Dear St. Louis Residents, plz tell me everything about ur city.?

Question

As I want to move to St. Louis from overseas, please tell me about:

1- Security & safety in St. Louis.

2- Quality of schooling for kids.

3- Transportation facilities

4- Independent house prices

5- Living cost

6- University education

7- Peoples' quality

8- Day to-day amenities;

9- Shopping facilities

10-Internaitonal airport, metro train, bus service, taxi facilities, train.

11-Who is governor of Missouri and from which party, i.e. R or D

12-Who is Mayor or Chief of St. Louise, from Rep. or Demo.

13.Medical facilities

14-How is life for retirees

15-Business opportunities in retailing, export, import, etc.

16. Total population of St. Louis

17-Night life

18-Recreation life

19-Any manufacturing factories are there in this city;

20-Please tell me everything you know about this city.

Floods of thanks indeed.

Answer 1

St Louis is a nice place to live, but there are good areas and not so good areas just like anywhere else.  I live in South County, so that's what I know about.  I feel very safe and secure here.  My parents built this house in 1965, and have been here ever since.  Most of the houses on this street are still the original owners, although they're getting pretty old and starting to die off.

The county schools are very good.  I'm in the Lindberg district and it's rated highly.  Most of the county districts are good, but there are a lot of them so I couldn't tell you about all of them.  The city schools are not so good.  They lost accredidation last year, and I think they're still being controlled by the state.  They go through superintendants like Kleenex.  There are good Catholic and Luthern schools attached to parishes, and some other Christian schools that are good too.  Then there are some expensive private schools that are quite good.

Transportation...well if you live on the Metro routes you can take the train.  The closest one to me won't get me anywhere I need to go.  There are buses, but you really need a car here.

Universities here are on every corner.  St. Louis University and Washington University are both world class.  Webster is a small university with a unique curriculum.  For theatre, music, art and teaching, it's excellent.  University of Missouri, MO Baptist University, Lindenwood University, three community colleges, and a lot of trade schools.  There's something for everyone in every price range.

Independent housing prices.  I don't know what that means.  I'm in the mortgage business, and you can buy a nice 3 bedroom townhouse in my area for as little as $130,000.  You can also buy a very swell one for $330,000, and every where in between.  Rent is pretty high for what you get.  My condo's mortgage and maintenance are about what you'd pay for a 2 bedroom apartment.  

Cost of living is much lower than on either coast.  There's a chain of grocery stores called Aldi's that are really cheap.  I haven't been shopping there because another store is on the corner, but it's much more expensive, and the things I bought at Aldi's are fine.  There's a smaller selection, but for the difference in price I'll live.  Gas is less here than in a lot of the country.  My condo is all electric, and the bill I just paid for July was $112.  Since there's no gas bill, that's not too bad.  Over all, you can live decently here for a lot less than in NY, LA or Miami.

People's quality?  I'm not sure what that means.  People are pretty much the same everywhere I've lived.  There are nice people and there are jerks.  Where is it any different?  

Amenities...parks all over the place, several professional theatre companies, museums, free zoo, symphony, botanical garden, science museum, history museum, restaurants, ethnic neighborhoods.  Is that what you mean?

St Louis International Airport is here, we usually call it Lambert or just the airport.  Then there are small airports in Chesterfield on the west side of the county and just across the river in Illinois.  The Metro is pretty new, just about 15 years I'd guess, and it's limited.  I have friends who live about 4 or 5 miles from a station, they drive there then take it downtown.  I think Amtrak still runs a bit, but probably not much.  Same for Greyhound.  I don't even know any other bus companies.  You really need a car for day to day.  We're really spread out.

Shopping out the wazoo.

Governor is Matt Blunt.  I think he's a Republican.  I'm not a fan.  He's not running for another term.  http://governor.mo.gov/index.htm

The mayor of the city is Francis Slay. He's a Democrat and I like him.  I don't live in the city.  St. Louis isn't part of any county, it's totally independent.  The county executive is Charlie Dooley, a Democrat.  http://www.stlouisco.com/countyexecutive...

St John Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Medical Group, Barnes Hospital, affiliated with Washington University Medical School, St Louis University Hospital, St Anthony's, St Mary's (they call it SSM now), St Luke's, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Cardinal Glennon Childrens, Shriner's for children, Jewish Hospital, and a few more I can't remember.  You need a doctor in St. Louis, you'll find one.

My dad's a retiree from Anheuser Busch.  He's doing great.  I imagine it's again, like anywhere else.  If you made enough money, saved enough, had a good pension plan, etc, you're ok.  If not, you're cooked.  The economy here is suffering as much as anywhere else.  

Lots of retail business.  I don't know anything about import export, except for food stuffs.  Volpi's exports a ton of salami all over the world.  I don't know what else.  We're hurting the same way the rest of the country is.  We're concerned now that AB has been acquired by In Bev.  Chrysler has made some cut backs.  Nothing different here than anywhere else.

I don't know the population.  You can find t