St. Louis: City Profile

An overview of the city of St. Louis. I examine downtown and other neighborhoods, walkability, public transit, housing, crime, economy, food, music, and more.

0:00 Intro
1:54 Downtown & Neighborhoods
4:15 Parks
5:17 Bevo Mill
5:41 Poverty & Crime
6:46 Walking & Transit
7:50 Economy
8:30 Housing
9:40 Food
11:03 Music
11:45 Outro

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Album displayed: Chuck Berry - "St. Louie to Frisco to Memphis" (1972)

[richardeast]

Probably the most balanced appraisal of the St. Louis area that I have seen in a long time, honest without the hyperbole.

[jamesdwithrow]

The too well-kept secret of St Louis is the City Museum, which isn’t what it sounds like, but rather a children’s playscape made from reused industrial materials. Unique. A blast for kids and I was just awed by the creativity.

[big-fish]

As a St Louis native who no longer lives in the area, I loved growing up there. While there are certainly some problems with the city there are so many things to love about it! The Arch, The Hill, Cardinals games, plays at the Muny, an amazing and free Zoo, plus so many other things to love about living around St Louis

[RJ-hxnb]

I lived in St. Louis county for 51 years. YOU did a great job !!

[austinhannemann]

I lived in Baltimore for two years and now St Louis for four years and there’s TONS of similarities. Similar size and climate, both cities separate from the county. High crime (but very much overblown compared to its reputation) and recent history of police incidents. Both have lots of culture and plenty of things to do as well. I personally have loved living in both cities and would highly recommend the City Muesum in STL, amazing playground for kids and adults.

[SurvivinginCreative]

I love these Urban analysis videos, please keep doing them!!

[boxcar]

Love this format of diving down into the details of a city. Please consider doing more. :)

[MikeP]

Shout-out to the St. Louisans on thanking Kyle for his no-nonsense approach to giving the city its fair shake, warts and all. As a Salt Laker I very much appreciate that fondness and hometown pride for one's old stomping grounds. I've clowned on SLC since birth, but don't you even think about talking trash on my beloved birthplace. It's kinda like how I think about my pesky sister: I can call her mean names and dunk on her all day long, but if any of my wiseass friends so much as glance in her direction with a rude attitude, we're gonna have some words!

On a road trip from southern Utah to Pittsburgh my friend and I decided to stop at the arch in St. Louis to take a longer break and play photo-snapping tourists for a bit. Sitting at our outdoor table in an old, historic section of the city I kept noticing distinct types of people milling about --- a tye-dye here, a Dead shirt there, a pleasant mellow smile as they sauntered by. Hmmm, curious. I asked our server about any nearby clubs, venues, or concerts slated for that night. He told us his roommate was around the corner at the Moe show right this second. BINGO! I knew there had to be a reason for all the heads. We quickly finished up our grub, moved the car to a proper lot, and spontaneously boogied down to one of my favorite jambands, Moe, (stylized: moe.) at the historic Mississippi Nights, right on the water.
Fantastic! But what made this EXTRA serendipitous was that as we entered St. Louis from the west I randomly popped a moe. album into the CD player, assuming Emily would be immediately irritated and quickly insist on taking over DJ duty, but much to my surprise, she loved it. We grooved to it for quite a while through the late afternoon traffic. This was 1999 so I couldn't just Google tour dates from my pocket oracle. It was all sheer coincidence.
That late-May rest stop in St. Louis, a place I'd never laid eyes on, is still remembered fondly and with a big ol' smile as one of the best days of my life.

[Rthomp]

I visited St Louis back in 2014 for a last minute spring break trip for about four days. It is an incredibly affordable city for tourists, lots of free things to do and I was able to get a cheap but nice hotel room that had a direct view of the arch unobstructed. Overall I had a great time enjoyed some great barbecue and my wallet was thankful at the end of the trip as well. Definitely would go back.

[StLouis-yuiz]

St. Louisan here; thank you for covering the Lou in more depth and coming back for another visit. Overall I think you did a good job covering StL. On your next visit I recommend visiting Lafayette Park, it is a very charming neighborhood as well. I think you may have been confusing the Central West End with midtown when you referred to it as a second downtown though. While there is a lot of development in midtown right now, I would say the C.W.E. has more towers right now. Both have a lot to see and do though, like all neighborhoods (I would also recommend a trip to Crown Candy!)
There will be an MLS stadium opening soon and a north/south lRT line to compliment the east/west lines.

