One night in Springfield. (Boston, Worcester: rental, crime rate, hotel)

[lrfox]

I'll be spending tonight in Springfield for work purposes. I initially considered driving back to Boston tonight, but I extended my rental and got a hotel room (Sheraton downtown) since I'd like to see a little more of Springfield.

I've really not spent a ton of time in Springfield and want an opportunity to get to know it a little better. Consider this a city-data investment. The more I know, the more I'll post about it here.

I'm looking for decent places to get a bite and drink tonight and a decent place to grab some breakfast tomorrow. A friend suggested the Student Prince for German Beer. Sounds good to me. Any other suggestions? I'm hoping for stuff downtown or in that vicinity... mainly within walking distance of the hotel. Not at all interested in a suburban chain or anything along those lines.

And if you're going to post something along the lines of "don't stay there!... You'll surely get shot/raped/murdered/killed/mugged/assaulted/robbed/etc!" save yourself the keystrokes. I HAVE been to Springfield enough to know it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be on this forum. I'm downtown, I'm looking forward to spending the night so if you have any unique suggestions for what to do in urban Springfield, please let me know!

Thanks in advance. I'll try and snag a few photos.

[western mass and love it]

Theodore's on Worthington street is a great bar with some good pub fare, And if you want to shoot some pool Smiths billiards is right upstairs. Tilly's on main street(idk if it is still there) is also a decent pub. And for a different kind of meal you should try Big Mamou's(sp) for a really awesome Jamacain meal.

[AzScorpion12]

Originally Posted by lrfox

And if you're going to post something along the lines of "don't stay there!... You'll surely get shot/raped/murdered/killed/mugged/assaulted/robbed/etc!" save yourself the keystrokes. I HAVE been to Springfield enough to know it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be on this forum.

So you're from Boston but you THINK you know Springfield better than the locals ?

A friend of my dads was walking out from a Falcons game not to long ago and was held up for his wallet rite in front of the civic center. So this does happen quit often down there and with a few thousand people around just after the game. I'm not saying this is an every night occurrence but it does happen more often than you think. So if you want to walk around downtown,have fun.

[western mass and love it]

And i was robbed at a gas station in Concord,so does that make Concord a dangerous place also.


And i do not recall anywhere in the OP's post saying that they knew more about Springfield than the locals.

[AzScorpion12]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

And i was robbed at a gas station in Concord,so does that make Concord a dangerous place also.

Whatever...You can try and defend Springfield all you want but there's no denying is become a dangerous city. Guess you forgot it was named in the top 10 most dangerous in the country. Pretty sad for a city of only 155,000,huh.

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

And i do not recall anywhere in the OP's post saying that they knew more about Springfield than the locals.

"I HAVE been to Springfield enough to know it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be on this forum."

[western mass and love it]

Originally Posted by Gixxer1K

Whatever...You can try and defend Springfield all you want but there's no denying is become a dangerous city. Guess you forgot it was named in the top 10 most dangerous in the country. Pretty sad for a city of only 155,000,huh.

Springfield has not been on a top ten list for a few years,And some of the cities nearby are much more dangerous(ie Hartford and New haven). I think your issue is more with urban areas than the actual crime. My point was to say crime happens everywhere and Springfield being the major city in the area, is bound to have more crime.


"I HAVE been to Springfield enough to know it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be on this forum."

Still don't see where you get that the OP knows more than the locals,grasping for straws here.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Gixxer1K

Whatever...You can try and defend Springfield all you want but there's no denying is become a dangerous city. Guess you forgot it was named in the top 10 most dangerous in the country. Pretty sad for a city of only 155,000,huh.




"I HAVE been to Springfield enough to know it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be on this forum."

Thanks for the helpful replies, Gixxer! Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

I NEVER said I know Springfield better than the locals. Not once. You really have to misinterpret that quote to make that assumption, but given the tone of your response, I'm hardly surprised. In fact, the entire purpose of my post was to get specific info about things to do there because I don't know a ton about it.

