Its not that bad Jay. The arch can be pretty creepy at night though,
due to the number of trees that line every walking path. After 5pm
downtown St. Louis pretty much "shuts down" unless there's a sporting
event going on. We're just not a downtown sort of city. The
activities all are happening further west in the suburbs or Clayton.

There has been a recent push (last 5-7 years or so) to develop pocket
sort of communities to attract people to downtown again (Washington Ave
Loft district, Laclede's landing, etc) with differing levels of
success.