St Louis - what’s it like?

It’s even more so about high school in the STL area. Having lived, gone to school, and sent kids to school in St. Louis county, I’ll try to give a summary.

The way STL is set up, you have a county for the city, and a county for the suburbs. This was because a lot of the white people moved out of the city when African Americans started moving in.

This is still really prominent today. If you look at the demographics for stl county, about 70% of the county is white. But the areas where black people live in the county are highly concentrated.

So the county is really segregated. I don’t know if you really care about that, but it’s certainly something to note. When I was in high school and got more aware of the world around me, I noticed how everyone is very similar. There is a very distinct culture there that I think could be hostile if you don’t fit in/are a minority.

Here’s a rundown of the main cities that I’m familiar with.

Clayton-closer to STL city. Has a big business district and a lot of the courts are there as well. Very affluent area. The high school there is great, but the general “vibe” so to say is that it’s a bunch of snobby rich people. Because STL culture is so ingrained it’s hard to separate snobby rich kids from their parents, so any city/township is thought of as similar to the high school.

Ladue- another very affluent area, maybe even more so than Clayton. It’s more like the suburbs of Clayton if that makes sense. Same vibe of way too rich people. Have a great high school too.

Maplewood- I’m not too familiar with this area, but the downtown is kinda “hip”. It’s a young area and more affordable that the aforementioned areas. More of your typical city suburbs. I think the crime rate there is higher, but I’m not sure. Definitely feels like it’s different from the regular STL area. Their high school is combined with Richmond Heights. Not too familiar with the school system there.

Webster Groves- I’d say this is one of the nicer areas of the county that you don’t have to be Uber rich to live in. There are parts of Webster that are pretty wealthy, but in general it’s a low key kind of city that has a great feel to it. The city is probably one of the most liberal in the county (if you like or don’t like that) but I would recommend Webster to someone moving into the area. The only thing is the schools aren’t top tier, but pretty solid. I think they lack funding but I could be wrong on that.

Kirkwood/Glendale/Oakland-Kirkwood is the main city and Glendale and Oakland are sandwiched in between Kirkwood and Webster groves. Really alive downtown area. There’s a good mix of affordable smaller homes and bigger more expensive areas. There’s highways and main roads extremely close so you can get to the city quickly. The school system there is great, I think the best public schools outside of Clayton and ladue, but a much more affordable city. If you have kids, I would highly recommend Kirkwood. They have some nice trails and parks in the area, and anything you need you can find there. A great part about Kirkwood and Webster is they are pretty intense rivals in all sports. I believe it started at a golf match when a fight broke out, but now the two schools play a football game on thanksgiving every year. It’s a cool dynamic that none of the other areas really have.

Once you get west of Kirkwood, you get a bunch of smaller cities and it starts transitioning into more rural areas. Places like Fenton or valley park, Sunset hills, Ballwin. Not much to say about these places. They seem generally “eh”. I would much rather live closer to the city but to each their own. Maybe someone else can explain that area better.

Chesterfield is about as far from STL city as the county goes. It is by far the most suburb like place I’ve ever seen. A lot of the houses are extremely cookie cutter, and everything is extremely spread out. The schools there are good (Marquette, Lafayette, Eureka, Parkway) but I would say it does give off a feel similar to ladue of rich suburban guys/girls. If you live up there you’re going to have a long drive to the city, and have to deal with the traffic on the way back home.

There are good private schools in stl county too. The most prominent for boys are sluh, vianney, desmet, and chaminade. Sluh is a great school, but there is kind of a stigma between public and private schools. There are always rivalries, and hockey has become a really big sport in the past couple years and oftentimes there are fights that end up in the news. I’m sure you get this in plenty of other places, but it’s not something I would expect if I move there.

I honestly would recommend the Webster/kirkwood area the most, it’s a great area and you get the best of both worlds.

Because if you are white and live in N or E St. Louis, you will be probably killed. It's crime ridden and run down and the blacks don't like whites there. Just look at violent crime in the St. Louis area. Pretty well like areas in other big cities where whites and blacks don't mix.

Now there are blacks and whites in other areas and they get along usually when the % is more whites and people work, take care of their neighborhoods, and are not on welfare. Just how it is here.

mask off wrote:

your parents wrote:

Why would the poster’s race matter?

Because if you are white and live in N or E St. Louis, you will be probably killed. It's crime ridden and run down and the blacks don't like whites there. Just look at violent crime in the St. Louis area. Pretty well like areas in other big cities where whites and blacks don't mix.

Now there are blacks and whites in other areas and they get along usually when the % is more whites and people work, take care of their neighborhoods, and are not on welfare. Just how it is here.

These LRC "diversity is strength" posters who know nothing about STL are going to get this guy killed.

mask off wrote:

your parents wrote:

Why would the poster’s race matter?

Because if you are white and live in N or E St. Louis, you will be probably killed. It's crime ridden and run down and the blacks don't like whites there.

That’s absurd.

your parents wrote:

mask off wrote:

Because if you are white and live in N or E St. Louis, you will be probably killed. It's crime ridden and run down and the blacks don't like whites there.

That’s absurd.

You've clearly never lived in St Louis. I wouldn't want to be white and just driving in my car though certain parts of the city. You will get robbed and possibly shot and killed.

spinozza wrote:

your parents wrote:

That’s absurd.

You've clearly never lived in St Louis. I wouldn't want to be white and just driving in my car though certain parts of the city. You will get robbed and possibly shot and killed.

I had a college roommate from North County and I’ve been many, many times. You all are insane, in addition to disliking black people.

I hear Ferguson is a good place to buy Swisher Sweets. ?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I hear Ferguson is a good place to buy Swisher Sweets. ?

