Letters to the editor 8/14/25 | Letters to the Editor

We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to [email protected].

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SUPPORT DOWNTOWN

Downtown Springfield is becoming a ghost town, and it feels like nobody in leadership cares. The mayor, the aldermen, city departments, economic development, tourism – no one is stepping up to protect the heart of our city.

Right now, during one of the biggest tourism events of the year, the Illinois State Fair, the road in front of our restaurant is completely torn up. Not closed with proper notice and signage – just a mess. And this isn’t an isolated issue, it’s part of a long-standing pattern of neglect.

If city leadership actually cared about downtown, we would see consistent investment and planning to keep it vibrant, accessible and alive – especially during peak seasons when businesses have a real chance to thrive. But instead, we’re given construction, detours and silence.

It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to watch a city with so much history, tourism, art and potential be treated like an afterthought. The leadership culture in Springfield has allowed this to happen. And this is what you get when you don’t provide vision, consistency or leadership that truly cares about the city and its people.

We are asking – no, demanding – that someone take responsibility. Start making decisions that support small businesses downtown instead of pushing them further toward failure.

Michael Higgins
Owner, Maldaner’s Restaurant

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THANKS FOR RECOGNITION

The NPR Illinois articles are fantastic (“NPR Illinois celebrates 50 years,” July 24). Thank you so much for doing the station justice and highlighting the Sangamon Experience’s work along the way.

Evie Rodenbaugh
Sangamon Experience

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WHY REPUBLICANS WON’T RUN

Your article noted that there are fewer Republicans preparing to run for election than normal (“Which Republicans are seeking statewide office in 2026? So far, hardly any,” Aug. 12). Republicans should look at the bad advice being given out by their chair, which is welcomed by the Illinois Freedom Caucus. If a voter doesn’t agree with Trump’s recently passed Big Beautiful Bill, they should “…ignore things they disagree with…” and find something else they like.

I think most people would find it hard to ignore something that will decimate medical care, with $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, increasing health care costs, cutting 12 million people out of health coverage and nutrition, education and small business impacts – plus higher debt, interest rates, inflation and long-term economic instability. All this will put much more economic pressure on state government, which is not the inheritance a politician wants to get.

Mark Vassmer
Springfield

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ULTERIOR MOTIVE

It’s going to be nearly impossible for the postal service to keep functioning with what little money it’s getting from the government (“Budzinski hosts Springfield forum on postal service problems,” July 31). The truth is, Amazon wants to take the place of the U.S. Postal Service and do all of our deliveries for triple what we were giving the post office. Now you have to ask yourself why the president is shutting the Postal Service down by cutting all its funding. How is this good for America? Jeff Bezos must have donated a lot of money.

Michelle Kiska-Gabriel
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes

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GOVERNMENT WORKS

It’s a typical method to privatize any well-functioning public service. Throttle it with funding cuts. Force it to charge fees for everything. Throttle some more. Stack its board with self-interested prigs or fools or incompetents. Throttle more. Make its director a guy with a direct conflict of interest and give him free reign. Then when it fails as intended, point at it and scream, “See! Government is bad; it doesn’t work!”

Don Hanrahan
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes