First off East ST. Louis is in Illinois and has been a rough place for decades. I live in the Benton Park area and it is fairly safe and so is the Soulard area. Street crime is down all over since we can legally pack heat. Most of the crime is personal or gang related.
I was raised in the Benton Park neighborhood (Missouri Ave)back in the ‘40s. In the summer, a few times we took quilts and went to the park to sleep on the grass when it was too hot to sleep in the house. I doubt it would be safe to do that now. A recent drive down Cherokee St, where we used to shop, was frightening. When I was in high school my sister and I could take the public bus just about anywhere at night and our parents didn’t have to worry. Those days are gone forever.
My family is elderly and disabled and they still live in south St Louis city so I must spend alot of my time there. A huge contingent (55,000) of Bosnian muslims now live in south city thanks to Bill Clinton. So far the Bosnians have been OK neighbors with the exception of the 107 ft. minaret they constructed a few blocks from my folks-which is like a stab in the eye to me.