So, how's St. Louis these days?

[Dora]

We live in Austin, TX and the cost of living is killing us. How are things in St. Louis? We're not definitely planning on a move, but the idea of moving closer to his family (Iowa) has come up, and we have no roots in Austin (lovely town, though).

Can you tell me, what's the job market like? How's the live music scene? Good place to raise a boy? Schools? Any buddhists in St. Louis?

My husband is a musician (drummer, 40 years exp) and works in higher ed admin support, and I'm working in publishing, have much experience working in higher ed. and non-profits, and possess a grad degree and a strong administrative resume.

[nickinSTL]

1. St. Louis is a decent place to live...

Job market? Well, not good if you're a computer programmer, not sure about the area you're interested in. I know next to nothing about publishing, but if you're interested in higher ed jobs, here are most of the universities in the area:

Washington University http://www.wustl.edu
Saint Louis University http://www.slu.edu
University of Missouri-Saint Louis http://www.umsl.edu
Webster University http://www.webster.edu
Maryville University http://www.maryville.edu
Fontbonne University http://www.fontbonne.edu
Harris-Stowe State University http://www.hssu.edu
Lindenwood University http://www.lindenwood.edu

Live music? Also not something I know much about, but we do have the Pageant http://www.thepageant.com and other live music venues.

Good place to raise a boy? Probably depends on the area, but most would be fine, I think. There are some good schools, and in the city, some not so good...but I'm sure that's true most places.

Here is a page of links on midwestern Buddhism I found...don't know much about the Buddhists in the area. http://www.nil.wustl.edu/~tom/buddhism.htm

[Dora]

2. Thanks for the links!

Have you lived in St. Louis long? I'm curious if you feel attached to it as a place. For example, I love Austin, but I don't feel attached to it. Conversely, I'm quite attached to Phoenix, but I don't want to live there.

Thanks for the super links. It's a great headstart on my research.

[nickinSTL]

3. I've lived in St. Louis for about 8 years

Can't really say about the attachment...I tend to get somewhat attached to anyplace I live...St. Louis no more or less than any other, really.

[Dora]

4. How's the public transport?

My husband and I are lucky enough to be able to carpool and ride the bus - saving a lot of money on gas in the process. Do people use public tranportation in St. Louis?

[nickinSTL]

5. uh, public transport isn't great.

It's fine where it goes, but it doesn't have sufficient coverage, especially if you live in the county.

Here's the link to Metro: http://www.metrostlouis.org/

If you live in the city, it might be doable, I know a number of my coworkers use it, I don't since I live in the county, and it would take forever to get to work that way.

[ikojo]

8. I bought a scooter after using the public transit

system for 16 years. It is OK if you live and work in the city or the inner ring suburbs. There is the metrolink light rail system, but it serves primarily to transport suburbanites to and from sporting events. It doesn't serve those who are more transit dependent as well as it could (there is no metrolink route going from predominately black north st louis to the south). Those who live in North St Louis must take the bus, which is not nearly as convenient.

I bought my scooter last summer because my hour commute each way was restructured and increased to 90 minutes each way. I figured that even with a 50cc I could get to and from work more quickly and that has proven to be true.

People in St Louis really haven't taken to car pooling although I think there is a van service that acts as a car pooling service.

[wildflowergardener]

6. Come on up

Hi. I am partial to St. Louis having lived here my whole life. I went to school in Iowa - it's about a 7 1/2 hour drive to Ames Iowa where I went to school, but I lived for awhile in Burlington, which is quite a bit closer - various lengths of time I'd guess for other cities and towns in Iowa.
There are quite a few colleges here. Washington University, SLU, Webster University, UMSL. so I would guess there would be pretty many job opportunities there. I have heard that the St. Louis public school system is not the best, but not having gone there I can not say for sure. I live in St. Louis County and went to a very good public school there. Plenty of private schools as well though if that is something you prefer.

I drive a car to work, partially because I have to drive sometimes for work - but there are certainly plenty of buses and they are expanding metro-link out to near where I live - actually to Shrewsbury - though I am in Webster Groves - but that's pretty close. Traffic's not too bad - even in the suburb where I live it's about a 20 minute commute to work.

Cost of living is very reasonable, I've heard, compared to other cities.

Plenty of cultural places to go - nice zoo, botanic garden, art museum etc - and many of those are free - like the zoo - though you do have to pay to park.

And St. Louis is very democratic - it's mixed in St. Louis county though they did go for Kerry - more and more republican the further out west you go, like into St. Charles.

Now the bad - it can get very humid in the Summer - but then you may be used to that - I'm not sure what Austin's like.

Meg

[ikojo]

7. The city schools are now working on the

sixth superintendent in three years.

I like St Louis but if you make around 75k you should be able to buy a house around here. Depends on where you want to live and what you need. West County is more expensive than is North or South County. Clayton, with one of the better school districts, is almost prohibitively expensive.

[wildflowergardener]

9. houses

You can buy a house for a lot less than $75,000 a year.

Of course it all depends on how large a house you need. My two bedroom house in Webster Groves was $107,000 about 5 years ago. It is in a nice area with a mix of large and smaller homes. Of course there are plenty of more expensive houses here too. I am really only familiar with the neighborhoods which I looked in - And I was looking for a house around $100,000 - Webster, or Shrewsberry or Maplewood you can find them - Kirkwood, where I grew up they are a little pricier and would have liked to have stayed - but I found I got more for my money in Webster than Kirkwood - where my brother was only able to buy a 2 bdrm without a living room for about the same price in Kirkwood. Where I work, in dogtown the prices are going up but it's a nice area - also in the city, St. Louis Hills I have heard good things about.

I don't know the other neighborhoods well enough to say what the price ranges are but they vary per community. A good way to find out is to look at the realtor house search - don't recall exactly the name but it's something like realtor.com. I did a lot of looking this way, just to see what areas I could afford.

Meg

[Solar]

10. please switch with me :p

I'm the exact opposite situation. I live in St. Louis but go to college in Austin. Chalk part of this up to me being a restless college student, but Austin is so much better than St. Louis. Things are just so old and boring over here, at least imo.

[pstokely]

11. what state are you registered to vote in?

[wildflowergardener]

12. I suppose it's what you like

I suppose it's what you like to do. I went to college in Iowa - where the nearest city was 45 minutes away - so maybe that is the big difference.

And I'm more into entertainment things like the zoo and botanic garden so I guess it's what your interests are. Also I took up figure skating as an adult and there are lots and lots of rinks here - which for me is a good thing, but may not interest anyone else.

I've also been doing alot of bike riding and swimming - there is a good bike trail not too far off (Katy trail) and lots of nice pools.

So I guess I'm more into entertainment/fun type things - I can't say anything about the music scene as the original poster asked, because I was never that interested in going to bars, etc.

Meg