St. Louis city leaders voted to spend $255 million from a legal settlement tied to the departure of the Rams football team. Host Luis Antonio Perez revisits the glory days of the St. Louis Rams’ Super Bowl runs and the disappointment of team owner Stan Kroenke moving the team to Los Angeles. He also sits with two St. Louis residents — Brendalyn King and Eli Front — who live in different parts of the city. Brendalyn lives in the city’s historically disinvested north side that was also impacted by an EF3 tornado last year, and Eli lives downtown, where conversations about regional economic development are often centered.They discuss what it’s like to live in their respective neighborhoods, what they think would help their communities flourish, and issues that they see that money can’t fix.

Eli Front is a member of the Laclede’s Landing neighborhood association and co-founder of OpsCompanion, a software startup based in downtown St. Louis.

Brendalyn King is an executive leadership coach and steward and developer of a 244-acre retreat property in the Missouri Ozarks, originally founded in 1934 by an African American physician.

Credits: This episode was hosted, produced, written and mixed by Luis Antonio Perez with story editing by Brian Heffernan and Alex Heur, who also engineered the conversation. Meet Me's engagement producer is Paola Rodriguez with editorial support from Lara Hamdan. Brian Heffernan is our executive producer. Theme music by Kudda and Friends. Additional music by Holizna. Special thanks to Denis Beganovic, Alyssa Potter, Vontriece McDowell, Rachel Lippmann, and Sean Malone at KMOX for archival audio.

Grant support for "Meet Me" comes from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

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