In first State of the City, Schrag calls on residents to share the city’s stories

With only 44 days of experience in office, Springfield Mayor Jeff Schrag was tasked with a State of the City report highlighting accomplishments that preceded his tenure.

As an example, he pointed to a key growth metric in the fact that the Springfield metro added almost 5,000 jobs in the last year.

Schrag made his remarks at Evangel University’s AGFinancial Arena as part of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Good Morning, Springfield! series.

He also noted a declining poverty rate in the city.

“Ten years ago, we were staring down a poverty rate of 27.5%,” Schrag said. “Today, where are we? Our poverty rate is 19.4%.”

Schrag said the city’s goal in 2015 was to bring the poverty rate down by five percentage points by 2025.

“We hit that goal five years early, and we kept going,” he said.

By comparison, he said, Columbia has a 20% poverty rate, and the rate in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is 21.4%.

In an interview after he left the podium, Schrag indicated a lot of good things are happening in Springfield.

“Momentum is so important; vibe is so important,” he said. “You can only feel it – you can’t smell it, you can’t see it, you can’t hear it.”

And Schrag said he’d like people in Springfield to soak in it.

“If I can do little else but remind people of Springfield of how many good things we have going and just embrace those things, it just makes every task – from getting a cup of coffee to driving down the street – feel just a little bit better,” he said.

From the podium, Schrag encouraged residents to celebrate the city’s successes because they are the product of joint effort.

“We came together by addressing inefficiencies – addressing gaps in systems,” he said. “We focused on programs that met people where they are – job training, housing help, child care, transportation. Those aren’t just services; they’re lifelines.”

Schrag also celebrated advances in public safety. Over the past decade, he said, crime in Springfield has dropped by 30%.

“This past year, we saw a decrease in every single major crime category, from gun violence to vehicle theft. Every one had a decline,” he said.

Schrag noted that the past decade has also seen a strong partnership among the city of Springfield, the chamber, City Utilities of Springfield, Greene County and the Springfield Business Development Corp., helping the community to draw in more than 76 local expansion and business attraction projects. The achievement has supported the creation of 4,000 new jobs and over $880 million in new capital investment, he said – and the past year alone accounts for 400 new jobs and $200 million in capital investment from that total.

It's evidence, Schrag said, of a city that is growing in both population and economic momentum – but it’s also an indication that the city is a regional hub.

“The city of Springfield does not exist in isolation. We’re the beating heart of a vibrant, growing, robust, diverse region,” he said.

Schrag said the five-county Springfield metropolitan statistical area is just shy of half a million in population, following an increase of 25,000 people in the last five years. He added that by attracting new residents, Springfield positions itself for a new level of competitiveness in attracting more investment.

Schrag noted challenges, including downtown crime, homelessness and empty storefronts, but he also celebrated progress, like the city’s transformation from having 40,000 residents in 1925 to 170,000 today.

“A healthy, growing population is good for all of us,” he said. “It brings tremendous opportunity. And it also means we need to plan and invest wisely, so that we can all take full advantage of those key opportunities that only growing communities have.”

He said the city needs to invest in diverse and attainable housing while planning for transportation and safety needs. Education and child care must also be a priority, he said.

Schrag said the city’s comprehensive plan, Forward SGF, is tackling these issues by pushing for mixed-use development, downtown revitalization and enhanced neighborhoods.

“We’re making sure that growth doesn’t come at the cost of livability,” he said.

Schrag noted gains through annexation, as the city has added more than 1,000 acres in the last year alone.

He also highlighted investments in quality of place initiatives, including the Springfield Art Museum renovation and the Grant Avenue Parkway and Renew Jordan Creek outdoor amenities.

“One of our great strengths is in these shared spaces,” he said: “trails, parks, theaters, sports complexes, festivals and those small, unexpected joys – a meal shared in a diner, a shared toast to a birthday or anniversary, a concert in a public space, a porch light glowing in the Woodland Heights neighborhood.

“We’re not just building infrastructure. We’re building a growing, vibrant community.”

Schrag said as a city, Springfield has two choices – to look back or to look forward. He called on residents to share the city’s stories.

“Ladies and gentlemen, more than anyone, we need each and every one of you – community leaders, business owners, volunteers, faith and civic leaders – serving on boards, volunteering at schools, supporting local shops, helping a neighbor,” he said.

Getting the word out is key, according to Schrag.

“Our community is only as strong as the words we use every day to describe the place that we call home,” he said. “Will you join me in recognizing that Springfield is finally taking its rightful place among the Midwest’s most important metro areas?”

In his post-address interview, Schrag noted that with only 44 days under his belt, he’s not responsible for the successes he highlighted.

“But it exists,” he said, “and an important step is talking about it, recognizing it and cherishing it, because there will be all kinds of new ideas that will get dropped on our head all the time, and if you take them with positivity but you also take them with the notion that we’ve got to keep moving forward on our path, that’s how you succeed, I think.”

Schrag also talked about the importance of branding for the city and of talking about the things it is doing right

“The rallying effect is around the positive momentum,” he said. “It seems like a small, simple deal, right, when you’re building a brand and you’re communicating a brand. You must be very forceful. You must do it correctly. You must focus on the right things and then just be relentless in the telling of that message.”

Some members of the live audience for the address said they were left less with a messaging takeaway and more with a vibe of positivity.

City Councilmember Heather Hardinger said the mayor did a good job in communicating the city’s growth.

“I think we’re getting some of the accolades that we deserve as a city,” she said. “The best is yet to come, you know?”

Matt Morrow, president and CEO of the Springfield chamber, said he appreciates Schrag’s forward focus, and noted that as an organization, the chamber is all in.

“He recognizes that we have a lot of groundwork that’s been done to put us in the unique position to take advantage of those opportunities, and those windows aren’t open forever,” he said.

Tony Shalloup, business development officer for Opus V LLC, added, “I think he was very succinct in trying to tell us where we are now and where we want to go.”

Asked to name a mood of the speech, he replied, “Cooperation – cooperation throughout the community is one of the biggest things out there.”

Wade Shelton, community development coordinator for AIDS Project of the Ozarks, said Springfield wants to be a big city, but it doesn’t always want to put on its big-boy britches to become one. With the address, he said, he felt some of that spirit of communal energy.

“It’s not so much the message as much as the positivity,” Shelton said. “The environment we live in right now, everything is just so neggie Nancy. I enjoyed hearing the positive.”

Ruth Daniels, facility manager for Sixty5 Self Storage, said she takes away from the address Schrag’s recognition of the team it takes to accomplish big things.

“We’re no longer that small town,” she said. “A lot of people think that Springfield is a place you go to school and then you leave, when the reality is people come to school here and then they think, ‘Why would I want to go anywhere else?’ It’s not a flyover town.”