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Jennifer Jackson, publisher, Springfield Business Journal
SBJ file
Jennifer Jackson, publisher, Springfield Business Journal

SBJ Economic Growth Survey: Publisher's Note

Live, Work & Play

Posted online

I am more aware now than ever that where I live is a choice. Springfield was an easy choice for me. After all, I ended up here after high school, got my undergraduate degree at Missouri State University, and married and raised a family here. I have history. I have grown to love the place that I live and the people that have surrounded me.

Today, remote work and social media make it possible to live almost anywhere and feel as though you aren’t leaving friends, family and work behind. At least that’s what my kids and new son-in-law tell me who all have work, school and relationship ties in Springfield but have chosen to relocate to Columbia and St. Louis, and my mother who recently retired to Michigan but maintains that her heart still lives in Springfield.

The special focus of this edition of Springfield Business Journal is placemaking. It is one in a series of six special sections in the 2022 Economic Growth Series focused on current developments and providing inspiration for future improvements to the Springfield area needed to secure business and community health into the future. Placemaking is about creating and managing public spaces for the people, by the people. It requires collaboration, partnership and imagination to discover and meet the needs of the people who currently live, work and play in Springfield and to attract others.

In this edition, you will read about planned urban waterway projects and their connection to local placemaking. You will read about the impact of placemaking to employee recruitment and retention, as well as how area employers are creating a sense of place within their businesses. You also may gain inspiration from a community case study of Greenville, South Carolina, which made bold choices to enhance a deteriorating downtown in a quality of place initiative centered around art and an urban waterway.

Springfield is a choice we’ve all made. Beauty, inspiration and opportunity abound here. I encourage you to dig into this special edition and to be a part of the two public forum events remaining in the Economic Growth Series on Oct. 26 and Nov. 16. Help area businesses and municipal leadership imagine a future for the Springfield area.

SBJ 2022 Economic Growth Survey collected April 29-June 22. Survey sample size of 235, with a +/- 5.4% margin of error and 95% confidence interval.

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