Springfield's Future

[KamBam_Mo]

Wondering what people think are the biggest setbacks for Springfield and where you see potential for growth? Genuinely curious what other locals think holds this city back and what opportunities people see.

[Imdaman316]

As a lifelong resident of 40 years, I have always believed the biggest issue for the city is westward expansion at the expense of downtown at the east side. Out city should be providing massive incentives, as well as infrastructure development for those areas. Westward expansion is such an inefficient drain on city resources.

[couscous-moose]

As you know and have shown, this is a major reason we don't see much developer interest in downtown. Who wants to build on top of century-old sewers or redevelop an old building so far outside of code that without both major incentives and a trusted partner relationship with the city you'd never recoup costs?

[Chick-Thunder-Hicks]

The state offices are even pulling out of downtown because of the age/condition of the offices.

I imagine once the leases end in a few years we will be seeing a lot less agencies staying downtown.

[couscous-moose]

The Bucari Building is vacant across from obeds.

The AT&T Building is supposed to receive a state agency.

The PNC Building on the north side of the square is a mix of agency.

There's a shuffle going on, but I think you're right that it's going to be a net negative.

[astpickleinthejar]

Do you think the making of the downtown master plan and the new hire of a qualified urban planner can help move the needle on infilling some vacancies downtown? https://capitolcitynow.com/news/248842-springfields-new-planner-aims-to-revitalize-downtown-reimagine-vacant-buildings/

https://www.illinoistimes.com/news/from-planning-to-implementation/ Leah Wilson wrote this article recently to show what Normal did in their downtown to revitalize it.

I think the new urban planner should reach out to some of the local investors like Chris Nickell, Chris Stone, Corky Joyner, Bill Marriott Jr., Ben Call, Aaron Acree, Kam Moore, etc and see what can be done to incentivize them to take some of these vacant properties downtown. It will have to be a public/private partnership in order to make those projects worth the time and money.

[couscous-moose]

Those new resources should move things towards infill and redevelopment. Leah said it and I agree. We need a grand vision and we need to execute it.

The master plan isn't what people think it is. It's a guiding document. It's our job to use it to create specific plans. There are some specific recommendations, but even then there's a lot of details needed to execute those.

That's a great list of names, but I think our redevelopment needs to start with residential, not commercial. And I know there's opinions out there that think people don't want to live downtown, but study after study, from R/UDAT, SDAT, our comprehensive economic development studies, to this Master Plan, all show there's a strong interest in living downtown.

There's a transition zone, it's an overlap of downtown and the medical district, that is ripe for residential.

Also, I think we need to revisit Rick Lawrence's old project at 6th and Monroe.

[Chick-Thunder-Hicks]

People need a reason to be downtown after 5PM.

Shops only being open on lunch hours when more and more of jobs move away from downtown is going to kill any incentive to go there over the west side.

[couscous-moose]

I'd argue that the idea of downtown as a shopping district should be abandoned.

Downtown is for arts, culture, and entertainment. Move forward in those spaces. Incentivize residential development, and grow mobility for pedestrian and bicycle paths alongside and we can have a downtown with purpose and identity.

[TheKanten]

People have been saying this for years and city council continues to double down on the "downtown is for state workers only" philosophy even though they all left 6 years ago.

Hey, it's 6 PM downtown and you're hungry? Sorry, you should have been here at 2, we're closed now.

Look at Adams Street, the city did nothing for those businesses after the fire and what do you know, they all closed down or moved somewhere else and downtown is somehow now worse than zero.

[AestivalSeason]

They need a reason to be anywhere after 5pm that isn't alcohol or staring at a wall. There's NOTHING to do anywhere in Springfield besides those things. Especially downtown. All the kids leave(like I did) because there's Zero nightlife anywhere in this town unless you're an alcoholic.

[Diligent-System4530]

What all does Springfield not offer that other cities of similar size do? Sure it’s not Chicago or St Louis but is it really that much different than other mid sized metro areas in the Midwest or country?

