Grant Beach Results

Residents in the Grant Beach neighborhood voiced their concerns and shared positive thoughts about their neighborhood Tuesday evening, May 19, at the eighth of nine “Community Listen” events organized by the City of Springfield.

City Council members in attendance included Jan Fisk, Ken McClure, Craig Fishel 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, Police Major Kirk Manlove, Assistant Parks Director Kim Reser and Planning & Development Director Mary Lilly Smith.

City staff handed out gift cards and 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 Grant Beach neighborhood and the rest of the City’s Zone 1. Zone 1 is the northwest quadrant of the City.

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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 Grant Beach 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. 

Grant Beach Top 5 Issues 
  • Chronic nuisance properties
    • Abandoned houses and slumlords
  • Homelessness and accompanying problems
    • Helping the homeless find work
    • Foot traffic through neighborhood
    • Public urination
  • Community storm shelters
  • Address food insecurity issues
  • Crime  
    • Scrappers
    • Form neighborhood watches, do training in the neighborhood
    • Drugs in neighborhood and park
    • Prostitution
Grant Beach Full Results
  • Chronic nuisance properties (51 points) = 23.2 %
    • Abandoned houses and slumlords
  • Homelessness and accompanying problems (48 points) = 21.8%
    • Helping the homeless find work
    • Foot traffic through neighborhood
    • Public urination
  • Community storm shelters (18 points) = 8.2%
  • Address food insecurity issues (17 points) = 7.7%
    • Incentivize businesses to come to neighborhood
  • Crime (16 points) = 7.3%
    • Scrappers
    • Form neighborhood watches, do training in the neighborhood
    • Drugs in neighborhood and park
    • Prostitution
    • Address disrespectful behavior in park and surrounding area (15 points) = 6.8%
  • Increased police presence (13 points) = 5.9%
  • Sewer system issues (12 points) = 5.5%
  • Proximity of metal crushing recycling center (12 points) = 5.5%
  • Flooding and standing water (10 points) = 4.5%
    • Franklin and Hamilton
    • Hamilton and Broadway
  • Traffic issues (4 points) = 1.8%
    • Speeding on Nichols, Grant, Campbell, Calhoun, Douglas
    • Using alleys and streets as shortcuts
  • More jobs (3 points) = 1.4%
  • Encourage more Neighborhood Association membership/participation in Hovey House (1 point) = .5%
  • Lack of liability insurance for organized neighborhood groups (0 points) = 0%