Trump lost you old bigot ???

Forest Park is the place to run in St. Louis.

This thread is an why I come to letsrun. I think I got more insight into the area here than I’ve gotten from weeks of sifting through internet searches. Thanks to all the people who took the time to give helpful opinions.

If you move to St. Louis, be prepared to be indoctrinated into a cadre of people who will incessantly talk about the city. You will spend the rest of your life being asked what high school (of which there is a range from decadent private schools to dangerously under-funded schoolhouses) you went to, eating toasted ravioli and bread-sliced bagels from Bread Co. After a few years, you'll develop a sense of superiority about your running trails ("have you ever been to Forest Park??)" and attractions like the City Museum (but the Arch isn't that great, you'll tell outsiders).

If you have a family there your kids will probably run high school cross-country and be doomed to discuss the Missouri running circuit with anyone and everyone they meet who has any connection to it in any way for 10 years after they graduate.

As others have pointed out St. Louis is a stratified city that vacillates between wealth with its mansions and large houses in some parts of the city and poverty and high crime in others. Political opinions basically fall under the umbrella of Trump-core Republicans (think Gun Couple of BLM protest fame) or virtue-signalling liberals who have no real desire to fix society or even their own city, but like to feel superior to the deplorable conservatives.

OP, I beseech you. Do not move to St. Louis.

In terms of places to run in St. Louis, you will have many options. Forest Park and Katy Trail have already been mentioned in this thread (Forest Park is centrally located, while Katy Trail is farther west). Other great running spots include: Tower Grove Park, Creve Coeur Lake, Riverfront Trail, Spanish Lake Park, Castlewood State Park, and Queeny Park (my favorite spot).

RunningCity wrote:

This thread is an why I come to letsrun. I think I got more insight into the area here than I’ve gotten from weeks of sifting through internet searches. Thanks to all the people who took the time to give helpful opinions.

No problem man. I can’t say we’re experts here, but St. Louis isn’t a bad place. Sure there’s crime in the city, but there is every where.

The places you want to avoid you just don’t have to go to. There shouldn’t be much reason to go there anyways.

The city is actually a pretty cool place. There’s good restaurants and cool museums and parks.

One place I haven’t seen mentioned is The Loop. It’s basically like the happening strip in saint Louis. Tons of good restaurants, stores, and music going on every day and gets quite busy. I’m a fan of it and it gives it a feel of a bigger city.

One thing to add, out west near Eureka is a whole system of trails for running. It’s not a long drive from the city or inner county, but I’ve looked long and hard for good trails and the area is definitely limited.

Weather gets hot as all get out in the summer. Humid too. October and November are really pleasant, but about December-February it can get cold and wet.

The main gripe I have with the area is there isn’t much “to do” stuff. I’m sure this feeling is amplified by the pandemic, but compared to a city like Chicago, St. Louis is pretty small. You don’t get the big concert tours, you don’t get a ton of outside investment in the city, so that makes lots of people stuck in their ways. In this regard it’s like any other Midwest city.

I think this is changing recently as more people are moving here. I honestly think the success of the sports teams has something to do with it.

I like living here. There are pros and cons to it, but I’m happy and have found a good community. Good luck to you on your search

I lived there most of my life and there are lots of pluses and minuses...crime tends to be localized in poor communities, the city is trying to revive itself, but not much action there but baseball season. Best places to live in my opinion, Clayton, Demun, Richmond Heights, all close to forest park, which has best running! If you move, happy to connect with my running friends who still live there

Ben Rosario comes from St. Louis. Matt Helbig, co-instigator of Marathon Project and Big River lives here. In this case, that's a good indicator of what St. Louis is.

Biden/Harris for the win wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I hear Ferguson is a good place to buy Swisher Sweets. ?

Trump lost you old bigot ???

Black Lives Matter in the Democratically controlled inner city, you racist stupid sap. ?

seasoned ranker wrote:

yoyomama wrote:

Steven Pfeiffer is the best runner to come out of the area in the last 20 years.

Epic fail

Are steeplechasers considered runners?

rojo wrote:

That phenomenon is true in lots of places. When I moved here to Baltimore, a lady who moved here and raised her kids here said that was the oddest thing about moving here for her - people wanted to know where you went to HS as everyone goes private and it means something.

Anyone have thoughts on where else this is true? I've heard it about St. Louis before. It's definitely true in the New Orleans area (where I'm from). I remember a former co-worker of mine (he lived in Maryland for a while) saying the same thing about Baltimore. I've heard it's also true in Hawaii.

My theory is that in most of the cases, you need a place that had huge amounts of Catholic immigration in the 1800s to early 1900s. Back then you had Protestants controlling public schools, so Catholics set up their own schools. Since they were largely staffed by nuns (and sometimes priests) living under vows of poverty, the Catholic schools were much more affordable than other private schools, and that remained the case even as the teachers came to be predominantly laypeople. So you get a much bigger percentage of people going to private schools than in most areas.

In order for people to care about where you went to HS, you also need to have cities with a relatively small influx of adults moving in for work, so forget about DC, NYC, San Francisco, LA, etc.

mask off wrote:

Because if you are white and live in N or E St. Louis, you will be probably killed. It's crime ridden and run down and the blacks don't like whites there. Just look at violent crime in the St. Louis area. Pretty well like areas in other big cities where whites and blacks don't mix.

Now there are blacks and whites in other areas and they get along usually when the % is more whites and people work, take care of their neighborhoods, and are not on welfare. Just how it is here.

Even if OP is Black, I'd recommend the latter community over the former. Would you recommend the former to any middle class professional (which I think OP is) of any race? I wouldn't.