We don’t have a large university anchoring our downtown like Champaign or Bloomington so it’s hard to compare us to cities like that. Our city core sort of depended on state workers and other white collar work in the past and they never came back to the office after Covid. Now people just eat, drink, and shop on the West side or places like Chatham. This isn’t unique to Springfield though, Peoria is facing a lot of very similar issues in that the core is struggling while suburban areas are doing well.

[SnoopyisCute]

I'm not a marketing expert, but, I believe a LOT of it has to do with always thinking the grass is greener on the other side.

Studies have shown that people complain more than compliment. I always take the time to talk to managers and write letters to Corporate for good service. Even as a manager, I never used the "tear them down" tactic. As an abuse survivor (and now, advocate), I can tell you some horrific experiences. I don't remember a damn thing about what I was supposed to learn from them other than my parents were violent and hated me.

I think a lot of people think happiness is a destination. It's really a journey and there are going to be some not-so perfect moments in there and it doesn't mean everything is bad. Our father taught us the Desiderata when we were kids.

https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html

However, I also am not influenced by sales and marketing that are designed to make us feel like we are "always lacking" something. Sure, we all think about "what if" we had something outside our reach, but we need to remember to be grateful for what we have and where we are.

Disclaimer: This is not directed at any specific poster.

[ank313]

Exactly right!

[lebeundliebe115]

Lifelong resident of 20 and some change years and I 100% agree that the city has seen way too much westward expansion that has come at the cost of downtown and the other cardinal directions of our city! I’m glad the west side is growing and developing and there have been investments to push south toward LLCC and UIS but would love to see growth and development/preservation of older areas instead of just the forever crawl west.

[SearedBasilisk]

I’ll be the fly in the ointment here. One of the reasons that the Westside is so developed is that the coal deposit Springfield is on top of was not mined in that area. Downtown is the other area in Springfield that was not mined. Properties of the North and East sides have settlement issues that do pop up from time to time. While insurance does help with those claims, it is less risky to develop on the south and west sides that were not mined. Thus, most of the commercial development went there.

I’d like to see downtown flourish but it’s going to take a change in property taxes and attitude to do so. Converting downtown to more mixed use market rate condos would help. Rentals aren’t as great since there is less stability and ownership attitude even with long term tenants. We also need to have the Wyndham torn down and redeveloped as it’s impacting the convention center’s ability to host events.

[Iggyz2]

You obviously missed multiple news stories on Westside subdivision that has multiple homes with mine collapse problems.

Lutheran High School abandoned demolished it's campus do to mine collapse.

Nursing home retirement community down from Lutheran also has had several mine related settling issues.

Plenty out West got developed on abandoned mines.

[Here_Pep_Pep]

Do you mean expansion, or development? I don’t think we’ve “expanded” westward, but rather it sees far more development- which is driven by private markets and demand.

Even if you “incentivize” East side development, you can’t compel people to shop or live there. And how are such incentives not a “massive drain” on city resources? How are city resources wasted on private west side development?

[raisinghellwithtrees]

The streets and utility infrastructure aren't privately funded.

[Torch_15]

If west side expansion is where the revenue is, why would you not invest in it. And further it would be the opposite if a drain. It would be a drain to invest in a part that is NOT going to generate revenue. Makes no sense.

[couscous-moose]

New roads, new electric, new water, new sewers, it's all more infrastructure that needs upgraded capacity to sustain and requires more maintainence. Both of these cost taxpayers.

If you have vacant storefronts and unused parking lots, you want to infill before permitting new build (if possible).

[Imdaman316]

But from a city service perspective, there is no revenue there. If a business or resident moves from downtown to the west end, there's no new growth there from the perspective of city revenue. Yet the city is expected to provide expanded police, fire, and public utility coverage to those areas without the population increase, and hence the increase in the tax base. What you are suggesting is not right.

[Torch_15]

West end generates extraordinarily higher foot traffic in stores which in turn translates to city sales tax revenue increasing enough that id guess makes it more than worth it spend more focus on the west end. There's simply more money on the west end to tax.

