2,886
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 09, 2014#466

Looks like some good baby steps are being taken in Ferguson:

http://fox2now.com/2014/09/08/ferguson- ... g-changes/

8,155
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 09, 2014#467

^ sounds like a good step.
matguy70 wrote:The grass is always greener somewhere else. If you feel there are better pastures waiting for you - C'est la vie. Ciao
Akron is the New Saint Louis!

ForbesVerified account
‏@Forbes Akron, OH is the worst place to find a job this fall, vs. St. Louis, MO last year. #AskForbes

3,815
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 10, 2014#468

STLEnginerd wrote:If you have to go for your career's sake or your families sake, then by all means GO. Loyalty to a city should not be at the expense of your own livelihood. St. Louis is a great place to be but there are plenty of others. Just please don't blame STL for you pursuing the best course for you and your family.
i'd like to add, though, that sticking it out because you care about a place is a cause as good as any other. if you're seriously unhappy, then go. if you can provide better for your family elsewhere, then go. But don't delegitimize other people's drive to better a place—even at the expense of their salary or professional advancement—in order to rationalize your own desire to leave. it boils down to priorities.

1,868
Never Logs OffNever Logs Off

PostSep 10, 2014#469

I love St. Louis, but I feel like people exaggerate the differences in quality of life between cities. People are fundamentally the same everywhere.

4,489
Super ModeratorSuper Moderator

PostSep 10, 2014#470

The St. Louis jobs market is still about 30-to-40,000 jobs below its pre-recession peak level, while cities such as Pittsburgh and Dallas have regained their lost jobs. Pittsburgh and Dallas recovered in 2012.

By comparison, Kansas City is only about 12-14,000 jobs away from full recovery.

So while St. Louis certainly is adding jobs, the jobs added in the St. Louis region certainly aren't enough to send new immigrants or domestics running to St. Louis in waves yet. I would venture to say the jobs being added are only helping to reemploy locals who were recently underemployed or unemployed. In other words, the added jobs are not "surplus" jobs like what you find in Houston where there's a boom across all sectors. In St. Louis, they are "recovery" jobs.

And yes, one of St. Louis' bright jobs spots has been STEM employment, but a lot of the new jobs added are also service based - which aren't exactly the highest paying jobs like STEM jobs.

8,155
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 10, 2014#471

^ One thing the legislature needs to do asap is expand Medicaid.... BJC and other hospitals would like to add jobs rather than take a hit.

999
Super MemberSuper Member

PostSep 10, 2014#472

arch city wrote:The St. Louis jobs market is still about 30-to-40,000 jobs below its pre-recession peak level, while cities such as Pittsburgh and Dallas have regained their lost jobs. Pittsburgh and Dallas recovered in 2012.

By comparison, Kansas City is only about 12-14,000 jobs away from full recovery.

So while St. Louis certainly is adding jobs, the jobs added in the St. Louis region certainly aren't enough to send new immigrants or domestics running to St. Louis in waves yet. I would venture to say the jobs being added are only helping to reemploy locals who were recently underemployed or unemployed. In other words, the added jobs are not "surplus" jobs like what you find in Houston where there's a boom across all sectors. In St. Louis, they are "recovery" jobs.

And yes, one of St. Louis' bright jobs spots has been STEM employment, but a lot of the new jobs added are also service based - which aren't exactly the highest paying jobs like STEM jobs.
Also, I wonder how much jobs numbers are distorted and vary from area to area by the age demographic breakdown in any particular area. I wonder if around here one factor distorting things is there are more people leaving the job market due to retirement than entering it, where instead of new jobs created its filling jobs by people retiring.

And with the Pittsburgh example. I wonder if there are noticeable differences in age breakdown compared to here. I would not be surprised if there is a smaller than expected near retirement age there if say a significant number moved away decades ago when they were young adults, causing a lower than expected number of boomers there now.

180
Junior MemberJunior Member

PostSep 11, 2014#473

Anderson Cooper just lead off with the Instagram footage of the construction workers, coupled with damning statements from them. They attributed the voice in the video saying "He had his ***** hands up!" (or something like that) to one of the workers. They echoed pretty much the same story we've heard all along, that Brown had his hands up and the officer kept shooting. The CNN reporter spoke to one of them and he confirmed that his hands up gesture was indeed him showing what he had seen.

I'm surprised it's taken this long for the national media to find out about the video.

Have we gotten to a point where hiding Darren WIlson and refusing to release his side of the story has become untenable? I think so.

3,499
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 11, 2014#474

I just read the Urban Dictionary entry for St. Louis. "Boston on the Mississippi." (I was in Boston this summer and I described St. Louis as Boston without the traffic.) Also, "A Drinking Town with a Baseball Problem".

1,363
Veteran MemberVeteran Member

PostSep 14, 2014#475

I hope and pray for justice in Michael Brown's case, but I'll be glad when all the protesting is over with. I don't think it's is good for anybody. The arson and looting definitely wasn't good for Ferguson.

