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The Springfield Thread

Cotuit

By Cotuit
in Massachusetts

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  • Replies 45
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  • 4 weeks later...
Shawn Crossroads

Shawn

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Posted

I have no real positive images of Springfield. Back in my days at Umass Amherst, we would sometimes check out Springfield on weekend nights, and the place was dead and creepy; that Hippodrome place is really sketchy. And my God, downtown Holyoke looks like Dresden 1945. It's not like I am some suburban wimp either (all my life has been spent in Boston, Providence, New York and Tokyo city propers), but Springfield is a mess.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Germaine Unincorporated Area

Germaine

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Posted

The two cities really need to get on the stick and start marketing together as a region. Include New Haven as an I-91 corridor of sorts, and you have a winner...

THAT is the truth! What better way to link these cities and rejuvenate their cores than with a modification of transportation policy? I hope to see these cities linked by high-speed rail ASAP.

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  • 4 weeks later...
HartfordTycoon Town

HartfordTycoon

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The newely finished MassMutual Center is nice. There's also talk about the Springfield riverfront project starting up again; maybe they'll finally develop the land!

Go Springfield :P

You know us down in Hartford want to see good things in Springfield. I just wish our two cities would realize how much more there is to gain by joining forces and marketing the region as a whole then trying to go it alone all of the time. I really think that our proximity to one another make both cities better, but people who aren't from here don't even realize it because we don't really market it that way. I hope you guys get something real nice on the riverfront.

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oliver Unincorporated Area

oliver

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Posted

You know us down in Hartford want to see good things in Springfield. I just wish our two cities would realize how much more there is to gain by joining forces and marketing the region as a whole then trying to go it alone all of the time. I really think that our proximity to one another make both cities better, but people who aren't from here don't even realize it because we don't really market it that way. I hope you guys get something real nice on the riverfront.

Damn right. All this competition between cities in the same area is stupid. In New England you have so many cities in close proximity. The more of them prosper, the higher is the quality of living in the area. You can live in the nicest place on earth, it is still great to have other nice cities close to visit. And every city has its on flair. I visit Springfield often because I am German and with the

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virgo20 Whistle-Stop

virgo20

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Oh Springfield...beautiful Springfield. I went to visit an old friend the other day on Sat. 11/19. After we hung out for awhile, I decided to go out and see downtown and relax by mself. After all, it's been years since I've been around town. When I lived in Hartford in the late 90's, I worked as a sales manager with Hartford to Holyoke as my premier territory.I never realized or appreciated my own city until I finally got to see Springfield in a whole new light. After all , I was bored with Providence and recognizing people from the street. The feeling you get sometimes from being in the littlest ststate of the Union can sometimes be too much...but after I hung out in Springfield...I realized how much of a culture shock it really was...

The MassMutual Center was nice and they've done some great new lighting in DT. ....but wow...what a difference!!! Springfield is a cast-away city inhabited by the trashiest people that I've ever seen north of D.C. Maybe I didn't realize it then, but I certainly do now. Club Xstatic , which I thought was a real club, was the trashiest place that I've ever been into. It made the Eagle look GRAND. I almost went straight.

You, the great citizens of Springfield, need to cohesively work with your legislators in CT more closely. ...And me...I will never complain about Providence again... Get the commuter rail thru 1-91 and hopefully you can associate yourselves with a larger metropolitan area.( NH-HTFD-SFD)

Sincerely,

The sucker who wasted $$ to even go there...!!!

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Germaine Unincorporated Area

Germaine

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That's Romney's plan.

:rofl:

Regarding Virgo's comments. As painful as they are, Virgo's words are very true. It's tragic how far Springfield has fallen. In my dreams, Springfield would probably be better served if it split from Boston (oops, I mean Massachusetts) and either formed it's own state or joined Connecticut (hell, joining WV would be better!). There are baby steps being taken to cooperate with Hartford, but without the support of the state it'll hardly ever get off the ground. Maybe the folks in Boston don't want Springfield to hook-up with and benefit from a more cohensive relationship with Connecticut. Maybe they worry that if it did, it might actually be able to compete with them then. :ph34r:

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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Fall River and New Bedford have the same issues in regards to Rhode Island. There are actually federal laws that prohibit RIPTA (Rhode Island's transit agency) from going into Massachusetts. Fall River is about the same distance from Providence as Springfield is to Hartford. It's silly that state lines are getting in the way of these metro areas.

