I am moving to St Louis next month, need to know some safe places for me and my parents to stay?

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Diane M

I have lived in St.Louis for much of my life and its perfectly safe in most areas. There are certain parts of town that have high crime but everyone knows to stay away from there. These areas have no retail or entertainment venues so there is no real reason to be there anyway. Clayton and Brentwood are safe but they are VERY high priced and you will have problems with the commute to downtown since Highway 40 is being worked on. You would be hard pressed to get a nice apartment in this area for the rent that you want to pay. North County is an older area, less pricey, very racially diverse and has higher crime stats than other areas. West county is the most affluent area, very safe, has some very pricey apartments and the highway construction may be a problem for your commute. I personally like South County. Very low crime rate, very nice and family oriented and reasonable rents can still be found for nice apartments. You can commute along Highway 55 to downtown in less than 30 minutes. Here's phone numbers for four nice apartment complexes in this area which are in your price range. Canyon Creek 314-845-3500, Suson Pines 866-571-1878, SouthPointe 866-651-7885, Southmoor 866-651-7882. There are many others but not room here to list all of them. If you want some more info about St. Louis you can go to http://stlouis.about.com and click on the tab for neighborhoods to get more information.
Welcome to St.Louis. I think your family will enjoy the town.

south county is safe

kestensmom

I'm not from St Louis but have traveled there many times. As far as safety...I have never felt threatned while traveling/visiting there. I'm 32 yrs and have been driving there since I was 17 yrs. As far as the road closure thing. Yes there is major road construction going on. Check out modots website for travel. (modot.mo.gov) Some of the construction will be on-going for at least a year so it is a long-term thing. I didn't understand if you wanted your parents to stay at a hotel or with you at your apartment. Please clarify. Can't recommend places to rent since I'm not from there, but I have heard good things about Clayton and Brentwood both. Just don't go East of St Louis!!! Sorry I couldn't give you specifics. Good luck!

jesus_mysuperhero

I think you're worrying too much. St. Louis is generally safe. And there are some apartments downtown, which is (from my understanding) pretty safe today. I'd avoid parts north of Martin Luther King Blvd. There are some nice areas I'm sure, but they may be hard to find.
If you are renting, you can get 2 BR apartments (1 bed for your parents and 1 for you?) in most areas for $850. University City is a nice area, but more for singles than older parents probably.
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/ has some apartment listings. Try going to a St. Louis forum on a site to ask about an area if you decide you like it.
Maybe check out http://www.city-data.com/forum/st-louis/ and http://urbanstl.com/ for more STL info.
The areas around Tower Grove can be nice places to live, as well as south city (Soulard, Lafayette Park), and University can be nice as well. Clayton is great, but more pricey.
The Cupples Station Apartments downtown are nice, but may not be big enough. But they're all under $850 (from what I've read 2 BR are $830/month). They're a few blocks from Busch Stadium. http://cupplesapartments.com/
Anyway, I wouldn't be so worried about crime in St. Louis. Most areas are nice. North St. Louis can be rough, but there's really no reason to go there.
East St. Louis is pretty rough but the towns around it like Fairview Heights, Edwardsville, Collinsville, have nice areas.
Good luck!

Urbanian

The statistics that say St. Louis is "one of the dangerous city" are faulty. It's not true. They compared the inner city (where I live) to the complete metro areas of all the other cities. Duh!

I live two miles from downtown, and don't feel I am in a dangerous place. One of the peculiar attributes of living in the city is that each neighborhood feels like its own small town. Everybody knows everybody else. It has very small town feel in many neighborhoods. But this tends to be true only in the city proper. The 'burbs aren't like that at all.

St. Louis Hills is upscale and quiet. The Hill is quaint, simple, and very Italian. These are two of the safest neighborhoods in the city. Soulard is Urban Historic. Tower Grove is affordable luxury. Dutchtown is old-school blue collar

Hi there!

I think you're worrying WAY too much over this. Yes, there are dangerous pockets, but those exist in ANY city. Clayton and Brentwood ARE nice places, but they're also way overpriced. I don't know what your budget is, but any of these areas will be just fine: Sunset Hills, Maplewood, Webster Groves, Olivette, Overland, Hazelwood. I would suggest not committing yourself to any one location until you've had the chance to see for yourself that it's just a city, probably not too different from where you are now.

