Downtown Springfield Visit

 

Chickens coming home to roost. 

Northampton sunset by Scott Coen. 

 

 

Morning in the Catalpa Cafe. 

 

All aboard for Springfield!

 

Downtown Springfield now has a rainbow crosswalk. 

 

 

It has brighter colors than the one in Northampton. 

 

The legendary Student Prince/The Fort is having their traditional summer beer festival. 

 

 

Drink to my health. You know I can't drink anymore. 

I headed towards City Hall.

A three-piece band on the corner played "Nearer My God to Thee." 

There are major renovations underway on Court Square. I hope they know what they're doing.

 

One short term benefit from the construction is that the temporary fence around the Square covers part of the shameful Black Lives Matter sign painted on the street in front of City Hall. 

Hopefully by the time construction is done and the fence is removed, the name of the racist hate group will have faded completely away. 

Directly across from the MGM Casino is still a total dead zone. 

The critics were right, the casino has surely failed to revive downtown if after five years it hasn't even revived the buildings across the street! 

But inside the casino itself things are pretty lively. Dig this weird 3-D art. 

The hotel lobby. 

This seemed to be the most popular place to eat.

In the end I was glad to get back to Northampton. 

Here is a book Springfield's Dr. Seuss should have written.