I am oving from the valley in LA area to alorton/east st louis area. Let me tell you why! (St. Louis: houses, calculating)

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by blessedandcursed

North st louis had me interested, but I'm still gonna go with Alorton. Anyone know why St louis has strugged with crime that it has? I mean, I understand why some cities have such a bad crime rate, like Detroit, flint, New Orleans etc.
But what makes St louis so bad? what caused or contributed toits crime rate? same question for ESL, and Alorton/centreville area?

It's your decision, but I urge you to at least visit before making any decisions. You would not be moving to a city, but rather a tiny little village. Much of it will look like small town poverty rather what can be seen in St. Louis proper or Detroit. You'll also need to drive into surrounding cities/suburbs in order to get any sort of amenities you require, like a full sized grocery store.

As for why everything happened, it's much the same reason as Detroit. De-industrialization, white flight, racial covenants, you name it. These links might give you some insight.
https://www.stlmag.com/news/the-colo...-in-st.-louis/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng...-bridge-avenue

Originally Posted by glamatomic

I would honestly go with North St. Louis over Alorton/ESTL. Yes, both places are badly blighted but I feel like a young, inspiring soul such as yourself could make more of a difference in North STL.

Agreed. North St. Louis at least still has intact urban areas (or at least in comparison to the east side), and bright spots like the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. Alorton, meanwhile, is a village the size of a postage stamp with a population of 2,000 people and falling.

While we are given the impression that ESTL used to be lovely, wonderful place that declined, what I've recently been discovering is that it was *never* that nice. Like any town, it had its more affluent pockets, but on the whole it has been rife with hate, racism, fear and crime since the onset.

Even in the prosperous 1950s, I've stumbled across newspaper articles hinting about how less than desirable it is.

True. East St. Louis was having race riots in the 1910s. It wasn't Stepford suburbia. What it was was an industrial satellite city of St. Louis proper that lived and died on industry. It certainly had plenty of working class people during its heyday.

As for crime in St. Louis, as you'll find out when you get here, the FBI stats are actually skewed.

Unlike most cities, St. Louis politically separated itself from the county way back in the 1800s. Therefore, crime stats are just looking at the 'inner core' of the city with a population of just over 300,000... not the entire Metro area with a population of 2.8 million. Most cities don't have the separation of city and county, so their suburbs bring their crime stats down. Our suburbs aren't counted when the FBI makes their most dangerous cities lists.

If the entire Metro *was* counted, our crime rate would be about average.

I'm sorry, but the bolded part isn't true. Homicide rates are calculated by looking at the number of murders within a city's legal boundaries. A city can be apart of a larger county, but the county's population isn't used to figure out the homicide rate for the city proper (ex: Chicago's population of 2.7 million vs Cook County's population of 5.2 million). This is different in unified city and county scenario, like what you see in Indianapolis, but that's typically not the norm.

No cities are officially calculating their rates by looking at their larger metro areas either. At best, if St. Louis and St. Louis County were to merge into just the city of St. Louis, they'd be calculating St. Louis' rate per 100,000 by looking at a population of roughly 1.3 million. If St. Louis were to only reenter the county as an additional municipality with its current boundaries and government intact, however, then they'd continue to calculate St. Louis' rate as they are currently doing. To use Chicago as an example again, Chicago's rate is never calculated by looking at its larger metro area of 9.5 million people. It's always the city's 2.7 million.

[blessedandcursed]

Originally Posted by glamatomic

As for crime in St. Louis, as you'll find out when you get here, the FBI stats are actually skewed.

Unlike most cities, St. Louis politically separated itself from the county way back in the 1800s. Therefore, crime stats are just looking at the 'inner core' of the city with a population of just over 300,000... not the entire Metro area with a population of 2.8 million. Most cities don't have the separation of city and county, so their suburbs bring their crime stats down. Our suburbs aren't counted when the FBI makes their most dangerous cities lists.

If the entire Metro *was* counted, our crime rate would be about average.

That makes sense. Pretty interesting also.

[RisingAurvandil]

This thread has a familiar smell...

And syntax, for that matter.

[glamatomic]

I don't think I explained the crime issue very well- I know though that unlike other cities that include the suburbs in their boundary, our statistics are skewed since just the inner core is counted.

[blessedandcursed]

Originally Posted by glamatomic

I don't think I explained the crime issue very well- I know though that unlike other cities that include the suburbs in their boundary, our statistics are skewed since just the inner core is counted.

interesting.

[blessedandcursed]

Originally Posted by RisingAurvandil

This thread has a familiar smell...

And syntax, for that matter.

What are you trying to say?

[Scottiegal]

Please keep us posted, I find this very interesting...I wish you success. Rethink the north side of St. Louis, it has more promise and a great place to start with your project.

[RisingAurvandil]

Originally Posted by blessedandcursed

What are you trying to say?

There is a high probability that you are a troll.

[blessedandcursed]

Originally Posted by RisingAurvandil

There is a high probability that you are a troll.

No, I am not a troll. I guarantee you. I really want to do this move. 100% promise

[blessedandcursed]

Originally Posted by Scottiegal

Please keep us posted, I find this very interesting...I wish you success. Rethink the north side of St. Louis, it has more promise and a great place to start with your project.

I'll keep that on my mind, Like what everyone else is saying, north St louis will be in much access to more amenities because of it being closer to city things ( however I should say it) and how in Alorton, amenities are almost extinct and that I would have to commute to another town for the amenities.