MICHAELCHRISTOPHERBROWN

Other: South Town

2004

In the first half of the 20th century, Springfield’s (Ill.) South Town, a neighborhood defined by the intersection of 11th Street and South Grand Avenue, was a prominent neighborhood shopping center. "A city within a city,” according to The State Journal-Register in 1937, “with stores and shops to suit every need.”

But as the spread of suburbs began to hurt urban neighborhoods, places such as South Town began to slowly deteriorate. In 1937 South Town had 26 stores - today there are eight.

This rough neighborhood begins one block east of the railroad tracks, dividing Springfield into two very different communities. "“This is the crossroads,” says resident Doug Delong.

Rick Mari slides across a wet South Grand street following a thunderstorm. Some of the 100 year-old brick buildings line the horizon. "My dad used to play guitar at the Cracked Crock [a now defunct bar]," Mari said. "I would help him cart his equipment up the stairs to the second floor. I was about 10 years old at the time. I also used to hang out at Skanks Skates a lot in the late 80's and early 90's, with some of the people who are still here in South Town. I hungout and skated, listened to local bands, and lived in a house half a block away with some friends of mine. I have a wife and a kid now, but I still try to go out once a week and often I go to Cafe Kanichi-wa on Thursday night."
   
Wayne Treat concentrates on building a doorframe for his nephew's beauty shop on South Grand Avenue. "This neighborhood is run down, it needs a lot of work," Treat said. "I remember at age 15, walking through here at 1 AM and being perfectly safe. Now it's crazy walking around here at any hour." Though crime occasionally riddles South Town, it is more serious in the neighborhoods to the east. Still, because of the proximity to those neighborhoods, some are afraid, especially visitors. "Alot of customers no longer come here because they are afraid," Cinda Barger, a cook at the Walleye Stop restaurant and South Town resident, said. "It's a stigma they are fighting."
   
'Sunshine' sits in the car of Tommy G., a former john of hers, on South Grand Avenue. Sunshine has been working as a prostitute in Springfield for eight years. Before the apartment complex she lived in closed nearly two years ago, Sunshine worked the streets in and around South Town. She now lives in a different neighborhood but still comes back looking for dates. "I've known Sunshine for years," Tommy said. "I met her near the factory I worked at. I used to date her, but I won't have sex with her now. I heard she has all kinds of diseases. I just pick her up every now and then and give her rides to wherever she needs to go. I feel sorry for her, she's a crack addict and on other drugs as well. She says some of the black guys in those neighborhoods hit her and treat her badly."
     
  
Friends dance at Bourbon Street Rhythm & Ribs during a birthday celebration. Bourbon Street, formerly Bookers Tavern and once a hangout for the Governor of Illinois and other prominent politicians and businessmen in Springfield, hosts special events like birthday parties and poetry nights in an attempt to draw crowds. "I try to provide other activities besides just drinking," owner Bruce Clark, who is currently remodeling a second floor to add to the activities at Bourbon Street, said. "But it's just hard to attract customers....Everything has moved out west."
   
Simon Allen breathes in some fresh air while cleaning an old, dilapidated house that has since been torn down, partly because the wood was rotted and filled with insects. The family who moved out had left food scattered throughout the interior. "The neighborhood is in bad shape now, but it used to be all beautiful homes, well kept," former South Town resident Cathryn Miller, 88, said. "In the late 80's many older residents began to pass away and their families sold the homes they had lived in. Today, it seems like 90% of the homes around South Town have been put into the hands of landlords. What happens is renters just leave the landlords to take care of the homes, when they should be taking care of their homes whether they own them or not. Many homes could be cleaned up if renters would become the owners. There's just no home respect, or respect for how one keeps the household up."
   
     
  
Mike Morales, 14, kisses Marcy Hartley, 15, while painting over the 'spit wall' at the indoor skate park of Skanks Skates. "I like coming down here because Mike like's it, and I also like hanging out down here," Hartley said. While skateboarders, BMX bikers, and rollerbladers ride the ramps some use this wall as a kind of phlegm bucket. Skanks provides a safe place for neighborhood youth to skateboard and hangout. "It's what this neighborhood needs more of," 12th street resident James Hunt said. "Places like Skanks keep kids off the streets, so they have something to do besides sit around all day or get into trouble."
   
Lamone Waller consoles his cousin, Angel Roby, who cries after knocking her head on a sidewalk along 12th Street.Roby lived in a house behind Popeye's restaurant with her sisters and mother, Angie Roby, for two years before moving out last year. Angie's husband had abandoned the family and she relied mostly on her older children and relatives to help care for her younger children. "I don't like this side of town," Roby said. "I don't trust some of the people around here." "You don't often hear about people buying a house and raising a family over here," South Town renter Doug Delong said. "Some people want to rent, but that's about it."
  
Dennis Williams walks down 10 1/2 Street while working at Fred's Pallet Service. Owner Fred Herald hires mostly ex-convicts, people whom, as Herald once did, need a second chance in life. "When I think about these pallets, I think about my life," says Williams, an employee for two years. "Many things are wrong with the pallets, but I have to salvage them. I have to break down the used pallets, the broken ones, and make new ones. I made a mess out of my life. I never meant to do manual labor. I was in college, studying computers, but I got too heavy into drugs. Now there are a lot of bridges I can't cross, a lot of doors I cannot open. I lost opportunities because of what I did. But you have to start somewhere and climb again. Whatever's in front of you, you have to salvage. I'm learning to salvage what I can out of my life. Fred taught me this, and I thank God for him. Fred has helped me stay [on the] straight and narrow. He has given me an opportunity to grow in life and gain new perspectives. Because of him, and because of God, I know there is still some use in me."