General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Rural living. [View all]Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)still is to a great extent. Most of the people who live in the more rural and suburban counties are quite open as to why they moved there, to get away from Blacks, Mexicans(we don't even have a large amount of those here), and now Muslims(we have the largest population of Bosnian Muslims outside of Bosnia).
And now its a steady "ring" that's becoming more spread out, first they expanded counties like St. Charles county, turning it into a suburban and exurban place that's 98% white. But now blacks began moving there, so the whites are fleeing ever westward, and, while trying to stay along the i-70 corridor, are beginning to spread out even more, dispersing even further from the city center.
Hell, I grew up in St. Charles, not rural but suburban, and really, it was an isolating place, the idea of "neighborhoods" is a foreign experience out there. The only exception was the poor section I first grew up in, first 10 years of my life, where the neighborhood kids all grew up on the same street.
I've gotten a fair amount of ribbing from people in St. Louis County and City about being from "the sticks". I took it in stride, worked for years downtown, and the friendliest people I met were black rather than white. I remember one year, I was stuck working downtown on Thanksgiving, and one of my coworkers came into work on her day off to drop me off a full fledged thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. I will say that is probably one of the nicest things someone ever did for me at work.
Now I'm an example of the opposite of previous trends, and probably representative of a new trend, a move back to the center, where the culture, food and people are, all the people, and its fun. We can go down the street on a lazy Sunday and listen to a concert in the neighborhood park, or on Friday go to a different park and try out a bunch of different food from food trucks. The concept of neighborhood, or even having actual neighbors rather than people you happen to live next to is interesting.