[jameshummel]

I’m from St. Louis, and I get recommended a lot of St. Louis “geography” videos. Naturally, I watch all of them. This is by far hands down the most accurate one of seen. Great Job

[lyndseyliebrecht]

I’m so excited you made this video! I moved from Vermont to STL (I work for the same company, the pay down here is the same amount as in Vermont, for a WAY lower cost of living) and I found your channel on the drive down when I was moving just to learn more about MO/STL! I majored in geography in college. I love downtown and you showed my house in this video!!! Omg how crazy is that!? I appreciate this analysis. I honestly can say I dont feel ballpark village is soulless, there’s local restaurants there and when it’s game day there is SO much soul. I appreciate your accuracy and not trying to get views off of stretched crime. I’ve said I’ll leave where I live if I ever have an issue, but so far everything has been exaggerated. I only had a small issue on the north side, which checks out. I’ve enjoyed all of the historic neighborhoods around the city very much. Great take on STL! You’ve reminded me that as an Italian-American I need to go to the hill more!

[ulfthegoon]

Saint Louis was a pretty nice place to spend a day. I explored Forest Park, Gateway Arch and saw a Cardinals game for $5.00. The cheap seats pack an amazing view of the city. Good grub for sure. I hope that they can get the crime situation better under control, and hope to see more folks prosper.

[lewkbarx]

I was born and raised in St Louis and I live in Springfield MO now. I miss it very much. Thank you for the video. It takes me back.

[HelpICantThinkOfACleverName]

As a local, it drives me crazy when people here "St. Louis" and only think of crime and the Gateway Arch. I see it as a beautiful, historic city packed with diverse culture, that just has the unfortunate curse of a very high crime rate.
In terms of architectural history, we still retain a lot of it. We never really have had a massive urban construction boom until recently, so a lot of our historic buildings got their deserved landmark preservation before they got torn out. Chicago and NYC lost a lot of historic buildings that way.

[Compucles]

Also in Forest Park is the Muny, the largest outdoor theatre in the country that has been showing well produced musicals during the summers for over a century.

[jeffking]

I was born and raised in University City, just a short bike ride to Forest Park.
I haven’t been back in a while.
The LOOP was a major place, even back in 1960’s-1970’s.
You mentioned BBQ - did you know that BBQ Sauce was first bottled and sold in St.L.❓
MULLS actually beat Kraft to market. St.Louis Style BBQ sauce is also different.
St.Louis really is unique in many ways.
Oh, there are serious problems, but also a lot of good.
Part of the problem of St.Louis, is the Tax Base. The city gets none of the money from the County. But there has also been a lot of other issues as well.
I still have people there, and [ eventually] I will return for vacation.
Well done, and actually POSITIVE, for a change.
📻😁👍👍

[janareeves]

Great video! I am a bit homesick, now. I grew up across the river in Illinois and remember many school field trips and family outings in St. Louis. I moved out of the area 34 years ago, when I was 25, but I still have family there. St. Louis really does have a lot to offer.

[ian]

I live in KC, but love going to STL once a year for a few days with my family. There's a lot to do there...the zoo which is one of the best in the country, City Museum, Arch, Science Center, Grant's Farm, Forest Park, Tower Grove park, the botanical garden, etc.

[chefjanibash]

Thank you for doing this video. As a St. Louis native I appreciate that you talked about the walk ability from downtown through the Central West End, and the importance of different cultures throughout the city. Of course as a chef from St. Louis, lots of my cooking is naturally Italian-based.

A couple notes, if Italian food is number one in St. Louis, then St. Louis chop Suey is number two. Also, Harris Stowe university is right on top of St. Louis University. It really adds to the diversity of that area around the Fox theater. Also, there is a community college across the street from Forest Park along with WASHU and the two aforementioned universities. That makes Forest Park surrounded by amazing colleges, and really creates an extremely diverse area full of young artsy people. People from all over the world come to my little hometown just for that education ❤