How is St. Louis for living (compared to Denver)?
Interestingly, I moved from Denver to St. Louis for college in the late ’80s. I was last in St. Louis a couple of years ago (and haven’t been to Denver in about 10), but it’s absolutely not sprawling like Denver at all — from what I understand from the few friends still there, it’s still quite possible to buy an older house in a nice area like University City or Clayton (both right around Washington U., where I went) without having to spend a mint or being shunted out to McHouses in the ‘burbs — the housing market’s gotten more expensive in general, but from what I understand it certainly hasn’t gone through the stratosphere as it has in other cities. (I have a coworker in L.A. who’s moving back to St. Louis to buy a house for this very reason.) Politically, St. Louis always struck me as an interesting combo of moderately liberal and moderately conservative — I think perhaps because it’s on a cultural/social/geographical juncture between the midwest and the south. The city obviously
I grew up in St. Louis. Scody has a good portrait of town, and is dead on about the weather. I’m sure others will offer good characterizations of the city as well. Here are a few random points I thought up off the top of my head. Greater St. Louis is divided into St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and other peripheral counties. The city’s boundaries have been fixed for a very long time, and since people have been moving out into the suburbs since the postwar years, the city’s population has always shown a dramatic decline. This is misleading. Greater STL is about 2.5 million people. You’ll most likely live somewhere in the county, which is divided up into a vast number of administrative duchies (e.g. University City, mentioned above). You’ll notice this curious political organization as soon as you drive down I-170 (the “inner belt”) from Lambert International Airport—there are places along the highway where three “CITY LIMIT” signs are all within view of each other. You cross them in