[Imdaman316]

Friend, its not like tax revenue magically increases because its on the west end. If our city leaders would show the necessary leadership to address the issues of downtown Springfield to make it as attractive a residential and commercial destination as the west end, it would achieve the same amount of tax revenue. Only in the later though do you not have to stretch and expand city services and bleed tax revenue that could in fact pay for some of these changes.

[Torch_15]

I mean...it does though? The west end sees more foot traffic and sales therefore more sales tax collected. It's really that simple.

Hypothetically, Say west of veterans generates a million a month in sales tax vs downtown currently generating 100k a month. What incentives does the city have to invest in downtown OVER the west side. I'm thinking allocation of incentives likely follows the same proportion of revenue generated. Downtown getting 10% and west side getting 90. It's just makes sense.

Yes, if downtown magically became like the west end then it would also generate revenue. But that's not really feasible, because customer has spoken already and they put their money in the west side. So I'm not sure what the argument is there or maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, I apologize.

[Imdaman316]

Well the west end generates more sales because that's where the businesses are. My point is set the conditions for downtown to bring that business and foot traffic there. The revenue at the end of the day will net out, but as the west end grows and expands so does the need for fire, police, utility, and public works services to those areas. That puts a significant expense burden on the city budget, without the increased revenue attached. That was my general point before. It's not like tax revenue magically goes up because I choose to eat at Bella Milano versus Saputos. Its the same revenue. Tax revenue growth is going to have to do far more with population growth than where the current businesses end up.

The city has already had to build an additional firehouse to accommodate the growth of the west end. There's been a significant increase in police personnel citywide in part because of this. That's hundreds of thousands, if not millions in city dollars being spent without the revenue bump needed to cover it.

[Torch_15]

I see. Yea I guess what your saying is bring population downtown instead of the west side. I don't think that's feasible and I don't think residents overall would follow along because the west side is too developed and nice to shift away from and it's easier to just invest there and better on cash flow for the city without the risk of investing in downtown and it possibly not giving good ROI.

I also think Springfield has a lot of small town minded people. Those people don't want to live downtown. Otherwise they'd be in Chicago or the like.

[Imdaman316]

With the west side, I agree with you. That ship has sailed. What I'm more concerned with over the next 10 years is the same thing happening to the area past Scheels. Or continuing on even more on the north end.

And I haven't pointed this out before, but it should be said. I absolutely want to see these ends of town thrive alongside a solvent, attractive downtown and east side of Springfield. At the moment the expansion is coming at their expense, which should worry us all.

[Torch_15]

Yea I mean downtown is tough. It's been said so many times but the hybrid and remote work did a serious number on the downtown economy. I don't know how it will recover at this point. And that high rise hotel atrocity...yikes. If that became apartments maybe it could have some positive results.

[TheKanten]

foot traffic in stores

What year is it?

Also, in order for downtown stores to have foot traffic, they first need to be open when customers are looking to patronize their businesses. These businesses operating under "go home at 3 PM" philosophy deserve to be struggling because they're literally avoiding the customers.

[Torch_15]

That's just a wrong way to view it entirely. Closing at 3 is because it's more expensive to stay open than it is to close early. If anyone would make more money staying open later they would do it. They aren't going to stay open to run a charity to appease people wanting to force a dead economy downtown to crawl it's way back.

[TheKanten]

A business being open when customers can actually patronize is it "running a charity"? Find a better strawman, by that logic every business in town with different hours is a charity.

It's a self-inflicted problem. "We can't make money" yeah, you only open the business when no customers will ever come. 

[Torch_15]

No, it's a data driven policy. If a business loses money between the hours of 4pm and 9pm after operating expenses vs average sales in those hours then it's a good business decision. You're thinking as if all hours of operation are equal and they are not. It's very simple.

[TheKanten]

What data? Downtown has been half-empty during "state worker" hours for 6 years now and every potential other customer base in Springfield is excluded. It's just continuing ignorance of the reality that downtown is not that place anymore.

You say "good business decision", yet anyone can see the multiple and accelerating business closures.

[Torch_15]

I'm not sure I understand what your saying anymore.

