^I think you flipped.

I completely agree with STLgasm. I hate when I hear STL described as "a big city with a small town feel." Umm, no it's not. How so? Just because we maybe run into people we know at random places? That stuff happens everywhere. I absolutely hate when I hear people say that. There's nothing small town about St. Louis. It may not always feel "big city" (although it definitely has its moments), but "small town" is just really inaccurate.

I agree. Great post

stlgasm wrote:I can't stand when people describe St. Louis as a "big small town" and if I hear it one more time, I'm going to flip. For one thing, it's just not true, and I question whether the people who say this have actually ever spent much time in an actual small town. Go to City Hall to try and pay your personal property tax bill and tell me that's a small town experience. Wait for the 70 Grand bus at the Grand Metro station at 6:00pm and tell me that feels small town. Does a small town have one of the top 10 biggest PrideFests in the country? I don't think so. Does a small town vote for Barack Obama by 84%? I could name a hundred more things about St. Louis that defy "small town"...
What makes this ridiculous assertion even more annoying is that it's not at all unique to St. Louis. Lots of cities claim to be a "big small town." Pittsburgh. Cincinnati. Milwaukee. Portland. Baltimore. It's an overused cliche that attempts to distinguish our city from others, when in fact it just puts us in the same boat as every peer city that implies "quaintness" and "friendliness" while minimizing our undeniable urban qualities, grit, pace and attitude.
I get the point people are trying to make when they brag about St. Louis' small town feel. But there are more appropriate adjectives that more accurately describe our city's character and feel: Personal. Intimate. Accessible. Familiar. Digestible. Neighborhoody. And guess what. Urbanity is not a mutually exclusive term when paired with any of these descriptions. I find the "small town" label to be an insulting, dismissive, belittling, overly-simplistic and flat out ignorant characterization of our metro area of nearly 3 million people.
This silly talk needs to stop, because let's face it-- smart, talented people don't flock to New York, DC and San Francisco for their small town feel, and they certainly don't stay in St. Louis for those reasons either.

Rant over.

Ha, I love this.
I grew up in a legitimate "small town" -- < 5k people, no fast food restaurants, nearest hospital, movie theater or shopping at least 20 miles away -- and I can definitely attest that St. Louis is NOT a small town.

Personally, I don't see "St. Louis is such a small town" to be the compliment that the speaker generally thinks it is. I usually hear it in the context of some kind of "keep with our own kind" sort of situation, much like the dreaded "Where Did You Go To High School?" question. (And in a true small town, there is only one answer to that question and it is The Small Town High School" )

In my experience when I hear someone describe StL as a "big city with a small town feel" they mean it in a very positive sense. Is this not your experience?

Aren't they complimenting:
The neighborhood feel of city/suburbs
How they can get anywhere in 20 min/ our lack of highway traffic
The low cost of living
The ease to obtain concert/sporting tickets at a "reasonable" price
Our many walkable entertainment areas or "main streets"

I think a lot of folks who live in under-achieving saint louis suburbs use the 'small town' term to excuse the lack of excitement in their environments. Living in the core of the city, there is no denying its sense of scale, grandeur, architecture meant for greatness etc etc.

imran wrote:Living in the core of the city, there is no denying its sense of scale, grandeur, architecture meant for greatness etc etc.

+1

That annoys me as well. I tend to think of St. Louis as being a small big city rather than a big small town. When I think of a real "big small town" I think of Springfield, MO. That's the biggest small town I've ever seen.

And if St. Louis is a "big small town" or a "small big city" then the vast majority of cities in this country are even smaller. St. Louis is the 18th largest urban area in the USA, so only 17 cities are bigger. That's pretty damn impressive!

I consider big small town a compliment. I think it just means it has the amenities of a larger city but the closeness, convenience, and affordability of a smaller city. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

onecity wrote:

It reflects on the Southern impact culturally.

It reflects the fact that white flight was so complete that much of the metro fundamentally doesn't understand Cities or their benefits anymore, and as a result the metro is a mass of redundant, car dependent suburbs and exurbs.

Wow, that is quite a leap.

onecity wrote:

It reflects on the Southern impact culturally.

It reflects the fact that white flight was so complete that much of the metro fundamentally doesn't understand Cities or their benefits anymore, and as a result the metro is a mass of redundant, car dependent suburbs and exurbs.

White flight only happens in Southern cities? It happened in every American city. From progressive, liberal cities to more conservative ones.

I completely agree with STLgasm. The "small town" characterization is annoying.

But there are a couple of ways in which it applies, in my opinion. One is the attitude of many of our civic leaders in the city and region. There is an appalling lack of vision among many of the people that hold leadership positions in many of the governmental entities across our region. I could elaborate if necessary, but I could probably go on for days about the decision making and attitudes of many people in local and regional government and why it irritates me...and it irritates me even more the more that I talk about it!

I'd also add that local media perpetuate the small town perception as well. I don't mind the high school question. I can't really be offended by it if I hardly ever hear about it. But the media play it up "the question" a bit too much in my opinion. If someone is a fairly recent graduate of a local school and they hit the big time, good for them. But I don't particularly care if John Q. Bornwell IV graduated from Country Day School in 1964, and I see that frequently in news stories. Speaking of high schools, the high school sports coverage on local news is also a bit overdone, not unlike what you'd see on a TV station from Cape Girardeau or Decatur. The Post-Dispatch is another example, as they generally put stupid local fluff stories above the fold on Page 1 like a small town paper and bury the important stuff between the ads for hearing aids and lasik surgery. Finally, when I see clips from local news from the 1970s and 1980s when I grew up, I notice that there was much more of a focus on the urban core then. Now, as soon as the anchors finish covering the daily homicides, they start talking about Sparta, Warrenton, etc. ad nauseum.

I'm pretty sure there are much more interesting things to cover than high school kids cutting through a cornfield in Red Bud, but not when the news comes first, it never stops, and it's coverage you can count on!

Other than these things, I don't get a small town vibe at all. We need to own our distinction as a major and important city in my opinion!