Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin is feeling
anxious.
Two months remain before the dedication of the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, an event expected to draw
national media attention, tens of thousands of visitors, foreign
dignitaries, and, perhaps, even the president.
“I’m nervous,” Davlin says.
“You know, we’re all nervous because we have a lot of
work to do in the next seven weeks.”
Last-minute preparations include arranging for
shuttle buses to haul visitors, erecting new wayfinding signs
throughout downtown, and, perhaps most important, finalizing a
detailed security plan if President George W. Bush shows up.
These logistical issues are being tackled by a
variety of engineers, planners, and volunteers.
The mayor, meanwhile, has spent much of the
last year focusing on the decorative details. Dolling up the
capital city has become a top priority for Davlin, who made
beautification efforts the core of his “State of the
Downtown” speech last month.
Of course, for some local dreamers, a
beautiful Springfield would involve razing the Soviet-style
Stratton building or the smoke-belching City Water, Light, and
Power plant, removing a few billboards, or even solving the
long-standing problem of illegal dumping.
Under the previous administration,
beautification efforts included a major revision of zoning laws
that addressed landscaping and signage problems (see sidebar).
But Davlin’s emphasis has been more
superficial — from painting traffic lights to removing parking meters to mass flower plantings
and tulip-bulb giveaways.
“I don’t care how hokey it
sounds,” Davlin says, “but anything you do to green up
this city is going to make it look good.”
The mayor says he is stressing uniformity
downtown and hopes to install new flower planters modeled after the
pale Egyptian limestone of the new presidential complex.
Tidying up downtown has become an obsession
for local planners, according to Marilyn Kushak, chairwoman of the
presidential museum readiness committee.
Kushak says that a new logo,
“Company’s coming,” will soon appear on downtown
storefronts, and souvenir brooms will be donated to business owners
to encourage cleanliness.
Later this month, Downtown Springfield Inc.
will finish compiling its annual inventory of infrastructure
problems downtown, from broken curbs and sidewalks to chipped paint
and sagging gutters.
Some of these repairs will be included as part
of the finishing touches leading to the museum dedication.
Davlin says he is hopeful that the
city’s emphasis on aesthetics will boost civic pride. He
points to similar progress made in Chicago.
“You don’t even see cigarette
butts in downtown Chicago; people don’t flick ’em
there,” Davlin says. “That’s a mentality that has to change for Springfield.”
Davlin appears ready to tackle the
cigarette-butt issue; the city’s chronic trash problem is
more daunting, he says.
Throughout his nearly two-year tenure, Davlin
has pledged to alter the city’s privatized system for garbage
collection, which some critics blame for the fly-dumping that is a
blight and public-health hazard in many parts of the city.
Davlin has pledged to crack down on households
that are not contracted for waste removal, which account for 3 to
15 percent of the population, according to different studies.
But, Davlin says, all the brainstorming has led
nowhere. “We’re never going to alleviate the
problem,” he says. “There’s a law in the book, but
it’s practically impossible to enforce.”
Returning to his beautification initiatives,
Davlin acknowledges that Springfield is larger than highway
entrances and the historic downtown center. But, he says,
“you have to start somewhere,” and he vows to expand
his Springfield Green initiatives after the museum opens.
For instance, Davlin says, he plans to add
tree planters to several median strips throughout the city, from
intersections on Dirksen Parkway to the corner of South Grand
Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.
He is also hopeful that the state will soon
announce funding to jump-start the $10 million-plus project to
create a tree-lined boulevard along Capitol Avenue, extending from
Second Street to 19th Street.
“Let’s get April 19 over
with,” says Davlin, “and then let’s go
on.”
Museum director Richard Norton Smith,
meanwhile, agrees that much work remains to be done before the
museum dedication. But as the big day approaches, he says,
improvisation becomes key.
“It’s a conceit to call it
planning; it’s reacting,” Smith says. “People who
say they’re planning make the mistake to think that
they’re in control.”
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2005.