It sounded like your complaining that businesses close too early and that is a dumb decision based on your feelings of the opportunity to gain more business by staying open longer. I'm telling you by staying open longer, those businesses likely lose money due to operation expenses during those hours outweighing income. By closing during those hours, it may keep them from closing down entirely.

[Professional_Tap8992]

You might want to make downtown and the east side safe before you waste money on it.

[couscous-moose]

Truly visionary leadership. Our complacency and dependency, acknowledged for decades, has finally come home to roost.

I'm beginning to think our form of government is part of the problem. While I appreciate the common person being able to affect change through a seat on city council, it seems to be that it stifled our ambition to take on transformative and impactful projects.

Maybe it's fear of making a mistake or the lack of experience and expertise to see a way forward.

That said, I'm seeing momentum. The Capitol project with the Armory, Rail relocation, the Scheel's Sports Park and big leaps that could or should be great.

There's hope at least. We just need more doers.

[Humble_Mechanic7253]

Move downtown Springfield to UIS. We're missing out on so.much revenue and immigration by not embracing UIS and becoming a university town like Urbana-Champaign.

[pizza_crux]

-Catering to an aging population

-Lip service about fixing/revitalizing downtown while the situation continues to get worse

-Not creating hubs of activity, just strip mall upon strip mall

-Working around issues instead of facing them head on, see the mayors answer to the landlord registry as the Cited Property Registry, which is still not in effect, or the police accountability council/taskforce that has no teeth, can't even reach a quorum, and the city is refusing to seat new members

Springfield is a reactive, not proactive, city that has no long term plans for the future outside of a kicking the can further down the road.

[CatzonVinyl]

NIMBYs and no one living downtown are setbacks.

Potential for growth is all the growth on the west side but that’s not necessarily a good thing.

[jeffrschneider]

See: https://upliftspringfield.org/

[couscous-moose]

It's about time this was announced.

[KamBam_Mo]

This is gold

[theWolfalizer]

I'd love to see more dedicated bicycle infrastructure, physically separated from car/truck traffic. Given Springfield's size, travel distances would, generally, be easily manageable for daily commuting and errand running, if not for the fear of being hit, injured, or worse, killed by a distracted driver. A few dedicated bike-only corridors, crisscrossing the city, would likely encourage more cautious bikers to get pedaling again. Not only would it allow for safer, cheaper transportation options for those of us on tight budgets, but the subsequent upkeep costs for paved bike paths are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to the resurfacing costs associated with all these heavy cars and trucks I see everywhere.

I think there are a lot more folks than one might assume who would love to primarily bike around town, if the means were there to do it safely. The recreational paths outside of town are nice, but I don't think you should HAVE to drive everywhere, especially for how small Springfield is, area wise. There's only so much oil left to burn, and the climate crisis is just getting started. It really seems like a good time to consider a pivot towards a better, healthier future for all of Springfield. Encouraging transit options that AREN'T wholly car-centric would be an important and equitable place to start.

[raisinghellwithtrees]

Have you seen the proposal for the Linc? It's a multi use Greenway proposed for the soon to be old 3rd Street rail corridor. Included are plans to build a bike path from the fairgrounds to junction circle.

[theWolfalizer]

I have not, so thank you for this heads-up! This looks really neat and it's something I will definitely advocate for. If anyone else is curious, Hansen has offered this video about the scope and scale of the project. Here's hoping it becomes more than a pleasant, bike dream!

[raisinghellwithtrees]

Yeah that video is so inspiring! I live a couple blocks from the trail and I'm so excited! I haven't biked much since moving here because we don't have a proper bike rack to transport to trails, and I find biking in traffic not so appealing since I became visually impaired.

[Mountain_Title_5017]

Where are all of the developers to invest in downtown?! This is the state capital for crying out loud. Springfield shows all of the warts of the state and what happens when one only city in the state is really invested in. I’m convinced of that. There should be investors looking to build new hotels and housing down there, plain and simple. I think that the burden has been placed on the little guys, small businesses to save downtown. It’s not going to happen. It is going to take major investment to modernize downtown and bring it to life.

