Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
When Aaron Perlut penned an article titled “St. Louis Doesn’t Suck” for Forbes.com in 2011, it struck a nerve here in St. Louis. Frustrated with divisive politics and a generally negative perception of the region elsewhere, Perlut encouraged the community to accentuate the positive—and build from there.
So last December, a year after the Redbirds rallied to win the World Series, Perlut helped launch Rally Saint Louis, an effort to brainstorm and fund visionary projects across the region. So far, ideas have ranged from small-scale (growing a rooftop farm, building basketball courts on unused lots) to regionwide (overhauling the River des Peres, expanding MetroLink). From the initial response, it’s clear that St. Louisans are quite literally invested in improving the region.
It’s also clear that they’re excited to share those things that already make our region great.
While planning this month’s cover story, we asked readers to submit Instagram photos of their favorite local spots. The resulting images were both personal and universal: a mother embracing her child at Busch Stadium; a bundled-up tyke in front of Laumeier Sculpture Park’s enormous red sculpture, The Way; a striking image of Harry Weber’s new statue of Dred and Harriet Scott, photographed as if the two are peering toward the Arch on a misty, fog-shrouded day.
You can peruse those pics and many more at pinterest.com/stlmag. You’ll also find some of those photos in this issue’s cover story, which was inspired by a feature we did five years ago that remains one of our most popular. Unlike last time, however, we divided our list of 101 essential experiences into categories that reflect attributes synonymous with St. Louis.
As staff writer Jeannette Cooperman put it: “Every city’s got its own personality, and St. Louis is old enough and stubborn enough to have a distinct one. In human form, we’d probably be your favorite uncle, the one who scoops up little kids on his shoulders, takes them for ice cream, plays baseball with them, romps with the dog, goes to church or temple every weekend, but stays out late the night before at the Greek Festival or Mardi Gras, drinking a cold one and telling stories.”
Those stories don’t end here, though. Share your own experiences about the items on this list, as well as other St. Louis musts (both timeless and trendy), by tweeting with the hashtag #STL101.
As those beyond St. Louis may soon discover, there’s a big difference between just living here and being a St. Louisan—and it has nothing to do with where you went to high school.
