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The Border Town

By: Steven Rinella

The skyline of St. Louis, Missouri is dominated beautifully by the nation’s tallest monument, the 630 feet tall Gateway Arch. The sculpture celebrates the Louisiana Purchase and the exploration of the West, but the arch still resonates as a pertinent emblem of St. Louis today. The city is still a gateway of sorts, occupying a place in America that isn’t really the East, West, North or South; Instead the city is a little bit of all these things. This ambiguous nature of St. Louis has a lot to do with the varied positions it has occupied in the American consciousness since its establishment by fur traders in 1764. For a long time St. Louis represented the East to American Westerners while simultaneously standing as a Western symbol in Eastern imaginations. Then, during the Civil War, Missouri was considered a border state, torn between allegiances to the north and south and wrestled apart by the interests of far-away politicians. Nowadays, the various regions of America have given up the fight and St. Louis stands proudly as its own region.
St. Louis’s location in the middle of the country has been a bittersweet for its citizenry. On the negative side are the extreme weather patterns, including tropical and northern, that can blow in from any direction on a moment’s notice. But this location has also meant that St. Louis has a much more varied economy than other large American cities. This variety of available professions helps to make up the cosmopolitan atmosphere of St. Louis.
While employment in manufacturing, long the primary economic sector, has declined in recent years, it remains a major economic force, and St. Louis is known for its aircraft manufacturing, raw metal and metal products, chemical production, and machinery and automobile assembly. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler all have assembly plants in the area. The service sector has expanded, providing employment in education, health, and business services. Other leading employers include the many bars and restaurants, wholesalers, construction, transportation, retail, finance, and communications.
One of the biggest employers in the area is Monsanto, one of the nation’s largest chemical firms, which has its headquarters, major research laboratories, and four plants in the St. Louis area. The Ralston Purina Company has milling and food processing plants in the area as well as its international headquarters. Anheuser Busch, often just referred to as "The Brewery," is a major employer on the South Side. Printing and publishing are also important manufacturing activities. St. Louis no longer produces many shoes, but it remains the headquarters of several major shoe firms, including the Brown Group. In addition, St. Louis is one of the nation’s most important rail centers and inland ports. It lies near the center of the Mississippi River system, and water transportation is very important to the economy.
When it comes to nightlife, manufacturing and shipping take a back seat to music, which rules the dark hours and back alleys of St. Louis. The city played an important role in the development of American music. Black Americans that moved to Saint Louis for manufacturing jobs also contributed to the development of the blues, and Scott Joplin used the city’s night clubs to invent and perfect ragtime in the early 20th Century. Now, the results of those early innovations, plus hip-hop, rock, rockabilly, and jazz are abundant in the clubs, and you can grab a Riverfront Times or a Get Out section from the Post-Dispatch for a weekly preview of what’s happening in the music scene.
If you’re into a more mellow scene, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is one of the country’s finest. The outdoor Municipal Opera puts on evening performances in the summer in Forest Park. Theartrical productions are put on regularly by a variety of companies, including the St. Louis Black Repertory.
For eats, St. Louis has it all. Just a block or two can mean all the difference in available cuisine. From French haute to Kansas City style barbecue the limits are nearly endless and the best approach to finding them is to check the entertainment weeklies and then just sample around. The area surrounding Union Station is being revamped with hip restaurants and bars. The Central West End offers coffeehouses and outdoor cafes. Some impressive fine dining restaurants are along Euclid Ave., and St. Louis’s historic Italian district, The Hill, produces plenty of high-quality, low-cost pasta. The bohemian types of St. Louis do their snacking and hanging around on University City Loop.
Daytime hours can be spent enjoying some the city’s historical sights. The Jefferson Expansion Memorial and the Museum of Westward Expansion are popular, along with the city’s oldest church, The Cathedral, which sets beneath the arch. Dred Scott sued for freedom from slavery here in 1847 and that courthouse still stands downtown. For the kiddies, Six Flags reigns as the Queen Mother Commander of all amusements parks, and boys and girls will certainly have a fit if they’re not allowed by mom and dad to hit some of the enormous rides.
Keep in mind, though: If you like the city, do it the favor of shopping and dining in the downtown area. Back in the nineteenth century Saint Louis made the terrible error of becoming an independent city without a county. Now, white flight and suburban sprawl take jobs and residents out of city limits and they carry with them valuable tax revenues. Hence, the downtown shrinks and tasteless, homogenous suburbs have sprung up with their accompanying, miniature franchise cities. But saving such a great city as Saint Louis is really quite easy. All you have to do is visit and help rediscover the things that have made it a special place for the entirety of United States his

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