What I do know is that Springfield, like just about every other urban area in Massachusetts not named "Boston," gets bashed constantly on this forum by people like you. I've seen thread after thread where people just write an entire city off as a "dump." I've seen it with cities I'm VERY familiar with (Fall River, New Bedford, etc) as well as Springfield. They tend to be sweeping generalizations made by bitter and often times ill-informed people. When I say I have been to Springfield enough to know that it's not as bad as it's made out to be on this forum, I mean just that. That the forum tends to make Springfield (and other cities in MA) out to be FAR worse than it really is. I don't consider the posts on this forum to be at all representative of the residents of the cities and towns that are posted about. How many of Springfield's 155,000 residents even post on City-Data? I doubt very many what with all the time they have to spend dodging bullets and not getting robbed.

As for Springfield being "dangerous," you are of course blowing it out of proportion. Robberies happen and they happen everywhere. I was robbed in a small town in Maine (the safest state in the nation statistically). Your isolated incident is just that. An isolated incident. It's also no more or less significant than Western Mass and Loving It's incident in Concord, so don't get huffy because he shared his story. The reality is that the VAST majority of people who walk around downtown Springfield do so without any sort of incident. And "dangerous?" There were 16 murders in Springfield in 2010... Just to be clear, that's 16 out of 155,000 or exactly 0.0001% of the population (and of course, they're not all random). If that's "dangerous" to you, then I sure hope you don't step foot in a car because you're FAR more likely to get killed in a car accident.

I've seen enough of the fanatical, "don't go there!" threads on Springfield and other cities which is why I didn't want to see it in my post about dining and entertainment. For the record, a few coworkers ended up staying too and the 4 of us walked all over downtown Springfield until 2:30 am and had nothing but a great time. Apparently it's a miracle we made it through the entire night and lived to talk about it.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

Theodore's on Worthington street is a great bar with some good pub fare, And if you want to shoot some pool Smiths billiards is right upstairs. Tilly's on main street(idk if it is still there) is also a decent pub. And for a different kind of meal you should try Big Mamou's(sp) for a really awesome Jamacain meal.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I ended up getting BBQ at Theodore's. It's actually quite good (not too many places have collard greens in Massachusetts). I love the look of the place too (nice older building... sort of reminded me of some bars I've been to in Nashville). We went to a couple of bars right around there as well as Sam's over by the Hall of Fame (a lot of fun).

We (my coworkers and I) stayed out until last call and had a blast. Aesthetically, I really like downtown Springfield. It has some great architecture and nice urban spaces (parks and plazas). With a little more in terms of restaurants/shops/galleries/bars, etc. it would be an incredible. As it is, there's still enough to keep people entertained and we enjoyed it a lot. I'm a big fan of urban areas in general, but my coworkers are not and they even loved Springfield. We didn't feel unsafe at any point during the night or day.

Overall... a great experience. Next time I do Sx Flags, I think I'll grab a room at the Sheraton and make a night out of it.

[western mass and love it]

Glad to hear you had a good time and didn't happen to get shot or robbed. The whole HOF complex is great,a little far from downtown but still fun. I personally love Theodores,more of a laid back mature type setting.

I would love it if the city were able to attract more shopping and restaurants for downtown.It really has great potential and could really become a vibrant happening downtown area.

Again glad you had a good time and hope your return trip is great as well.

[AzScorpion12]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

Springfield has not been on a top ten list for a few years,And some of the cities nearby are much more dangerous(ie Hartford and New haven). I think your issue is more with urban areas than the actual crime. My point was to say crime happens everywhere and Springfield being the major city in the area, is bound to have more crime.

I was wrong...It was ranked #12

Facts are facts and I don't think 2011 was "years" ago. Again,you can try and defend it all you want. Sure crime happens everywhere but it shouldn't be this bad for such a small city. It's pretty bad when it's compared to Detroit and Philly.

Oh, what was that you said about Hartford?



Springfield ranked 12th 'most dangerous' city in U.S., but some question validity of list | masslive.com

While Springfield ranks as the second most-dangerous New England city, Hartford, and Lowell ranked 14 and 18, respectively, and Boston, Worcester and Providence, did not make the list.

Springfield, with a population of 154,314, warrants inclusion on the list because it has a violent crime rate of 1,354 incidents for every 100,000 people.
That is a higher per-capita rate than Boston at 903, Lowell at 1,155, and Hartford, Conn., 1,292.

Springfield FBI's #12 most violent city | WWLP.com

While the nation has seen less violent crime, Springfield has gone in the other direction.

I guess our local news doesn't feel the same as you do.