Mayor Domenic Sarno will be leading another of his “neighborhood walks” this evening, this time in Mason Square. Interested residents can meet up with the mayor and representatives from City Hall and the Springfield PD at 7:30 p.m. at the AIC parking lot at the corner of College and State streets.
“This is part of the City’s ongoing effort to improve the quality of life in all our City’s neighborhoods,” Sarno said in an announcement of the event. “The City will be gathering information and assessing potential issues that may exist in an effort to have a proactive City response.” In the case of rain, tonight’s walk will be rescheduled.
A hot topic among tonight’s strollers, no doubt, will be the recent spate of violence in the city. (There have been 13 murders in the city in 2011, five of them this month alone). Last week, Sarno held a “summit” at City Hall where police, prosecutors, clergy and community groups met to talk about the problem.
The summit was followed by a press conference, which, not incidentally, stole a bit of thunder from another press event addressing violence in the city, this one held by City Council President Jose Tosado, who just happens to be challenging Sarno for mayor this fall. In case you missed that event, Tosado’s outlines his public safety plan here on his website. And, for good measure, here’s what Antonette Pepe—a School Committee member and the third major mayoral candidate—has to say about public safety.
