Interesting piece this week in the Post, focusing on how St. Louis can find its place in the world, and dispel its reputation as "flyover territory." The article dedicates a couple of generous paragraphs to St. Louis' creative class, a group that's generally wooed and coveted by cities. I don't know why I do this to myself, but I waded in and read the comments below the story. (I have to remember not to do that ... newspaper websites' comments sections are generally emotional/political Superfund sites.) There were a lot of comments about razing our "outmoded" city -- even though Philly and NYC have older buildings than we do, and they're still functioning quite well; and old buildings + tax credits are two of the main forces behind the city's resurgence, at least 1999-2009. There were several jabs about "oh, right, slackers with t-shirt stores and tattoo parlors are going to save us." Well, actually, some social scientists would say yes, exactly! I didn't read far, because I was depressed by the extreme levels of rancor I found there, but I did read long enough to find this comment from NocoStl, who I thought explained our situation very well:
"I grew up here then lived in Los Angeles for a while, and there definitely is no comparison to the 'energy' out there. People just seem more open to new ideas. There's also less emphasis on settling down and having kids.
But that's not to say that there aren't amazing, creative people right here in St. Louis. Like Jeff Vines, I took it upon myself to celebrate this community and search out people like that by launching an online magazine about North County. And before anyone snickers....ha, North County!...please consider that it's that type of attitude that continues to hold us back.
If we are willing to write off an entire corner of our community, essentially keeping our minds tightly closed off to new possibilities, how can this area thrive? We have incredible assets to build upon in St. Louis - architecture, the rivers, history, etc - and yes, many of those things are in North County. And North City. And other places that aren't squeaky clean, all-white and bursting with new strip malls.
The 'creative class' is not attracted to cookie cutter development and bloated corporate projects like Ballpark Village. They want organic development, cultural vibrancy and diversity, and a strong sense of community. We have that here in St. Louis. Unfortunately, we also have a lot of naysayers and racists, and we’ve managed to hide our beautiful rivers (especially the Mississippi) behind a dirty cloak of industrial development."
I can't bear to keep reading the comments to see if anyone replied to NoCoSTL's post, but I think she has made some interesting points. My inability to stomach the comments also made me wonder if the primary thing holding this city back isn't just a surplus of negativity -- rather than a deficit of creativity. --Stefene Russell
