A first-class front door to Springfield ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY DAVID BLANCHETTE An important entrance to Springfield is in the midst of a $20 million makeover that will better accommodate visitors and give them a more positive impression of the capital city. “This will provide a first-class front door to the city,” said Springfield Airport [...]
Farmers market and Kidzeum energize a block ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL JOHNSON They may not be creepy or kooky, but they are coming together as a family on the 400 block of Adams Street. The Old Capitol Farmers Market has been a magnet for 20-plus years, but with the resurgence of downtown and the [...]
All Star Kutz is just one of Audrey Austin’s businesses. More to come. BY KAREN ACKERMAN WITTER Audrey Austin considers herself an entrepreneur. She says her father, Andrew Corey, inspired her to develop a career where she could work for herself. Corey was a businessman who owned Corey Rental Leasing for more than 20 years [...]
Springfield leaders and thinkers say where we’re going, and where we ought to go Article and photos By David Blanchette The state’s bicentennial observance gives Illinois residents the chance to reflect on how far we’ve come in the past 200 years, but it also asks what the state will be like in 2218. Things will [...]
Construction projects underway all over town BY MICHELLE OWNBEY One sure sign of spring is construction projects taking shape all over town, and with the City of Springfield issuing commercial permits worth more than $26 million dollars in the first quarter of 2018, there are plenty of them in progress. Not surprisingly, most of the [...]
Springfield’s food trucks are learning to navigate city regulations BY SCOTT FAINGOLD “Last summer, the Illinois Future Farmers of America asked us and AZTCA to come set our food trucks up on the south side of the convention center for an event there,” said Randy Twyford, owner and operator of the Twyford BBQ food truck. [...]
By Lisa Clemmons Stott Here’s another version of “shop local” you may not have considered: anyone can become a local developer. That’s the premise of the Incremental Development Alliance (IDA), a nonprofit consortium of people developing their own new construction or rehab projects and whose shared goal is to cultivate 1,000 other “small” developers in [...]
They won’t catch up with the coasts. But microbreweries catch on here. By David Blanchette Just eight years ago there were none in Springfield. Now there are five operating microbreweries in the capital city area with a sixth soon to open, and don’t be surprised if you see more in the coming years. Craft beers [...]
Aruna Mathur Aruna MathurPHOTO/ Terry Farmer Photography, Inc. BY ROBERTA CODEMO Giving back to others is a common theme that is woven throughout Aruna Mathur’s conversation. When she was a small child in India, her mother taught her to give to others. She said that the difference between animals and humans was that [...]
By Rachel Johnson The current trend in Springfield is for businesses to relocate to the west side, but bucking that trend is the Brown, Hay and Stephens law firm. The oldest law firm in the state of Illinois, BHS has been at the corner of Fifth and Adams streets since 1858. An original tenant of [...]
