KC vs St. Louis

houjix

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I spend a good deal of time in St Louis, mostly the western and northwestern suburbs.
To me, St Louis feels "bigger" than KC. Not sure how much the actual population differs between the two.
It definitely feels older as well. Some of the suburbs mentioned already, Ladue, Chesterfield, Clayton, are all very nice places. If I were ever to relocate to the area, those would be my choice.

I will say that St Louis has traffic like a city twice its size. Proportionally it's pretty bad. (DC/Baltimore is the worst, though)
KCMO proper is about 6 times bigger in size and 60% bigger in population than St. Louis proper. St. Louis has about half a million more people in its metro area. St. Louis proper is about 3 times denser than KC, although their urban areas are about the same. KC actually gets more dense as you move away from the city, while St. Louis is the opposite. Those numbers certainly add to the different feels of the cities.
 

CyPhallus

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The crapholes in STL are much worse than the crapholes in KC. Both have ****** areas but there's legitimately areas in STL (and not only just East St Louis) that you don't want to drive through.

That being said, Soulard is amazing and there's tons of fun stuff to do in STL. Also an underrated food city.
 
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Al_4_State

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The crapholes in STL are much worse than the crapholes in KC. Both have ****** areas but there's legitimately areas in STL (and not only just East St Louis) that you don't want to drive through.

That being said, Soulard is amazing and there's tons of fun stuff to do in STL. Also an underrated food city.
It's pretty easy to avoid the bad parts of St Louis in my experience, although I agree that it has more urban blight than KC.

It goes back to that Eastern feel. St Louis is kinda Rust Belt. KC isn't at all. It's like comparing the Quad Cities to Des Moines.
 

deadeyededric

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I spend a good deal of time in St Louis, mostly the western and northwestern suburbs.
To me, St Louis feels "bigger" than KC. Not sure how much the actual population differs between the two.
It definitely feels older as well. Some of the suburbs mentioned already, Ladue, Chesterfield, Clayton, are all very nice places. If I were ever to relocate to the area, those would be my choice.

I will say that St Louis has traffic like a city twice its size. Proportionally it's pretty bad. (DC/Baltimore is the worst, though)
The St. Louis metro has about 2.6 million and KC has about 2.2. Population trends tell you greater KC will be larger in 10 years. At one time greater KC had more interstate mileage per capita than any place in America. I think that it sprawls way more than. St. Louis. In terms of city proper populations St. Louis City isn't actually that much larger than Des Moines.
 

CloneJD

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Some of the suburbs mentioned already, Ladue, Chesterfield, Clayton, are all very nice places. If I were ever to relocate to the area, those would be my choice.
I doubt one can swing Ladue at less than $500k a year, and that might be conservative. Clayton is a good choice and more reasonable and has a lot of older housing.. West burbs like chesterfield are pretty good but traffic is a ***** if you have a 9 to 5.
 
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deadeyededric

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dang kc people really don't like omaha
I used to think KC was a larger version of Omaha until I moved to greater KC. Having lived both places I dont think that anymore. A lot of things here are just uniquely KC. Id say OKC is the closest city I've been to that reminds me of KC actually. I do think the personality of people are pretty similar here to Des Moines and Omaha but as whole the city has a totally different vibe than those.
 

deadeyededric

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I don’t say this to bag on SL. But KC has been on the upswing with great developments and improvements over the past two decades. SL, not as much.

I think KC benefits from strong growing counties on the KS side. JoCo is the fastest growing county and really the biggest economic driver of the state of KS. And KCK has had grown west with some major regional attractions. All that benefits the whole metro area. SL doesn’t have that component to its metro.
I never thought I'd live on the KS side(especially in JoCo) but I absolutely love living in Old Shawnee. I lived a lot of places and it's the most "livable" place I've ever been. I dont even feel like I'm in the suburbs. Its like small town America 10 minutes south of downtown KC. Its not overrun by the snobs that occupy 90% of this county either.
 

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I doubt one can swing Ladue at less than $500k a year, and that might be conservative. Clayton is a good choice and more reasonable and has a lot of older housing.. West burbs like chesterfield are pretty good but traffic is a ***** if you have a 9 to 5.
Oh I'm very aware of what it costs to live in Ladue. A lot of old money in that neighborhood.
 

deadeyededric

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Yeah but...

Ballpark Village >>>>Power & Light
Even the people I know in STL think ballpark village ended up being disappointing. I mean unless the Cards are playing there is no reason to go to downtown Stl. Stl needs a massive downtown revitalization. And ffs will they ever do anything to improve Lambert Airport? Its doable. I mean I remember when the Plaza and Westport used to be the hip parts of KC.
 
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burn587

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I spent a year living in St Louis around 2015.

Positives: close to the Lake of the ozarks
Forrest Park
Very mild winters

Negatives: everything else. I could not wait to leave, easily the worst city I’ve ever lived in.
 

1UNI2ISU

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Even the people I know in STL think ballpark village ended up being disappointing. I mean unless the Cards are playing there is no reason to go to downtown Stl. Stl needs a massive downtown revitalization. And ffs will they ever do anything to improve Lambert Airport? Its doable. I mean I remember when the Plaza and Westport used to be the hip parts of KC.
Don't disagree on Downtown. If there was a way to make the entire corridor (Clark St) from Union Station/Enterprise Center down to Busch/Ballpark Village a real urban downtown entertainment space, it would be one of the better setups around but there just isn't a way to do it.
 
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deadeyededric

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Don't disagree on Downtown. If there was a way to make the entire corridor (Clark St) from Union Station/Enterprise Center down to Busch/Ballpark Village a real urban downtown entertainment space, it would be one of the better setups around but there just isn't a way to do it.
There just doesn't seem to be a willingness from people in the suburbs to invest in St. Louis City. I realize that they are independent from St. Louis County and St. Charles County in terms of tax revenue but something needs to be done.
 
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