urbanSTL

I originally grew up in STL (county), went away to school, then moved to KC for 3 years for a job. I was gone for nearly 7-8 years. At school, I studied urban planning and real estate, and accepted a real estate analyst position at an accounting firm in KC. We specialize in affordable housing, historic tax credits, LIHTC, community development, and wind energy. However, I work on market studies and appraisals of multifamily, mostly affordable or mixed-income apartments.

I was not happy with my life in KC, and my company relocated me to St. Louis where I now work Downtown and live in Soulard. I am very interested in local development and the revitalization of the city. I am now learning, after being away for so long, that STL is such a unique place, with some of the best and unique neighborhoods, architecture, and potential in my opinion over most peer cities.


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^Welcome back. I hope you find the forums interesting and informative. Several of us like Kansas City as well, and would love to see better cross-state cooperation, but . . . we do all love St. Louis. I hope you enjoy the move to Soulard. Fine neighborhood.  

CGS0880 wrote:Hi there, I am a St. Louis native but have lived across the US and Asia for the last decade and just recently returned to the city to live and work full-time. I grew up near the Loop and have always loved the urban (even if there aren't that many) neighborhoods peppered throughout St. Louis. I currently reside in the Moorlands and work in Clayton.

I am fascinated by the intersection of local urbanism/business/politics and am excited to explore this site more and read/discuss the city of St. Louis!

Great choice of neighborhoods. Welcome!

aprice wrote: ↑

Oct 23, 2019

Bumping for any new members. Welcome!!
You don't need to reveal your true identity (that's what the House of Soul thread is for) but if you want to, introduce yourself here.

Thanks for bumping didn't even know this thread existed. 
I am a transplant resident who moved in just a few days over 2 years ago now. I currently live in Downtown West (barely) and work in Downtown. Hoping to keep it that way due to I have really enjoyed the ability to walk to work. I also come from a place where rush hour doesn't exist so I really don't want to have to start dealing with it here. Interested in all things design since well you can probably imagine my profession due to my username. Hoping for the best for this city and as a transplant, my family and I believe this will be a long term home for us. It's a perfect distance from our family and has a great community if you actually try and invest yourself. 

^Welcome! I hope you find plenty of design to uplift your daily life and I hope you can add more to the collection. Downtown West is an attractive choice, smack in the middle of things. Close to the Midtown and Downtown shows, not too far from the museums, near enough to the nightlife. I can see the appeal. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on what's working and what we can do better, both as a forum and as a city.

Hi it's Brad. I can't remember my password for the life of me, so I made this account. I will try to contribute to discussions more frequently with the account, particularly concerning downtown. Other than my username, I think you all know very well where I stand and who I am. Please no personal attacks, particularly from Dennis Beganovic.

BradWaldrop2 wrote: ↑

Nov 01, 2019

Hi it's Brad. I can't remember my password for the life of me, so I made this account. I will try to contribute to discussions more frequently with the account, particularly concerning downtown. Other than my username, I think you all know very well where I stand and who I am. Please no personal attacks, particularly from Dennis Beganovic.

That's 100% what the "Forgot Password" link is for when signing in.

I'm bumping this thread for any new members. No need to introduce yourself if you don't want to. It's never too late to introduce yourself. Say as much or as little as you'd like and feel free to keep the conversation going (we know SP will). Welcome!!

Hello, I'm Quinn and I think I've been reading this forum for about 3 years now and haven't got around to posting much but Iove to keep up with St. Louis. I'm from the county and currently go to school out-of-state and am pursuing architecture. I look forward to coming back and hopefully having a chance to become part of the local urban redevelopment scene in the future.

Hey, I'm Gary. I've also been reading this form for a while, but have stayed mostly on the sidelines. I was raised in old north/downtown, and now live in soulard. Im a also a newly licensed CPA. Working on saving my city one house at a time.

Hi, I'm Steve. Been visiting this site for probably 10 years, been a member since 2017 but rarely post, planning to change that starting now.

Grew up in South County, moved to the City once I finished grad school (UMSL, Public Policy) and found a job (local health system). I was coming into the city weekly to drink beers and chase babes, decided to commit to living here once I could afford moving out of the parents' basement. Started in Shaw, moved downtown when I got married (wife was already there several years), then bought our first home in Boulevard Heights (2015) and our second home across the park in Holly Hills (2019).  Just had our third baby boy and trying to answer the school question for our older two, ages 3 and 4.5.

We've chosen to live in the city for three reasons; Architecture, Community, and Environment.  Basically, this place is beautiful, the people generally are proud, resilient, and open-hearted/minded, and I can live a middle class lifestyle largely without a car if needed/desired.  I'm convinced that society has entered a period of long-term decline and that StL City is positioned to hit the bottom before the rest of the region and then bounce back quicker on its own; just need the right mix of aggressive policies and competent leaders...

