Positives and negatives of living in St. Louis (public school, young professionals)

[BoomBoxing]

Originally Posted by sixtwobaldguy

I felt my race was less of an issue there on the plus side (the most racially intolerant people I've ever met are just on the IL side of St. Louis and in a few pockets of the city).

That is an absolute joke. Please tell me the racially intolerant pockets of the city and Illinois you refer to. If anything the MOST racially tolerant citizens of St. Louis are in the city and Illinois. After all, you can't really argue that they are the most racially diverse. No not diverse like New York, but a heck of a lot more diverse than west county, jeff co or St. Charles. So explain this for us please.

[sixtwobaldguy]

Alton, IL, Madion, IL, parts of Belleville IL, North of downtown (specifically incidents on and near adeliade) are all areas where I've witnessed extreme racial intolerance and acting upon said intolerance. Usually in the form of a black group yelling at or attacking a white person, but in one case it was a single black person being hostile to a man from India (I suppose he was white too, but he was being harassed due to nationality rather than strictly race). In one case after yelling no whites in the hood a bottle was launched at my car. Another time I saw a guy get punched in the face when he was trying to leave a parking lot after eating.... the sad thing is it was predictable, a group of young black kids hoovering in the parking lot just waiting for someone to mess with... Once they motioned him to lower his window, he was punched in the face. I can't find any other reason for it other than they just decided to go punch a random white person.

One day I took a black coworker to eat in north county (we had been at earth city but drove east a bit). The black manager and another black employee glared at us as we came in and sat down. She remarked about the look they gave us. Then they called the white waitress over and said something to her. She went in the back and never came back out for over 15 minutes. We had to go hunt someone down to get our order taken. She tried to say she didnt see us but we were the ONLY people there and she had looked right at us as she walked right past us. Literally, the only people there. We were just coworkers but saw the guys still glaring at us so we held hands and pretended to be a couple just to tick them off.

Incidents I didn't see in person but relevant: The belleville bus beating (possible race motivation but no one knows), the Kristin Phillips attack, and the hazelwood racially motivated bus attack where 2 black kids slected a white kid to attack while using racial slurs.

I do drive further and more often than when I lived in Evanston, so perhaps I just didn't have enough exposure in the right areas to see similar events. However, my opinion of whether one is worse than the other doesn't change the fact that the certain neighborhoods in the area are intolerant in their treatment of others.

It isn't a question of how diverse an area is, but of how intolerant of any diversity found. Diversity doesn't cause intolerance, the area around the university in evanston is more diverse than probably anywhere in st. louis. The areas where I've seen problems in st louis are very low in diversity, a nearly all black area is the theme. I've not seen the same kind of problems in the more diverse neighborhoods. There was one fluke deal where a black guy attacked a white woman who I was friends with in the central west end but I think it was only partially motivated by race and the guy was staying at someones apartment but actually lived in north city. But geez it's not like every person you meet in any area is going to be like that anyway. It's annoying when it rear its ugly head but it's not like I am in those areas every day or that every person on those areas is like that, it's just the ones who are stick out like a sore thumb and are easy to remember

[Brickmama]

Racial issues are present in all areas of the country. STL isnt the only place where stuff like this happens.

[BoomBoxing]

I don't doubt that you have experienced intolerance against white people like you say you have. But I'd be careful about labeling whole areas like that. Do you think black people feel a high level of racial tolerance in west county or south county? I know a few that certainly don't, and they have stories similar to yours. Does that mean everyone in south/west county is a racist?

[sixtwobaldguy]

BB,

The experiences on and near adeliade were while en route to visit a very nice family that lived there,. I am more aware that people might hold my race against me now, but I certainly don't expect them to. Would I stop and roll down my window to talk to a stranger on a street corner there now? Absolutely not! On the other hand, if someone told me they lived in that area I wouldn't assume he or she was inherently biased against me either. One thing we can be sure of is that A-holes come in every color and they all stink

[ohpeequeue]

St Louis is a nightmare. I lived there for three of the worst years of my life. I couldn't wait to flee to the East Coast. Things instantly got better, and no mistake. I revisited in March 2009, five years later...little had changed. Insular, stuck in the past, short-sighted, ridiculous 'city'. Note the quotation marks. Now, all you uber-defensive St Louis cheerleaders, bring it on. I know all about you....sigh:-)

[ShadowCaver]

Originally Posted by ohpeequeue

St Louis is a nightmare. I lived there for three of the worst years of my life. I couldn't wait to flee to the East Coast. Things instantly got better, and no mistake. I revisited in March 2009, five years later...little had changed. Insular, stuck in the past, short-sighted, ridiculous 'city'. Note the quotation marks. Now, all you uber-defensive St Louis cheerleaders, bring it on. I know all about you....sigh:-)

Ok, to help us understand more, why not share more about your experiences, both times? How old were you, what were the conditions, what part of the city did you live in, what exactly where your experiences, what made it so terrible, why is the East Coast better for you? lol, 'tis not a matter of being defensive or a cheerleader, but curiousity of why a person's [not necessarily just yours] experiences are so vastly different from others. And, btw, yes StL is indeed a city - same scale as a Boston [one of my top 5 cities, btw] or a NYC, heck no... not even as a Chicago. But, yea, it is still a city, and one that many people, including me, are proud of - it has faults, it has vast negatives,,, but it also has some interesting and unique positives, that some adore, like, and appreciate.

[moorlander]

Originally Posted by ohpeequeue

St Louis is a nightmare. I lived there for three of the worst years of my life. I couldn't wait to flee to the East Coast. Things instantly got better, and no mistake. I revisited in March 2009, five years later...little had changed. Insular, stuck in the past, short-sighted, ridiculous 'city'. Note the quotation marks. Now, all you uber-defensive St Louis cheerleaders, bring it on. I know all about you....sigh:-)

[sarcasm]Great first post! Welcome to the forum, you'll really bring a lot to the discussion.[/sarcasm]

[DinsdalePirahna]

Interesting article (http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/stl-jobwatch/uncategorized/2010/01/how-does-working-in-st-louis-differ-from-other-places/ - broken link)

Transplants looking in and bringing up a lot of issues that I have been bringing up. Insularity. Parochialism. Lack of proactivity. The high school thing. The "that's the way it was and that's the way it will always be" mentality.

At least I don't feel alone. I've never lived in a area such as this one.

Locals here are incapable of looking inward and addressing what they see as endearing quirks but outsiders see as road blocks.

The article was based on a online discussion on LinkedIn. The discussion level is kept civil probably because LinkedIn is a business networking site, and most people don't have the time to create phoney profiles.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by ohpeequeue

St Louis is a nightmare. I lived there for three of the worst years of my life. I couldn't wait to flee to the East Coast. Things instantly got better, and no mistake. I revisited in March 2009, five years later...little had changed. Insular, stuck in the past, short-sighted, ridiculous 'city'. Note the quotation marks. Now, all you uber-defensive St Louis cheerleaders, bring it on. I know all about you....sigh:-)

Oh joy, a seagull post about STL!