We hope you’ll soon discover all that we’ve come to love about our fair city. As with any great love, the obvious qualities draw you in first: baseball, Forest Park, price tags cheaper than Chicago’s… Your appreciation grows over time, as you come to discover more. But what hooks you are the subtle nuances: the Delmar Loop on a Saturday afternoon, a fresh batch at Donut Drive-In, a game of bocce on The Hill, the smell of hops in Soulard, the sound of laughter at Faust Park… Here are just five reasons to love St. Louis.
A Perfect Pace of Life
You know the feeling: Standing in line at the grocery store, tapping your foot, while the person in front of you chats with the clerk. Yes, it’s frustrating. But it’s also kinda reassuring to know that when someone asks, “How’s it going?” she can still make time to listen. We have the South’s hospitality, the North’s social concern, the East’s intellectualism, the West’s self-reliance. We eat black-eyed peas and chipotle barbecue; summer in Michigan and winter in Naples; read Emersonian transcendentalism and mutter, “Show me!” We’re smack in the middle, and extremes don’t throw us off course. Maybe it’s that Southern hospitality, mixed with big-city briskness, that makes our pace of life seem just right.
Affordability
Why do so many St. Louisans go away for college and Part One of their careers, only to return to “settle down”? A big reason: That first “nice apartment” or “modest little house” might be realized a decade earlier than if they’d stayed in Chicago or D.C. (and three times that for San Fran or New York). Then there’s the parking. We’re spoiled. New Yorkers park in our no-parking zones because a ticket’s cheaper than an NYC parking spot. Granted, we’ve lost the old penny meters, but name 10 favorite destinations, and we’ll wager there’s free parking a stone’s throw from most of them. As a result, we’re all a bit less frazzled.
Green Space
There’s something to be said about driving 15 minutes and being surrounded by rolling hills and towering maples. St. Louis somehow balances urban amenities—major-league teams and fine eateries—with the serenity of the great outdoors. State parks like Castlewood and Pere Marquette are among nature’s sprawling retreats, but gems like Powder Valley Nature Center and Meramec Highlands Quarry also abound. Then there are our other parks; the city alone has more than 100 parks, including the granddaddy of ’em all, Forest Park.
History
Live here, and you can see and feel the centuries, because St. Louis is a city of brick. Italian immigrants shaped the slick, heavy layer of clay beneath The Hill and Dogtown into more than 20 million bricks a year by 1839, and when fire destroyed a third of the city in 1849, a new ordinance forbade construction of wooden structures altogether. We like our buildings to outlive us. Today, our fair city abounds with wow-factor architecture. We could spend forever gazing at St. Louis’ magnificent homes, such as the mansions of Westmoreland and Portland Places, designed by Eames and Young; Mauran, Russell & Crowell; and others. Ignore the paved streets, and you’re back in the early 1900s.
Kids Can Be Kids
No matter how far you roam, St. Louis is a natural pick when it comes time to settle down and have kids. There’s no shortage of great schools across the region, and the tree-lined streets seem straight out of Leave It to Beaver. Plus, we have a long list of affordable, kid-friendly attractions and top-notch hospitals. It’s no wonder families rarely leave, friends always return, and kids can create kinda-perfect memories that they’ll pass on to their own kids.
