my town

I would like to talk a bit about my hometown and current choice of residence, St. Louis. For a long time (since about '45), St. Louis has been in a perpetual decline, hemorrhaging occupants, and, more importantly, young occupants. During the 60's, 70's and 80's it was jockeying with Detroit for greatest symbol of urban decay and incompetent governance in the USA. Growing up, my friends could not wait to get out for as everybody lamented "nothing happens here." In a sense it was true. St. Louis had become a hollowed out core with a ring of nice, but unexciting suburbs. (note of disclosure: I came from Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis and truly love the place. Best city in the world to raise kids and one with a true sense of community. I am not an inherent suburb hater like so many urbanites like myself. It has it's place, but it is not a general source of dynamism for a city). Young people left in droves for Chicago, NY, LA and Denver. Most of my friends left to find cities more accommodating having a good time and finding cool jobs.

However, something has happened. In the mid 90's people began rehabbing the old beautiful buildings in such places as Soulard and Lafayette Sq (the process actually began in the 70's but gained true momentum in the mid 90's) and soon spread all over the south side. Soon the CWE replaced Clayton as the hip and chic place to live and it's beauty now rivals anywhere in the US. Even the downtown, once a ghost town after 5 PM started showing signs of shaking off it's 100 year old doldrums. But, more importantly, around the turn of the millennium, St. Louis experienced an attitude shift. This was subtle and imperceptible, but no longer would people say that "St. Louis sucks" and yearn for greener pastures. People, especially young people, starting taking pride in the city, boasting of its many charms, instead of denigrating its equally numerous faults. It still loses young people, but now it is a net importer of young people instead of exporter. We who left (I did for graduate school, but returned) no longer looked at those who remained as poor souls trapped in purgatory. I found myself longing for the city and its unique weirdness. My girlfriend decided to stay for the same reason that I returned, because we were interested in living in a place that was becoming rather than was already established.

There is still a long way to go, but there are more developments happening now than what happened in the 60's, 70's or 80's. The streets are filling up again (slowly, of course, construction takes time), but, more importantly, the sense of pride is returning. Buildings no longer lie vacant and infill buildings are arising for the first time. The first skyscraper in the city since the 60's is being built, and that is being joined by up to ten others. For us, that's quite a bit. The south side is filling up and soon, the north side, much more rough and decrepit, beckons. St. Louis will again be the great, dynamic city it once was and not the backdrop for "Escape from New York" anymore.