When I tell people that I live in North County, nine times out of ten they’ll look at me like I’m crazy. That’s because many St. Louisans assume that anywhere north is a dirty, dangerous ghetto where white people couldn’t possibly choose to live.

I was reading a discussion about St. Louis on an internet forum recently, and one woman said that she’d be “afraid to walk anywhere in North County” by herself. I’ve also heard folks from South and West County say they have no reason to ever come north, “because there’s nothing up there.”

Ask anyone in St. Charles County and the generally held belief is that North County used to be nice, but everyone who could “get out” did so. And thank goodness. Because “the blacks came in and ruined everything.”

None of these ideas are really surprising. St. Louis is, after all, the fourth most segregated major city in America, a place where nearly three-fourths of white residents live in neighborhoods that are at least 95 percent white. And the truth is, race has played a role in the history and evolution of North County.

But for me and the 400,000 other people who proudly live here, racial issues are only one part of the story. When I look around North County, I don’t see a place that deserves to be abandoned and forgotten, nor do I see a community that has been “ruined.” I see one of the most beautiful, vibrant, interesting and enjoyable areas in all of St. Louis, and in it, some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life.

Like many other discarded inner-ring suburbs all over the US, North County is definitely an underdog, and it does have its share of challenges. But it also has many assets: fantastic architecture, incredible natural beauty, rich history, and some of the most generous, dedicated and inspiring people you could ever hope to know.

I’ve created this blog because this North County, the community that I love, is never the one that makes the news. I want to tell the stories that I see every day, in that hope that North County’s successes can eventually outshine its failures. And I want to share my experience here so that one day the progressiveness and creativity and amazing tenacity of this area can finally be celebrated.

That is the purpose of NOCO, my not-so-secret agenda. So welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride.

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