Monday, July 6, 2009

JAZZ FESTIVAL IN HOOP CITY


STCC hosted this weekend, July 4th and 5th, the 3rd annual Hoop City Jazz Festival. The music was great, the weather fine, the crowds enthusiastic and the campus green lush. Kudos go to John Osborne, the festival organizer. With support this festival has a chance to grow and become one of the leading summer events in New England. (photo shows Curtis and Adrienne Smith at Festival)



The festival took place at the former Springfield Armory grounds, once the center of small arms development and production for the U.S. Army.


The closing of the Armory in 1968 by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, heralded the beginning of a rapid decline in metal manufacturing in Springfield and all of Western Massachusetts. While manufacturing continues to be an important industry locally, it has never regained its former prominence. Like older manufacturing communities, the City of Springfield is faced with the challenge of creating a new economy to provide decent paying jobs and taxes for City services. And the City needs to rethink its image and its direction.


All of this brings me back to the Hoop City Jazz festival. No other city can lay claim to having been the place where basketball was invented (in 1891 by James Naismith) nor does any other city host the Basketball Hall of Fame. Why not recast Springfield as Hoop City USA? With the growth of basketball internationally, this is a moniker that would be recognized around the world.

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