South End rebuilding plan meets opposition

Date: 2/16/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- Not everyone at the community meeting for the South End neighborhood on Feb. 10 expressed support for the first phase of the infrastructure improvements to the neighborhood.

The first phase of a ten-step plan to rebuild the neighborhood -- a priority identified in the Urban Land Institute assessment of the city -- would include the resurfacing of Main Street from Howard to Locust; rebuilding sidewalks; renovating street lighting; adding trees and plantings; and expanding Columbus Circle into a plaza, while changing the traffic flow around it.

The schedule to begin construction on the project isn't set as yet, but John Bechard, of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., the project's managers, estimated it would be either this summer or fall.

The price tag for the first phase will be over $7 million in state and federal funds.

While Joan Kagan, the CEO of Square One, which has its headquarters in the South End, called the renovations a "great opportunity for revitalization," Frank Langone, one long-time businessman, asked of Bechard and staff members from the city's Office of Planning and Economic Development, "Why are you doing this?"

Langone asserted that money has already been spent "many times" in the South End on "fancy signs and fancy sidewalks."

"It's time to learn from our mistakes," he said.

Langone said he would rather see the city "take $10 million, buy a building and give it to people to start a business."

Langone received applause from the packed community room at the Gentile Apartments. Another resident wanted to know how city workers about to lose their jobs would feel about spending money on this project now.

Mayor Domenic Sarno took issue with Langone and with others who disagreed with the planned renovations. Explaining that the state and federal funds are designated for this kind of use and could not fund personnel, he said he was "surprised at the defeatist attitude in the South End."

Sarno said he has dedicated millions of dollars for the South End and "other neighborhoods -- I've taken heat from."

"We need to get an injection of investment in the South End," he added. "Other neighborhoods are saying I'm playing favorites.

"If I could use that money for employment I would, " he said.

He said the neighborhood has been the subject of "Band-Aid" approaches to its problems for the past 25 years, but this multi-phased plan -- which includes demolishing part of the crime-plagued Hollywood area -- is "a comprehensive approach."

"I've made a commitment with my administration to turn around the South End neighborhood," Sarno said before leaving the meeting to attend a function in the Pine Point neighborhood.

Greg Zorzi, the owner of the Studio One architectural firms, said he was supportive of the effort and was "very pleased to see the money spent here."

Scott Hanson from the Office of Planning and Economic Development reminded residents they could get updates by logging onto www.Springfield-MA.gov/SouthEndProject. The next community meeting will be March 19.