Economic development efforts expand

A Black alderperson called a white alderperson racist, then suggested they settle their differences “outside.”

Depending on your point of view, this might have been upsetting or entertaining to those sitting in the audience or watching online during the Springfield City Council’s Feb. 3 meeting. 

But Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory told Illinois Times that his comments to Ward 7 Ald. Brad Carlson and Mayor Misty Buscher were in service to his economically disadvantaged constituents and in opposition to “classic American politics” and efforts to “control the Black community and what they get.”

It’s uncertain whether the 42-year-old Gregory’s rhetoric and emotion, and initiatives by the three-member Aldermanic Black Caucus he leads, are likely to move Abraham Lincoln’s hometown forward in reducing some of the nation’s biggest economic disparities between Blacks and whites.

But Gregory said the caucus’ efforts are worth a shot, and there are signs that progress is happening, even if some egos are bruised along the way.

“There’s so much that I have planned for our community,” Gregory told Illinois Times in one of several interviews since the tense Feb. 3 council meeting. “I’m still going to be who I am to move my community forward.”

Controversy over SSGA contract

The blowup was part of debate over the city’s share of annual funding for the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, a nonprofit economic development organization supported by the city, Sangamon County, businesses and nonprofits. The council eventually approved the funding on a 7-3 vote, with Gregory and two other alderpersons opposing the measure.

Concerned that the alliance should focus more of its energy on the east and north sides of Springfield, Gregory spearheaded an amendment to the SSGA’s annual $250,000 contract with the city last year. 

Approved by the council on a 10-0 vote in April 2025, the amendment called for SSGA to create a Minority Business and Community Advancement Working Council and spend $50,000 of the contract allocation on the council’s efforts.

But because the amendment was proposed with little notice, SSGA President and Chief Executive Officer Ryan McCrady told the council he would need to present the changes to his board and get approval before the contract could be finalized and the city money could flow to SSGA.

None of that happened quickly. The revamped contract that the City Council voted on Feb. 3 contained new language, but creation of the minority business council wasn’t included. McCrady told the council Jan. 22 that SSGA officials talked with Buscher, who represents the city on the alliance, and SSGA thought the $50,000 and the specific focus on minority businesses would best be handled by The Springfield Project, another nonprofit economic development group.

The new $250,000 contract envisions an additional $50,000 from the city going to The Springfield Project, which operates a Black business incubator as part of CAP 1908, or the Community Access Project, 1100 South Grand Ave. E.

Dominic Watson is president of The Springfield Project and the Springfield Black Chamber of Commerce, and he is one of two Black members of SSGA’s 30-member board of directors.

The SSGA contract contains new language that McCrady said shows the alliance’s commitment to disadvantaged neighborhoods. 

For example, SSGA agrees in the contract to identify and engage in an ongoing basis with “those groups that have not been traditionally involved in past economic development processes, such as ethnic minorities, women and young people, and create strategies focused on the retention and growth of these populations in order to ensure a diverse and viable regional economy.”

SSGA also pledges in the pact to collaborate with CAP 1908, The Springfield Project and the Springfield Urban League and provide a “regular presence” at CAP 1908 “to support minority-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.”

Buscher told Illinois Times that she plans to sponsor an ordinance in the next few weeks to grant $50,000 in funding to The Springfield Project for minority business programming.

It’s unclear exactly how The Springfield Project would use $50,000 through the ordinance Buscher is planning. Watson didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Gregory said he doesn’t have a problem with the nonprofit project receiving additional money. It was when Carlson spoke before the vote that Gregory got angry and called him a racist, then bristled at Buscher’s request that he conduct himself professionally and refrain from name-calling. 

Gregory apparently took offense after Carlson, who represents part of the more prosperous west side of Springfield, said, “I commend and want to thank the Growth Alliance for their patience over the past year. There’s been a couple of speed bumps over the past year, but at the same time, they’ve been professional about it.” 

When Carlson then referred to the April 2025 debate that led to the council adopting Gregory’s amendment, Gregory interrupted him and said, “Damn.” Gregory later told Illinois Times that he felt like Carlson was demeaning efforts to make sure minorities get more attention from the Growth Alliance.

After Gregory interrupted Carlson, Carlson said the loud arguments that play out at council meetings don’t make Springfield an attractive place for businesses to locate.

“This is why businesses who regularly call me, and I call others, why we make it so difficult to deal with the city of Springfield. This is the exact reason.”

Gregory responded that advocacy by him and others on behalf of minorities doesn’t discourage overall economic development. “This ain’t got nothing to do with what you are talking about,” Gregory told Carlson.

The exchange between Gregory, Carlson and Buscher can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/GregorySPI.