Sucre Rouge

Crestwood, Kirkwood, Fenton, Mehlville, Oakville, Eureka, Ballwin, Webster Groves are all great family oriented towns in the county, with short commutes to the city area. I personally grew up in Fenton, and it has grown and has become an even greater place to live and be with family.
I have also lived in South City St. Louis and found it to be quite safe and in the center of commerce and entertainment and easy commute. Try areas with the nicknames of "Dogtown", "The Hill", "South City" or "South Town", "Bevo Mill", "South Hampton". All are nice areas with great and sturdy old architecture, great food, and friendly people.
Enjoy St. Louis, it's the greatest city on Earth :)

eve

haha clayton is pretty much the squarest and ritzy place to live or stay, and close to the city. I live in the city, it has it's areas, such as east and north. I live in the central west end which is pretty much safe and square, but only 3 blocks from me can be a very scary place for someone to wonder into. St Louis is a very segergated city, whcih makes me sad. Brentwood is basically Clayton. East and North st louis scares the bejesus out of me.

scotgirl60

Brentwood and Clayton are nice. Clayton is posh.

Those are good areas, because if you're going to be driving downtown, you'll want to be east of I-170, since west of there the highway is closed for the next couple of years.

There are only some places in St. Louis that are very dangerous, namely, north St. Louis city. But generally, it's not dangerous to live here.

You might want to check out Brentwood Forest Condominiums and see if they have rentals. Otherwise there are lots of loft apartments being developed all over town. There are also several high rise apartment buildings in Clayton.

Best bet -- check with a realtor for executive rentals.

Or check out www.stlouistoday.com and look at real estate or rentals.

Welcome to St. Louis.

______
Yes, Crestwood is generally very safe and nice.

petunia1

We recently moved here and live in South County, Oakville. It is a very clean and nice area on the bluffs close to the Mississippi and Meramac Rivers. It is south of the city(downtown) but is only about a 20min drive on highway 55. Everything you need is close by even a Mall. If you are looking for an apartment, Patterson Place Apts are very nice.

lynx

ok, here's the deal....
STL is considered the "most dangerous" city in US because unlike most places, city of St. Louis, and St. Louis suburbs are not in the same county, unline Chicago, where Chicago and most of the burbs are in Cook County. in St. Louis, you have a the ST LOUIS CITY Country and the ST LOUIS County. so if the statistics are taken just for the ST LOUIS CITY County, you can imagine how the inner city of STL makes the whole city look.

so dont worry, its a quite safe place. but like any other city, you gotta lock your car doors, watch where and how you go about your business, lock garages and gates and be vigilant for people trying to take your for a ride... :)

secondly, depends on where you want to live and stuff. your budget of $850/mo wong get you far in the burbs. only if you go out past the i-270 corridor, south, west or north of St. Louis city, can you get ok deals on apartments.

if you dont mind living in the city, and dealing with urban environment (see above paragraph) there are quite a few nice safe neighborhoods, i.e. Holly Hills, Southtown, St. Louis Hills, Southwest Gardens, Shaw, Tower Grove South, Dogtown, the Hill, etc.

in most of these you will find rent at about 1/2 your budget, with quite reasonable accomodations.

however, if you're into burbs, i'd say go for Fenton, Crestwood, Affton, Arnold, Florissant, St. Ann, Bridgeton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Rock Hill, Richmond Heights, Brentwood. etc,

Clayton is way too expensive, you'll pay all the $ and not understand what you're really paying for, Town and Country, Ballwin, Creve Coeur, Olivette and Ladue are similar, though they do boast the highest property taxes and even higher incomes.

crime is the same everywhere, you just gotta be smart about living.

as for St Louis living, you want to live near at least one major highway. everything is super close! airport is only 15miles away from downtown, and most furthest places with some decent shopping, ie St. Charles, Chesterfield, etc, are all within the 20mi radius of downtown.

so wherever you decide to settle, you'll be close to everything. ;)

the only places i know to rent are duplexes and 4 family flats. look in Shaw, Tower Grove South, Southtown, and St. Louis Hills neighborhoods in South City.

good luck! and write me on my private email if you need further help.

Kmcky

Many safe areas in the City - take time to get to know your neighbors and community. Shaw and Tower Grove areas have many two and four family flats which generally give you a little more room than a traditional apartment. Lived in "the City" for over 3 years, no problems and have made many wonderful new friends!

