Midtown Results

Residents in the Midtown neighborhood voiced their concerns and shared positive thoughts about their neighborhood Monday evening, May 18, at the seventh 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 Chief Paul Williams and 911 Emergency Communications Director Zim Schwartze.

City staff handed out Walmart 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 Midtown neighborhood and the rest of the City’s Zone 1. Zone 1 is the northwest quadrant of the City.

midtown
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 Midtown 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. 

Midtown Top 5 Issues 
  • Address chronic nuisance properties 
    • Overgrown lawns
    • Feral cats
  • Enhance transportation options (tie)
  • Crime (tie)
    • Form Neighborhood Watch
    • Chronic offenders
  • Diversity programs and events
  • More local jobs (tie)
  • Food access (tie)
  • Homelessness/hunger
Midtown Full Results
  • Address chronic nuisance properties (17 points) = 16%
    • Overgrown lawns
    • Feral cats
  • Enhance transportation options (12 points) = 11.3%
  • Crime (12 points) = 11.3%
    • Form Neighborhood Watch
    • Chronic offenders 
  • Diversity programs and events (11 points) = 10.4%
  • More local jobs (8 points) = 7.5%
  • Food access (8 points) = 7.5%
  • Homelessness/hunger (7 points) = 6.6%
  • Jail capacity (6 points) = 5.7%
  • Sidewalk safety and maintenance (5 points) = 4.7%
    • Continue sidewalks along Benton, Locust and Jefferson
  • Voting drives (5 points) = 4.7%
  • More childcare options (4 points) = 3.8%
  • More health care services (4 points) = 3.8%
  • Neighborhood Plan/Zoning enforcement (3 points) = 2.8%
  • Boyd school maintenance issues (2 points) = 1.9%
  • Annex more property (1 point) = .9%
  • Recruit volunteers for neighborhood clean-up projects (1 point) = .9%
  • Illegal parking (0 points) = 0%
  • Concerns about closing school libraries (0 points) = 0%
  • Alley and roadway maintenance (0 points) = 0%