St. Louis Restaurant Openings & Closings: February 2013 [Updated]

^ right, because all the food service jobs in other cities pay above minimum wage and there are no panhandlers or homeless people anywhere else in the US. you do realize that your complaint is a Catch 22, right? "How dare these new businesses not pay premium wages in their first few years of operation while they're trying to get off the ground!" and please, you were fond of the city until 3 years ago? the city is doing better than it has been for the last 30 years. it sounds like you're just upset because you couldn't find the job you wanted in St. Louis. that's understandable but your conclusions aren't reasonable and your "fact" is actually just an anecdote. anyway, good luck in your new home.

I would like to say that it is great to see new jobs being created from all this, but the fact stands that most of these new businesses will pay low wage an hour, hire inexperienced workers to keep their payroll low, & will not have the cash to keep afloat for the first 3-5 years till profits start to show. St.Louis is my birth place & home for most of my life & I have always been very fond of the city until I returned home 3 years ago to find no jobs available with decent rate of pay & companies hiring inexperienced workers at low wages. The downtown area had become a trashed out area full of homeless & panhandlers. After struggling with 2 minimum wage jobs for over a year I have relocated to another city & hope to never return to this depressed area ever again!