Archive

More details on State Street progress

George O’Brien wrote an article for the June 12 issue of BusinessWest about developments along Springfield’s State Street corridor. The story is that rare breed of news article that takes a close look at the design considerations, with a nod to the process...

ULI week follow-up

Springfield City Hall has posted the ULI panel’s final presentation (PDF) online. NPR affiliate station WFCR’s Tina Antolini covered the ULI panel’s visit all week, collecting hours of audio footage. Antolini deftly condensed the report into a scant...

Fragile stability: FCB quarterly report

The Springfield Finance Control Board recently released its September 27 quarterly report (PDF). Its next meeting is slated for Friday, October 20, 11:00 am in room 220 at City Hall. So much fire-putting-out has been done by the FCB, I wonder why they don’t wear...

Represent

At a meeting last night, Springfield City Council approved a measure, by an eight-to-one vote, to "seek approval from the state Legislature" to change the way the council is elected, making "the first major change in the form of government here since...

Devine assessment

Amherst-based blogger Tom Devine has posted his take on the recent Urban Land Institute panel presentation, with some colorful commentary about questions that arose about Springfield’s Union Station.

The weapon is love?

The works of systems-dyamics thinker Dr. Jay W. Forrester recently crossed my path, synchronously with a recent piece by Civic Strategies consultant Otis White about an innovative way to shut down drug-dealing. Forrester, whose 1969 book, Urban Dynamics, promoted his...

A seat at the table

Amherst, Massachusetts is taking a look at its comprehensive master planning process. What can sometimes feel like a dry, drawn-out, no-quick-results experience is being jazzed up by rainbow colors on the town Web site. Last night, the western Massachusetts support...

For what it is

As the school year approached, and summer wound down, I found myself avoiding calls from a particular family. I was wracked with guilt about this. I avoided the calls because I knew what they were about, and I was frustrated, even angry, in the anticipation. My...

Where we live

Connecticut public radio station WNPR’s weekday morning show, “Where We Live,” featured an excellent two-parter about the city of Bridgeport last month. It’s called “A Tale of Two Connecticuts: Part 1” and “Part 2.” From...

The search for “quality renters”

Springfield resident, registered nurse and real estate broker Mary Ayala attended the Urban Land Institute panel’s presentation on Friday, September 29. She raised an issue during the question-and-answer session about the concern many property owners have in the...

Works of their own

I’ve been working for a few weeks now with a class at a local elementary school, under the tutelage of the school’s writing instructor, to create a published project generated by the students. The form the project takes will likely be something in print...

On futility

A former neighbor of mine moved out of his multi-family house this year, opting to rent it instead. He didn’t move far, and he comes back from time to time to check on the place. The tenants have changed several times over the two years I’ve been here to...

How those plea bargains feelin' now?

I admit that my jaw dropped when I read today’s news alert in the Springfield Republican about the dismissal of all charges against racketeering and bribery defendant Peter Davis. Of 13 defendants, Davis was the only one to allow his case to go to trial. The...

Lessons for today's housing crisis

The type of housing crisis Massachusetts may be experiencing right now is distinct from the crisis Springfield is likewise enduring in particular. In most places around the state, affordable housing can be hard to find. People who can’t afford better housing may...

Springfield and exit strategies

No, this post isn’t about how people can strategize a means to move out of Springfield. It’s about the idea that Springfield might need (and continue) to strategize ways to get out of its own services or subsidies. Civic Strategies consultant Otis White,...

Parking…at Museum Park

The view down Springfield’s Harrison Street from Chestnut, standing approximately right in front of the local package store. Looks like the naked tree at center got the memo on looking as bleak as possible. Photo by Heather Brandon According to the...

City farmers host biotechies

When a bunch of biotech executives visited the Pioneer Valley on Tuesday this week, looking into possibly locating some business resources in the area, including Springfield, one of them—Nina Corcoran of Cambridge-based Genzyme—was quoted by Springfield...

Dumping in the city

Bill Dusty of The Rogue Review, based in Springfield, posted photos yesterday of symptoms of bulk-trash-dumping in two city spots. The photos were taken at the prominent intersection of Maple and Central Streets, along a row of beautiful yet sadly neglected...

The language graveyard

A recent study from the University of California, "Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California" (PDF), reveals that Spanish-speaking immigrants adopt English very quickly.According to Zach Patton of Governing.com’s...

Act of faith: being a citizen

In a recent article about Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan’s visit to a civic association meeting, The Reminder’s G. Michael Dobbs quoted Ryan as saying, "by being citizens of the city, ‘we perform an act of faith every day.’"Amen to...

Self-contradictory freshness in the Acres

Buzz about the new Fresh Acres store at the intersection of Wilbraham Avenue and Parker Street got me to arrive at the store’s doorstep a day after it opened. The Springfield Republican primed the pump in an October 18 business-section article just a day before...

