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Glittering-Bake-2589 t1_jarspma wrote

Side note to this topic.

Springfield could really do well if they started focusing on more outdoors and/or things to do that are free to the community.

Bentonville has mountain biking parks, Kansas City has stuff downtown, Columbia has a shit ton of outdoor stuff, and St Louis has a ton of free things to do - indoors and outside.

Springfield has some walking trails and then downtown has Art Walk and bars, but we really don’t have anything else to do. No museums, the skate park has to be paid to enter (almost every skate park in America is free), the trails aren’t very good, and all the other things to do, Wonders of Wildlife, Japanese Gardens, etc all cost some money.

Springfield should invest more in itself because it’s a really boring place to live. All the college students move away after graduation because Springfield has no appeal to living here.

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[deleted] t1_jarx1ax wrote

>No museums

Umm... The Art Museum. It's fantastic. I go a few times a year.

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Glittering-Bake-2589 t1_jas2biy wrote

It is nice, but the issue is that it’s really only open during work hours and not later in the evening

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[deleted] t1_jas3o23 wrote

It's open til 8PM three days a week and open on Saturday. I work a pretty typical schedule and it's not a problem to have time to go.

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bradleysballs t1_jas3v1g wrote

The MO History Museum in STL does a thing on Thursday nights where they're open until 8 and have talks, activities, food & drinks, etc. and I think the Art Museum should do something like this

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[deleted] t1_jasdc1k wrote

The Springfield Art Museum is open till 8 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

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Dbol504 t1_jasnsmr wrote

Trails aren’t good? What are you smoking? Nature Center is excellent, several good parks with longish trails, Wilson’s creek is now free, just to name a few aside from the nearby state parks.

As someone that lived in KC for years and stills gets back up there very regularly what are you seeing that’s so great and free in downtown KC? P&L is free to get in to but you’re not going to have fun if you don’t spend any money on food and drinks.

College students don’t just move away because Springfield is not ideal to live like a larger city, there’s also a tiny job market and no way we could support large numbers of graduates every year with new jobs.

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WendyArmbuster t1_jauj6b9 wrote

I'll tell you what's great and free in downtown KC, and that's Penn Valley Skatepark. That bowl is completely sick, and I drive up a few times a year to skate it. There's also Harrison Street DIY, but Penn Valley is just amazing.

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WendyArmbuster t1_jaujwag wrote

I agree. We could use a bike jump park, a few free skateparks, an RC racetrack, a pumptrack, a whitewater park, and some mountain biking trails IN TOWN. We have some good parks, but we could use more activity-specific parks.

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PossibleReporter6873 OP t1_jasfdjf wrote

I really love your suggestions!! I personally believe if we invested in public infrastructure, walkable sidewalks, and more public land would make Springfield leagues better. I'd love to pitch this idea to people who would listen, I actually had the mayor come to one of my classes and speak to us about leadership, maybe I can ask my professor for a contact info to reach out (:

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