St. Louis boasts a rich cultural history and is a year-long attraction for various activities and its incredible outdoor spaces. The low cost of living and housing has triggered a huge influx of people in the city. To many, it feels like a big city with a small-town charm.
Unfortunately, in the last few years, this city’s reputation has suffered. According to a WalletHub ranking, St. Louis has been identified as the least safe city in the United States. In this article, let’s delve into the safety challenges faced by St. Louis residents.
Increasing Crime Rates
As per Statista, St. Louis ranked the seventh most dangerous city in the world in 2023. By August 2023, the city had seen over 25 homicide cases, most of them being on the south side.
The general crime rates in the city are influenced by the gun epidemic and the unhinged involvement of the youth in criminal activities. Moreover, a very high proportion of these killings happen against the Black community.
According to River Front Times, Black Missourians are the most unsafe in the city, as compared to other places in the States.
The city’s disturbed past can give us a sneak peek into its hate against black people. There has been widespread racial unrest in St. Louis since the 1950s. The issue reached its zenith in the 1990s, owing to the stark differences in income and the scarcity of job prospects.
Some of the most dangerous neighborhoods across the city include Gravois Park, Central West End, Dutchtown, Bevo Mill, and Carondelet.
High Risk of Fatal Accidents
In addition to the high rates of homicide, frequent road accidents have also plagued the city. The year 2022 saw over 7500 pedestrian deaths in road accidents.
This may have to do with the fact that the city is a central hub for most of the nation’s cargo and freight. This means heavy-duty vehicles like 18-wheeler trailers, trucks, and semi-trucks can always be found on its roads and highways.
Larger vehicles pose a grave threat, given their sheer size and multiple blind spots. Traffic accidents across Missouri have remained consistent over the years.
For example, take the stretch of Page Avenue, running between RM Moore Ave. and Sutter Ave. This small section of roadway, almost half a mile long, has been a motorist’s nightmare due to the high density of vehicles and pedestrians.
When such an accident occurs, the aftermath usually includes fatal or debilitating injuries and a tough legal battle. A St. Louis trucking accident lawyer can guide you through the difficult legal procedure and help you get just compensation.
According to TorHoerman Law, the presence of multiple liable parties makes the entire legal process very overwhelming. More often than not, the plaintiff will be fighting more than one defendant. Aside from the truck driver, there could be potential liability on the part of the trucking company or the company responsible for loading the cargo onto the truck.
Inclement Weather
In the past decade, Missouri saw over 50 grave incidents of natural disasters, causing the state $4.6 billion on average each year. St. Louis sits on a delicate thread, nestled between two big rivers and crisscrossed with tributaries. St. Louis has experienced six major floods since 2008, making flooding a recurring occurrence in the city.
St. Louis is located in an area that is prone to earthquakes because of its proximity to the New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones.
Natural calamities can transform city roads into accident havens. Even the most experienced drivers might find it difficult to navigate treacherous interstates like I-64 and I-44.
For instance, in January 2022, a brutal ice storm caused over 30 accidents involving the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) trucks.
Another incident was reported in February 2023, involving a severe winter storm. The Interstate-70 in Eastern Missouri was shut down for over 2 hours due to vehicle pile-up on the 4 inches of snow covering the roads.
The risks of bad weather are real, and you should be extremely careful and alert.
Education Pandemic
The city that is hailed as “The Gateway to the West” is staring at a population decline. In 2023, the population fell by around 2.5%. In addition to increased crime rates, which are one of the highest in the country, the inefficient public schooling system has also contributed to the city’s downfall.
Many residents now perceive this situation as very grave. As reported by Missouri Independent, St. Louis elementary and middle school pupils are staring at a learning pandemic. The current state of imparting knowledge in the USA has been deemed the country’s worst.
Increasingly, middle-class families are choosing to enroll their children in high-priced private schools. However, the basic mechanism of teaching remains the same, with poor results being seen across various age groups and public and private schools.
Krystal Barnett got her fourth-grade daughter admitted to a St. Louis public school. Initially, her daughter went to a private school, but Krystal was not happy. Barely a few days after securing admission, her daughter started showing behavioral aggressiveness and even hit a few of her classmates.
For Krystal, this was all new. She did not want to shell huge loads of her money into an education system that was rotting.
In conclusion, the aforementioned points reflect the glaring and harsh truth about St. Louis’s overall ecosystem. It is the responsibility of the people in power to mitigate such risks to human life.
This will not be the first time a city has turned itself around. Be it the fire of 1845 that gutted nearly one-third of the city or the Great Depression in 1928, Pittsburgh is one of the strongest success stories in the USA.
The need of the hour is that authorities implement stringent, unbiased, and actionable solutions to win the trust of US nationals.
