Editorial
Near West Side
Unfortunately blighted properties like the one recently on the front page of the SJ-R are slowing the recovery west of the Capitol Complex. A Comprehensive Revitalization Plan for older neighborhoods surrounding the Historic Downtown is needed to persuade private investors to take action.
Is it ecologically prudent and cost effective to continually subdivide farmland when our local population hardly increases? Maintaining existing infrastructure keeps government costs in check. Unfortunately as building construction spreads outward, costs increase. Providing government services to extended boundaries also increases gasoline consumption, equipment usage and manpower needs. Moving residents and relocating businesses often is just a matter of trading places, which hurts other businesses in close proximity to the city center.
Even worse, when the population remains constant but city boundaries expand the residential makeup of older sections of town often deteriorates. A stagnated, or even worse, declining tax base is the consequence of residents moving as the lines merge between Springfield and outside communities. I’m not even faulting families that are leaving; as an alternative we need to attract more singles or retirees to these older neighborhoods who would have the time and /or money to renovate these beautiful structures.
Some of our architecturally rich neighborhoods have become less desirable because of neglected structures and yards. Zoning regulators should adopt flexible rules and provide incentives to allow owners to save structures worth saving; encouraging developers to transform these areas to a mixed use, where both businesses and residences can coexist.
Striving to achieve stable and viable older neighborhoods should be a goal not only of the stakeholders but every taxpayer. Potential buyers want residential and business structures to remain owner occupied. Let’s work towards creating incentives for enticing rehabilitation so older neighborhoods will flourish. In doing so we’ll hopefully maximize the potential for property values and in turn better distribute the local tax burden. Focusing more attention on the surrounding downtown neighborhoods will create further opportunities; by keeping the central city more desirable to live and work.