Will St. Louis area population decrease in the next decade?

[CommonFire]

Originally Posted by LS35a

I was born in Detroit and went to school in St. Louis.

St. Louis = the next Detroit.

St Louis and its metro is going to be fine. People been calling St Louis the new Detroit for almost thirty years now its gotten old by the Mid 90's so what your saying is full of crap.

Why would I want to live in Florida I don't need and would get tired of warm after a while. I would also HATE being on Hurricane watch for most of the summer and fall and half to rebuild every year so ya Florida is overrated.

[Caesarstl]

Originally Posted by FrankMiller

If only there were a website somewhere that allowed you to look up climate data for different cities before making these sorts of comparisons.

Don't let facts get in the way of some people's bizarre attacks of places they know nothing about!

[augiedogie]

Commonfire: If you look at the statistics for St. Louis, as far as just the city proper, it already is like Detroit. Detroit has shrunk about a 2/3 of its largest size back to the 40's and 50's. Same for St. Louis. The height of its population in the 40's and 50's was around 900,000. Its current size is about 300,000, which is 2/3 smaller. Same as Detroit also, and many other midwest cities, in that many people moved out of the cities for the suburbs, as eventually did the jobs. Now, when I've driven through the city on the last couple of trips, the downtown traffic is nothing like it was 30 years ago. Its a breeze getting through, and maybe faster than the loop around the city.

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by augiedogie

Commonfire: If you look at the statistics for St. Louis, as far as just the city proper, it already is like Detroit. Detroit has shrunk about a 2/3 of its largest size back to the 40's and 50's. Same for St. Louis. The height of its population in the 40's and 50's was around 900,000. Its current size is about 300,000, which is 2/3 smaller. Same as Detroit also, and many other midwest cities, in that many people moved out of the cities for the suburbs, as eventually did the jobs. Now, when I've driven through the city on the last couple of trips, the downtown traffic is nothing like it was 30 years ago. Its a breeze getting through, and maybe faster than the loop around the city.

You might be correct if population and traffic were the only indicators of a city's health, but that's not the case. I think there's an argument to be made that the North Side is very Detroit-esque, but most of the Central Corridor and South Side are still intact and healthy. Have you ever actually set foot in the Central West End, Tower Grove, Soulard, Midtown, or The Hill? If you had you would realize how ridiculous your assertions are.

[PerseusVeil]

When St. Louis goes bankrupt and its emergency services quit functioning, then we can have the Detroit discussion. Until then, St. Louis continues to dodge that bullet.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by augiedogie

Commonfire: If you look at the statistics for St. Louis, as far as just the city proper, it already is like Detroit. Detroit has shrunk about a 2/3 of its largest size back to the 40's and 50's. Same for St. Louis. The height of its population in the 40's and 50's was around 900,000. Its current size is about 300,000, which is 2/3 smaller. Same as Detroit also, and many other midwest cities, in that many people moved out of the cities for the suburbs, as eventually did the jobs. Now, when I've driven through the city on the last couple of trips, the downtown traffic is nothing like it was 30 years ago. Its a breeze getting through, and maybe faster than the loop around the city.

Let's discuss demographics.

According to Wiki as of the 2010 census:

Detroit is 82.7% black, 7.8% non-Hispanic white.

St. Louis is 49.2% black, 42.2% non-Hispanic white.

While St. Louis city experienced pretty massive white flight in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, it has largely stabilized. Some neighborhoods in the city have seen gentrification and are doing quite well.

Detroit the white flight never stabilized - it was almost complete flight to the burbs.

Most of the white flight in the St. Louis area in the last 20-30 years has been from north county. That's why I think you can make a case for parts of north county becoming Detroitesque.

I understand both Detroit and St. Louis have seen more black-flight in recent years and even Detroit is seeing a rebirth of sorts in its downtown area from what I've read and seen on television.

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

I understand both Detroit and St. Louis have seen more black-flight in recent years and even Detroit is seeing a rebirth of sorts in its downtown area from what I've read and seen on television.

It has seen the beginning of a rebirth of sorts compared to where it was, based upon my personal experience visiting there for work in 2001, 2008, and 2011, but it's still awfully desolate. Having had to travel regularly to every major Midwest city from about 2000-2011, I'd rate it dead last in terms of atmosphere, activity, comfort, etc. Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, KC, Minneapolis, Chicago (obviously). You still look around and wonder where the hell all the people went. I walked 5-6 blocks down the street on a comfortable summer weekday afternoon and saw zero people when I was last there. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Three things STL has over Detroit:

1) Detroit's metro is still declining, so it's more difficult to get investment in any area of the metro, city included.
2) Detroit is still manufacturing heavy, which will continue to come under attack. STL's manufacturing is now only a small portion of the employment base.
3) Detroit's city limits encompass a huge area. STL cutting itself away from future tax revenue in the Great Divorce was an awful thing historically, but it might actually be a good thing over the next 30 years. The places that are likely to see huge tax revenue and socioeconomic declines are post-War (45-69) suburbs located primarily in north county and the near portions of south county...outside of the city. The tax revenue loss in the city has largely stabilized. Detroit contains a lot of areas within the city that are representative of St. Louis Co cities that are still declining.

[aliasfinn]

We didn't go anywhere,we were just hiding.
We are kind of shy when we see strangers.