It’s interesting to watch the parade of people address Crestwood aldermen and accuse them of being anti-development, specifically with regard to the proposed redevelopment of Crestwood Court.

The irony’s not lost on us that some of the residents who contend the board is anti-development are former aldermen who lacked the intestinal fortitude to seek re-election.

Instead, they’re urging the board to willy nilly — no questions asked — approve Centrum Properties’ request for economic assistance totaling roughly $34 million to redevelop the mall as an entertainment and retail venue.

Of Centrum’s proposal, Mayor Jeff Schlink said last week, “… The board, in one way or another, either publicly or through the manner of vote — the result of a vote — has said that the current proposal that is on the table isn’t satisfactory to the board members, and what we’ve said is we’d like to see some changes. We’ve even been very clear as to what those changes are, but unfortunately it’s been communicated back that those changes are not going to happen …”

That leaves just one option on the table, Schlink said, adding, “One of the things that I still struggle with is that I hear … multiple times — is that this board does not support the redevelopment of the mall, which is not an accurate statement. What we need to talk about is what the real issue is.”

The real issue, according to Schlink, is whether Centrum’s proposal is worth the amount of the economic assistance being requested or whether Centrum should receive any economic assistance at all.

The mayor said he struggles with the amount of economic assistance being requested by Centrum, given its proposal.

“… I struggle with the success of a movie theater and multiple restaurants to be able to pay that off,” Schlink said. “… So then, the question always comes up, ‘Well, who cares?’ The city’s not at risk. The city didn’t purchase those bonds. But the reality is that we’ve got $34-plus million that’s tied up in a property that is not successful, and there’s very little that you can do after the fact if you have all that money tied up in that property …”

It’s simple, if Centrum wants to redevelop the mall without economic assistance, it can do whatever it wants. If Centrum wants to redevelop the mall using economic assistance, it should be willing to work with city officials and make some changes to its proposal.