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virgo20 Whistle-Stop

virgo20

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Springfield made Worcester look classy. It's been a long time since I've been back there, and this will probably be the last. The streets were packed with loud Puerto Ricans and their shaved eyebrows hustling for drugs and sex...trying to make a scene..The gay "club" was nothing more than a fully nude bar that evidently picked up people from the street. Most of the dancers appeared to have dirt under their fingernails and high on drugs while the old men were touching them all over...and that was just Xstatic. After I got tired there, I walked down the street to another bar. ( Spfld. does have a walkable downtown though.) There was a small bar with a 400 lb. drag queen and disgusting people there. When I asked if there was anything else around, they responded, " NO, but you should check out the club downstairs." They informed me it was a leather place and as I went downstairs into the dark dirty caverns of the place... I realized that it was nothing more than a place where dirty people do dirty things....When I decided I was definitely ready to get out of there, I thought it would be nice to grab a quick bite to eat on the way home. I stopped at some 24 HR place a couple of buildings down when I overheard 2 cops using racial epithets when describing a call they received through the walkee-talkee in the North End.( This was in plain view of 5 white patrons...no blacks around)...five fat dirty disgusting white trash that looked like mountain people that came out of the Berkshires for a night on the town....and they all laughed at the cops remarks....So you see boys & girls, that was my recent experience in Springfield...Boy, could I not wait to get home? My experience brought me back to the day last year when I saw 3 cars in succession with Confederate flags in Worcester...Cities are melting pots for people..and people of all backgrounds..socio-economic, ethnic, etc....but when cities don't have that balance ...like Springfield ( among others )...it becomes extremely difficult to attract people and attention in their revitalization efforts. I never took a step back and realized that I should be thankful that I live in a diverse city with an extremely well balanced background......

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  • 1 month later...
Heather B Crossroads

Heather B

Posted
Posted

I'm a Springfield resident who doesn't bother exploring the downtown nightlife. Or should I say, exxxploring.

Really, there is not a lot to do in the evenings in my fair city, except to leave and find a decent spot elsewhere for a good dinner, movie or a game of pool. It is very sad. All the same, my family and I bought a house in a slightly run-down area where I observe drug activity on a semi-regular basis and walk my young kids to the neighborhood public school. This is what I feel I can do to help the place, and it's an interesting time for this city right now. Fodder for journalism and blogging.

Fortuitously I was invited to blog for the local paper last spring, so now I get to flex my fingers in that realm and make something of a difference, even if only in word. http://masslive.com/springfield/weblog

I'd be interested in doing an email interview with anyone serious about cooperative marketing efforts between Springfield and Hartford. It could give your ideas a voice in this city where people fell asleep at the wheel and have recently been jolted awake, staring down the tree of bankruptcy with which we collided.

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  • 2 weeks later...
digitalurbanity Crossroads

digitalurbanity

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Its too bad that actual downtown is pretty safe (with the exception of a storeowner getting shot across the street from the mass mutual center) yet the reputation is defined by the nearby neighborhoods where the majority of violent crime is gang on gang. I go to STCC, and I can't say I've ever felt threatened though.

And its the outlying neighborhoods which really need investment. The local business leaders have been criticized for not doing enough outside of downtown. The housing stock is constantly deteriorating (not helped by the previous mayors decision to can half of the building inspectors, now reinstated), and commericial areas are pretty hostile. So much effort has been put into big ticket projects, banking on them to be the savior of the city, that the rest of the city has been ignored.

I see part of the problem being the lack of cooperation between communities in the area, there is no cohesive economic plan in place to focus development in the pioneer valley. Neighboring communities often have conflicting plans and the regional planning agency seems rather ineffectual. Any kind of mutual activity between Springfield and Hartford would be great, if people will listen.

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