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We will be relocating from Austin this summer. We are looking for the right neighborhood and preschool/school for our family. I will hopefully be a grad student at WUSTL, my husband will be teaching in the city. Our boys will be 23 months and 4.5 years when school starts. I am trying to get a trip together for December so we can check things out.
--We can afford up to 1k for a 2br apartment though $900 would be better. We have no desire to keep up with a yard and DO NOT want to live in the burbs We live in about 1000sqft right now and can go smaller if needed.
--We share a car. In a perfect world, I would walk my kids to daycare/school and then walk to class. We would love to live in a dense, mixed-use neighborhood with a park and restaurants for family outings. I also like getting to know our neighbors and would not do well in an area where people never interact.
--We need good schools for our kids. We are teachers. Education is huge for us. We would love to be pro-public school, but if they suck, they suck, and we will send our kids elsewhere. If we have to go private, it would be great to get them into a program that has continuity from preschool through elementary.
--We are pretty crunchy and a little left of the mainstream (we are from Austin after all) so any culture, diversity, or eclecticism would be icing on the cake.
The good public schools is one of those things you can only get in the burbs, except for the several highly regarded charter schools in the city. Kennard Classical in south city is one such school but it stops at 5th grade I believe. Several regulars here know a lot about which schools are good and how much they cost in the city so I will let them fill you in about that.
As for the rest of your requirements it's clear that you belong in the city. The number one neighborhood that I guarantee you will love is Tower Grove South. It's full of everything you listed and has plenty of apartments. You also would enjoy the Central West End and the Debalivere and Skinker neighborhoods, and the plus there is that you are very close to Wash U. University City is probably the only place in the county you would really like and it's definitely worth checking out as well. Other neighborhoods worth looking at include Shaw, Tower Grove East, Fox Park, and Soulard.
Prefacing that I know little about the school situation, I will give my comments with regard to the rest of your requirements. If your maximum is finding a 2 bedroom apartment for $1000 max, you should have no problem almost anywhere in St. Louis. Here are my recommended neighborhoods with explanations. (Probably will split into separate posts because I’m verbose as hell!)
Tower Grove South –
This was one of the city’s first “gentrified” neighborhoods. For the most part, it’s very safe while still maintaining diversity of race and income. Tower Grove Heights contains the largest, most expensive homes (circa 1900 red brick foursquare houses). That sub-neighborhood is generally bounded by Arsenal Street on the north, Grand on the east, Gustine on the west, and Utah Place on the south. South Grand is an international shopping and dining district. It’s six or so blocks of mostly ethnic food (Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Sushi, Hong Kong Chinese, Afghan, etc.) with a couple shops here and there. It’s about to get a major pedestrian-friendly makeover, which will solve almost all of the problems I had with it previously. Cars travel too fast on the road to make it a completely comfortable pedestrian experience; luckily that’s changing!
Tower Grove South is a large neighborhood. The southern portion is still pretty transitional (south of McDonald Avenue). I will say that this portion of the neighborhood does have some things going for it. If you’re into old blue collar water holes, there’s always Colorado Bob’s Ship of Fools on Morgan Ford south of the funky little business district I’m about to describe below. There’s also a popular sports bar called Friendly’s that’s quintessential old south St. Louis (meaning, they serve Bud and Bud Light ONLY). On the very southern tip of the neighborhood, on Chippewa Street, there’s a new hipster bar with surprisingly good food called the Bleeding Deacon. Check it out!
The western portion (west of Gustine) is coming way up, in a slow, always affordable St. Louis-style way. Morgan Ford Road is the spine of that portion of the neighborhood, and it’s gone from a nondescript 7-11 stopping point to a cute, active little business district over the past five years. There’s now a little café and tiny grocery store that stock mostly local products (or rare, hard-to-find organic stuff). Look ‘em up; they’re one of my favorite places in the city and practically lefty-heaven. Local Harvest Grocery Store and Local Harvest Café, right across the street from one another. In addition to those businesses, there’s a bike shop, a couple restaurants, a funky costume shop, a donut shop, a mod furniture store, and surely more to come soon. The area recently had a local artist design themed bike racks for each business, adding to the visual charm of the area.
