It would be the height of hypocrisy for me to criticize advocacy journalism; so here goes! I learned early on after deciding to live in downtown Springfield that the bulk of the nuanced thought would come from people with skin in the game, people who actually lived in the neighborhood and had to live with
With the conclusion of Fresh Paint Springfield LunaLucia appeared, looming over Dwight Street. Many of my friends have commented at the irony that she is gracing the side of a parking garage, given my aversion to such structures: GoodSpace Murals was the name of the group of artists from Minnesota who created the idea and
James Howard Kunstler: “We don’t have to have a craft fair to get people to come here.” “A public place so dismal that the winos don’t even want to go there.” Most of Springfield’s public spaces reside on the better end of this continuum of public space, but, often due to a dearth of programming
For mid-sized cities having an identity is a challenge. I was working in radio when the laws controlling ownership changed and saw just how quickly “local radio” all but disappeared. The same is true of banking and retail, food and drink, news and entertainment; the list goes on. Lots of places have been staging a
This question of beauty has stayed with me for weeks now. I believe wholeheartedly in the proposition that aesthetic quality is an enormously important characteristic for cities like Springfield to cultivate if they are to survive and thrive at this moment in time. As I wrote just a few weeks ago, however, there is an
I’m almost embarrassed for the host of the Capitol Watch podcast from the Hartford Courant. I mean, I wish Springfield and Masslive had anything even remotely similar with a focus on the city and urban issues. It is still the case that, even with the multi-million dollar headquarters and broadcasting center of New England Public
Unless they’ve had some contact with their art in one of my colleague’s classes, most of my students have never heard of Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya. They’ve heard of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso (who they think is French), and perhaps one or two others, but almost never Velázquez and Goya. After explaining
(Click on the link) Some things just don’t make any sense. Until they do. In the world’s most popular team sport the English Premier League was already statistically Europe’s strongest league when it suddenly was infused with more TV money than any other league could have hoped for. It was clear that the next decade
Two weeks ago I woke up without my voice. I missed two days of work and spent the weekend convalescing. After pushing through a full week at school I was presented with one of the most glorious days of this heretofore wet and chilly spring; It was the Saturday of Springfield’s birthday celebration (#383) and
The algorithms that select videos for me on YouTube demonstrated their accuracy last week by placing a documentary on Gary, Indiana at the front of my cue. It wasn’t the most recent nor the highest quality footage I’ve ever seen, but it was produced by a filmmaker whose perspective I recognize in myself. Gary, Indiana