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PROGRESS
I’m glad to see that Springfield Green is being revived (“Pick of the litter, March 19). Progress rarely comes packaged as perfection, so I am hopeful that this initiative sparks more attention and effort on cleanliness and beautification in Springfield.
Jay Shanle, executive director of Downtown Springfield, Inc.
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
NOT THE SAME
I moved to Springfield in the early 1980s, and downtown was a lot of fun. The mall and Town & Country Shopping Center took away shopping from downtown. The chain restaurants eroded the homegrown restaurants with a few such as Augie’s, Robbie’s and Maldaner’s hanging on. Cafe Brio was always really awesome and the Feed Store was a great place for a quick lunch, not to mention a couple pizza places to round it out. Now, it’s all but dead.
Downtown was much more vibrant in the years before the presidential library. Lincoln‘s home, the Illinois State Museum and a few other sites historically sustained tourism because people could dine downtown and stay in a nearby hotel, such as the Mansion View. Now, the city has learned the lesson that tourism is not enough to bring people downtown. Even with enhanced tourism, downtown rolls up at 5 p.m. and tourists are left without a place to have dinner other than Maldaner‘s.
There are some really great walkable downtowns throughout the U.S. but Springfield isn’t one of them. You risk life and limb crossing Sixth Street where people fly by at 50 miles an hour.
It’s time to bring brick-and-mortar businesses back to downtown – shopping online is a drag for trying on clothing and looking at merchandise. Have more street festivals and family-friendly venues for the tourists and residents alike. With Springfield’s rich history, we could do so much.
Denise Johnson
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
SET A GOOD EXAMPLE
Thanks for the article on the necessity of at-home preparation of children for their formal education (“Learning begins at home,” March 5). In the decades when I was a pastor, I liked to often remind our congregation that all children are home-schooled. Some of the lessons may be positive and some negative, but our children are learning continually, from what their parents are saying or not saying and how family members are interacting with one another, relatives, friends and strangers. They learn from how attendant we are to things happening around us and the values we place on relationships, knowledge, honesty, kindness, compassion, bullying and all the other things they live with.
Thanks to the teachers who gather a couple dozen kids of all kinds into a room and try to meet the needs of this very diverse group of learners.
Rev. Ken McGarvey
Pleasant Plains
SHARING GOOD NEWS
Thank you for the article “Ancient roots, modern future” (March 26). I would challenge Fr. George Pyle’s quote that Orthodoxy doesn’t evangelize. Historically we have always shared the good news: See Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Herman of Alaska, other Orthodox missionary saints and, more recently, Archbishop Anastasios of Albania.
As Orthodox, we are reticent to try and convert other practicing Christians to Orthodoxy because that has often been done callously to us. But that is not evangelism. Evangelism is sharing the good news and Orthodoxy certainly, and historically, has engaged in this.
Daniel Christopulos, senior development officer, Orthodox Christian Mission Center
St. Augustine, Florida
This article appears in April 16-22, 2026.
