Life Of Jason

I apparently stirred up some bad feelings with a comment I posted on the News-Leader’s message boards that the Heer’s Tower wasn’t the “crown jewel of Springfield.” Some long time residents and business owners felt that it was a mischaracterization the tower and the project that is being planned to help revitalize the downtown square area. I can only come at this from the perspective of someone who’s moved here in the last few years and doesn’t have any kind of emotional tie to the old Heer’s tower or the downtown square. I come at this with the perspective of someone who’s focused toward the next fifty years of Springfield since this is my home versus the last fifty that happened before I moved to town.

It’s not that I discount the history of the square or town or the tower. Far from it! I have great respect for the way the city has developed and I’ve learned a lot about how Springfield came to be where we are right now. Obviously the Heer’s tower has meant a lot to many and at one point was the crown jewel of downtown. However, since I’ve been around all it’s been is a run down building. I’ve volunteered with a ministry that was based right behind the Heer’s Tower and witnessed everything from drug dealing to a stabbing happen on the sidewalks in front of the Heer’s tower. I wish I could see it as the crown jewel that many want to say it is but all I’ve seen are examples of the problems Springfield is working so hard to solve.

A reporter for the News-Leader talked to me today (nice guy) and asked me about this. What I told him was that I think the heart of downtown isn’t the square but it’s close to the square. I’d say if we wanted to look at the heart of downtown we should look at the corridor that starts at the new theatre of the Skinny Improv and runs to the renovated Gillioz Theatre. Then it goes to the very underrated Discovery Center. (Talk about a crown jewel for educating our kids!) Then it’s the Shrine Mosque, the Expo Center and then Hammons Tower and Hammons Field. In the eyes of this two year resident of the city, that’s the heart of downtown Springfield. The square, while close to the starting point, isn’t in the picture.

Now, perhaps putting the hotel (or condos) in the Heer’s Tower would expand that corridor to include the square in the mix. I know I’d be certainly in favor of that happening because the revitalization of the square is just as important as continued economic development throughout the city. I don’t see where the steakhouse and hotel combo will really benefit the average Springfieldian but at this point I’m going to be optimistic that what I heard last night at the council meeting wasn’t just rhetoric. The developer seemed sincere in his desire to see the square be a benefit to the city and not just a project to put money in his pocket. I’m open to giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I’m just not going to give the “crown jewel” status to the Heer’s Tower until I see the finished project and what it really brings to the city. Regardless of how you feel about him, Mr. John Q. Hammons has brought some real crown jewels to the downtown part of the city and this new project has a high bar to reach to take away the crown jewel crown.