Umm…did I mention that Tower Grove South is named for the giant Victorian walking park it abuts—one that could not be more beautiful? Tower Grove Park was laid out in the 1870s and is largely unchanged since then. It has beautiful 1870s gazebos and picnic spots, a beautiful little brunch spot inside the park (Piper Palm House), a farmer’s market, etc. Living near Tower Grove Park is a huge amenity.
As far as openness and diversity, Tower Grove South is a good cross section of south St. Louis. It contains some of the old white working class population, the 1990s gentrifiers (progressive urban couples), a lot of gays and lesbians, some Vietnamese, some Bosnian, and all of the overlap between each category. I hope that helps with this neighborhood; it’s the South Side’s most popular, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost its cool!
I would suggest the Shaw neighborhood. It is on the other side of the park from Tower Grove South (which is a great neighborhood!) But here in Shaw you are within the boundaries of City Garden Montessori Elementary Charter school. B/c it is set up as a neighborhood school, most people walk or ride their bikes to school. They have a morning preschool which is excellent. My daughter goes there 4 mornings a week and we pay $270 a month. They also have an all day preschool that is on the way to Wash U. I don't know the price there. You can search my other posts where I describe Shaw in greater depth.
The Grove is a new name for a neighborhood that’s still alternately called Forest Park Southeast. It’s a turn of the century neighborhood in the center of the city. By the late 1990s, this was ground zero for South Side decline and decay. Astonishingly, it’s now one of the city’s most up and coming.
The Grove is situated just south of St. Louis’s ritziest neighborhood, the Central West End. The region’s light rail system, called Metrolink, stops a block north of the Grove/FPSE neighborhood. So it’s one of the better neighborhoods for not owning/ditching a car when possible.
Most of the revitalization is due to local developers’ buying up abandoned commercial buildings along the neighborhood’s main drag, Manchester. Since 2003, Manchester has added a super-popular soul food restaurant (Sweetie Pie’s), a neighborhood health clinic, a new and popular music venue (the Gramophone), a relocated Nepali and Korean restaurant that is among the best in the city (Everest Café), a great burger joint/pub (Newstead Tower), a top-rated experimental art gallery (White Flag Projects), and another relocated bar from down the road that is among the city’s funkiest and most diverse for nightlife (Atomic Cowboy).
The neighborhood had a long history (1980-2000) as a very seedy area where persecuted gays would go to party at night; luckily, slow St. Louis gentrification has not removed the gay bars from the strip. There’s Novak’s (lesbian bar and popular among ALL crowds, straight or gay, woman or man), Just John’s, Attitude’s, Ernie’s, and Nancy’s Place.
Like South Grand, Manchester is also on the verge of getting a pedestrian-friendly makeover. It will go from three lanes in each direction (one parking lane on each side) to one travel lane, one parking lane, and a center turn lane. It’s also getting badly needed street trees, signage, pedestrian-scaled lighting, and new sidewalks, among other things.
The residential revival has started in the northwest corner of the neighborhood, with Taylor Avenue being the spine (and also where the Metrolink stop is located). Washington University (a top rated institution) has taken an interest in improving this neighborhood, being as it is just south of their medical campus. Many doctors and other medical professionals call the northwest section of the neighborhood their home. Not only is this side of FPSE the most stable and transit-friendly, it’s also the closest to the region’s largest park—Forest Park.
Forest Park is a 1,200 acre urban park that is among the nation’s largest. It contains the McDonnell Planetarium , the Science Center, the Zoo, the Art Museum, the Municipal Opera (the “Muny”), and the History Museum. All of these are FREE. It also, of course, has running paths, golf course, a skating rink, visitors’ center, etc. And that would be at your doorstep in the Grove/FPSE.
