Let’s Not Overlook This Honor

Editorial

Well, it’s a start.

Actually, it’s more significant than that, although it’s still not the kind of honor a city wants.

Springfield recently wound up on yet another of those top-10 lists that have become so popular. This one is a CNBC compilation of overlooked cities where business opportunities are on the rise.

This is certainly a step forward from the kind of lists the city was making its way onto a decade or so ago, like ‘most dangerous cities for crime’ and ‘least desirable places to live,’ or words to that effect. And it means the city’s recent progress in the broad realm of economic development — MGM’s $950 million casino, CRRC MA’s subway-car factory, and a blossoming entrepreneurial ecosystem — is not going unnoticed.

Or is it? It’s not going unnoticed by the researchers at CNBC. But the word ‘overlooked’ means, well, that people are not looking at you, they’re looking past you, or over you, and at someone or something else. And for whatever reason.

A look at some of the other cities on the list reveals part of the problem with being on the ‘10 Most Overlooked’ list.

Boise, Idaho. Most people hearing that name would simply add some punctuation, as in Boise, Idaho?? The same is essentially true of Grand Rapids, Mich. and Greensboro, N.C. — two cities that had really fallen on hard times and were a shell of what they once were — and Fort Myers, Fla., a city known to most as merely the spring home to the Red Sox, although in reality it has much more going for it.

The point of this exercise, or list — we think, because you’re never really sure with these things — is to let the world know that these communities shouldn’t be overlooked. And in that respect, this is indeed a good list to be on.

Still, it will take a lot more than a compilation like this one to enable long-held sentiments about an area, or common perception, if you will, to change. Boise has made great strides in recent years and it has become a very attractive place to live and work, but people still say ‘Boise, Idaho?’

And this is where we make another push for Springfield to become more aggressive in its efforts to tell its story and actively promote its assets. As we’ve noted before, it wouldn’t have been prudent for Springfield to market itself heavily a decade ago because there simply wasn’t much to sell other than promise, which was hard for many people to grasp.

Now, it has plenty to sell, and we don’t mean the casino or the rail-car-assembly plant — although that’s part of it. It can sell the fact that Springfield and this region have the assets to attract employers of that size and nature. And it also has that burgeoning entrepreneurial infrastructure, which makes it an attractive place to start and grow a company.

We know all this locally, and, yes, news tends to travel, but the city still needs to take its marketing and brand-awareness activities to a much higher level. This takes money, but it can certainly be put in the category of money well spent.

Overall, being on this ‘10 Most Overlooked’ cities list is a step forward. It means Springfield is doing something right — actually, many things.

A bigger step forward, we believe, would be for the city not to be on this list, because it’s no longer being overlooked.

That will take some time — perceptions die hard, as we mentioned —  and it will take some aggressive work to make the city’s story known.