OPINION|
What was it that Isaac Newton once said?
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Amy Boyd contacted me to provide her reaction. It's to the growth and the many liquor licenses issued in recent years to businesses at Pickwick and Cherry — which generally has been hailed as a good thing for Springfield and the Rountree neighborhood.
Yet for Boyd, the increased traffic, speeding and reckless driving has become a cause for concern. She points out that eight businesses are now licensed to sell alcohol in a very concentrated area at Cherry and Pickwick.
Boyd, 54, has watched the neighborhood grow. She and her family have lived on South Pickwick Avenue since 1997. Her house is just north of Delmar. She can recall when her daughters would head to Incense & Peppermints to buy candy at 607 S. Pickwick. The shop is no longer there.
She had been thinking about all this for a while and then at 10:35 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, a local bar owner, apparently on his way home, crashed into the rear of her husband's 2022 Toyota Tundra as it sat parked in front of their house.
The collision was captured by the surveillance camera on Boyd's front porch.
It is unclear in the video if the driver, Rogan Howitt, 39, one of the owners of the Golden Girl Rum Club, 137 Park Central Square, planned to stop after the crash or if he stopped only because his vehicle was inoperable. He was driving a 2013 Subaru Outback.
His vehicle appeared to be going well above the posted 25 mph limit.
Howitt had been working as a bartender earlier in the evening at Good Spirits, 1424 E. Cherry St., which opened in September.
He admits to being distracted by phone
Police responded within minutes. A police report indicates that the likely causes for the crash were alcohol, driving too fast for conditions and distraction.
According to the report, Howitt told officers he was distracted because he was using his cell phone. Howitt has not been charged. Somehow, he was not hurt.
Boyd shared with me an email she received from Springfield police stating that in cases that might involve alcohol it can take weeks or even months to get lab results back.
According to online court records, the Missouri Department of Revenue took action against Howitt's driver's license after he refused to take a Breathalyzer test in 2012. It is unclear how the matter was resolved.
The Hauxeda reached out to Howitt for comment but he did not respond by deadline.
Boyd tells me she is concerned that someone in the neighborhood is going to be hurt or killed by a vehicle.
People leaving those establishments and driving after having been drinking put “every single community resident at a much higher risk on these familiar streets,” she says.
Another report of a recent crash occurred in a neighbor’s yard, not long ago, where a car crashed into her front yard tree and he fled the scene.
“I'm not sure if the sidewalks are even safe,” she tells me.
It's a neighborhood — and a street — with lots of activity
The Rountree neighborhood, particularly on Pickwick south of Cherry, is filled with walkers, bikers, dog walkers, runners, skateboarders and children, Boyd says.
“I think there's too many establishments, too many condensed establishments for a small pocket neighborhood where there's a high density of families and children,” she says.
It is time, in Boyd's view as a longtime resident, to take a closer look at how many of those businesses sell alcohol.
Eight businesses within a two-block radius of Cherry and Pickwick have liquor licenses. Starting with the most recent to be issued, they are:
- Good Spirits, 1424 E. Cherry St., September 2023, For private events
- The Royal cocktail bar, 1427 E. Cherry St., Suite B, 2019
- Skully's Ramen, 1427 E. Cherry St., Suite A, 2019, Serves beer
- Team Taco, 1454 E. Cherry St., 2019
- Tie & Timber Beer Co. LLC, 1451 E. Cherry St., 2017
- Cherry Picker, 601 S. Pickwick Ave., 2015, Bar and package store
- Tea Bar & Bites, 621 S. Pickwick Ave., 2004
- Imo's Pizza, 600 S. Pickwick Ave., 2000, Beer and wine
Boyd occasionally patronizes Cherry Picker and Tea Bar & Bites. The only business mentioned above that she opposed was Tie & Timber.
In her view, there already were places selling alcohol near the site and she didn't view the brewery as “family friendly.”
It should be noted, the owners of Tie & Timber reached out to the Rountree neighborhood to hear suggestions and concerns.
A terrifying tidbit involving her daughter
Boyd says she doesn't know what the answer is.
Maybe speed bumps? she asks.
Pickwick Avenue is wider than most streets in Rountree, considered one of Springfield's premier neighborhoods, and perhaps that encourages speeding.
The street is wide enough to allow for on-the-street parking overnight. That's why her husband's pickup truck was parked on the street the night it was hit.
What is especially terrifying, Boyd says, is that four minutes prior to the crash, her 18-year-old daughter drove out of the driveway to do some late-night Christmas shopping at Target.
This is Pokin Around column No. 154.
