#downtown springfield

[snake-jailbird-official]

Enjoyed a romantic burger and movie date with my babe @cindy-lecce-space at Five Guys and the Aztec theater in Downtown Springfield to see the new Venom movie. We also shared a totally sweet chocolate shake and fries together and couldn't believe it was just the 2 of us in the entire room when we headed to the movies. Definitely going down in the history books, yo!

[legstheoctomobster]

Capo Headcanon Redesigns bc holy fuckballs I cannot fight art AND writer’s-block to save my life ‼️

[peteskiiss]

[rabbitcruiser]

Official Simpsons Mural, Springfield

It may seem like yesterday, but "The Simpsons" mural in Springfield is nearly a decade old.

Cowabunga!

Many things have changed in 10 years, but two constants endure.

"The Simpsons", an animated sitcom on Fox, is still on the air — 36 seasons and counting. 

And, Springfield, Oregon is the undisputed true setting for the satirical story of the dysfunctional middle-class American family and their neighbors.

Don't have a cow you other Springfields, but eat our shorts!

Clues have existed since the show's first episode, but in 2007 the show’s creator Matt Groening, who grew up in Portland, sent a plaque with an eerily prophetic cartoon image to Springfield city officials that read, “Yo to Springfield, Oregon — The real Springfield! Your pal, Matt Groening, proud Oregonian.” The plaque now hangs in the mayor's office at Springfield City Hall.

If that isn’t evidence enough, seven years later Groening agreed to collaborate on a mural to grace downtown Springfield.

In 2014 a crew from Old City Artists spent four days painting a 15-by-30-foot mural on the west wall of the Emerald Arts Center on Fifth Street between Main and A Streets. 

Some of the features of the painting, like the spotted owl, beaver and Three Sisters Mountains reportedly came directly from Groening.

When the work was completed on August 25, 2014, the city shut down Fifth Street and threw a huge block party featuring Yeardley Smith, the Emmy-winning voice of Lisa Simpson. The voice actress and entrepreneur flew in from California to dedicate the mural and leave her hand, shoe prints and name in cement, Hollywood Walk of Fame style. 

Since its creation, the mural has been a huge hit. TripAdvisor ranks the location as the number one thing to visit in Springfield. A typical day sees people from all over the world stopping by the location to make a selfie in front of the painting and more importantly, spend money at nearby businesses. The renaissance of downtown Springfield may owe some of its success to the mural. 

Source

[beardedmrbean]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction on charges that he staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself in downtown Chicago in 2019 and lied to police.

The state’s highest court ruled that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County state’s attorney initially dropped charges against Smollett in exchange for forfeiting his $10,000 bond and conducting community service. The ruling and the appeal did not address Smollett’s continued claim of innocence.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, claimed two men assaulted him, spouted racial and homophobic slurs and tossed a noose around his neck, leading to a massive search for suspects by Chicago police detectives and kicking up an international uproar. Smollett was on the television drama “Empire,” which filmed in Chicago, and prosecutors alleged he staged the attack because he was unhappy with the studio’s response to hate mail he received.

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the 5-0 decision. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the state was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”

Smollett’s attorneys have argued that the case was over when the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dropped an initial 16 counts of disorderly conduct. A grand jury restored charges after a special prosecutor took the case. A jury convicted Smollett of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021.

Emailed messages seeking comment were sent Thursday to Foxx’s office and to Smollett’s attorney, who have argued that Smollett has been victimized by a racist and politicized justice system.

Testimony at his trial indicated Smollett paid $3,500 to two men whom he knew from “Empire” to carry out the attack. Prosecutors said he told them what slurs to shout, and to yell that Smollett was in “MAGA country,” an apparent reference to the Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.

Smollett testified that “there was no hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in his downtown Chicago neighborhood.

He was sentenced to 150 days in jail — six of which he served before he was freed pending appeal — 30 months of probation and ordered to pay about $130,000 in restitution.

A state appellate court ruling upheld Smollett’s the conviction, declaring that no one promised Smollett he wouldn’t face a fresh prosecution after accepting the original deal.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis and Justice Joy Cunningham took no part in Thursday’s decision.

