read 2,670,108 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawn10am View Post
Does it bother anyone else that people keep saying it's a big city with a small town feel? Or that it's the biggest small town in America? I've never gotten that impression at all. If anything, I've always thought St. Louis actually has more going on than its size would suggest.
Actually ... no. This is a "thriving" city that has lost 2/3 of its population in the last 60 years, the single highest loss of people in a "major" US city on a percentage basis ... including Detroit! So, if they continue to bulldoze neighborhoods in the city the way they did in virtually the entire northern half of the city, it'll soon be called the biggest village in America.
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Old 04-23-2014, 05:03 PM
 
Location: St. Louis
1,221 posts, read 2,748,863 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rranger View Post
Actually ... no. This is a "thriving" city that has lost 2/3 of its population in the last 60 years, the single highest loss of people in a "major" US city on a percentage basis ... including Detroit! So, if they continue to bulldoze neighborhoods in the city the way they did in virtually the entire northern half of the city, it'll soon be called the biggest village in America.
Yeah, but you forget that there are still roughly 3 million people living in metro St. Louis and that the area has been growing (albeit slowly) during that entire time. I'd hardly call that a "village."
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Old 04-23-2014, 09:28 PM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
4,009 posts, read 6,865,329 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawn10am View Post
Yeah, but you forget that there are still roughly 3 million people living in metro St. Louis and that the area has been growing (albeit slowly) during that entire time. I'd hardly call that a "village."
Exactly. Plus, I don't know of any "villages" throughout the world that have as many amenities and as much to offer as St. Louis does! St. Louis, inclusive of metro, is, and always will be very much a city.
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