I heard East St Louis is a great place to raise a family?

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Heidi

No it is not a great place to raise a family.
Here's is some info on the crime rates for East St. Louis---
"East St. Louis is one of the most crime-ridden cities in the United States. According to FBI's data of 2005, its murder rate hit 63.4 per population of 100,000, surpassing that of murder-infamous cities such as, Gary, Indiana (56.4 per pop. 100,000), New Orleans, Louisiana (54.5, 2004 data due to unavailability of 2005 data), Opa Locka, Florida (51.0) Richmond, Virginia (42.5), Baltimore, Maryland (41.3), Camden, New Jersey (41.3), Detroit, Michigan (37.2), and Washington, D.C. (34.1), as well as that of its neighbor St. Louis (37.6). Compton, California had a higher rate at (67.1). Their data also showed East St. Louis' very high rape rate, which exceeded 300 per pop. 100,000.

East Saint Louis and Opa Locka, Florida are generally considered to have the highest crime rates in the United States (Opa Locka had the absolute highest crime rate in 2003 and 2004 for cities of any population.)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis,_Illinois

Here's some info on the schools--
"The biggest employer left is the local school district, which pays no taxes, is $11 million in debt and plans to lay off a quarter of its teachers for the next academic year. The tax base has eroded from $175 million in 1965 to less than $50 million. Property values are so low that the town's tallest structure, the vacant twelve-story Spivey Building, was sold for $25,000. The number of retail businesses is less than 200 and steadily declining."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957921-1,00.html

You can find out school information here
http://www.estlouis.stclair.k12.il.us/enews/index.htm
http://www.estlouis.stclair.k12.il.us/schools/eastside.htm

Plus this area has many strip clubs. Not good for a family!!!!

Hopefully you will find a safer place for your family to live. Just remember not all St. Louis is this high in crime, there are plenty areas of nice neighborhoods!!~~~~~~~~~~~

earnedwisdom

You are kidding, right?

Becky

you heard wrong.

east st louis is very crime-ridden. low income.
i think of 2 things when i hear 'east st louis': drive-by shootings and strip clubs.

however, east of east st louis (belleville, il or columbia, il) are better areas.

gemneye70

Ha Ha...very funny.

chefawbrey

If by safe you mean getting raped, selling drugs, and run down houses. sure.. it's safe.

buck

not unless you're a crack dealer....someone is feeding you a bunch of bull! normal people dont even drive thru E STL

Jacob W

I grew up near East St. Louis. For all of my life, East St. Louis has been a very high crime rate and is not what I would consider a "great place to raise a family." Unfortunately much like Buffalo and Rochester, NY East St. Louis suffers from what I call "big city syndrome". The vast majority of Illinois' tax dollars are sucked up by Chicago while East St. Louis (once one of Illinois' finest cities) has suffered greatly. From what I have heard over the years, to make matters worse East St. Louis has also suffered from a series of corrupted leaders. There are additional factors such as race issues (the concept of "white flight" is beyond the scope of this writing) but I think it is safe to say the state of Illinois has done little to raise E. St. Louis from the dead.

To try to be positive, There are a few subtle signs of hope such as the Jackie Joyner foundation (giving back to the community) and the continued success of the Casino Queen and metrolink public transportation. I think it might be possible that the newly found success of downtown St. Louis residential districts may someday reflect on East St. Louis but that could very well be years down the road and without a doubt would require the assistance of the Illinois government.

However, if you can overlook the problems associated with East St. Louis, there are many towns in what is called the Illinois metro-St. Louis area that I think are great places to live. Towards the north of the metro area, Edwardsville, IL has some of the best schools in Illinois. Alton is also a great historical town and Collinsville and Maryville are also great places to live too. Collinsville is probably one of the nicest towns in the area with the closest proximity to St. Louis city ("downtown"). Towards the south, Belleville has a lot of history and along with Columbia are nice places to live near St. Louis.

In general, the southern parts of the metro -st. louis (Belleville) are more affordable than those areas towards the north (Edwardsville). Of course if you are willing to drive a little further (45 min + commute) there are great places to live such as Columbia (IL), Troy, Grafton, Breese, Highland, I could go on.

If you are open minded to live on the Missouri side, there are many great places to live. For a somewhat affordable urban setting, Tower Grover park, Soulard, U. City, The Hill, are definetly worth checking out while Claytown/ Ladue and downtown (washington avenue) are great places to live if you have a "healthy" income. For a more suburban feel, south st. louis is nice, and of course St. Charles is nice too. Sorry i can't help more with Missouri my knowledge is primarily about the Illinois-metro area.

Frankie Coletta

I take it you haven't seen the movie "Vacation" with Chevy Chase!

Aaron G

East St. Louis is a white ghetto its not bad at all compare to cities Like Oakland, CA, NYC or new orleans but naw go somewhere else. And the school sucks.

courtney .

you couldn't pay me to drive through that city at 9am.

stlroyalty

oh jesus christ.
DONT MOVE TO EAST STL!!!!
im scared to even drive over there. after a football game, my friends and i were stupid and decided to go over there just to see how bad it is on a Friday night.
Well.
Needless to say, it was B-A-D.
there was a guy that was walking down the street with a machete. now, i understand that u need protection, but a machete. why didnt the man just opt for a golf club?

and another thing that we saw was the wh*re house over there, and the hookers run out in front of ur car so u hit them, and then ,ive heard that when u get out of the car, they beat u up pretty bad and then take ur car.

true stories. east stl is one fuc*ed up place. try soucth county. its cheap and nice. good luck.......

Lex A

east st louey is a horrible place to raise a family! who told you that it was good? i thin they may have meant wesy st louis, its not extra special over there but its better than east

antwon from the 'hood

Be sure and visit East St Louis next time you are in the area... I've never been there, but here its the up and coming side of town,, They say West county is really bad and run down,, lots of crime,, poverty, but the East side is where all the nice malls and shopping are at.. I think housing is still really expensive there though, but lots of parks,, restaurants and really nice home, and places to visit,, It's what i hear, but havent gotten to visit yet, but definitely on my list of places to get next summer

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