Springfield can be a great city for all if we are determined to make it so.

But we cannot get there when 25% of our neighbors live in poverty, when we rank almost dead last in per capita income, where thousands in need of mental health services go without, where effective drug treatment and rehab centers are too few.

Government can and should play a role in lifting people up, the homeless whose fondest dream is a warm bed they can call their own, the jobless who want to work, the underemployed who daily toil to make ends meet, the indigent and infirm who find health and happiness a distant stranger.

It will take a mayor who wants it to happen to make it happen. I do.

Dr. David Ciampi