Guys walk around looking lost or haunted. The streets here are bleak, with dilapidated and abandoned buildings. "Drug and alcohol abuse hinder the people of this community severely," Charles says. Charles Rollins welcomes me to Many Pathways, an addiction recovery clubhouse he runs with help from his twin brother, Michael. The center's Charles Rollins says it's in a "pretty tough neighborhood."īut less than a mile from downtown is a neighborhood where no tourist would venture. We've never recovered from it."Ī tire store on Selma Road in Springfield is near Many Pathways, an addiction recovery center. "Throughout the '90s we lost in Clark County, Ohio, 22,000 high-paying blue-collar jobs. He runs Opportunities for Individual Change, a job skills program in Springfield. Median incomes fell an astounding 27 percent in Springfield between 19, more than any metropolitan area in the country, according to the Pew Research Center. "Springfield is a rather typical small city that has grown poorer over the years," says Roger Baker, the city's mayor in the '70s and '80s. "When you look at what makes America great, what makes America not great, our ups and our downs, Springfield represents all of that," says Kevin Rose, a historian with the Turner Foundation, a local philanthropy.įor years now, the not so great seems to have the upper hand. The Springfield in Ohio is a blue-collar city with a lot of history, pain and pride: a place with an uncertain future. Thirty-three, according to one government count. There are plenty of Springfields in the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
