What's right with Springfield? Plenty

The renowned editor of The Emporia Gazette in Kansas, William Allen White, long ago wrote an article that helped amplify his nationwide fame as a small-town journalist. I believe the title was “What’s Wrong with Kansas?” Some avid University of Missouri football fans might answer, “Everything!” However, the essence of the editorial was not what was wrong with Kansas but what was right with it.

Relax, this column has nothing more to do with Kansas; it is about Springfield. I’m stealing from White only the concept that there is more right than wrong about it.

I believe Springfield’s greatest asset is that it has the advantages of being a city with a small-town ambience.

While the growth of the city and the outlying area is ample, there is a definite small-town feel that’s not often experienced in a city.

For the 22-plus years of its life, the Rusty Saber has poked fun at Springfield drivers. Alas, big city traffic has arrived, forcing many famously eccentric drivers to adapt to the growth of heavy traffic or get off the streets.

Yes, Springfield does have big city traffic problems. Streets and highways are crowded to excess. Our traffic might be nasty, especially at rush hours, however, I will drive in heavy Springfield traffic if necessary. I can’t say the same for some other cities.

Rather than drive in most big city traffic at rush hours, I would gladly sit through a five-hour Roseanne Barr comedy concert, with a warm-up act of 20 accordions accompanying a quartet of Swiss yodelers.

Springfield schools at all levels exemplify what is good about the city. Public and private elementary and secondary schools seem to do a good job of educating children with few, if any, incidents of the disruptive behavior that hinders learning in many city schools. This, too, is likely a dividend of the small-town atmosphere.

Local institutions of higher learning cover a broad spectrum including a state university, private liberal arts universities, religious colleges, a seminary and a two-year academic/technical college. All are growing and contributing immeasurably to the quality of our lives.

Newscasts in many cities I have visited are filled with reports of serious battles among local government officials and/or reports of corruption or other local unpleasantness. Such stuff is rare for Springfield. I believe Springfield is a well-governed city. If not, negative local government headlines would be the norm.

I suspect that being well-governed leads to another small-town plus: Springfield Police and Greene Country Sheriff’s departments seem to operate efficiently with a minimum of serious accusations of lack of proper law enforcement. Effective and well-thought-of seems to describe law enforcement.

City Utilities is so large that it is an easy target for criticism, but not from me. In fact, I have never heard anyone accuse CU of not providing all the electrical and water needs of the public at reasonable charges. I believe one thing that is right about Springfield is that CU does what it is supposed to do, and it does it cheaper than a lot of other cities.

Springfield’s media is at least on a par with cities of our size and larger. Both National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System stations are available. Almost all tastes of music are covered by radio stations, along with religious, talk and sports formats. Local TV coverage of network news and entertainment is what would be expected; local news is well-produced. We have two well-respected city magazines, a big-city newspaper, and several small publications focusing on local issues and sports.

Of course, Springfield’s healthy economy is reported on by this publication, Springfield Business Journal.

What’s wrong with Springfield? Much more is right – so much so that this topic will be continued next week.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

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