urbanSTL

“The wise man waits as his enemies tear each other to pieces”     

Auggie wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2025

leeharveyawesome wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2025

Was in office downtown Tuesday then drinks after with some out of towners mostly from Philly and Boston. A few from the St. Louis always mentioning crime and you will get shot and downtown sucks, normal stuff. Out of towners be like "everything seems fine, seems nice enough".

Out of towners agreed that it's just normal hood stuff you need look out for, pretty much anywhere in America, possibly elevated in places like St. Louis where hood stuff is more likely. Everything is understood by anyone with any brains at all.

It's almost exclusively suburbanites and rural people who actually think St. Louis or cities of any kind are warzones.

I agree with this.

I know many people in my area that say things like "I just don't cross the river unless I have to.  It's a warzone over there."

anywhere in America
New Mexico governor declares state of emergency over Albuquerque crime
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexico-governor-declares-state-emergency-133009258.html

When I was driving for rideshare I found few out of towners ever brought up the "most dangerous city" stuff.

And if they did it was because another local (for example a driver they had earlier in their trip) mentioned it.

Baltimore Jack wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2025

When I was driving for rideshare I found few out of towners ever brought up the "most dangerous city" stuff.

And if they did it was because another local (for example  a driver they had  earlier in their trip) mentioned it.

Yes! Almost every time I visit STL, the Uber/Lyft driver (typically a middle aged white man) will jump at any opportunity to tell me where to avoid or compare St. Louis to some third world country. It'll go from pothole to "STL is less safe than Honduras" in thirty seconds. Not sure how, but someone with power needs to create a ridehail and taxi ambassador partner program. Call up Lyft/Uber and offer to sponsor tips for drivers who agree to (1) take an online class on how to welcome and introduce STL (2) agree to provide updated pamphlets/QR codes, (3) receive a monthly newsletter to highlight local events, (4) report good/bad things shared by visitors in conversation. Limit it to rides that start and end at the airport/amtrak or key hotels and convention centers. I think it's something that doesn't have to exist forever. They'll just start doing it naturally once they realize they can start/hold a conversation WITHOUT talking poorly.  

It's related to something already discussed. It's much easier to reprogram mentality than most people think. Especially with a carrot (reward) and social media. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... louis.html

BJ article today about how new residents in downtown are often from out of state and don't have the bias that STL natives have.

addxb2 wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2025

Baltimore Jack wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2025

When I was driving for rideshare I found few out of towners ever brought up the "most dangerous city" stuff.

And if they did it was because another local (for example  a driver they had  earlier in their trip) mentioned it.

Yes! Almost every time I visit STL, the Uber/Lyft driver (typically a middle aged white man) will jump at any opportunity to tell me where to avoid or compare St. Louis to some third world country. It'll go from pothole to "STL is less safe than Honduras" in thirty seconds. Not sure how, but someone with power needs to create a ridehail and taxi ambassador partner program. Call up Lyft/Uber and offer to sponsor tips for drivers who agree to (1) take an online class on how to welcome and introduce STL (2) agree to provide updated pamphlets/QR codes, (3) receive a monthly newsletter to highlight local events, (4) report good/bad things shared by visitors in conversation. Limit it to rides that start and end at the airport/amtrak or key hotels and convention centers. I think it's something that doesn't have to exist forever. They'll just start doing it naturally once they realize they can start/hold a conversation WITHOUT talking poorly.  

It's related to something already discussed. It's much easier to reprogram mentality than most people think. Especially with a carrot (reward) and social media. 

What

Anecdotally, I noticed much of what is said here when I moved to St. Louis as a person from a small town 4.5 hours southeast (so I didn’t really have the city comparison bias background) that had visited the city a couple times growing up for the Cardinals, the Arch, Museums, etc, but was not familiar with the history, politics, etc.

I fell in love with St. Louis (hence why I joined things like this) and found it to be charming and interesting and the perfect mix of different living styles.

I would express my affinity for the city and received surprised emotions and negative responses consistently from three groups: (1) West County residents 40-70 years old (the “oh no I live in chesterfield not in the city” crowd), (2) graduate students from Chicago (the “there’s nothing to do” crowd), (3) and white women 23-35 years old (the “it’s sketchy” that likes to stick to Clayton and Euclid crowd). Corporate workers downtown can be a pretty negative group about the state of downtown also

I always felt like the media in St. Louis was particularly negative about downtown. Generally, it feels like people around St. Louis put down downtown for its “vibes” and can’t articulate why it’s so bad. I am not saying there’s not validity to our downtown being way more desolate than it should be but always seemed that the conversation really snowballed on downtown.

All anecdotal but always been weird fighting an uphill battle against people who have more connections to the city than I do. Though there is truth that everyone hates on their hometown and thinks it’s cliquey and boring and holding them back, etc etc. Not necessarily unique to here, grass is always greener

It'll always be funny to me that KMOV immediately is dealing with tornadoes out in their hellscape location after leaving the tornado-less downtown.

But the crime.....

Auggie wrote: ↑

Apr 11, 2025

It'll always be funny to me that KMOV immediately is dealing with tornadoes out in their hellscape location after leaving the tornado-less downtown.

But the crime.....

Yeah, they gave up the severe weather protection provided by The Arch. 

delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑

Apr 11, 2025

County residents 40-70 years old (the “oh no I live in chesterfield not in the city” crowd), (2) graduate students from Chicago (the “there’s nothing to do” crowd), (3) and white women 23-35 years old (the “it’s sketchy” that likes to stick to Clayton and Euclid crowd). Corporate workers downtown can be a pretty negative group about the state of downtown also

Spot on! And made me LOL so thank you for that

I'm always curious as to how many of our hometown detractors actually travel to other cities.

I sense a lot of them go to Destin for a week every year and that's about it.

2 week homicide free

There isn’t a head shop “near” Busch

It’s at 10th and Olive down from jack Patrick’s. Opened late last year

News channel 5 is something else as is most of the local media 
"All sorts of people downtown today; but what about the crime?"Then they show a vehicle with a shot-out window 
whoop-dee-doo let's call the national guard lol

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Apr 13, 2025

It’s at 10th and Olive down from jack Patrick’s.  Opened late last year

Was in that area 2 weeks ago and ended up calling the police (2pm-ish).  There is some very sketchy activity there.  Open air drug dealing/drug use, a woman passed out in the middle of the sidewalk,  a man armed and carrying in a very aggressive manner, 2 other men in an altercation.  Very different than the rest of my (positive) experience as I spent the day lingering/working downtown after taking care of some business at our loft.  Something is amiss in that block.

So many carjackings involving teens. In one, a woman was hit and killed by the carjackers while running from the police. Will the teens be charged with murder?
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime ... d95763e353
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local ... 2e2db655fe
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime ... 41abb8aaa0

Also, mass shooting in Fairground park:
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime ... e013567b3c

Felony murder would be a minimum I think

Cool. The good side isn't even on the same page. I feel like Green could've waited five business days to get the administrations support or at least planned for the administrations lack of support. Why risk it on such an important legal fight?

St. Louis abandons lawsuit against state takeover of police. Spencer, Green trade barbs.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... e4b66.html

Doesn't appear that the administration is planning to support it lol. Spencer never had any solid answer about a lawsuit during the campaign and STILL doesn't even after she's been mayor for a week.

The Jones/Green side have firmly been on the "fight" side regarding state takeover for years. This isn't new or unexpected, Spencer should be more transparent about what she wants to do and should have had a plan by now. It's either yes or no.

The legal fight simply isn't that important to City Hall it seems, for whatever reason.