By Sarah Truckey
After visiting a big city like, say, New York, one is reminded that St. Louis is quaint—and, in its own little way, better than such large sprawls of urbanity. Here it isn’t unlikely to see someone like the city’s collector of revenue, Greg F.X. Daly, running in the park or drinking at his favorite watering hole. Here, bumper-to-bumper traffic means adding a whopping 10 minutes to your commute. Here, there are no aspiring street performers crowding the bus or Metro with their begging and desperate attempts at music. Here, parking spaces are so abundant that no one has ever seen a double-parked car … much less dreamed of ever doing it themselves. Here, the upper class isn’t driven around by a car service with large black Caddies. Here, Pabst Blue Ribbon in the can costs less than $4. Here, the taxis stop for you, and they don’t run red lights they shouldn’t. Here, throngs of pedestrians are in no way a threat. And here, in the Midwestern friendliness capital of the world, we’re known for healthy foods. New York’s got black-and-white cookies, hot dogs and egg creams. We’ve got frozen custard, fried ravioli and gooey butter cake.
