Opinion: Springfield didn’t reject the convention center; it rejected the process

Jacob Brower

I went into this wanting to be a “yes.”

Downtown matters. Growth matters. Springfield should be thinking bigger about its future. A convention center, done right, could be part of that.

As a downtown business owner, I care about what brings people in, what keeps them here and what actually strengthens the local economy over time. When something has the potential to reshape downtown for decades, it deserves more than surface-level support or opposition. It deserves real understanding.

I paid attention to how this proposal was rolled out. I followed the early decisions and where the money was going. I wanted to see what kind of foundation was being built underneath a project of this scale. More importantly, I wanted to see how buy-in was being built along the way.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room.

Springfield has developed a reputation – at least partially earned – of the same handful of people being invited to the tables where decisions are made for all 170,596 of us.

If it were simply a matter of the same few people being willing to serve, that would be one thing. But the perception is that there has been little effort to broaden that circle.

Until that changes, outcomes like this will continue. Who’s in the room, and who isn’t, moves the needle more than any single line item.

Once that perception of exclusion sets in, everything that follows becomes harder to trust, including where the money goes and who it goes to.

This wasn’t about a convention center. It was about trust in the process that got us there.

And Springfield made its answer clear.

Voters didn’t reject growth. They didn’t reject downtown. They didn’t even necessarily reject the idea of a convention center. They rejected the way this was done.

And they didn’t do it quietly. Springfield voters on Tuesday rejected it 58%-42% – an even wider margin than November’s 53%-47% defeat.

And the vote total only tells part of the story.

This didn’t fail on ideological grounds. It was opposed by liberals and conservatives alike.

One of the few things that unites the left and the right is the feeling of being left out of decisions that affect them.

Still, we keep seeing the same pattern:
• The same small group of decision-makers.
• The same limited explanation to residents and business owners about how it would affect them.
• The same last-minute push to persuade the public, instead of a sustained effort to involve them from the beginning.
• The same reliance on out-of-state consultants charging substantial fees, with little to show for it.
• And the same entirely predictable result.

At some point, we have to admit the same old, same old isn’t working anymore – assuming it ever did. Until that happens, Springfield won’t break out of this cycle.

Large civic projects succeed or fail long before the vote. By the time this made it onto the ballot, it was already dead in the water.

Large civic projects succeed when the public believes the process is open, thoughtful and inclusive. They fail when the perception – fair or not – is that decisions are made within a small circle and revealed after the fact.

That perception doesn’t go away on its own. And it doesn’t get fixed by writing bigger checks to the same out-of-state consultants next time. It gets fixed by changing the process.

None of this means Springfield shouldn’t still pursue a convention center. It may still be the right idea. But if it is, the process has to be different from the start.

The circle has to widen. Communication has to start earlier. Decisions have to feel like they reflect the community – not just a handful of people deciding what’s best for everyone else. Trust isn’t something you ask for at the end. It’s something you build from the beginning.

Springfield didn’t say “no” to a convention center. It said “no” to doing it this way. And until that changes, the answer is going to keep being the same.

Springfield voters are speaking loud and clear. Are you listening?

Jacob Brower is the owner of downtown Springfield business Archer's Bow Media and Marketing LLC and a former newspaper editor and publisher. He can be reached at jacob@jacobbrower.com.