‘BLIGHTED’ BRENTWOOD SPINS THE CORPORATE-WELFARE WHEEL

Still another comfy suburb plans to serve up a huge developer subsidy – and this one just doubled

At the dangerous southern border of the rugged terrain known as Richmond Heights lies a veritable war zone known in hushed tones in the darkest corners of the development world merely as “Brentwood.”

Brentwood. The word drips off the lips forbiddingly, like sauce rolling eerily down the side of a bowl held trembling in the darkness of some frozen custard den. This is no place for the faint of heart or wallet, this tough little town scraping by on a mere $81,000 average household income, barely a third again above the state average. And, as there weren’t horrific enough, home to a public school district in such despair as to rank just 5th out of 455 among the best schools in Missouri.

These are mean streets, my friends, the sort of place no developer in their right mind would dare to tread with their own resources. The grizzled ones will tell you, without even raising an eyebrow: You want to do business with these people, you make the ask.