Heart of the Westside Results

Residents in the Heart of the Westside neighborhood voiced their concerns and shared positive thoughts about their neighborhood Thursday evening, May 21 at the ninth “Community Listen” events organized by the City of Springfield.

City Council members in attendance included Ken McClure, Craig Fishel and Justin Burnett. 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 Captains Ben King and Greg Higdon, Assistant Parks Director Kim Reser and Assistant Fire Chief David Pennington.

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 Heart of the Westside neighborhood and the rest of the City’s Zone 1. Zone 1 is the northwest quadrant of the City.

HeartoftheWestside
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 Heart of the Westside 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. 

Heart of the Westside Top 5 Issues 
  • Increased police presence 
    • Drugs/gangs/criminal activity in alleys
  • Address chronic nuisance properties – businesses and residences 
    • Put pressure on landlords
  • Add a community center 
  • Speeding
    • Calhoun
    • Nichols
    • Park
    • Lombard
    • Walnut
    • Broadway
    • West
    • Chestnut
  • Incentivize businesses to locate grocery store to neighborhood, also creating jobs 
Heart of the Westside Full Results
  • Increased police presence (32 points) = 27.1%
    • Drugs/gangs/criminal activity in alleys
  • Address chronic nuisance properties – businesses and residences (28 points) = 23.7%
    • Put pressure on landlords
  • Add a community center (18 points) = 15.3%
  • Speeding (11 points) = 9.3%
    • Calhoun
    • Nichols
    • Park
    • Lombard
    • Walnut
    • Broadway
    • West
    • Chestnut
  • Incentivize businesses to locate grocery store to neighborhood, also creating jobs (7 points) = 5.9%
  • Ordinance against cell phone use while driving (4 points) = 3.4%
  • Add bus stops (3 points) = 2.5%
  • Add sidewalks (3 points) = 2.5%
  • Strengthen Neighborhood Watch participation (3 points) = 2.5%
  • Street parking issues (3 points) = 2.5%
    • Oak Park
    • West
  • Devise coordinated method to assist neighbors in need (2 points) = 1.7%
    • Food assistance
    • Property maintenance
  • Enforce noise ordinance (2 points) = 1.7%
  • Annexation of additional west side neighborhood (2 points) = 1.7%
  • Vicious animals (0 points) = 0%