[retropopcult]

December 1930: Christmas shoppers in downtown Springfield, Illinois

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’ve been reading some craft books and online posts about the world building because my story is an urban fantasy set in present day US, in a fictional town, and theres not a secondary world where the fantasy happens, it’s all in the real world, except the magic is a secret that only certain people know about, but all of the resources I find about world building only talk about fantastical worlds that exist by themselves and not the kind of more subtle world building that I’d have to do. Do you have any tips?

Guide: Creating a Fictional Town in the Real World

Step 1 - Choose Your Location - There are two ways to go about choosing a location for your fictional town. One is to go the "Springfield U.S.A." route, ala The Simpsons, and be vague about the specific location (borough, parish, district, county, region, state, or province) and instead give a broader geographic region... "the East Coast," "the Pacific Northwest," "Central Canada," Northern Scotland," etc. The other option is to go ahead and put your fictional town in a specific location. Just figure out where (for example, somewhere outside of Des Moines, Iowa) and go to Google Maps, click on satellite view, then start zooming in on big empty areas. Choose a place big enough to fit a town. Yes, in reality it's probably farm fields, pasture, or someone's property, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to actually show it on a map. It's just a plausible spot to build your town. Now you can measure how far it is to other places, you know what highways to take to get to it. You can even do street view to get the lay of the land, see what the landscape looks like and try to envision the buildings there. You can also use what's there to create parks, popular recreational areas, and anything else your town needs.

Step 2 - Choose Your Inspiration - Even when you're creating a fictional town, it's still a good idea to use a real town (or two, or three) from that general area as inspiration for your town. For a fictional town in Des Moines, I would zoom in on the map to find a nearby town of similar size... like Elkhart, then I can take a look around to see what it's like. Just looking at the map, I can see they have a couple of churches, a couple baseball fields, a very small main street/downtown area with a couple shops and restaurants, a post office, a few different neighborhoods, and a cemetery. This would be a great model for a small fictional town outside of Des Moines. And, as I said, you could look at a couple other sand combine them. Once you have your inspiration town/s, you can walk around on Google Maps street view, go to the town's web site, watch a tour on YouTube (if one exists), or look up pictures in Google Image search.

Step 3 - Start Planning - This is the really fun part! First, you might want to draw a basic map of your fictional town using your inspiration town/s as a guide. This doesn't have to be a pretty map... just a basic line drawing to help you envision where everything is. Think about some of the basic things this town might have, like the ones I listed in step two, and any other things you might want your town to have, like maybe a library, a hospital, a city hall, school, and maybe a movie theater. It might even be helpful and fun to put together a collage of pictures to represent your town so you've got something in mind as you write about it. You can even choose representatives for specific locations in your story, like your MC's house, school, and their favorite hangout.

Step 4 - Naming Your Town - Start by looking at the kinds of town names that surround your town. Look for common naming conventions... suffixes like -ton, -ville, -dale, -burg, -wood, -field, etc. Words in a particular language, like a lot of French-inspired town names, or towns with geographical terms (lake, hill, valley, river, canyon, gap, etc.) My guide to Naming Locations has additional tips.

Step 5 - Populate Your Town and Give it a History - Last but not least, make up a little history for your town, again, using surrounding towns as inspiration. Who founded it? When was it founded? What's the town's main industry? What are the people like in this town? What jobs do they have? What do they do for fun?

Here are some other posts that might help:

Five Things to Help You Describe Fictional Locations Setting Your Story in an Unfamiliar Place WQA’s Guide to Internet Research Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[video-game-jams]

The Simpsons (Arcade) - Downtown Springfield

[railwayhistorical]

In the Capital City

This post will conclude the series focusing on one train, powered by F-units, on the former Chicago & Alton, later GM&O/ICG.

We begin at Ridgely Yard, Springfield, Illinois, where our train is approaching a signal bridge adorned with a color position light for each main track. The second image has the train crossing over North Ninth Street, while the third shows it south of downtown Springfield at Iles Tower. You may be able to see in that last image that the engineer is leaning out of the window, arm extended, so he can pick up train orders on the fly.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken November 21st 1976.

