In response to a recent Advocate article about a less-than-flattering WNEC poll on the quality of life in Springfield (“Improvement Needed,” April 15), one proud city resident wrote to offer a very different view of the city.
“Springfield has been taking an undeserved beating in the press,” wrote Mike Noonan, who lives on Mulberry Street, in a beautifully restored house that not too many years ago was in such bad shape it looked like it might be beyond saving. “The reality of living within the boundaries is so different from perception. Surveys aside, this perception has reached the point of being ridiculous.”
To demonstrate his reality of living in Springfield, Noonan attached some photos from a community gathering a couple of years ago in Six Corners’ Ridgewood neighborhood, not far from State Street. Clearly, he and his neighbors are among the 68 percent of poll respondents who described their own neighborhoods as “good” or “excellent” places to live.
