West Central Results

Residents in the West Central neighborhood voiced their concerns and shared positive thoughts about their neighborhood Tuesday evening, May 12, at the fifth of nine “Community Listen” events organized by the City of Springfield.

City Council members in attendance included Phyllis Ferguson, Jan Fisk and Craig Fishel, Ken McClure and Mike Schilling. Numerous partners from community agencies listened in, including representatives from Ozarks Technical Community College and Missouri State University; Mercy; City Utilities and the Impacting Poverty Commission. Community Listen has a long list of partners committed to hearing citizen concerns. 

Most of the City’s departments were on hand to answer questions, including Director of Building Development Services Chris Straw, Assistant City Manager Collin Quigley, Police Chief Paul Williams and Fire Chief David Hall.

Zone 1 Councilwoman Ferguson handed out T-shirts boasting “North Side Pride” and encouraged participants to take part in a “renaissance” of the City’s historic neighborhoods.

City Manager Greg Burris led the group through a series of somewhat sobering “intensity maps” that illustrated some of the challenges in the West Central neighborhood and the rest of the City’s Zone 1. Zone 1 is the northwest quadrant of the City.

WestCentral-1
Downloads & Links
• View the PowerPoint presentation.

• View Results. 

• MIss your neighborhood's meeting? Share your thoughts on the Community Voice section of our Web site.

• Contact your neighborhood association.

To start off the “listening” portion of the evening, Director of Public & Civic Engagement Cora Scott, shared findings from the City’s most recent Citizen Survey, which outlined the priorities of survey respondents from Zone 1 and satisfaction ratings for various City services.
Participants offered suggestions about what things they would most like to see fixed in the West Central Neighborhood.

The top five issues will be incorporated into a plan to address issues in Zone 1. Burris said he expects a plan to come forward after partner agencies meet with City officials in late June. 

West Central Top 5 Issues 
  • Chronic nuisance properties, slumlords and renters.
  • Safety inspections of rental properties
  • Stronger police presence to address feeling unsafe in neighborhood, and need to address pockets of crime.
  • Address poverty
  • More food access.
West Central Full Results
  • Chronic nuisance properties, slumlords and renters (Page, Lombard and Market) (30 points) = 26.8%
  • Safety inspections of rental properties (21 points) = 18.8%
  • Stronger police presence to address feeling unsafe in neighborhood, and need to address pockets of crime. (17 points) = 15.2%
  • Address poverty (13 points) = 11.6%
  • More food access (11 points) = 9.8%
  • Encourage more owner-occupied homes (9 points) = 8%
  • Improve sidewalks and streets (Grant between Grand and Mt. Vernon) (5 points) = 4.5%
  • Address crime and nuisances from homeless (4 points) = 3.6%
  • Expand Community Schools to provide additional services in the neighborhoods (1 point) = .9%
  • More access to lending support (1 point) = .9%.