Lake St. Louis is the Ninth Best Place to Live in America

We are of a city-loving sort here at Punching Kitty, but we didn’t spend our formative years in the city, and our mother never lets us forget it.

It gets a little harder to brush off your mom’s pro-county arguments when her very own town and the place you grew up grabs the number 9 spot on CNN’s list of the top places to live in America.

Sigh.

Created 40 years ago as a resort community, this friendly town outside St. Louis has two man-made lakes, plus five parks, three golf courses, and a 650-horse equestrian center. But the place was soon colonized by full-time residents with children, drawn by the myriad activities and low crime.

Lake St. Louis has two main flaws. First, in order to enjoy all the town’s perks, including a clubhouse with swimming pool and tennis courts, you must join the Community Association (annual dues: $450 per family)–and the 20% of residents who live outside the association’s boundaries aren’t eligible.

Second, Lake St. Louis is one town over from a General Motors plant that will complete layoffs of nearly half its 1,800 workers this month. That’s not good news, since the jobless rate is already on the high side. How ever, thanks in part to lots of health-care employers here, strong job growth is projected over the next five years.

Lake St. Louis isn’t the only Missouri town on the list though, Ellisville, Jackson and Liberty came in at 25, 59 and 29 respectively.

If you were wondering, St. Louis city came in just above East St. Louis and Detroit and just below “the crack of a fat man’s ass in the middle of the summer.”