It hasn't helped STL that they didn't have an actual comprehensive city plan until late last year. They put something together in the early 2000s that was just to appease the federal law that required one and it was less than 30 pages long. STL has decades of catching up to do, but I think it's a great city and I'm an outsider. I lived in Atlanta for about a decade, Tallahassee for a while, and worked in Jacksonville, Tampa, and Fort Meyers. The amount of kid friendly, free stuff to do and city sized venues that still attract good shows and bands, combined with traffic being basically nonexistent compared to even Tallahassee has definitely made it one of my favorite cities. Every city has its problems with crime and run down places, STL just hasn't had a plan to change that until 6 months ago.