Rico's Plan

I stopped in for lunch break at Mom & Rico's in Springfield's South End, on Monday; I had a hankering for their Italian buffet.



As I was loading up a box of good stuff to go, the owner Rico Danielle, graciously offered me a sample of some salami and cheese.

"Try this, it will knock you on your butt." and the sample was, of course, fantastic.

I smiled to myself, because that is exactly what Rico did the last time I was here, with my kid, on a Saturday afternoon back in March.

We chatted a little bit, and I asked him if he remembered that visit and the short video we did. He did remember, but admitted he hadn't seen the video; he has a computer, but he's not into using the Internet too much. He did remember our conversation about how things are going as far as business in the downtown Springfield area, and leaped right into telling me about an idea for South-End redevelopment that he and some associates have been working on. I asked him if he would like it posted on the net, he said sure, and went to get the plans; I went to get the camera...

The plan is centered around redeveloping nearby Emerson Wright Park, and building a baseball field. The left field wall of the field would be built to look like the Green Monster at Fenway park, and the right field wall would look like Yankee Stadium's. The baseball field is also the centerpiece of a general redevelopment in the neighborhood that is much larger in scope...

I'll let him tell it:



You don't see neighborhood involvement like this every day. Rico Danielle is a credit to the South End neighborhood that he loves.



Good luck to him, and the plan...