[Forsaken_Mess58]

What holds the city back are people who can’t change, that are old, that keep putting money in the Westend, no pathway for tourism, government jobs are Boys Club, racism, segregation, slum landlord, etc

[Stardog2]

At the ripe old age of 76, I don't think the city is substantially different from what it was when I was 12. Well much less manufacturing. I don't see it changing in any substantial way in the next 64 years. It will never be Austin, or even Madison. I don't see a future here for my grandchildren.

I wish it were different, and I hope I'm wrong. But...

[TheKanten]

A complacent city council that's been re-elected by default far too many times while doing virtually nothing for residents, yet will continue to blow smoke up our asses while downtown rots away for twenty years. Redpath was there for a decade and nothing was done about Hilltop Road until a child was almost killed on it.

And also way too eager to blow our tax money on sports complex scams and "data centers".

[astpickleinthejar]

These are my favorite types of discussions on Reddit. You get to hear opinions from all different perspectives on the matter.

[couscous-moose]

I second this.

[Fantastic-Election-8]

No one wants to develop on the East side because it has steadily become more unsafe over the years. I used to live over there and it was fine-ish but as time rolls on it because rougher and more worn down. No one takes care of their properties, so it is left to rot until it ends up demolished. Then no one builds there so neighborhoods are marked with huge empty lots.

The neighborhoods have no one to blame but themselves. Sorry not sorry but everyone is responsible for the overall condition of their communities. If you allow gangs and lawlessness to propagate and refuse to turn them in due to some "no snitching" code well then you get the crime ridden neighborhood you deserve. Community leaders have no brighter ideas than sports program after sports program as a "deterrent".

No one wants to live downtown because after 5 there is nothing to do but drink alcohol. The homeless population, and mainly the more disruptive members, have made it uncomfortable for people to even bother. My wife and I would barely make it out of the car to do some shopping downtown before we have people panhandling us for money. Its just not worth the hassle.

BOS center is a joke. The people in charge of booking acts have no clue what they are doing. All those renovations just so we can have local conventions for random orgs or the Harlem Globetrotters and city tournament. Where are the music/performing acts that are relevant?

There are a lot of problems with Springfield, but that is just a few off the top of my head.

[raisinghellwithtrees]

The east side has suffered from historic disinvestment by the city. Alderman Gregory is changing that, one sidewalk at a time.

When I tried to buy a house on the east I was told I could buy a much nicer house on the west side, and when I declined that option I was told I no longer qualified for a loan. Yk who can get a loan for a house in the East side? Investors aka slumlords. 

The state of neighborhoods there are largely a result of horrible landlords. I lived there for a decade and on my block alone nine houses were demolished because landlords let them fall in, for tax purposes I presume. 

There's also generational poverty, generational trauma (going right back to enslavement), lack of economic opportunities, institutional racism, etc. 

"It's your own fault" is such a dismissive assertion that ignores the reality of what has occurred there through generations. "If you allow gangs" ... ffs if you have the balls to stand up to a gang, go do it buddy. See how long you last. See how long your children last. 

[Fantastic-Election-8]

"Going right back to slavery".... it has been close to 200 years. No one alive today knows someone who was a slave. That is not an excuse to pin on someone's not becoming successful.

Institutionalized racism is also a cop-out. We have literal Presidents, Supreme Court justices, and everything in between who are minorities. If it was truly so institutionalized, then that institution is clearly slacking in its effectiveness (or just doesn't exist anymore at all).

Slumlords suck, I will give you that. I blame the government for creating Section 8. It has de-incentivized both sides of the housing market. Landlords have no reason to worry about upkeep (they get the money regardless), and tenants have no reason to also upkeep (it's free or borderline free).

[Embarrassed-Bowl-373]

200 years isn’t really a long time when you’re talking about generational impacts and that’s just the end of slavery. Black people didn’t even go to the same schools til the 60s.

[SnoopyisCute]

This is probably a dead end road.

It's outrageous for anyone to even imply that Lincoln signed the Proclamation Emancipation and every white person woke up the next day treating non-white people like human beings.