Public schools to close on November 22

The Springfield School Committee apparently voted last week to cancel school on Wednesday, November 22, which was previously scheduled to be a half-day. This news comes from a small blurb in today’s Springfield Republican: Springfield school canceled for Nov. 22...

Bethesda Lutheran Church fire

The Bethesda Lutheran Church on Island Pond Road suffered a horrendous fire in its sanctuary on Sunday afternoon. CBS3 has been all over it, with on-the-scene coverage of the fire as it was being extinguished, follow-up coverage on the day after, and another story...

Urban planning as branding

An article appeared in today’s Springfield Republican, by Azell Murphy Cavaan, about efforts on the part of the city (read: Finance Control Board) to seek proposals from real estate and marketing companies to analyze and market several high-profile properties...

Inmates perform at AIC

Northampton-based The Performance Project, which creates and performs "high quality original works of theater and movement with men and women in jail, and those who have been released from jail," is slated to take the stage of the Esther B. Griswold Theatre...

Best businesses on Boston Road?

The Boston Road Business Association (membership: $75 annually) which links businesses both in Springfield and Wilbraham, with benefits, is inviting the public to nominate the best businesses along Boston Road, in a number of categories. Winners will be lauded at the...

Still searching for quality renters

On MassLive.com’s Springfield discussion forum, poster "NoPol" initiated a thread (27818) positing that the city ought to "institute a serious crackdown on illegal apartment conversions," and enabling "legitimate renters to get a fair...

Two valleys

The latest CommonWealth magazine includes an article, "A tale of two Valleys," by Amherst-based writer Melissa DaPonte Katz. From the article:Not surprisingly, many of the area’s cultural and recreational offerings are concentrated in the Upper Valley....

Visitors

One recent evening, around dinner time, I was putting away warm-weather clothes for storage, taking note of how dark it had gotten outside at an early hour. I head a jiggling of the doorknob at the front door, and assumed it was my husband coming home from his job. I...

Six downtown restaurants team up

Trying to turn over a new leaf—we’re not just about strip clubs, you know—the new Springfield downtown dining district consists of six restaurants so far.The one-page Web site for the district, which is mainly a gateway to the six restaurants’...

Mass pike toll-free glee: hold your horses

The Boston Globe’s Mac Daniel reports today that the state-appointed, 13-member Transportation Finance Commission "urged the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and [Governor Mitt] Romney administration to slow plans to abolish tolls on the turnpike west of...

Anytown, USA tonight at central library

If you happen to be looking for a "nail-biting drama" tonight, consider dropping by the Springfield central library branch at 6:00 pm for an election-eve showing of the award-winning 2005 documentary, Anytown, USA. The film chronicles a tight mayoral race in...

Consider a downtown loft

This just in, from a resident of Springfield’s six-story McIntosh building, at the corner of Worthington and Chestnut Streets downtown:There are five units in my building going out for bid in a couple weeks. The minimum bid is around $50,000 (I paid way more),...

Sign violation down at last; what store now?

A while after I had stopped grumbling to myself about it, walking by it every day while taking my kids to school, the signage that folks constructed last spring on the storefront at 196-206 Dickinson Street in Forest Park finally came down yesterday. I documented the...

Election day: no donuts for you

The Boston Globe predicted yesterday that election day turnout across Massachusetts would break records for any gubernatorial race in history. Today, the Globe offers up a Flash-based interactive map showing how precincts across the state voted for governor.Closer to...

Continuing Conversation

Longmeadow filmmaker Scott Kittredge’s most recent short film, Terminal Conversation, which was shot on location in Springfield’s former Basketball Hall of Fame, is being screened at the Northamption Independent Film Festival, which opens today and runs...

Smart City Radio just got smarter

The urban planning, design and development Web site Planetizen announced this week that it is partnering with Smart City Radio to produce a monthly audio segment offering up "summary and analysis of the most interesting and intriguing planning-related stories...

Decisions, decisions

Election day yielded some ripple effects for leadership in Massachusetts cities—for example, the pending decision of Worcester Mayor Tim Murray, lieutenant governor-elect, on whether or not to remain in local office; and the decision of Springfield City Councilor...

Sustainable patterns of growth

To help Deval Patrick adjust to the governorship, the Massachusetts chapter of the American Planning Association, together with three other agencies, sent him (as well as the other three candidates, prior to the election) a brief October white paper (PDF) called,...

Rogue Journal expands

Springfield’s Bill Dusty, who maintains the New England Rogue Journal, expanded yesterday to host a brand new, regional blogger-welcoming forum. Dusty also posted yesterday the first part of a series, "A Springfield Story." From the piece:[B]ecause so...