Although it's sad, it shouldn't be a surprise that St. Louis city has been ranked as America's most dangerous city. For whatever reason, islands of leftists surrounded by conservatives always seem to have problems with violence. As the article points out, St. Louis city itself is only a small part of the greater St. Louiss metro area where I live and work, and I can assure you that nowhere else in the region is anywhere near as bad as the city itself.
This Midwestern city has long been in the upper tiers of the annual ranking of the nation's safest and most dangerous cities, compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent there from 2004 to last year, when the rate of such crimes rose much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to FBI figures released in June. ...Morgan said the study looks at crime only within St. Louis city limits, with a population of about 330,000. It doesn't take into account the suburbs in St. Louis County, which has roughly 980,000 residents.
The metro area really includes a lot more than just St. Louis city and county; there are suburbs in other nearby counties, and in Illinois. Wikipedia's list of American metro areas gives the St. Louis metro area a population of almost 2.8 million, so the city itself holds only about 12% of the population. Not to be overly cynical, but I suppose it's good that the criminals keep mostly to themselves.
I'm not very familiar with every city in America's safest and most dangerous cities, but of the ones I know I don't think it's a coincidence that the safest cities in California are also the most conservative.