[darkmaga-returns]

By Olivia Murray

Logansport, Indiana has become the new Springfield Ohio—during the Harris-Biden years alone, more than ten thousand migrants poured in, largely from Haiti and other third world nations, and the population of this small midwestern town surged by more than 30%, per a conservative estimate from the county health department.

And, reported by an item published at the New York Post today, the demographic change is forcing local kids out of the public school system as the teachers find themselves diverting more time and attention to the non-English-speaking portions of the class:

Thousands of migrants from Haiti and dozens of other countries have arrived in this isolated Indiana city of 18,000 in just a few years. Furious residents say they no longer feel safe in the once sleepy downtown, and their kids are being muscled out of the schools by new students who don’t know English and need a lot more help.

To get an idea as to how that number translates into non-citizens in the K–12 range, the article reports that the number of foreign students has increased “15-fold” just over the past three years. According to one local parent whose daughter left the system and enrolled in an online school, all those little American afterthoughts (whose parents actually foot the bill for the public school to be even be open) are “falling behind” academically:

[opheliasnotdead]

In my dream

We are having coffee

at a shop downtown,

maybe Springfield.

You look at me

over too much creamer

and smile

And all at once

I see the years

in a backwards carpet roll,

spanning

the distance between us

Thanksgiving burgers

at 29 palms

and tears over acrid cigarettes

on the torn screen porch,

And god,

I miss you.

I wish

I could tell you

that you really look like

You

now

That I am so happy

to see your insides

Bloom

across your once fearful skin

and your chipped teeth

Braving

the sun that has always

loved your freckled surface

even before

You

did.

I know I will wake

distant

and aching

at that frayed ribbon

Tug

in my heart,

The one that lingers

around the perfect soft curve

of your ankle

as you move steadily

Away

But here

Now

in the verdant warmth

of my sleeping brain

I can finally tell you

I am

Proud,

so

Proud,

Of

You.

[legstheoctomobster]

Uhhh shitty Johnny drawing featuring his inner child

He ain’t happy with his adult self’s bullshit

[harmonyfriends]

Downtown Springfield - The Simpsons Arcade Game [Harmony Friends Arrange]

This was commissioned for a KFAD-style project that sadly got cancelled. I especially had fun with the solos. I've been sitting on it for a year, so I'm happy to be able to share it now!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * *

The city of Springfield, Ohio, has been thrust into the national spotlight by the racist slurs of Donald Trump and JD Vance directed at the city’s Haitian immigrant population. Springfield matters on many levels: It represents a city struggling to overcome the collapse of the Midwest manufacturing base that served as the driver of America’s economy in the last century. Those struggles include population flight, high levels of poverty, low levels of education, weak housing markets, and stress on social systems and infrastructure caused by foreign immigration.

Springfield is like hundreds of cities across the nation struggling with the same issues. Springfield matters because its citizens have not given up. They are fighting to reclaim and renew their historic city. They are doing so by revitalizing the city’s manufacturing base, focusing on aerospace, technology, agriculture, and distribution logistics. Springfield leaders are attempting to revitalize the downtown business district by creating a business-friendly environment. Springfield is welcoming new residents, including immigrants, by expanding housing stock and recruiting workers to its renewed industrial base.

The challenges facing the leaders and residents of Springfield are daunting and the solutions are multifaceted. But one essential element of Springfield’s future is foreign immigration. Without it, Springfield’s path to renewal will be much more difficult. Indeed, Springfield’s two centuries of growth were fueled by successive waves of immigrants from Germany, Italy, and Ireland.

Each of those waves of immigration brought growing pains, including racial tension and violence. Springfield is now experiencing a new wave of immigration—this time from Haiti. As Springfield city managers acknowledge, the most recent wave of immigration is stressing city resources, but they are actively working on solutions.

Before turning to the commendable response by the Springfield city managers, it is worth noting the degree to which population flight has defined the city’s current crisis and how foreign immigration offers a potential path forward.

The chart [at link] shows the population trend in Springfield, Ohio from 1960 through 2020 (as documented by the US Census Bureau):

Over fifty years, Springfield lost nearly 30% of its population. The population decrease had cascading effects on business activity, education, personal wealth, and tax revenues. (Of course, the population decrease is also a product of the collapse of the mid-century industrial base.)