The council debate included confusion by council members over the time period covered by the new contract and Gregory’s statement that he was upset no one talked with any of the three Black alderpersons ahead of time about plans to appropriate $50,000 to The Springfield Project.

If such a consultation had occurred, he said he wouldn’t have raised that concern at the Feb. 3 meeting or conducted what became an unsuccessful attempt to amend the new contract and re-insert the language requiring SSGA to form a minority business council.

Buscher told Illinois Times that she informed Gregory and Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams Jr., another Black alderperson, as early as Feb. 3 about her plans for the new contract with SSGA and a future ordinance benefiting The Springfield Project.

Gregory didn’t dispute receiving a call from Buscher but told the newspaper he misunderstood what she told him.

During the council debate, Gregory said he was frustrated with Carlson. 

“You don’t care how we’re included,” Gregory said. “That’s the problem – people like you. … I try to work with everybody, but we continue to be disrespected.”

Williams chimed in that difficult discussions at council meetings are good for the city as a whole.

“It’s OK to have hard questions. It’s OK to have hard dialogue,” Williams said. “You guys get mad because we ask hard questions.”

Carlson told Illinois Times that he’s not a racist and didn’t intend for Gregory to interpret his comments about a lack of decorum as criticizing Gregory’s efforts to assist Black people and other minorities in the city.

“I was upset that he yelled and screamed,” Carlson said. “I didn’t do anything to warrant that. … We have to be able to speak freely on the council. … It is so dysfunctional up there. I want what’s best for Springfield.”

McCrady drew a rebuke from Gregory when McCrady told the council during the Feb. 3 meeting that there’s “obviously a lot of tension on this horseshoe” and that council members need to find a way to diffuse the tension.

“People are nervous about coming before the City Council,” McCrady said.

Gregory responded that McCrady should have consulted the Black alderpersons about changes in the contract ahead of time. McCrady told Illinois Times that he worked with the mayor on the proposed changes, and it was up to her to communicate the information to the City Council.

McCrady later told the newspaper, “We want to have a city where people feel comfortable reaching out to the city.”

In the end, the council voted 7-3 on Feb. 3 to approve the new SSGA contract for a two-year period – $250,000 for the city fiscal year that ends Feb. 28 and $250,000 for the fiscal year that runs from March 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027.

Voting “no” were Gregory, Williams and Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano. Voting “yes” were Carlson, Jeff Cox of Ward 1, Larry Rockford of Ward 4, Lakeisha Purchase (the other Black alderperson) of Ward 5, Erin Conley of Ward 8, Jim Donelan of Ward 9 and Ralph Hanauer of Ward 10.

The three Black alderpersons formalized their alliance by creating the Springfield Aldermanic Black Caucus in 2024. The city never had as many as three Black alderpersons until Williams and Purchase, who were appointed by Langfelder to fill vacancies in 2021 and later were elected, joined Gregory, who was first elected in 2019.

The caucus has focused on economic disparities in a city with stark economic differences among Blacks and whites and history that includes the 1908 Race Riot, which helped to spur creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“When we are going to make decisions on policies for people of color, those people need to be considered,” Gregory said.

Springfield’s racial disparities

An analysis of 2023 Census data by Illinois Times in 2025indicated that the Springfield area, which includes all of Sangamon and Menard counties, posted the highest Black poverty rate in Illinois – 40.3% – and the fourth-highest Black poverty rate among more than 240 other metro areas in the United States with 10,000 or more Black residents.

Springfield’s Black poverty rate was 4.8 times higher than the white poverty rate of 8.3% in 2023. And the gap between median annual income for Black households ($33,112) and white households ($80,191) in the Springfield metro area was the second-largest in the country for areas with 5,000 or more Black households.

Black people make up 12%, or about 24,700, of Sangamon County’s population of 195,200 and almost 20%, or 22,500, of Springfield’s population of 113,700.

Buscher defended her administration’s efforts to promote minority businesses and economic development on the east side and other impoverished parts of town. Among those efforts she listed the recently launched Minority Business Institute Program, administered by Community Relations Director Ethan Posey.

“Economic development takes time and ideas, and then people to invest, so we are definitely working toward all of that,” Buscher said.

Buscher, who recites a “civility pledge” at the beginning of each council meeting, is the former elected city treasurer and calls herself a moderate Republican. Elected offices in Springfield city government are officially nonpartisan.

Buscher defeated incumbent mayor Jim Langfelder, a Democrat, in the 2023 mayoral election. Langfelder’s supporters included Gregory and Williams. Carlson, a Republican, supported Buscher.

Toning down the rhetoric

Buscher said she believes there are several factors that have led to more tense debates on the council in recent years.

