Springfield should copy what works in other towns

“To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”

Abraham Lincoln uttered those words in his famous farewell speech to Springfield almost 150 years ago. Since then, Springfield has undergone numerous transformations, riding the tide of change while retaining the pioneer spirit that settled this area in 1818.

As the 21st century creates new challenges and new opportunities, this city is faced with forks in every road, but taking a look at what works elsewhere can help make those decisions easier. We’ve chosen a few promising ideas from other cities that could make Springfield an even better place to live, improving transportation, housing, health and community.

This city has already made important strides toward environmental stewardship, sustainability and future success, and these ideas continue those efforts. Springfield was good to Lincoln, and it’s good to us, so here are a few ideas to return the favor.

In Indio, abandoning property is criminal

Property blight is like a cancer, spreading insidiously and casting its spell of decay and squalor on nearby properties. One boarded-up home can lower property values for a whole block, and problem properties become magnets for crime, drug use and more blight. Sociologists call it the “broken window theory” – ignoring small problems like broken windows and other signs of decay can contribute to a public sense of irreversible decline that keeps people from investing in a neighborhood or community.

Some cities have gotten tough on blight by aggressively going after landowners who allow their properties to fall into neglect. The city of Indio, Calif., situated in the Mojave Desert’s Coachella Valley east of Los Angeles, was among the first cities to go beyond mere civil penalties and make it a criminal misdemeanor to allow a property to fall into neglect, even for a corporate entity like a bank. The city now requires banks to register foreclosed properties the moment they are foreclosed so that the city can better monitor maintenance of those properties. Indio’s code enforcement division is part of the city’s police department, and department spokesman Benjamin Guitron says the law helps shave months off the time it takes to enforce code violations.

“It has really helped us maintain the data and the rate of foreclosed homes and where they’re at, rather than finding out six or seven months later that we’re dealing with the wrong guy because the house has been foreclosed,” Guitron says.

Even with the ordinance, however, he says stopping blight requires contributions from everyone involved.

“It can’t be a single effort; it has to be a community effort,” he says. “That’s what has helped us. The whole community got involved, at all levels.”

Steve Combs, president of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association in Springfield, says his neighborhood alone has 35 problem properties, and Springfield could have as many as 400.

“Some of these homes have been boarded up for years and years,” Combs said. “How long do I have to look out my door and see a house that is, quite frankly, a health hazard?” Enos Park is part of the newly-formed Inner