Based on the Census Bureau profile of Springfield, Ohio for 2020, the city faces the following challenges:

A poverty rate double the national average (22% vs. 11%).

An employment rate of 53.1% vs a national rate of 60%.

A population that lags in college degrees (bachelor’s and beyond) 15% vs  50%.

3,000 vacant housing units—an 11% vacancy rate vs an 8% vacancy rate in surrounding Clark County.

A depressed housing market, with median prices of $175,000 in Springfield vs $231,000 in Ohio vs $412,000 nationally

The US Census report linked above shows some people in their 30s and 40s move away from Springfield—creating labor shortages in the prime working years for adults. See NPR (9/19/2016), Springfield, Ohio: A Shrinking City Faces A Tough Economic Future. Per NPR,

Median incomes fell an astounding 27 percent in Springfield between 1999 and 2014, more than any metropolitan area in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

The labor flight was exacerbated by the opioid crisis. Per NPR, “Employers say it's gotten harder to find job applicants who can pass a drug test.”

The above challenges are daunting and require a multi-pronged approach. But one thing is clear: Springfield cannot “shrink” its way to prosperity and renewal. It must grow its population to increase its labor and tax base to support increased economic activity.

Fifty years of population declines show that Springfield will not attract residents from Ohio or other states to fuel its growth. In 2020, Haitian immigrants began moving into Springfield for employment. Over the last four years, 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants moved to Springfield under the Immigration Parole Program. After arriving in Springfield, they applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), allowing them to legally live and work in the US.

Adding 15,000 people in four years to a population base of 58,000 is challenging and has impacted Springfield’s social services and infrastructure. But city managers have been welcoming of the new immigrants. See Immigration FAQs | City of Springfield Ohio Official Website.

The city website addresses immigration, in part, as follows:

Community leaders and agencies are working collaboratively to provide programs and solutions to acclimate our new immigrant community and to protect our entire population of Springfield. Some initiatives already executed include: English language classes, driving courses, cultural awareness, banking and home ownership, work opportunities and healthcare. City leaders are also working with state and federal legislators in an effort to get the increased funding necessary to ensure continued public and sustainable for all of our citizens in our community.

Springfield’s City Manager, Bryan Heck, published a video on September 12, 2024. I urge you to take four minutes to listen to Heck, who not only debunks the rumors being spread by Trump and Vance but puts forth a positive case for Springfield’s renewal. See YouTube, Bryan Heck | Springfield city manager addresses false claims

Springfield’s leaders' efforts to revitalize the city’s business base while welcoming new residents, including immigrants, are exemplary, and they deserve praise and support for their efforts.

Instead, Trump and JD Vance have poured gasoline onto an already challenging situation and lit a match by spreading racist and defamatory rumors directed at the Haitian community in Springfield. Their lies have flamed animosity and resentment from some residents of Springfield to an immigrant population that they blame for Springfield’s woes—problems that predated the surge of immigration in 2020. Indeed, as I hope I have made clear, the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield is part of the city’s path to recovery and renewal.

On Thursday, someone called in bomb threats to city hall in Springfield—with the threat using “hateful language” about Haitian immigrants. The threat caused city officials to close schools in the area. See The Guardian, Bomb threat shuts down Ohio city hall after Trump spreads baseless migrants rumor.

Springfield’s mayor and police chief, as well as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, have criticized Trump and Vance's comments.

So, here we are: A city in Ohio that is doing its best to accomplish an economic renewal that necessarily involves a labor force immigrating into the city finds itself used as a campaign prop by politicians who have no interest in helping Springfield. Instead, the politicians are making it harder for city leaders to manage a challenging situation.

Springfield, Ohio, matters because it represents hundreds of US cities struggling with the same problems. It matters because its leaders and residents haven’t given up. It matters because its leaders and most of its residents have welcomed the Haitian immigrant community and are doing their best to manage their way through the strains caused by a 25% spike in population in four years.

America is a great nation because of immigration. America will continue to be a great nation, in part because of immigration. Yes, the immigration system is broken. But don’t confuse that dysfunction with the energy, talent, and vision re-injected into America with each successive wave of immigrants pursuing the same dream that our ancestors followed to our shores.