InChristsLove

I absolutely agree with all who are saying that the statistics are completely misrepresenting Saint Louis. Saint Louis County is the way to go...and it's wonderful!

Clayton can be affordable..I have a sister who lives in an incredible 2 bedroom apartment between Wydown and Clayton road for under 800. It's all about taking your time and looking in the paper everyday....also driving the neighborhoods once you arrive...there are always for rent signs out in front of buildings...and they may not have advertised yet.

Washington University has an apartment/condo listing service...they keep an extremely updated list...

South County/West County is great but pretty heavy traffic if your headed downtown. Kirkwood and Webster Groves are nice and have lots to offer.

O'Fallon is too far from Saint Louis for my liking.

I would stay away from North County, Inside the Saint Louis city limits. I would not live in Holly Hills, or the Bevo Area or Dogtown. It's not that it's not safe...it's just not as nice in my opinion.

Once you get here I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

EDIT:

Check out this link for Visual Tours of Saint Louis

http://sellersagent.com/Nav.aspx/Page=%2fPageManager%2fDefault.aspx%2fPageID%3d1218985

(Check out the MoDot Website for highway closure information.)

mike h

Don't worry!!! St. Louis is very safe, You can live anywhere. Just stay away from E. St louis, Kinloch, Ferguson, and any street named after Martin Luther King, and you will be completely safe.

Jimbo

I would recommend St. Charles... It's about 25 miles from downtown St. Louis, and it's very safe and nice. Also, if driving to downtown from St. Charles, you won't be affected by the I-64/US-40 shutdown, you would just take I-70.

sheba

just avoid east downtown st louis.

the hill is really affordable if you don't mind a lot of italian people. great food within walking distance and a pretty safe community with low housing rates and amazing convenience.

No Name

find a cave ;)

Britni M

Look for places that are more south or central... avoid going north of highway 70. These areas arn't "bad" but for a person who is not used to navigating the STL metro area is can be confusing picking out the good and bad areas. It seems what you need is something that is nice and safe but gives you enough space and updates for the money that you can get. My advice to you would be to look into STL county as opposed to the city, I live in south city and it is extrememly safe but it can also be confusiong for a first timer, so to save yourself some hassle stick with the county. HWY 64/40 is also closed and will be for the next two years so try to stay close to 170, 270, 44 or even 55. Look in the areas of Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Manchester, Winchester, Ballwin, Valley Park, Fenton, Maryland Heights, Ladue, Olivette, Shrewsbury, and Crestwood. If I were you I would avoid Brentwood and Clayton as these are genaric areas that everyone knows is safe, which is why they are extremely expensive ($850 could get you a studio/1 bedroom apartment in those areas). Try looking on Craigslist or Backpage for apartments, or try Apartments.com, Forrent.com, Apartmentguide.com and just avoid searching in the areas that are north like Overland, Riverview, Spanish Lake, Bellefountaine Neighbors, Normandy, Ferguson, Florissant, Hazelwood... like I said these areas are not all bad but can be confusing since one street can be nice and the next one over is filled with abandoned buildings.

Good Luck to you and your family, and welcome to St. Louis!

that girl

If not living in St. Louis, try living in Illinois. I live roughly 30 miles east of St. Louis. There are plenty of small towns that are lovely. If you are looking for a place in Missouri, I am not much of a help but I thought I would add my suggestion.

Brian Da Dog

Agree with Caspare, since you are looking for safe and affordable, I would look to the metro east. Areas like Fairview Height or Ofallon will be rather close to downtown. You will not have to deal with the 40 construction issues. Housing is cheaper. For $850 you can find a good 2br apartment or a 1000sqft house. You will have access to metrolink if you choose. The only real negative is that we pay about $.15 more per gallon for gas. However, a state legislator is pushing to suspend the gas tax during summer months. If that happens, Illinois gas will cost the same.

Caspare B

last time I stayed in Illinois on 55. Just north of Troy. Very cheap Indian motel in the middle of nowhere. Very safe though.

2 b or not 2 b.

First the all East St Louis is not bad as people make if out to be of you like to move somewhere safe St Louis is not the place try Belleville IL if you stay in St Louis you have to pay so many taxes. My sister live over in St Louis and she fear her life daily over there and she lives in a decent part of the Lou so there's no such thing as safe part of town because St Louis is always on the news about something.

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