OT:why saint louis sucks!

[astrea]

Too much time on my hands i guess here is an interesting read.
http://www.metamanda.com/blog/archives/2003/08/some_st_louis_h.html

 

[Bebo77]

yeah you do... lol jk

 

[Letmegrow]

I don't blame anyone for abandoning somewhere unsafe.

I have been alone walking in some pretty "bad" hoods in Chicago and no one ever said boo to me.

It is different here. I don't know who you can blame it on, but I will by far stay away from most parts of North and Southeast St. Louis.

 

[astrea]

I blame it on all the people moving out of the city causing the lack of tax base to build good infrastructure,security etc. Not cultural enough to attract major corporations.

 

[latazyo]

maybe it is because IM from a very sparsely populated state (only 600,000 in the entire state) but why would anyone want to live in close proximity to thousands of others? (ie in the city)

 

[DARKSILENTTYPE]

I think St Louis could be a great city again . I would think the first step before building lofts that most people can't afford would be lighting the city streets all of them not just the ones that have upscale propertys on them . If the city had better lighting more people and all people may feel a little better about walking around and hanging out after dark . That would bring in more revenue and more tax and attract more businesses to the city again which in turn would bring more lofts and more people back to city living .

DST

 

[jcjstl]

I would love to buy and rehab one of the wonderful houses in the city ... 2 things stop me.... 1 the schools are down right horrible. and 2. the city's income tax... which I think also hurts them when attracting large corporations... what ceo is going to want to put his company in downtown and pay a city income tax when he could put it anywhere in the county or St. Charles and pay no income tax. The only thing that will truly save St. Louis is the city and county merging and dealing with the area problems as one unit instead of fighting with each other.

 

[Boosted Rxp]

i work downtown on the loft district for now and they have alot of new york money coming in,seems to me that they will try and make it like new york here,we take old junk unsafe buildings and turn them into high dollar lofts

 

[beapeams]

Companies don't have to worry about the taxes. The City gives tax breaks to bigger companies coming in. The Cities decline is because of the politicians, and they way they handle the residents that live there. As well as the Schools. We used to live in South St. Louis real close to the CWE, and they worked with another company to declare Emmenint domain and forced a buyout. We had lived there when things were really bad, and because of People like my mother that lived in the Neighborhood, alot of the crime had stopped. The biggest crime was that alot of houses were being bought by the said company and then immediatly boarded up. No quicker way to bring down property value than a percieved abandoned house. This is how the city helps its citizens.

The schools, taxes and treatment will prevent the city from ever being viable. They have to fix all three or families will not move back in. I know i nvever will. When I move out of North County in the next few years I will not be looking to the City.

 

[jcjstl]

beapeams wouldnt the said ceo still pay personal income tax like all other workers .. this is what I meant but I agree with the rest ...

 

[beapeams]

Of course the ceo would have to pay taxes, but the company itself would get breaks. Also, a CEO does not have to live in St. Louis City, just pay the 1% for working there if the company is headquartered in St. Louis City. If it is not the CEO pays taxes where he/she works.

 

[dynamitedj]

St. Louis would be a better city if the law that keeps any building from being taller than the arch was erased from the books. Many large corporations have looked over St. Louis because they need large buildings thus loosing thousands of jobs that would otherwise be bringing in alot of revenue. Can you imagine what New York city would be like if the buildings couldn't be taller than the statue of liberty? Not to mention the laughable public transportation here.

 

[zt444a]

Now this is just my opinion, but my wife and I have found St. louis top be a pretty nice city this far. We have only lived in the area for a bit more than a year, but all in all it has been a very positive experience.

I have been downtown and all over the city. I did not really feel uncomfortable at all. I know there are areas that are less than safe for me, but if the public schools were better, I'd for sure have tried to buy a home in the area off of Grand and Tower Park.

