Those posters, sorry to say, need to be taken with a grain of salt in the future.
Example number 37,657 that our internal attitude towards our region is one of our top problems. Man would it suck to feel this way about where you live.
This raised my blood pressure this morning. I wonder if the bid will ever be made public.
I sure hope it is now. On one hand I hope it turns out to not be that great so that I can have a reason we didn't make the top 20, but on the other hand if it isn't good then I will be mad about that.....
Those posters, sorry to say, need to be taken with a grain of salt in the future.
Example number 37,657 that our internal attitude towards our region is one of our top problems. Man would it suck to feel this way about where you live.
I'm fine with living here bud. But I'm a realist. We just see things differently. You think our internal attitude sucks. I think are present condition sucks.
Those posters, sorry to say, need to be taken with a grain of salt in the future.
easy there man. it was just an opinion. didn't turn out to be accurate that's all. i agree, StL's rep is not that great - and I mean that in a relative sense. It's not that StL absolutely sucks in everything because the metro region has a lot to offer, BUT I think in general over the past century or so, the city has just rested on their laurels or worst, failed to maintain its perch among the best cities in the US. Sure there are bright spots and specific achievements the region can point to over the years, but nowadays when most people think of StL, the biggest news that has come out of the city in recent memory remains the Ferguson debacle. I lived in StL for about 8 years over the prior decade and the biggest issue I always saw was the city-county division. i don't think there will ever be any success unless people realize that both county and city must be successful, not one or the other.
Those posters, sorry to say, need to be taken with a grain of salt in the future.
Example number 37,657 that our internal attitude towards our region is one of our top problems. Man would it suck to feel this way about where you live.
And btw, I believe you live in one of the "up and coming" urban neighborhoods in STL and you recently came on here wailing about gunshots at 7am.
Agreed that this is a 10-gallon bucket of ice-cold reality. And it stinks. But shows true market view of STL....
BTW, all this ragging on Indianapolis is beyond stupid. It is a great place to live, with world-class amenities. The crying shame is how far past Indy is beyond STL and whether or not STL will ever catch-up....
Looks like DC-area will be it. Fits with model of "coastal economy" by-passing the rest of the country.
Really, really upset that we didn’t make the first cut.
One of the things I heard from my task force contacts, that I didn’t bring up on here before, is that a quiet goal of Jeff Bezos was to “turn a red state blue”. Taking personal partisanship out of the conversation, that description sure matches up with STL/MO, at the very least non-East Coast cities.
I’m amazed Detroit and Baltimore didn’t make the cut.
Express Scripts remains interesting as the likelihood of partnership remains very strong, although their market cap increase ahead of earnings season already makes a full acquisition significantly more expensive.
We've got to fix our national reputation by getting out of the headlines for crime, protests and police shootings, consolidate this ridiculously divided region and start promoting what we all know makes STL great. Nothing new, but perception is reality right now for STL and it's up to us as a region, as voters, to change that!
Amen buddy. No one will save STL but STL. And this starts with working out our own issues first.
Although I'm a little surprised we didn't at least make the first cut, it's probably better to be off the list now and not get needlessly strung along for another year.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is proving itself a cut above it's peer cities. So much so that I'm not sure it's even a peer city of St. Louis at this point. The city is mostly intact and not abandoned, has many bustling commercial corridors within the city limits, interesting terrain, and both immediate sides of the rivers are productive and in use. The demographics of St. Louis and Pittsburgh are also very different which is another reason we may not actually be peer cities.
Bezos has Texas roots. He owns 300K acres of land in Texas. I don't see how this isn't going to Austin. He also has $105B which is absolutely ridiculous and nobody seems terribly bothered by it.
Although I'm a little surprised we didn't at least make the first cut, it's probably better to be off the list now and not get needlessly strung along for another year.
I think one reason we get put together is because the past with manufacturing and they are losing population and we are pretty much flat. We are similar sizes. The one thing I think helps Pitt for Amazon is that they already have some bigger tech companies there (facebook, google, etc).
Although I'm a little surprised we didn't at least make the first cut, it's probably better to be off the list now and not get needlessly strung along for another year.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is proving itself a cut above it's peer cities. So much so that I'm not sure it's even a peer city of St. Louis at this point. The city is mostly intact and not abandoned, has many bustling commercial corridors within the city limits, interesting terrain, and both immediate sides of the rivers are productive and in use. The demographics of St. Louis and Pittsburgh are also very different which is another reason we may not actually be peer cities.
Bezos has Texas roots. He owns 300K acres of land in Texas. I don't see how this isn't going to Austin. He also has $105B which is absolutely ridiculous and nobody seems terribly bothered by it.
My wife is from Pittburgh and I can assure you they have very poor and blighted areas in and outside of the city limits. As far as demographics, Pittsburgh is not near as black as St. Louis in the city or surrounding areas, which definitely shapes general perception about urban life and investment in the city. My wife is from Pittsburgh and one thing she noticed is how St. Louis has a much larger and well off AA community, despite general perceptions that St. Louis is a hellhole for black people. We have a relatively large black middle class compared to many similar sized metros. With that said, Pittsburgh is not necessarily ahead of St. Louis in anything. I belive St. Louis has higher incomes and educational attainment. It definitely has more white collar feel that Pittsburgh from what I can tell. The main problem in St. Louis is that we are a very divided region that seems to be pulling in different directions. St. Louis is really a victim of it's own inept leadership and lack of civic pride. That is what Indianapolis, Columbus, and Nashville have over St. Louis, nothing else really.
The fact that we didn't get it isn't shocking. The fact that we didn't even make the top-20, should be a massive slap in the face to the people who call the shots in this region.
Two things that are immediately apparent:
1. We got beat by midwestern cities like Columbus, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Are we really, really, worse off than those places? Not really. The main difference is those places have their priorities in order. We don't. We're still, by and large, obsessed with suburban sprawl and maintaining our retarded niches and friendly local speed traps.
Consolidation, in a major way (not any piddling bullsh*t like the city rejoins the county and that's that), needs to happen. Government inefficiencies and corruption need to be stamped out.
St. Louis won't get better without that.
2. We have a massive image problem. We've had a massive image problem for decades, and tbh it's only gotten worse. Some of it is legitimate and well deserved (Ferguson and police misconduct), some of it is plain old bullsh*t (crime stats making the whole region look like a warzone).
Forcibly getting the police in city and county under control would go a long way. All departments in the region have been running wild with no accountability for decades now. Get them to do their jobs or they are immediately fired.
Consolidation should help with the crime stats as well. Fixing the police and consolidating would go further than anything else towards fixing the crime ridden hellhole perception.
Finally, sell the airport, and use the proceeds to hire 10 different marketing companies. Have them market us, and listen to their feedback on what would make marketing us easier, and implement their suggestions.
Finally, sell the airport, and use the proceeds to hire 10 different marketing companies. Have them market us, and listen to their feedback on what would make marketing us easier, and implement their suggestions.
Selling one of the few things that is actually on an upswing and doing well seems like a terrible idea.
I don't think there are too many surprises on the Final 20 and we pretty much all know in the end this is going to a present power player like Boston or D.C. or Atlanta..
As for STL's bid, we're just going to have to wait for more details and see how it stacked up to the few of our peers that did make the list; I'm most interested in seeing why Amazon included Pittsburgh and Philadelphia -- two cities with regionalism/fragmented govt. issues of their own. I think we may find that it may be Missouri that fell short as much as STL and KC... the hyper loop pitch seems hyper-loopy and I wouldn't be surprised to see the incentives just didn't stack up compared to what states iike PA, OH & IN offered.
