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New residents say Springfield has much to offer

Wittenberg students outline a list of the city’s amenities.

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By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 8:16 AM Tuesday, May 18, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — In 2008, a group of Wittenberg University students conducted an informal survey of citizens for a potential advertising project. What they found was that the people who really needed to be sold on Springfield were its own residents.

The students made a list of Springfield’s top 10 amenities, including the Summer Arts Festival and its aquifer-fed water source and suggested ways to get the community to appreciate what it has.

The students got it — many of them, such as 2008 graduate, Stephanie Rines, made Springfield their home after graduation.

“I moved away for about a year,” the Indiana native said. “But I came back. I just bought a house. I plan to stay here.”

She admits that Springfield wasn’t an easy sell to her friends.

“We used to get Dayton television stations (in Indiana) and every story about Springfield was about some crime,” she said. “My family kind of laughed about it — it was a joke to us.”

She spent her freshman year defending the city she came to appreciate as she became more involved and served as tour guide to her family during visits. She watched many in her freshman class change their attitude about Springfield as they became more involved in the community.

Beginning this week, residents can become involved in the future of the city and its internal and external image, via the Greater Springfield Moving Forward survey.

The survey, available at libraries, shops and the Springfield News-Sun, asks participants to provide ideas to improve the city in the areas of education and work force development, economic growth, revitalizing strategic community areas and strengthening local resources and leadership.

A steering committee will use the results for a five year strategic plan — created for the community by the community.

It’s how you choose to look at it

Orlando Sanford moved back to Springfield about seven years ago and although he’s currently unemployed, he doesn’t believe the city is any worse than the others he has lived in.

“I think they are doing the best they can to make things better,” Sanford said outside the WorkPlus Center on Lagonda Avenue. “One state isn’t really different than another. I believe it’s all about what a person wants to make of it ... what they want to accomplish.”

Marta Wojcik, curator of the Westcott House, had no preconceived notions about Springfield when she came here from Chicago in 2004. “I just knew I was going to be at a Frank Lloyd Wright house. I didn’t think too much about the city.

“People ask me ‘it must be hard to come to Springfield after living in Chicago,’ ” she said, “It’s not hard at all. We love it here.

“And I certainly don’t miss the commute.”

She finds most out-of-state visitors to the museum are as equally charmed by the city, its rich history and its “fascinating” architecture — something that neighboring cities don’t have, she said.

To promote Ohio’s only Prairie-style Frank Lloyd Wright home, the Westcott House is packaging tours with local restaurants, hotels and other amenities.

“There is such a spirit of cooperation here and you know all the people that are working together,” she said. “They really love this city and want to do the best they can for it. You couldn’t do that in a Chicago.”

Affordability

Springfield’s cost of living is another advantage it has, not only over a Chicago, but a Columbus and Cincinnati too, said Realtor Kim Marshall.

“You can get a lot more square-footage for your dollars in Springfield than you can in Dayton on Columbus,” Marshall said.

She and her husband, Dave, raised their children in Springfield and two of them went to college here. Many of her memories involve local events, such as the Summer Arts Festival.

“We would just call all of our friends and we’d meet at Veterans Park,” she said. “We all enjoyed it. It was such a great memory.”

For those who still remember the closing of Crowell-Collier Publishing in 1956, or subsequent job reductions at International Harvester, it might be time to let go and see what the future of Springfield holds, said William Kinnison, historian and author of “Springfield & Clark County — an Illustrated History.”

”A lot of people look at what Springfield has lost and they don’t see all the things that are happening around them,” he said. “Things have been slowed down by the economy but plans coming out of the chamber and other groups are on a pretty good track.

“I’d say we’re halfway between our lowest point and our highest,” he said.