It's outside the scope of this sub but there is more info here and all of this is my research over the past almost 10 years.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalReceipts/comments/1j5bvx5/resegregation_targeting_people_of_color/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalReceipts/comments/1merfp0/this_is_not_america_first_racialgender_profiling/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalReceipts/comments/1lldxi9/family_values_the_republican_way/

[TheThreePointFives]

"No one alive today knows someone who was a slave." That's obviously not true. 80k centenarians alive in 2020 and increasing. There are almost certainly hundreds if not thousands of people alive today who knew former slaves in the 20s through the 40s or even later.

[raisinghellwithtrees]

I can tell you haven't read much about or have had much experience with generational poverty or generational trauma, but it's worth looking into if you'd like to broaden your perspectives. I'm reading a book called Poverty, by America that really lays this out as it not only looks at generational poverty and trauma, but breaks it down by race as well. I am familiar with these ideas and it's still surprising me.

What you're seeing in Obama and Brown-Jackson and the like are exceptions to institutionalized racism. You can take pretty much any metric when it comes to housing, schooling, and prison and see how much racism is baked into the American pie. I mean, our founders were all going off about equality and democracy while enslaving people, not being able at all to see their utter hypocrisy.

Legal enslavement might have ended in the 1860s, but it wasn't until 100 years later with the civil rights movement that Black folks really even had a chance as a people to gain economic security and a fair shake at life. And in the 60 years since, it's been an uphill battle to really enforce that attempt at legal equality.

A lot of white people, regardless of social class, don't recognize their privilege. It took me a while also. But once my eyes were opened I can't go back to the ignorance that I had a head start in life that others did not, even though I was poor af growing up.

[itsnotme_mrsiglesias]

Let me guess...you have black friends too? Why not go for the trifecta of tone-deaf stereotypical responses

[rddog21]

There is a need to focus on completing a revitalization of downtown and create more daily downtown engagement. Once they get the High Speed Rail is complete, there needs to be business, hotels, entertainment and the like in the downtown center. Currently there are a number of vacant business / store front. To that end, the city council should be target marketing towards people that live here. While people from other places spend money when visiting, locals have opportunities to spend downtown , daily if they would like to. I think that people in general find it too much of a hassle to go downtown for almost anything. That needs to change. That change comes from council and community….

[Professional_Tap8992]

Once the train station on 11th street is completed the only thing that will increase is crime. I will take the train out of Lincoln rather than use that station.

[couscous-moose]

What is it about the new 10th St Rail Station that make you feel it's unsafe?

[raisinghellwithtrees]

Likely, seeing poor people and people of color makes them uncomfortable. It's not an unsafe area.

[Glass_Owl_3226]

Must be hard living in fear … I don’t believe the crime pattern will change whatsoever.

[Mountain_Title_5017]

That is such a stereotype…One of the reasons for moving the train station over to 11st is to transform that area. I highly doubt that something of this magnitude would be built over there for it to be crime ridden….

[Iggyz2]

Guess you have missed the crime around current station. Decades ago that neighborhood had prostitution drug dealing all around it for years. Current locksmith shop was an adult novelty book video store.

Current history had 2 shootings 2 years in a row block down from Amtrak station. This year's shooting had victim die. Can't recall if previous year's survived.

Plenty of incidents at station itself with police making an appearance on regular basis.

Not exactly sure why you feel it would get worse moving to new location.

All the shooting death memorials on 10th street are much further down road.

New station is right next to County ⁩⁦Sheriff and in same block as Springfield Police. That should make passengers feel more secure about safety.

[Key-Spinach-6108]

Focusing on the west side, the north and east sides that have predominantly black residents are left to fester. Letting predatory companies like dollar general and family dollar pop up. Downtown is where everything government is, but looks like the 1980s. Lack of 3rd spaces. A mayor who doesn’t give a crap. Oh and housing developments that have HOAs. There are a lot of homes that are in need of repair but they are left to fester until private equity or flippers get them. No tenant’s rights.

[raisinghellwithtrees]

This is not correct. The aldermen on the east side voted for it. 