My wife grew up in LA county and we lived the first 16 years of our marriage in SoCal. I have to say that except for East St.Louis, you guys don't have bad neighborhoods.

JMHO

 

[dynamitedj]

I guess the only real problem with St. Louis is that there's no ocean.

 

[jcjstl]

zt444a bad neighborhoods are all relative to what you have grown accustomed to ... Plus St. Louis really is the biggest small town you will ever see… most people here haven't spent much time anywhere else. People here see driving from St. Charles to downtown as an all day trip I grew up here and moved to Atlanta for 5 years and I truly miss the big city feel it had … (but don’t miss the 3 hour commute thanks to daily fatality accidents). Hell I have even slipped back into that mind set .. I complain and complain about having to drive "all the way" to Clayton for something… in reality its about a 12 minute drive from my house. Imo that’s what hurts metro St.. Louis… no one wanders outside of their neighborhoods … Now this is slowly changing with the younger generation and as folks from outside St. Louis migrate in. but as you said this is just mho. By the way .. as far as the metro st. louis area in general ... i dont think most people here appreciate what a trully great city this is and how much it has to offer.

 

[zt444a]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8129494#post8129494 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jcjstl
zt444a bad neighborhoods are all relative to what you have grown accustomed to ... Plus St. Louis really is the biggest small town you will ever see… most people here haven't spent much time anywhere else.

You have to compare it to something. I have been blessed with the chance to have lived in a few different places. Sometimes that moving around does give you the ability to appreciate differences in people and places.

I think the neighborhoods here are not all that bad, and I also think that for the most part the people here are very friendly (yes that includes you Farmer).

Howie

 

[sirreal63]

My place in the city is in Carondelet...I had gotten used to it but now that I am rarely there it scares me. It isn't easy being the only caucasian on my block.

 

[Letmegrow]

In the past I think it was the constant influx of migrants into St. Louis that kept it nice.

For what it is worth the Bosnians did a good job cleaning up their neighborhoods that they immigrated to. They started with the typical derelict properties and run down homes/business.

The Italians made the Hill in a great community(Still is to this day).
The Irish/Italians with Dogtown (Still nice)
The Germans had south town pretty nice until they all got old and died, then their children for the most part lost their heritage.

There needs to be a major mass of people willing to give it a shot. I would not count on the state to say hey we did this for you now move in and keep it nice.

Jimmyleg has been making his 'hood a better place to live by rehabbing and keeping a neighborhood organization/watch.

 

[Lost His Marbles Name]

If you look at the past 31 years of my life in St.louis they demolised the peojects and built nice homes in place "the old projects by the old city hospital", the old city hospital is now upscale condo's. The only people on Washington St. was bumb's and lost people in there cars looking for the TWA dome and now you can walk with out look behind you every two seconds. They made it easier to get in and out of the city to atract more county people to work in the city like the new exit at the end of 55, they remodeled I-70, opened the metro link from Ill, and finally redoing HWY 40. Sulord and benton is in a big rehab state. We have been working with Wash U non stop on Kingshighway by HWY 40. They are demoing houses and replace them with brand new ones on the north side of 44 by grand and vandeventer.

It was a slow progress but it looks like it getting faster as time goes by. There making other improvements to make people want to come back to the city but it takes time and money and money the city doesn't have everyday like a money tree. That's why they plan then bugget to make these improvements.

I love the old homes in St. louis, the wood work and the craftmanship that went in to them is out standing. If you think your job is hard try halling bricks and morter to the 10th floor of a building all your life. This would make you one wore out puppy in just one day.

Thank your computer. Back in the day if you mined in the mountians in the west and died your family wouldn't find out for week, years or not even at all and that was only 150 years ago. Then think how hard it was for the egipsians had it back in the day.

 

[Lost His Marbles Name]

I worked untill I can't work anymore to make the out come of my life not to be not like you see in north or east St. Louis. I rather work and pay for my stuff then steal, cheat and lie my way through life. $crew that.