What is so pernicious and vile about the comments by Trump and Vance is that they are not attacking the broken immigration system. They are attacking and stigmatizing immigrants themselves, claiming that they are “poisoning” the blood of Americans—a fanciful conceit because the “blood” of Americans is a mixture of every race and ethnicity on Earth.

By falsely claiming that Haitians are eating the household pets of residents in Springfield, Trump and Vance seek to cast Haitians as “others” who are inferior to “real Americans”—defined as immigrants who had the good fortune to arrive in America in an earlier wave of immigration.

If there is a silver lining to the unvarnished ugliness of the rumors being spread by Trump and Vance, it is that they are doubling down on fictions that almost no one believes. The press is on the scent, looking to disprove their vile lies. The more that Trump and Vance repeat them, the more hateful and just plain weird they look.

The Trump-friendly Politico reported on Trump's inability to leave the topic alone in his first appearance after the debate. See Politico, Trump got back on track with the border. Then he started talking about the dogs (and geese).

Per Politico,

For a moment, it seemed like Donald Trump was using his Tucson, Arizona, rally to return to his typical immigration programming after a shaky debate performance. Then he went there — again. Trump repeated the baseless claim that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio — remarks that became the stuff of endless social media memes soon after his debate.  [¶¶] But after two days of unflattering headlines and Republicans squabbling over him pushing an anti-immigrant conspiracy theory, Trump once again couldn’t resist veering off into the outrageous.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris was in North Carolina knocking the ball out the park (again) before a packed rally. See The Guardian, Harris touts strong debate performance as Trump says he won’t face her again.

A video of Harris’s first speech in North Carolina is here, Kamala Harris full speech at Charlotte, NC rally (Sept. 12, 2024). I have the video cued to start at Harris’s challenge to Trump to hold a second debate.

Harris’s body language, facial expessions, and obvious happiness speak volumes about her growing confidence. Although much of the substance of her speech in NC is familiar, her interactions with the crowd and her delivery are improving. Check out a few minutes of the speech if you haven’t seen it. She is a natural and effective campaigner!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[digitalsimpsonspark]

Your comment on my Amelia ref inspired me to make this! She doesn’t need to be official in the au, but here’s just some concept art for the funsies :3

Love this!!!!! Unfortunately Valentina's whole character arc is contingent on her and Memphis being the only transgender people within the family (also there's a lot of adjustments I'd need to make to existing dynamics) T_T

BUT I do still love this idea :333 so here's a little non-canon sketch of amelia and little suricato running from the northside perros (a minor street gang based in downtown springfield that I'm still properly developing - they used to be associates of the D'Amico family, and two of their members were responsible for planting the car bomb that disabled Louis and Max)

interactions hugely appreciated!!!! <3 also if you haven't already go follow @legstheoctomobster or else

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Early Daze

Recorded in 1969 and shelved for 55 years, the album now known as Early Daze captures the sound of Crazy Horse before Neil Young completely took over the band formerly known as the Rockets.

A collection of 10 mostly unreleased songs, mixes or versions - a couple have showed up in Young’s Archives series - Early Daze features the lineup of Young and Danny Whitten on guitars, keyboardist Jack Nitzsche and the forever rhythm section of drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot. Studio talk - “What’s the name of this, Neil?” before “Down by the River” with an alternate vocal track - is included to give the impression of live recording, but these are post-production tracks.

Whitten’s “Look at all the Things” and his co-write and vocals with Young on “Come on Baby, Let’s Go Downtown” suggest Crazy Horse might’ve remained a democracy had Whitten, the inspiration behind “The Needle and the Damage Done,” lived. “Winterlong” finds Young still toiling in the shadow of Buffalo Springfield. And “Helpless” and “Wonderin’” - this is ’69, remember - confirm how little thought Young put in to CSNY and the Shocking Pinks, though “Wonderin’” deserved better than what it got and this may be the definitive take.

“Birds,” presented in a full-band iteration, was also hanging around for a while, it turns out. And “Cinnamon Girl,” with a different outro, joins the aforementioned “River” to preview Everybody Knows this is Nowhere.

Early Daze thus stands as the rare collection of long-unreleased music that succeeds both as a curiosity and as a high-quality standalone LP.

Grade card: Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Early Daze - B

8/14/24