Money Magazine Thinks Ballwin MO Is Habitable
Last month the St. Louis Business Journal reported that sprawl centric Ballwin, MO was ranked #64 on Money’s list of top 100 places to live. Really? Yes, they are talking about the same Ballwin located in West St. Louis County. The one with Manchester Road lined with strip centers and big boxes.
Ballwin’s website notes they are in the process of adding sidewalks along the North side of Manchester Road – where they did not exist before. Chicago’s suburb of Naperville was near the top of the list but at least it actually has a real walkable downtown that is connected to adjoining neighborhoods. Ballwin is not pedestrian or bicycle friendly. Kids must be driven from place to place.
Manchester road is a nightmare with all roads leading to it – no grid in sight to allow someone to take the next block over. If I lived out there I’d want a monster SUV too just to feel safe in the mess of traffic they’ve designed. It is so bad it is recommended that you drive from strip mall to strip mall to keep traffic off Manchester Road.
How can this possibly be rated as a top place to live? You could not pay me to live in Ballwin. Note to self, never purchase a copy of Money magazine.
– Steve
It seems their only qualifiying factors are median income, average home price, and personal crime risk (which they managed to accurately calculate on a scale of 1 to 100). If those were my three highest priorities in life, I’d live in Ballwin, too.
Nothing like using math and hard figures to improve one’s quality of life.
And apparently average commute time wasn’t a factor either.
So despite those median income, average home price, and crime risk stats,
a) your income isn’t high enough that you’re the one deciding where your office locates,
b) your home sale price doesn’t account for all the associated transportation costs, and
c) your personal risk to sprawl-induced stress is actually quite high.
You can bet they have never had to stand on Manchester in Ballwin waiting for a bus. Even with a sidewalk, it is a miserable experience.
on the other hand, there’s a lot of positives about suburban life, too. (i admit it — i’m from ballwin!!)
every amenity i wanted — from Imo’s to the car wash to Target — was within 5 minutes from home (which is NOT the case for me in the city). my family’s cars never got broken into (also not the case in the city). families could play in their yards (which the kids on my city street cannot do). and you have to admit, attached garages can be a nice thing when you’re bringing groceries home during a rainstorm.
i’m a urbanist, and a convert. but i’m also a West County Kid ™ at heart, pointing out that — hey — there’s a lot of reasons suburban living is popular. life in ballwin *was* pretty cushy.
i find the luxuries of suburbanism to be non-sustainable and elitist. but they can be nice. as neo-urbanists, we should take note of the benefits of suburban living, and try and think of ways to weave those niceties into 21st century city life.
just a thought.
I have Target (come October), JC Penny, groceries, pharmacies, video rentals, banks, restaurants, florist, hair salons, library, music store, book store, tax preparation, electronics, and much more all within 5 minutes too, in Hampton Village, and you can drive or walk there easily.
I have lived in the City now 8 years in 3 different places, parking my car all over town, including Cabanne, St. Louis Place, Old North St. Louis, The Ville, Midtown and FPSE, and not once, has my car ever even been tampered with, and I have now had 3 different new cars while living in the city, albeit each an economy car.
As for rainstorms, you still have to walk in the rain to/from the grocery store door, so even with a detached garage, I just wait for any deluge to pass.
So what are these supposed luxuries of suburbia?
i read your reply yesterday, brian, and thought: you know, he’s right. maybe my attempt at balancing the conversation was a little unfair.
then i stepped outside to run an errand and bumped into my neighbor, who informed me that his house got robbed last week in broad daylight while i was at work. not cool…
so i stand by my original statement: we should continue to try to improve the livability of the city.
while there’s a lot of reasons to bash suburbia, i don’t think livability is one of them.
And robberies never happen in suburbia? Suburban shopping malls alone are hotbeds for crime statistics. For comparison, the 2nd Police District of Southwest City has lower crime rates than the County average. Afterall, the County includes both Wellston and Des Peres, and everything in between. Most importantly, in the City and elsewhere, most crimes are committed by repeat offenders. So, if you can crack down on those few, you can imagine the results. Lastly, where I grew up in my South County subdivision, a neighbor was murdered at his door. I’ve never experienced anything remotely similar at any of my 3 separate residences in the City.
understandably, experiences differ. and don’t get me wrong — i love the city, i like living in the city, and i would not go back to the suburbs. but i spent 10 years in ballwin, and the most problems i ever had was getting my cds stolen (because i left my car unlocked.) and i think it was somebody who knew me.
i moved to the city with great anticipation. i tried to pick a neighborhood that seemed quiet. since i moved in (in january) my girlfriend’s car got a window broken out, my garage got grafitti’d, a got randomly started shooting at a neighbor’s house, another neighbor got their tires slashed on both their cars, and then a third neighbor got his house robbed. (these are all immediate neighbors i’m talking about, right aross the street.)
and then to top it off: last nite at 1am i hear glass breaking. i look out the window. the car parked directly in front of my house got firebombed. the car was engulfed in flames — directly in front of my house, with me and my roomates’ cars just 10 feet away.
wtf???
(props out to the fire department, they got here in like 2 minutes flat.)
i believe in the city, but i’ve never had any major problems in west county — in the neighborhoods OR at the shopping malls.
i don’t like the suburbs, but they are pretty comfortable. and i never worred about leaving my house unattended.
I’m a believer in Jane Jacobs’ view of defensible spaces. Petty crimes of opportunity can happen anywhere, and maybe more frequently where there are more people. But one’s risk for being a random victim to a serious crime I think is less where there are eyes on the street, or safety in numbers.
Sure, we have to put up with car break-ins in the City (though I fortunately haven’t yet in 8 years), but those suburbanites are pretty freaky with their higher rates of child abductions, sex crimes, and serial killers. City crimes are quick and fast, it’s out in the burbs or yonder, where the criminal can have his way with you that really scares me.
re: higher rates of child abductions, sex crimes, and serial killers in the suburbs
in the interest of furthering my own learning, is this your own perception or have you seen this documented? if this is true, i would like to read more about this.
In this day and age of blogs, think-tanks and other biased sources, it is extremely difficult to do a web search of unbiased statistics.
While searching though, I did find what looks like an interesting book on the links between suburbia and extremely disturbing violence:
http://www.itsasprawlworld.com
i’m from ballwin. left town to go to college, then spent some years in the military (south dakota & washington, d.c.). moved back in ’98, lived for a spell downtown. now i’m back in ballwin. leaving STL gave me a perspective on city living i didn’t have before. i LOVED DC!!! lived there for 4 years, never had a break-in (home or vehicle), was never mugged, & the panhandlers were amusing, telling jokes to entertain you to cop a dollar. but st. louis, i’m sorry to say, is a sad place. unlike most urban centers, there’s “no one place” to stay out of to be safe; st. louis city is honeycombed with crime. i’ve had two friends stabbed: one in the CWE, the other in midtown (the former died). my car has been broken into 3 times in 5 years, & there was an attempted burglary in my downtown apartment late at night (thanks for the cowbell on the back door, mom! they went away). neighbors’ homes across the street raided in broad daylight, tires slashed, blah blah blah. i love ballwin. i don’t have to worry so much about personal safety and hey, things seem a heck of a lot greener. and what’s up with race relations in st. louis, anyway?