St. Louis County Population Decline?

[johnamus]

Its difficult to accurately forecast these things but I'll take the state's guess over a random internet post any day!

[blueatari]

Originally Posted by Keethler

As a city resident who commutes to the 'burbs for work, I am an anomaly in St. Louis. I agree with the prior comment that there is a discount for living in the city...I could not afford what I can here when I was in Chicago (last year). I will tell anyone who is listening from the 'burbs that the city is absolutely safe, its as interesting as you want it to be, its as serene as you want it, its simply a great place to live. The problem is that most people dont experience it long enough to get past their pre-conceived notions. The thing that makes St Louis different form larger cities is that the interesting areas are not as obvious as bigger cities. You must spend some time here, look around, feel the city's pulse, and discover. Living somewhere that is turning around gives you a sense of life you dont feel in places that are already "there." e.g. burbs and mega-cities. When I leave Clayton at the end of the day, I exhale in relief when I enter the city limits once again.

I too live in the city and work in Clayton. When I drive to and from work everyday, with the 40 closure, I see many people going back and forth from home in south city to work in the county. There aren't that many easy ways to get to Clayton from south city with the eastern half of 40 shut-down.....

I once lived west of 270, and much prefer life in the 'core'. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the city is absolutely safe, as it's not. No place is totally 'safe'; but, 75% of the city is what most people would consider 'safe' if they spent any significant amount of time actually being objective. When I tell people at work I live in the city, they look at me like I am nuts! Too funny...so much of a negative stereotype from all the skewed crime statistics.... I thought your post was right-on though!

[louis128]

If the city and county want to gain more population we need more Hispanic population because all other cities like New York, LA, Miami, San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, and many more have large population of Hispanic that why the city of St. Louis is growing so slow.

Rank City Percent Hispanic
1 Laredo, Texas 94.90
2 Hialeah, Florida 92.17
3 South Gate, California 92.00
4 Brownsville, Texas 91.28
5 El Paso, Texas 86.82
6 McAllen, Texas 80.28
7 Santa Ana, California 79.60
8 El Monte, California 72.39
9 Oxnard, California 66.22
10 Miami, Florida 65.80
11 Pomona, California 64.47
12 Salinas, California 64.13
13 Norwalk, California 62.89
14 San Antonio, Texas 61.00
15 Ontario, California 59.88
16 Downey, California 57.85
17 Fontana, California 57.73
18 Elizabeth, New Jersey 55.46
19 Corpus Christi, Texas 54.33
20 Paterson, New Jersey 50.10
21 Reading, Pennsylvania 50.30
22 Bronx, New York 48.40
23 Pasadena, Texas 48.24
24 Riverside, California 47.51
25 Los Angeles, California 47.50
26 San Bernardino, California 47.48
27 Anaheim, California 46.76
28 Inglewood, California 46.02
29 Moreno Valley, California 46.00
30 Victorville, California 45.46
31 Waukegan, Illinois 44.82
32 Dallas, Texas 42.40
33 Phoenix, Arizona 41.50
34 Hartford, Connecticut 40.50
35 Albuquerque, New Mexico 39.92
36 Fresno, California 39.87
37 Escondido, California 38.70
38 Palmdale, California 37.71
39 Houston, Texas 37.00
40 Long Beach, California 35.78
41 Tucson, Arizona 35.72
42 West Covina, California 35.70
43 Visalia, California 35.62
44 Allentown, Pennsylvania 34.60
45 Corona, California 35.50
46 Austin, Texas 34.21
47 Denver, Colorado 34.20
48 Hayward, California 34.17
49 Pasadena, California 33.40
50 Fort Worth, Texas 33.20
51 Grand Prairie, Texas 33.00
52 Stockton, California 32.50
53 Bakersfield, California 32.45
54 Lancaster, Pennsylvania 32.40
55 Orange, California 32.16
56 Bridgeport, Connecticut 31.88
57 Costa Mesa, California 31.75
58 San Jose, California 31.30
59 Irving, Texas 31.30
60 Oceanside, California 30.20
61 Fullerton, California 30.17

St. Louis has only %2

[imperialmog]

How much of this decline is related to the airport expansion as well? Also I get the feeling some of the decline is related to empty nesters who have had their children move out but are still living in the same home. Any declines in population in South County will be related to this since it means less people per household. Likely that will stabilize in the long run as the aging people that live there either move or die off allowing younger people to live there with families. Now in North County, are the people moving out (likely to St. Charles County and often the same people or children of people who left the City, for largely the same reason and make your own conclusions as to why) and other poeple moving in or are the places going abandoned?

My guess is that largely a combination of smaller household size due to aging population and not many new residences being built since there are few good deveopable areas left. (the rest being floodplains, or protected areas, or just too hilly to make it worthwhile) This also assumes there isn't going to be areas that get replaced with higher density residences either though I am not sure where redevelopment would be.