I can understand the difficulty here. You have eyewitness accounts, but no video evidence and (from my understanding) the physical evidence doesn't really tell anything. Like the Trayvon Martin case, even if most people think the shooter is guilty of murder, proving it may be another matter. Eyewitnesses can be good, but they're not definitive proof.

I don't agree with people who want this swept under the rug, but Wilson does have the right to a fair trial like anyone else. So the court processes have to be worked out, and that can take time.

1,544
Totally AddictedTotally Addicted

PostSep 22, 2014#476

Really good article from a visitor - rowing down the Mississippi - We are way too hard on ourselves - This place is not without its challenges - but it is a good place and a unique place in a country where mainstream culture, regardless of ideological position or world view looks down on anything that does not fit a preformed matrix of how things are suppose to be.

http://www.mississippimillion.com/2014/ ... -st-louis/

2,886
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 22, 2014#477

St. Louis to be featured on Travel Channel’s “American Grilled”

http://fox2now.com/2014/09/05/st-louis- ... n-grilled/

PostSep 22, 2014#478

St. Louis Turns 250
Indianapolis Monthly
http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/news ... turns-250/

PostSep 22, 2014#479

Minneapolis / St. Paul Star Tribune Weekend Travel Section
Lifestyle
Travel
Midwest Traveler: Reasons to celebrate in St. Louis
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/tr ... 65461.html

178
Junior MemberJunior Member

PostSep 23, 2014#480

We are way to hard on ourselves
This is really getting to me. I love this city and have lived here for multiple years, I have been to more places than anyone I know 45 countries and 40 states, and really can't see what the natives constantly complain about.

How do we try to change the native perception?

619
Senior MemberSenior Member

PostSep 23, 2014#481

^ It's hard. For people without a lot of experience in other cities the grass is always greener. I've been fortunate enough to travel quite a bit with my job and its allowed me to gain a real appreciation for what we have in St Louis. It also gives me a little anxiety because the lack of appreciation from natives allows the fabric of what makes St Louis great to continue to degrade.

8,155
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 24, 2014#482

^ I think perceptions for those with open minds are changing as much of the City undeniably is becoming more livable and offering visible improvement.... and that will only improve with time, Some folks just are dead enders and really aren't worth the thought.

2,041
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 25, 2014#483

Some recent additions to our great City, on this site in particular, make it seem like the City is continuing to decline at an extraordinary rate.

7,980
Life MemberLife Member

PostSep 25, 2014#484

Ebsy wrote:Some recent additions to our great City, on this site in particular, make it seem like the City is continuing to decline at an extraordinary rate.
But when hard numbers are staring us in the face (very low population growth, job loss, corporate HQ loss etc) it's hard to be happy.

6
New MemberNew Member

PostSep 30, 2014#485

Every city goes through ups and downs. Unless you are Detroit where the one industry you are heavily invested in takes a downswing, things will get better.

999
Super MemberSuper Member

PostSep 30, 2014#486

runbch wrote:Every city goes through ups and downs. Unless you are Detroit where the one industry you are heavily invested in takes a downswing, things will get better.
Actually wasn't that what happened in a number of areas of Texas in the 1970s and 1980s due to a non-diversified economy? Which also shows things can change in not that long of a time.

How diversified is the area economy relative to other metro areas regionally and nationally?

8,155
Life MemberLife Member

PostOct 01, 2014#487

So the Saint Louis Economic Development Partnership says that publicity from the Ferguson events have halted several business expansion plans in the region...

Denny Coleman told members of the County Council that Ferguson has generated "more than 88,000 news stories nationally and internationally that resulted in more than 100 billion media impressions."

"The press coverage of our region has been unprecedented and almost uniformly negative," Coleman added.


http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 9c0b4.html

I wonder if any of those are in NorthPark.... Clayco said it was to have announced a couple major projects by this time.

12K
Life MemberLife Member

PostOct 01, 2014#488

The really sad part is that many of the protesters out there will actually be happy to hear that they've scared away potential new jobs.

3,611
Life MemberLife Member

PostOct 01, 2014#489

^ its easy to blame job loss on the protestors. I think St. Louis has much larger, structural problems it needs to address if it wants to start attracting jobs and people again. A big step forward would be major government reform and consolidation, then creating a new progressive image and plan for the region. Its going to be hard work, but I think St. Louis can do it. Its going to take years to see the positive results of reform, but I don't see how St. Louis can continue to move forward with this level of dysfunction. Atlanta made this change in the 60s and 70s and is now one of the most successful regions in the country, St. Louis could potentially do the same.

3,815
Life MemberLife Member

PostOct 01, 2014#490

what a waste of ink.

synopsis:

– the Ferguson protests have generated some bad press.

– some businesses have halted their expansion plans. meanwhile, these other local businesses will be expanding into N. County.

– now here's twenty pages about a PR guy with a police record that the county mistakenly hired.

the "most dangerous city" rankings generate bad press every year. St. Louis has been not attracting new businesses for decades. it's nothing new. like goat314 said, our regional leadership has been systemically dysfunctional for a long long time. this article just strikes me as scapegoating.

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