Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Downtown Springfield, Inc. held the first of its four community forums at the downtown YMCA Friday morning to ask citizens for ideas about better methods of marketing an area often called “The Heart of the City”

Carlos Ortega, director of DSI started off the meeting with a power point presentation outlining his plan to divide the downtown into four distinct “neighborhoods” centering around The Capitol, The ALPLM, the Hoogland Center for the Arts and the Kidzeum of Health and Science.

He says it takes about 30 minutes to walk from one end of the downtown to the other and visitors often get confused. He said the smaller ‘neighborhoods’ are only about an 8-minute walk.

The meeting veered into other areas with many folks asking why we even need a downtown but advocates say its where the North, South, East and West side have a common meeting ground.

One attendee says the focus need to be on the Arts, Cuisine and Entertainment or ACE. He says with resources like the Hoogland and the Legacy theatres as well as the many historic sites like ALPLM and many fine restaurants downtown it’s a cultural destination.

Springfield Convention and Tourism Bureau, Scott Dahl, talked about efforts to make the downtown ‘Disneyland clean’. He says the city has received grant money to hire workers to patrol the downtown during peak times and with the mission to get any liter cleared away within 60-90 minutes.

He also revealed plans to WTAX News about for the Rt. 66 Mother Road Festival which include a possible hot dog eating contest at the Cozy Dog Drive-Thru with 44-time hot dog eating champion, Joey Chestnut, available for a mere $10,000!