Travel write up from Ireland.
https://www.irishnews.com/life/holidays ... HMBVBJUHM/
https://www.irishnews.com/life/holidays ... HMBVBJUHM/
Exactly why our St. Louis ambassadors need to be equally well-trained to convey that St. Louis is the biggest metropolitan area and media market in the state by a significant margin. This should be among the top talking points for anyone promoting the city to journalists, business leaders and casual visitors.gary kreie wrote: ↑11:26 PM - May 16Nice piece. Too bad they lead with saying 2nd biggest city in Missouri. Guess KC has everyone trained. Like Jacksonville declaring itself the biggest city in Florida and getting someone to go there expecting Miami.
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This is even true for cities like Indianapolis. When I lived there, people frequently thought Indy was significantly larger than STL, when in reality it's still 600,000 people smaller. They also basically assumed I was "hardened" and I would get stories about how scared they were while driving through.gary kreie wrote:KC's "biggest city In Missouri" promotion is so successful, even most Kansas Citians I run into in person or online believe their metro is now bigger than St. Louis metro. (And probably a lot of St. Louisans do too.).
Maybe we need a promotion of our own such as "St. Louis -- #1 economy in Missouri. (by 2x)".
Do they really believe their metro is bigger or are they just messing with you.gary kreie wrote: ↑5:56 PM - May 17KC's "biggest city In Missouri" promotion is so successful, even most Kansas Citians I run into in person or online believe their metro is now bigger than St. Louis metro. (And probably a lot of St. Louisans do too.).
Maybe we need a promotion of our own such as "St. Louis -- #1 economy in Missouri. (by 2x)".
Missouri is definitely the 18th most populace state. Missouri has a lot of rural counties and smaller towns but the perception it is empty is simply not true.addxb2 wrote: ↑6:26 PM - May 17I have to tell you guys. I have never once booked travel based on such an irrelevant statistic. If anyone is that kind of traveler, they’re not coming to Missouri. STLs proximity to Chicago is infinitely more powerful than being the largest city in the 24-25th largest state.
Which is why Explore St. Louis needs to be spending big $$$ on promoting Lincoln Service on a national and international scale. I am working on something that will have St. Louis on billboards in London pretty soon. Accepting donations of high-quality images of St. Louis that you think people should see. They have to be yours with the ability to grant me permission to share.
Yep. Per Gemini AI for metro areas.StlAlex wrote:This is even true for cities like Indianapolis. When I lived there, people frequently thought Indy was significantly larger than STL, when in reality it's still 600,000 people smaller. They also basically assumed I was "hardened" and I would get stories about how scared they were while driving through.gary kreie wrote:KC's "biggest city In Missouri" promotion is so successful, even most Kansas Citians I run into in person or online believe their metro is now bigger than St. Louis metro. (And probably a lot of St. Louisans do too.).
Maybe we need a promotion of our own such as "St. Louis -- #1 economy in Missouri. (by 2x)".
This all prompted me to do a deep dive on Indy crime just to learn Indy's murder rate is higher than STL City + County.
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Send this to the mayor's office and the county execs offices everyone!
Just responding to your note about "not an institutional issue" because the rest I mostly agree with - I’ve kind of come to the opposite conclusion over the years watching the Better Together discussions unfold and then fold. It feels like it’s simultaneously a cultural, institutional, municipal, political, and even class-based issue... with each layer reinforcing the others and making regional alignment far harder than it should be.2020STL wrote: ↑1:49 AM - May 22Here are my two cents as a recent grad who has recently moved from St. Louis to Kansas City. I want to start by saying I love St. Louis. I love the people, food, architecture, and literally everything. I worked downtown last year and loved it. I feel like all my classmates from St. Louis have a special connection and love for the city, regardless of municipality or geographical differences. In my experience, employment success and growth are dependent on the physical growth of the built environment. No more buildings, no place to go career-wise (for me). There are too many sub-factors that each deserve their own in-depth book to understand the current position of the city and overall region.
One, as many will point out, is the complete failure of the region's ability to unite as a whole. If each municipality is a player in a tug of war, then there are that many ropes being pulled in every direction imaginable. This is a cultural issue, not an institutional one. Second, (and this is dependent on the first issue being improved), there is no incentive to reaffirm and continue investing in downtown. Most white-collar jobs and even blue-collar jobs are significantly less reliant on geographical proximity to transit, housing, and cultural amenities (as was the case 100 years ago). In this way, living in an urban area is a lifestyle choice, not a necessity. This is why cities like Nashville and Austin are growing, because there was a consensus among people with similar traits that those are the places where they could fit in. Everyone on this forum knows that the insurmountable benefits of densifying and investing in social/transit policies result in a much healthier physical and economic environment. The real solution is one of policy from the state and federal governments. In this current federal, state, and even local administration, the choice to be one for all, not all for one (and no one can join), results in stagnation. In a world full of global competitors, stagnation means decline because other players will inevitably outcompete you.
So to answer Nathanial Meyersohn (which I will not do because this is not the answer that gets clicks), it's frustrating and complicated.
