The latest Springfield Green beautification initiative will include an elaborate verhaul of the Clear Lake Avenue entrance point from Interstates 55 and 72, which will feature a stone waterfall sign as well as trees and greenery.
The other four entrances to be redesigned are at South Fifth and Sixth streets, South Grand Avenue East, Wabash Avenue and Jefferson Street. Once those are complete, Springfield Green will target at least seven other entrances to the city.
Final designs will be presented after the teams are assembled and come up with them.
Davlin said the projects are part of an effort to extend the privately funded Springfield Green from downtown, where it has been centered around the
opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, to the
neighborhoods.
Hey, I think this is great. I'm all for it. But after you get into the city is when you get to the real eyesores. Unfortunately, many, if not most, visitors to the city enter from the east after exiting I-55. Some of the routes in, South Grand in particular, take travelers through some really ugly areas.
I'm not going to pretend to have a quick solution for this problem but I'm not sure prettying-up the specific entrance points is enough to leave a good impression with visitors. I would seem to me that there must be a good combination of city planning and financial incentives that could remedy this situation.
In the meantime, kudos to Mayor Davlin and everyone else involved in this project.
UPDATE: My own headline above inadvertently reminded me of another esthetic problem that needs addressing: the damn pig trucks rolling through downtown. Let's do something about that as long as we're wanting to be more presentable. Note to JeromeProphet: you commented below but didn't catch the obvious either. You're slipping, man.
1 comment:
There are so many of these small semi affordable ways to improve the appearance of this town.
And with each dollar spent now the economic benefit, in tourism dollars, and in dollars spent by additional businesses locating here, the effort will more than pay for itself in the long run.
And this says nothing about the asthetic, quality of life, issues which are harder to quantify, yet sure mean a great deal on a dreary gray sky day when one starts to wonder just why one lives in this section of the country.
JeromeProphet
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