This week’s cover story by Scott Faingold, “Punk paradise in Southtown,” p. 12, brings to light a little-known cultural phenomenon in Springfield. A half dozen youth-oriented enterprises have sprung up clustered together near 11th and South Grand. There, near the venerable Skank Skates skateboard venue, the under-21 crowd goes for live music at the Black Sheep and shops at Dumb Records. A decade or so ago Springfield spent lavishly on an old theater marquee and a metered parking lot and other infrastructure improvements to try to revive the area, but met with little success. Today, without government planning or subsidies, the area is becoming a youth mecca. Now establishment Springfield needs to recognize, encourage and support the fragile new Southtown – without interfering or taking over. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2014.