Welcome aboard Quinn, Gary, and Steve. Good luck in each of your architectural endeavors, be they new build or old brick.

SB in BH wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2020

Hi, I'm Steve. Been visiting this site for probably 10 years, been a member since 2017 but rarely post, planning to change that starting now.

Grew up in South County, moved to the City once I finished grad school (UMSL, Public Policy) and found a job (local health system). I was coming into the city weekly to drink beers and chase babes, decided to commit to living here once I could afford moving out of the parents' basement. Started in Shaw, moved downtown when I got married (wife was already there several years), then bought our first home in Boulevard Heights (2015) and our second home across the park in Holly Hills (2019).  Just had our third baby boy and trying to answer the school question for our older two, ages 3 and 4.5.

We've chosen to live in the city for three reasons; Architecture, Community, and Environment.  Basically, this place is beautiful, the people generally are proud, resilient, and open-hearted/minded, and I can live a middle class lifestyle largely without a car if needed/desired.  I'm convinced that society has entered a period of long-term decline and that StL City is positioned to hit the bottom before the rest of the region and then bounce back quicker on its own; just need the right mix of aggressive policies and competent leaders...

Welcome. I'm curious to see what answer you come up to the school question as that one is coming up soon for me as well and I'd hate to leave the city for the county.

Hello All,  Looked at this site often but never posted.    Been here in St. Louis for 5 years and now live in the Gate District.     In the past 5 years, I've seen the Gate District transforming to a growing neighborhood.     Not many St. Louisans know about the neighborhood but some of us refer to it as the Suburb in the City.

^My grandmother grew up in that neighborhood in the thirties and forties. (On Henrietta, maybe? I forget which street precisely, but a couple of blocks from Park on the east side of Grand.) Of course it wasn't called that then, and not much is left from her childhood. But you know . . . Anyway, welcome aboard!

Hello everyone! I just found this site today and I couldn't just lurk lol. I'm an STL native, my family moved here from Zimbabwe in the 90s and I am "not" an anchor baby.  I'm studying public policy at WashU's night school right now and hope to get my masters' and PhD in urban planning in the Netherlands. I live out in the county right now but my heart will always be in the South side. I have been all over the world but nothing is like St. Louis (not even Saint-Louis, Senegal). Let's be honest, this is one of the great river cities of the US and is worth saving and preserving for generations to come. I may be young. But I already know I want to put my roots down in this city that has given me so much.

Welcome aboard! You got me looking at St. Louis, Senegal, which . . . I should really do with all our sister cities. The old city looks pretty neat and the beaches seem like a potential draw. And the story of promise, growth, and decline when important things moved elsewhere sounds . . . familiar somehow.

Public policy sounds like a darned useful subject of exploration and we could always use better urban planning, so good luck to you in your studies. And I hope our fair city treats your family at least as well as my own immigrant forbears, friends, and family. (Sounds like it mostly has. Which . . . isn't always the case, sadly. But I hope it is here.)

Welcome!

sp: if you are looking for other interesting cities named after St. Louis, be sure to check out Sao Luis do Maranhao in Brazil, founded as the capital of short-lived French Brazil in 1612 and full of beautiful Portuguese colonial architecture. 

^Maybe we need to form the Lou League. Grow our sister cities program into a bone-fide cooperative confederation like the Hanseatic League. St. Louis Senegal is a shoe in, since they're already a sister city. Sao Luis Maranhao should really be one of our sister cities. (Incidentally, we really need one in Vietnam as well. Not sure what gave me that idea.)

Been a lurker for a few months and finally made an account!

Love following exciting developments and seeing the discussions and opinions about how to grow our City, born and rasied in STL most my life.

Work in commercial construction.

^ Welcome aboard npav.

^^ How about San Luis Obispo?

^ That is actually named after a different "Saint" Louis, the Bishop of Toulouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_of_Toulouse
"obispo" is archaic Spanish for "the bishop", added to the name precisely to distinguish that one from the King of France

^^^Welcome aboard npav! I look forward to your thoughts on local construction. Good to have someone with some real local construction experience. I've done a little A/V install work, but none here in town, so I have no experience at all with any of the local contractors. Not that I would expect you to spill the beans about companies you might want to work for or with, but it's always good to get another perspective on building trends. Anyway, welcome!

^kipfilet, I was thinking we could be a bit loose with the Lou League. Maybe make it more a coalition of also-rans and overlooked towns helping each other beat the rap. Not sure San Lou O' Bish Po would want to be associated with such rabble as us. On the other hand, I'm not here to kick anybody out.

Except Chicago. They can go form their own league. They done stole our thunder once already.

Hello!  I'm originally from Minneapolis, but moving to St. Louis this fall for school (doing my PhD at WashU). I'm super into urban planning and transit and I'm excited to learn more about this city!