St. Louis Nesties
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Possibly moving to St Louis & need advice.....
My DH may be being transfered with his company soon to St Louis...... We haven't a clue about what the best areas are to live in really & just looking for a little input from those of you who know St Louis....
We have a 11 month old son & we're both in our mid-late 20's. We really like the idea of renting a loft for a year or so until we get to know the whole area better & purchase a home. Anyways, we've kind of been looking into renting a loft downtown, in Soulard, Holly Hill, and Dogtown........... But we're just not sure if those places would actually be okay (read: safe) with a kid........ Suggestions?
Thank you for any input!!
Re: Possibly moving to St Louis & need advice.....
Under no circumstances, though, will you want to send the kid to STL city public schools. So you'll either have to go private or move when the kid is old enough for school.
And honestly, our "where you should live" recommendation will have a lot to do with where you & your DH will be working. STL is in the middle of a MAJOR highway construction project, and traffic is kindof a biitch these days.
Where are you moving from? STL can be quite the culture shock for those accustomed to real metropolitan living.
We'll be moving from (boring!) Oklahoma..... but I'm from Cincinnati originally.
DH will be working in Clayton & I'm a stay at home mom, but also a photographer, but I shoot on-location so that's not an issue for me.
Thanks!
Few things to keep in mind: HWY 40/64 is currently shut down and will continue to be shut down for almost two yeras. http://www.thenewi64.org/ is a great resource to see the project there are maps and such. St. Louis is not a "typical" city. We are very spread out into "smaller" cities only to be encompased by the St. Louis "metro" area. Like Danielle just said, i'd recommend finding where your DH will be working, decide the "furthest" distance from there and start looking in those areas. The areas you mentioned are fine for renting for a year....except I wouldn't rent downtown..., (maybe in the city somewhere but not downtown) but that's just my opinion.
Good luck!
Also, the city schools suck in St. Louis, so if you do buy in the city, you want to keep that in mind for the future.
Good luck!
I just wanted to add that if your DH is going to be working in Clayton, then i'd live close to there in the city somewhere. Traffic is a biitch to Clayton right now from the county (i can attest), but agree with all of the above, don't send your child to the city schools. I don't have a lot of experience with recommending areas in the city to live, but i just wanted to throw in there that living close to Clayton would be best, for your sanity! :-)
St. louis is a great city! Welcome!
University City is another option that is close to Clayton. There are some nice condos and apartments for rent in the area. Good Luck and welcome to the area!
Dogtown is by far the closest to Clayton. Holly Hills is a great neighborhood, but it's pretty far south, and getting to Clayton with the Highway 64/40 construction from Holly Hills would probably be difficult. Right now, 64/40 is shut down from I-170 to Ballas. Getting to Clayton from downtown or Soulard isn't bad right now because you can take 40/64 to Hanley. However, within the year, they will be shutting down 40/64 from I-170 to Kingshighway, which will make that commute difficult.
You can do Dogtown-Clayton without any highway driving. You could also do downtown-Clayton on the Metrolink (public transportation), which wouldn't be too difficult. A few pp have mentioned University City, which is a good option (very family friendly, but still "hip."). You might also want to check out the Central West End, which should be pretty accessible to Clayton via the Forest Park Parkway. Lots of good places to rent there, and it's a really cool area.
Good luck!
http://stlouis.missouri.org/cliftonheights/
There aren't really any lofts, but if you're looking for a cute little house to rent, it's a nice area to live. St. Louis Hills is a very good area too.
Faye,
My husband and I moved to St. Louis from Oklahoma about 4 years ago and I love it here. I grew up in Oklahoma, but my husband was from here and wanted to come home. We live in SW City (Lindenwood Park neighborhood) and I worked in Clayton. With the current traffic shut-downs, my commute to Clayton is wonderful (~15 minutes). It will probably get worse though when they close the eastern section of the highway.
P.S. What part of Oklahoma are you moving from?
Oh, and we're moving from Tulsa....... Maybe, again, I'm not positive on this move yet.... we should find out something soon though!