James Krohe Jr.

At night, what sounds like the leaves of Springfield’s street trees rustled by the breeze is really those trees whispering to each other. And the word they say most often is “Langfelder.” When Jim Langfelder became Springfield mayor in 2015, one of his first hires was a city arborist. In 2019 he reinvigorated the city’s […]

What follows is a fun story about a city, a court and a cause. I am moved to write about it because it’s important and few Springfieldians younger than 35 will have heard of it. I was tempted to quote Faulkner about how the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past – until I realized […]

Springfield was a grand hotel town in the ’20s. It was the state capital, a tourist mecca and a “good convention town” too, meaning it offered gambling, booze, women and a police force under orders to leave the customers alone as long as they didn’t do it in any of the churches or public parks. […]

Downtown Springfield has been slowly bleeding retailers, office tenants and cobblers-to-kitchen installers since 1951 when Sears, Roebuck & Co. moved its store from Adams Street downtown to South Grand Avenue. Weakened but tenacious, downtown has been “revitalized” more times than the Batman movie franchise thanks to tourists, state workers, apartment dwellers and visiting urbanism experts […]

Anyone versed in the basics of economics knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch – unless you are shopping for a hotel to host your association’s next convention and you are plied with free tastings of dinner menus for your approval. The rest of us have to pay one way or […]

“Company’s coming!” Caseworker, health inspector, church lady – whoever is coming, it means get the pizza boxes off the coffee table and pick up your dirty socks.  For the City of Springfield, the company is out-of-town visitors. Mayor Misty Buscher says that 2026 might be a record-breaking tourism year for Springfield thanks to celebrants of […]