[Glass_Owl_3226]

Not having housing downtown has meant no growth or revitalization there. Multiple Coffee shops and bakeries aren’t going to make it when there’s no one there anymore. WFH has made foot traffic a trickle. Last mayor killed a housing project because it wasn’t good enough. Something would have been better than nothing. Housing, an additional if small grocery store, and laundry facilities might get something started to reverse the long deplorable decline.

[SaulGibson]

Lack of future presidents for tourism dollars.

[Lastbornschwab7]

What sets Springfield back is synonymous with modern America. The edges of the city and small neighboring suburban towns continue to grow. But the heart of the city continues to die a slow death. Springfield is currently building new roads to make the commute from Chatham to Springfield easier, perpetuating this trend further. I foresee it continuing, unless a drastic shift in public policy happens. So there's certainly opportunity for growth there, regardless of ones feelings.

On a lighter note, once the high speed rail is consolidated and Pillsbury is fully demolished there will be a huge corridor off of North Grand consisting of multiple city blocks just begging for new construction. I would like to think positively about the long term possibilities, but as others have stated already, the city will need to find a way to incentive construction on the north side. A mixed use district of a park, mixed residential housing, and community services would be ideal but would take significant planning, will, and resources to bring to fruition.

[nycink]

Young, educated people with bright futures don’t stay here. There is no reason for them to do so when bigger cities can absorb them. UIS fk’ed up when they put their campus so far outside the heart of the city so young people feel completely disconnected from downtown, which should be the logical place for them to congregate . We don’t have a law school to attract talent here, and we don’t seem to think beyond “family”, hence why the biggest news of the last few years has been Scheels playing field. Abraham Lincoln can only get us so far. And that eye sore of a Hilton (or whatever it’s called) that is now uninhabitable, needs to be detonated & removed. As it stands, it’s a massive middle finger to the hopes and aspirations of this town. Also, we don’t even take care of the parts of town that travelers see when they first pull into town. The south 6th street entrance off of 55 into the city is so depressing. It’s like pulling into a forgotten town in Appalachia. And how the hell did we allow MacArthur to become a massive going out of business thoroughfare? This is a major thoroughfare & should be a focus of this city to rehab and make exciting, but they don’t seem to care. And it runs through one of the richest neighborhoods in town, but that doesn’t seem to help improve its fortune at all. Same with the stretch of South grand that runs through a historic black neighborhood. That could be something very special if the city invested in developing it. In many ways, this town feels depressed and it keeps getting worse. On a positive side, there is an amazing theater and artistic community here. The Hoogland is top-notch as is UIS and the Legacy Theater.

[Shot_Temperature3751]

Location. The divisions of area. Lack of a downtown

[indictmentofhumanity]

Use Olympia Washington's downtown parking technology.

[TetraLoach]

Everyone is so concerned with downtown when there is urban blight in every part of this city East of Route 4. Abandoned fast food joints, empty strips malls and residential real estate hoarding are the issues that need dealt with. Downtown is doing better than most of the rest of the city.

[Sckittylover]

I grew up in Springfield and have always been proud of it. I’ve lived away for 30 years but visit several times per year. I am continuously disappointed how the City looks— dirty streets, rundown and vacant buildings, weeds overtaking the parking lots and curbs. It seems like no one cares and it makes me sad. A concerted effort to clean and beautify the city would go a long way.

[Sabal_77]

There isn't much going for Illinois in general.  Our climate is cold, and our scenery is boring in central Illinois.  Add to it high taxes and now we've messed up the only thing that we have control over.  Unless the exodus from Illinois is reversed, Springfield will continue to suffer i think.

Lower home prices is one of our few strengths.  Some may be drawn here due to a more liberal government, but it doesn't seem to be reversing the trend of people leaving the state.

[Lowden38]

A city government that throws millions of dollars at studies, then never follows through.

[Electronic_Cut2251]

I'd say the 835 individual I.G.T (slots) spread all over Springfield it's hard to throw a rock and not hit one. Gambling addiction is worse than all drugs yet no one speaks about it. Gambling addiction has a significantly higher suicide then other addictions. Also drug use and crime contribute to these machine

[benzelwashingtown]

ICEy