I wish when they write these storied they'd put the town's per capita income in brackets the way they do with politician's party affiliation or company's ticker. The "Fairfax of St. Louis" voting out half their legislature over a project means something very different than the "Newark of St. Louis" doing the same.

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securicat 2 days ago | parent [-]

And why is that?

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cucumber3732842 2 days ago | parent [-]

Because wealthy suburbs have said "not here, move your filthy industry somewhere else" since forever.

When the places that aren't swimming in jobs, the local government isn't swimming in property tax revenues and frankly probably can't even enforce the rules they're federally compelled to have without destroying everything says "take that somewhere else" it means something entirely different.

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tomwheeler 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Take it from someone who lives in the St. Louis area, Festus is by no means a snooty suburb. It's a small town that has become a distant suburb of St. Louis due to sprawl spreading south into the adjacent county over the past 20 years.

For comparison, an upscale suburb of similar size (Town and Country, Missouri) has a median household income of $202,974, as compared to $59,041 for Festus. The average person you meet in Town and Country is likely to be a doctor, attorney, or executive. In Festus, the average person likely works in a factory, farm, or lead mine.

	▲	cucumber3732842 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thank you. That's exactly the kind of context I was looking for.

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JumpCrisscross 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The politicians talked about distracting locals with a new Olive Garden. I’m guessing that was included to give us this answer.