Good Bones

Springfield is really a very nice city, although it sometimes seems that most residents, as well as the powers that be in town, don't realize it. I'm really tired of listening to Mayor Ryan say that nobody could be enticed to invest in this city until we get our financial house in order. (So let's bring in a control board from an even more corrupt and mismanaged city, Boston, to fix things.)

Glenn Edwards, president of GELW Mass II LLC, isn't waiting around for Springfield to market itself. Recognizing the city's "good bones," he purchased four downtown buildings in March, and a fifth this month. The first transaction netted him a strip of retail space on Main Street known collectively as Marketplace, and the more recent transaction secured the adjoining four-story Johnson's Bookstore building, giving him a whole block in the center of the city, with a pedestrian walkway behind.

Mr. Edwards is planning several hundred thousand dollars' worth of renovations. Let's hope he has common sense and some sensitivity to the beauty and history of the buildings, unlike Mr. Ryan, whose legacy to the city is concrete.