But back to the neighborhood itself. The portion south of Manchester is in worse shape; its housing stock is also not quite as attractive. But even it’s seeing some improvement.
The portion of the neighborhood north of Manchester and east of Newstead can be spotty as well, but, like the rest of the neighborhood, is set to improve fairly speedily.
There are a million projects in the pipeline in the Grove. There’s a new park going in on the northern end (Chouteau Park) that sounds really cool; there’s a new language immersion school that just opened up; the aforementioned streetscape project, some mysterious huge “lighting project” coming to the Manchester strip; a new residential infill project coming to the south side of the neighborhood, and more.
Here are some links for you to check out: 17th Ward of St. Louis, Missouri - 17th Ward Home - The Grove/FPSE is located in the city’s 17th Ward, which has a really good website that gives readers regular updates and advertises public meetings.
http://thegrovecid.wordpress.com/ - Manchester business owners and nearby property owners voted to approve a Community Improvement District (a taxing entity whose proceeds are earmarked to make capital improvements to the business district).Their website contains photos of the neighborhood, a list of businesses, some news updates, and more.
Saint Louis Urban Workshop - This is the site of a local blogger who lives in the Grove/FPSE. Though he covers issues across the city, he also highlights the Grove quite often. For example, he has a great post about the Chouteau Park plans, among other things. St. Louis, by the way, has a boatload of active citizen bloggers who are trying to get together to improve the city. Alex Ihnen of St. Louis Urban Workshop is just one of them.
Blog « Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation - The Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. has sponsored a lot of projects in the neighborhood. This blog updates residents on their contributions to and plans for the neighborhoods.
Great info there. I think you forgot one thing about TGS and that's the awesome kickball league! Check it out at St Louis BigBalls Kickball .
And two more places in TGS that I hold dear...Three Monkeys is amazing and their pizza is one of the best, and The Royale - favorite watering hole of south side politicos.
ooOOoo, this info is amazing! How is public transportation? Looking on the map, WU is a little far from Tower Grove South, so I would need to catch the bus. How often do they run and are they punctual?
Well, Tower Grove South's eastern end faces the most active bus line--the 70 Grand. I believe headways are every 10 minutes during peak times, possibly as much as 15 minutes during other times. The 70 Grand connects with the Metrolink system at the Grand station in the Midtown area. I’m guessing that, if you caught the bus right on time, that would translate to a 30-45 minute commute depending upon weather and other issues. So Tower Grove South to Wash U is a better drive, if you own a car. But it’s totally doable if you want to support transit. (Thumbs up from me!)
Clearly, though, if you value carless-ness or the ability to ditch the car, seriously look into Forest Park Southeast OR one of the West End neighborhoods (all in the CITY proper), which include Central West End, DeBaliviere Place, Skinker-DeBaliviere, and Wydown-Skinker/Hi-Pointe/DeMun. They all are either walkable to Wash U or have easy, easy Metrolink access.
^^^^
and thanks, Boombox. You're totally right. The Royale is a supreme TGS amenity!
I would second the Skinker-DeBaliviere. Close to WashU, so close to the metrolink, and Forest Park is right there. Tower Grove is great too, but the buses are usually packed, and I always found just walking to the metrolink much nicer than catching a bus.
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. We are looking for the right neighborhood and preschool/school for our family. I will hopefully be a grad student at WUSTL, my husband will be teaching in the city. Our boys will be 23 months and 4.5 years when school starts. I am trying to get a trip together for December so we can check things out. 
We live in about 1000sqft right now and can go smaller if needed.
Local Harvest Grocery Store and Local Harvest Café, right across the street from one another. In addition to those businesses, there’s a bike shop, a couple restaurants, a funky costume shop, a donut shop, a mod furniture store, and surely more to come soon. The area recently had a local artist design themed bike racks for each business, adding to the visual charm of the area.