“No. 1 would be, politics in our national rhetoric is making things less easy for folks to respect someone who doesn’t think like them,” she said. “There’s a lot of name-calling, which was going on that Tuesday night – giving someone some sort of label. 

“No. 2,” she said, “it’s up to us to handle ourselves in a professional manner up there. We are elected by the people to conduct the city’s business – not to have a personal anger outburst, not to call names, not to cuss at each other, not to pick physical fights like that. I believe the taxpayers elect us to do right by the community, and so it also is how people conduct themselves personally. You have to hold yourself accountable.”

At the request of a person Carlson declined to name, he and Gregory agreed to sit down for coffee on Feb. 16 and talk through their disagreements. Carlson said the conversation was productive. 

“We both committed to work differently from now on,” Carlson said, adding that Gregory “apologized to me privately” about his Feb. 3 comments.

Changes to cannabis business program

Gregory said he was gratified that the council on Feb. 17 unanimously approved changes to the city’s business and homeowner grant program funded with the city’s share of sales tax revenue from cannabis sales.

Even more deserving businesses and homeowners will benefit, he said.

The changes include a doubling in size for the areas of the city where a minority-owned business must be based or a resident must live to qualify for the program, which funds renovations and other improvements.

The area, which used to only be on the east side, was bounded on the west by the 10th Street Corridor and the east by Dirksen Parkway. The new area extends west to Fourth Street. Other changes include moving part of the northern boundary from Carpenter Street farther north, to North Grand Avenue. Parts of the Enos Park and Pillsbury Mills neighborhoods are now included.

The ordinance passed by the council also includes eliminating a requirement for matching funds and allowing vendors to be paid directly by the city rather than grant recipients having to pay vendors out of pocket and then being reimbursed. All of the new rules apply to future grants as well as retroactively to grantees or awardees in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

Springfield’s business grant program was unique when it began and resulted from a City Council decision to devote half of the city’s 3% sales-tax revenue from cannabis sales to help pay off the city’s fire and police pension-related debt.

The council devotes the other half to economic development in areas that the council designates as adversely affected by the nation’s failed “war on drugs.”

The first round of grants was awarded in 2022. During the third round, in 2025, the council approved potential allocations totaling $406,000 to five east side businesses and $165,073 for home-improvement grants to eight east side homeowners. The application deadline for the latest round is March 31.

Springfield resident Fontaine Krushall, 51, said he plans to apply for a $100,000 grant on behalf of his five-chair barbershop, Krush-ALL Kuts, formerly known as Major League Barbershop, at 905 S. Ninth St.

Krushall, whose business was a block outside the old boundary, said he wants to attract more customers and employ more barbers by doing interior renovations and creating more convenient parking.

Before Krushall opened the shop in 2011, the building, which originally opened in 1950, was a TV repair store and then a church, he said.

“Our floors are kind of worn out because of the high traffic from customers,” Krushall said. “Everybody wants to go to a nice barbershop.”

Krushall and his wife, Jenica Krushall, a registered nurse, have a blended family of nine children. In addition to barbering, he works part time for UPS, where he is a union steward for Teamsters Local 710.

The 1992 Lanphier High School graduate said a cannabis grant would help him attract more customers at a time when inflation has prompted many to space out their haircuts for longer periods of time.

He said the council’s decision to expand the cannabis grant program’s target area is “wonderful.” 

”I think the mom-and-pop brick-and-mortar stores need to come back,” Krushall said.

What’s next?

Frustration with the handling of the new SSGA contract led to Gregory setting aside his plans for an ordinance to form a 1908 Race Riot Repair Commission. He first discussed the idea at the Jan. 6 council meeting.

He told IT that the commission would hold hearings and come up with a report of recommendations to improve the way the city government conducts business so minorities and other disadvantaged groups face fewer barriers in applying for programs and seeking assistance.

The commission could even consider ways of creating reparations for Black people harmed by the legacy of slavery and institutional racism, Gregory said.

“Some of the things they’ll look at are housing stabilization and different home ownership initiatives that can be better,” he said. “They’ll look at business development, workforce investment and how we’re doing on that. They’ll look at our mental health, cultural preservation, public memorials and education incentives.”

After the Feb. 3 council debate and vote, Gregory said he has put the commission idea on hold.

“They don’t want to break down the barriers,” he said.

On another front, however, Gregory said he’s branching out.

He said he plans to meet one-on-one with Buscher to discuss some new initiatives he would like to tackle. For Gregory, who has tended to approach only his traditional allies on the council for support outside of meetings, this represents a new approach.

“I want to get her thoughts,” he said, declining to be specific about his ideas. “I’m going to give it a chance.”  

Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.

This article appears in February 26 – March 4, 2026.