Scott Mellanby, NHL bruiser who played a couple of his seasons right here in St. Louis, is retiring from the NHL. He closed out his NHL career playing in Atlanta. Like many NHL players, Mellanby comes from a Canadian hockey family. His dad is a legendary Canadian hockey TV announcer who received Emmy awards for his work on hockey broadcasts.
Pro hockey players make good money. The current minimum salary is something like $500,000 per year. Mellanby had a long career, so he must have made millions. So what is he doing now that he's retiring from the pro game? He's moving his family back to St. Louis to make this their permanent home.
And Mellanby's not alone. Didn't retired MLB stars Andy Van Slyke and Ozzie Smith do the same thing? These professional athletes have fame and fortune and the freedom of choice. They could live wherever they want. And where do they choose to make their homes? St. Louis. Maybe its the water. It's got to be something.
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8 comments:
Actually, Ozzie and Van Slyke don't live in STL. Ozzie lives in Ladue. Can you imagine if we could get the 1% earnings tax on all those millionaires?
It's my understanding that athletes and other travelling performers/rock stars who do their thing in the city must pay the city earnings tax.
I wonder if the same holds true for plaintiff's attorneys working in the city who win big contingency fees on lawsuits?
As far as Ozzie living in Ladue, I suspect when he travels to anywhere outside of the St. Louis area, he tells people his hometown is St. Louis.
The distinction we make dividing STL city proper from the rest of our metro area is another one of those things that belong on the "Unique St. Louis" list...
Claiming to be from a city when in reality a distant suburb is the truth is not unique to StL as I've heard it often around the country. What is unique to StL is that a once large prosperous city has been turned into one large retirement community.
Retirement accounts do go farther in a low cost place like St. Louis. Even rich athletes need to be financially savvy, or they won't be rich for long!
Again, I respectfully disagree. If you do not have the right to vote on STL issues, nor are living within it's boundaries, you are not a St. Louisian. Just because you say you are from STL means nothing. You can bet for damn sure they answer the "where'd you go to high school question accurately". Most Ladue and St. Charles people I know don't talk very nicely about STL when given the chance. I suspect they even dislike the city a bit. What with it's bad reputation for crime, schools, poverty, and majority African-American populous. Sad but true. Just an observation based on living in the city and working in the suburbs for the last 13 years.
I know I'm a little late on this, but I don't know why everybody in the city thinks that every suburbanite is against them. Being one, I would know.
And of course everyone is going to say their from St. Louis. It's like somebody from Chicagoland going to the East Coast or something. They are going to say they are from Chicago so they don't have to go through the:
"Where you from?"
"Melrose Park, Illinois"
"Where?"
"Chicago"
Course...you say Illinois and they automatically assume Chicago, but I digress.
Basically, city people need to get over this "If you're not with us then you're against us" mentality.
dustin, I get your point. But to me, this blog is a local one focusing on the STL region, therefore accuracy and honesty is very important when talking about where you're from. Until someone can define a geographic boundary as to when when it's okay to say you're a St. Louisian, I'll consider changing my mind. Is it okay if you are from Chesterfield? How about St. Charles, Wentzville, Arnold, Granite City, Belleville, O'Fallon(s), Columbia. Please do tell me, in your mind, when it's okay to claim STL as yours even though you don't live here, pay taxes here or vote here. More importantly, when is it no longer acceptable to claim STL as your home? Please give me an example. Naperville is not Chicago my friend. Lenexa is not Kansas City, Chesterfield is not St. Louis and Newark is not New York. Any way you cut, it's just not. You have no evidence to prove that Maplewood, Glendale, Bellfontaine Neighbors, Mehlville, etc are part of STL. They are in a separate county with a separate govt. with a separate tax structure. Go to Wikipedia, the population of St. Louis is ~348,000. And by the way, I'd love to see my County friends vote to merge the region. Then we'd be a big powerful city. Please join us.
People from Ladue have the reputation for being rude and obnoxious. The idea that there are savage inequalities between one area school and another is something that isn't true about many other areas of the country. There may be some city schools in Manhattan that are just as good, and by reputation alone you wouldn't realize it.
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