Guess the Neighborhood 8:34 PM

How well do you know St. Louis?

Can you tell by a group of houses what neighborhood you're in with literally no other information?

Then where's the site below, captured by Google Streetview?

There are a few clues after all, I guess. For one, there are driveways present. That should narrow it down a bit. Secondly, the house in the center is fairly rare for St. Louis, with its pronouncedly concave roof eaves.

Which neighborhood is it? If you dare, which street/block?

Neighborhood Guides: How would you split up St. Louis's 79 neighborhoods? 8:12 PM

For a while now, I've been toying around with the idea of collaborating with others in St. Louis's urbanist community in producing neighborhood guides for prospective residents and business owners of St. Louis.

There are some terrific examples out there.

When I visited Detroit in the summer of 2006, Model D's website was an unbelievable help. Similar sites exist for Pittsburgh (Pop City) and Cincinnati (Soap Box).

While Detroit's site (not an official site, either) focuses only on "Hot Spots," it would be nice to produce a guide that covers all the neighborhoods of St. Louis.

The problem is that, few people agree totally with the city's "official" 79 neighborhoods. Looking for Dogtown, Kingshighway Hills, Lindell Park, the Ivory Triangle, or Compton Hill on the city's official list? Let me help you out: you won't find them.

Some people argue for clear and well-defined neighborhoods that give order to the endless cityscape, while others appreciate the local folklore and idiosyncratic nature of place-naming, where each couple blocks seems to earn its own distinction. I lean towards the latter.

E.g...what do you call the up-and-coming Morgan Ford Business District's neighborhood? To the city of St. Louis, it's Tower Grove South. To historical researchers, it might be known as part of the Oak Hill neighborhood. To others, it's simply a small section of a large collection of neighborhoods known as "Tower Grove". A small but growing minority calls the business district and surrounding area "Skinnytown". Is anyone of these correct, or incorrect? I don't know.

When it comes to assisting people through the urban maze that is St. Louis, the choices made in how to define neighborhoods are difficult and usually impossible if the effort is to please/include/represent everyone.

Nevetheless, I have taken a stab. Below are my 25 neighborhoods. Twenty-five is certainly more manageable than 79. What do you think of the idea of having a web site where people interested in the city can check out each neighborhood in-depth?


View St. Louis Neighborhoods in a larger map

For a neat take on capturing St. Louis City's neighborhoods' individual look and feel, check out Mark Groth's blog, St. Louis City Talk, where he has profiled some of the "Heights" neighborhoods: Botanical Heights, Clifton Heights, Compton Heights, and Hamilton Heights. Stay tuned for more from his series, which aspires to cover all 79 official neighborhoods.

And good luck to anyone trying to simplify the complexity of one of America's great cities!

New Neighborhoods? 1:20 AM

Every once in a while, I do a post so nerdy and nuanced that I know I'm the only one who cares.

With that out of the way, it appears the city has recognized two unofficial neighborhoods within (but not a part of) its official list of 79: Compton Hill/Reservoir Square (within Compton Heights) and Parkview (within Skinker-DeBaliviere). Parkview is actually mostly located within University City.

Given the number of unofficial neighborhoods strewn across the city, I'm wondering why these two got special recognition?

I will say, though, that the "Reservoir Square" neighborhood sounds so "big city". I like.

(I can't find the original link to the list of neighborhoods that include these two unofficial ones, but you still see how their websites are hosted by the city?)

Map nerds beware: Yahoo Maps now features neighborhoods! 5:10 PM

Doing a search for "restaurants" along Manchester in the Grove, I stumbled upon what I believe is a new feature of Yahoo! Maps: neighborhood boundaries.



Amazing!

For good measure, I checked Chicago and New Orleans to see if their nabes were so gracefully displayed as well. Indeed, Chicago's Wicker Park and New Orleans' Treme are featured alongside their respective neighborhood neighbors.

I used to despise Yahoo Maps. Their previous role seemed to be almost making Google look like a godsend in comparison. I still enjoy Google Maps (much quicker and more reliable), but Yahoo is on my radar.

Check it out.