Looking for Springfield, MO DUers

[sfwriter]

Hey there,

My wife and I have decided to move closer to her folks, mostly for our daughter. I'll be leaving the San Fran area and liberal oasis for the unknown wilds of Springfield. What can you tell me?

Also, any tips on work would be great. She's a graphic designer, I'm a writer, filmmaker, techie. We expect it to be harder to find work, and we expect to make less, aside from that, we know nobody in the area other than her folks. They retired there, so they don't have very deep roots either.

-Sandy

[usregimechange]

1. My wife is a graphic designer and we will be moving there in a

couple of years.

A graphic design professor in the Master of Fine Arts program at MSU in Springfield had the following to say about the two largest companies that hire their graduates:

"The two best places to work are probably Noble & Associates and The Marlin Co."

Springfield is no San Fran as far as geopolitical makeup! Far far far from it. However, for Southwest Missouri (GOP stronghold in MO) the Springfield area is more blue. Our last Senate candidate (McCaskill - who won) got 43% of the vote in Greene county compared to the 31% in Jasper County.

[usregimechange]

2. By the way... Join our web-group

Southwest Missouri for Progress
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swmo4progress/

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. It would probably be easier for you to find work in the KC area

3 hours north of Springfield.

[sfwriter]

4. She's interviewed in KC a couple of times.

Nothing yet.

Thanks for the info.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. You need to hook up with evlbstrd

He's a graphic artist in KC.

[xmas74]

6. KC would be better for her.

I live about an hour east of KC and quite a few people commute from here to KC.

[MadHound]

7. Oh, God help you, you are entering the Heart of Darkness down there.

Springfield is one of the most conservative places not only in the state, but in the Midwest. It houses the World Headquarters of Assembly of God churches, Jerry Falwell's alma mater, Bible Baptist College, and tons of RW, fundy, strange anti-intellectual people. There is a small group of liberal, thinking, progressive people down there, but with a heavy emphasis on small.

Traffic is a nightmare down there, because for a city of 150,000, it has more sprawl than most other cities its size. Downtown is starting to come back to life after decades of neglect, but the focus is still on the mall and car culture. Speaking of culture, well, I hope that you truly like either country or metal, because anything else is in a distinct shortfall. The cultural contributions of the university down there(Missouri State) is distinctly lacking, but then again the intellectual contributions of that campus is in the same category.

Jobs in your respective fields are going to be very scarce. I have a friend of mine who is doing graphic design work in Springfield, and is working two other McJobs to make up the financial difference. Soon she will become an EMT in order to make some real money. Film work is virtually non-existent, unless you want to find work in either the YeeHaw circuit of the Branson area, or work for one of the churches' PR depts.

I don't know what race you are, but if you have any sort of dark skin, I would strongly suggest that you consider moving elsewhere. Racism and the violence that it breeds is still endemic in the area. About six years ago a black teenage male was strung up on a radio tower in Springfield for daring to date a white girl. The police ruled it a suicide, even though virtually all of the evidence pointed to lynching.

Public education down there is abysmal, again complete with fundy anti-intellectual teachers. And private schooling options are probably worse, given that most of the private schools are religious ones.

I lived in Springfield for four years, and even being a native Missourian and experiencing the visitudes of backcountry, conservative Missouri, I was still shocked by Springfield. It was the most god awful four years that I've spent anywhere. Even hooking up with the small progressive community in town didn't help matters much, the fundy, conservative, anti-intellectual spirit of the town drapes the city like a fog, infecting your spirit and dragging you down. I was pulled over for the standard long haired hassle by the police eight times, either walking or riding my bike. The small black community lives there with a siege mentality, as does the small GLBT community. I still have friends down there, and travel there once in awhile to visit them. Every time when I hit the city limits sign on Highway 65, I feel like it should have one of those "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" disclaimers accompanying it.

There are much better places in the state to live than Ashcroft country. Move to the Columbia Missouri area, not only is it more progressive and intellectual, but your job prospects are much better. Same with KC or St. Louis if you want a larger metro area. And you will only be three-four hours away from the in-laws, much better than in San Fran:shrug:

You move to Springfield at your own risk friend, and if you do, I predict that you with run screaming away within a year. Good luck.

[sfwriter]

8. Well thanks for the ray of sunshine!

I guess I'll have to subvert them from within.

Do you know why it is so white? They ethnically clensed the place back in 1906. I am not kidding. The more I read about it, the freakier it is.

-Sandy

[MadHound]

9. Actually it wasn't only due to ethical cleansing, there was an exodus undertaken

Springfield, in spite of its reputation, actually had a populous, vibrant African American community up until the early twenties. But then Sprinfieldians up and lynched one person too many. Virtually the entire African American community pulled up and moved, in one night. The rest of the town woke up the next day and were quite suprised to find out how white their community had become. Over time, a relative few African Americans moved back, but the community has never been the same.

Sorry if I'm being a huge downer about your perspective place of residence, but I thought it fair that you be warned. Good luck on the subversion from within thing.

Oh, one other thing, buy a piece of property that is on a rise, a hill, anyplace that is up. Sadly Springfield's storm water drainage is piss poor, and the town starts flooding when there is an inch of rain in an hour. Also, avoid the swath of town between Sunshine south to Battlefield Rd, as tornadoes repeatedly chew through those neighborhoods.

Good luck!

[usregimechange]

10. Here is a snip about that from a book chapter I helped write

In Springfield in 1906 “hundreds of African Americans fled” as a result of several lynchings (Walter, 1996). Two young Black suspects were released because of lack of evidence, than re-arrested, lynched by a mob on the town square, and then their bodies were burned beneath a replica of the statue of liberty as an estimated 6,000 people watched (Greene, Kremer, and Holland, 1980). Greene County had 3,298 African Americans in 1900 and in 1920, after the mob violence, the population had dropped by about one third to 2,261 (Walter, 1996). Such an event had a profound effect on African Americans in Southwest Missouri but it was not the only one.

btw, our chapter from the book never got published because after I spent weeks writing it the professor I was working for as a graduate assistant didn't do her part. :mad:

[MadHound]

11. Thanks for the history refresh, seems I was off by a couple of decades

It has been years since I heard the story, from an African American resident whose parents had lived through the experience.

The sad thing is that in the intervening century, the mindset behind such actions has never left Springfield, it has just merely become less obvious. But as I said earlier, this attitude and outlook drapes the town like a fog, and influences all civic and public actions. It smothers the town, and sadly drives off those of us who could bring in some enlightenment and sanity. I knew a few members of the university faculty who were quite good in their profession. But most couldn't make it past two years there, due to the civic repression and academic repression that they experienced. I lasted four years, and that time left a scar on my soul. You couldn't pay me enough to move back down there again, and even visiting that town is hard for me.

And yet sadly it seems that the neocons would love to remake this entire country over in the image of that town. That is why many neocons from Springfield are picked to either serve in the administration, or in positions of conservative leadership. Ashcroft is but the most obvious of examples.

[Broken_Hero]

12. I'm not in Springfield, but close

I'm in SW Missouri, about an hour and a half away from Springfield...:) I don't have many tips, about Springfield...about the only thing I remember was the HUGE Bass Pro Museum they have...the aquariums that have, are excellent.