Why I left Austin for St Louis

You left Austin for St Louis (STL)? You left the coolest city in America for one of the most dangerous?

Yep.

It doesn’t make sense on the surface. It really doesn’t. Austin is a great city. It was a smart move to relocate to there. It tops the list of ‘best cities to live in’ that you see floating around the internet. And for good reason. Austin is a fun and bustling city with great weather and lots going for it. But it wasn’t for me. While there are so many things I love and miss about Austin, I have not once regretted leaving.

There are several reasons, but mainly because in Austin it all felt decided. This was the new ‘it’ city. A tech hub down south. Facebook, Apple, Google, big companies are moving there. Downtown was bustling. People were excited about the future, the food, the job prospects. I was a small cog in a machine that was already knew where it was headed.

STL doesn’t have this feeling of certainty. There is an energy in the air, like a bated breath, as if the future has not yet been determined. This could all work out for the best, or crumble into chaos. But we get to decide. The people here get to decide. The signs around us point to different futures. The central corridor has a slew of new buildings being announced and young people are moving to the city. But we just lost our NFL team. Some parts of the city are the most dangerous places in the country. Race relations have a long way to go. But everywhere I go I see people working at it. In some ways it’s like moving from a growing tech giant to the new start up. It’s a risk, but the rewards are huge.

There is a magic to St. Louis that is hard to explain if you haven’t lived here. In fact, it’s hard to explain to people who have lived here their whole lives. Maybe it’s the old building, the red bricks that have been here since the 1800s. Maybe it’s the Arch. It looks over the city and every time you see it you mumble a subtle ‘hey, there’s the arch’. Or maybe it’s because STL contains the most fun place in the entire world, the City Museum. It’s hard to describe the City Museum to those who haven’t seen a photo, but here goes: Imagine a 10 story, early 1900s shoe factory that has been taken over by a madman. He decides to build an elaborate, winding playground for all. But also, he only has trash to construct it with. They result is nothing short of a full-blown acid trip. A 10-story slide drops you off into a dragon’s dungeon made of concrete. There is a forest. The…

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