The people from Oklahoma that I visited a week or so ago, were in Arkansas City yesterday.
This was Emily Reagan - the pr director for the central oklahoma tourism group - and a few other chamber directors. They are on a three-day media blitz to promote their area. They were on KACY radio yesterday, and went on to Wichita. They were headed for 2-3 other Kansas locations, and on to Missouri before returning.
What a great job that would be eh? Just drive around and hand out brochures and smile a lot.
They stopped by the paper for a few minutes.
Here is what was interesting.
Emily was surprised by how nice Arkansas City looked. She had read this blog, and that was about her only information about the city. She was expecting it to look run down, with lots of windows boarded up, and to just not be very nice.
She said the town was "really cute" and could be a tourist area easily with the brick streets and old buildings etc.,
She also noted that there is Interstate 35 not far away,, that with the casinos, gives us plenty of traffic.
So maybe we are not promoting the city as well as we could.
BUT the other thing i noticed was the different attitude.
She saw the good things here.
Many people who come to arkansas city for the first time, like it, they think it looks cool.
They know, and i know, of a lot of other towns that area lot worse.
So the question is. How do we change attitudes of the people who live here.
This is not something that city commission can do. It is not something the city administration can do. But... how do we do it ?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
I take it that this is the first time you have run into a professional marketing person.
That's her job, dude.
It might seem normal for a marketing person from Ark City to go to another town and let down their hair and take people aside and confide their unvarnished truth that they feel deep down inside about some place, but don't expect it from a marketing pro from OKC.
It's unprofessional to say that anything in Arkansas City could be improved if you are marketing to the area and especially in talking to a newspaper editor(!!!!!!!!!!!).
Anything said will be shiny happy people holding hands. Progress, growth, expansion, flowers, parks, quaint brick streets, beautiful skies, keep the chin up, and things are really great here!!!!
Just do'in the job. Called marketing and PR.
True pros don't ever stop. They make it their lives.
It's a job. Just working it.
So what's the problem?
It's funny that it seems unusual.
well she could have said nothing about that town at all.
it wasnt solicited.
she was here to talk about her area - no need to say anything at all about our area -
i know marketing professionals - as well as politicians - who say what they say, and i know every word is calculated.
BUT ... my point was, that people from the outside do see some positives here, that locals apparently dont (refuse?) to see.
she did give some tips on promoting the city in a more professional way.
i could tell you about many towns that are much worse..
"BUT ... my point was, that people from the outside do see some positives here, that locals apparently dont (refuse?) to see."
I can't and won't believe that someone who has only passing knowledge of the town could have insights that are somehow missed by those who have long term knowledge.
Your premise of the thread is that the local attitudes cannot be changed by the city administration or city commission, and I think that overlooks a significant contributor to the issues.
If you will review the blog threads, it is apparent that the actions of the city government are very directly tied to the attitudes of the town, and that a whole lot could be done to create the changes that would lead to a regrowth of Ark City, along with the attitudes that come from progress.
There is the zeitgeist of Ark City that public input to the city commission (or any of the commissions for that matter)is something to be regarded as a need for damage control instead of something that might lead to opportunity and growth.
There is an extreme sense of "not invented here" at the commission, that if there is something brought up from the public, then simply "trashcan it". An example of that was the 400 signature petition which was "lost" and disregarded.
The idea you propose is the opposite, the idea of "invented here": If the locals' attitudes are a certain way and someone from elsewhere has a more positive attitude, then the newcomer must be right.
Both positions overlook the important opinions of the Ark City public.
Ark City goes through cycles of motion, where the public makes a proposal, the city government ignores it or torpedoes it and then there is a campaign to come up with a slogan, motto or shibboleth to make the people feel good about the town again. It doesn't last. To answer the question: "that is the problem".
It seems like this is what you are proposing to do: Do something to make the people have a feel-good attitude without any substantial reason for it.
If you want to change peoples' attitudes in a way that extends beyond a weekend concert or festival, then have the city commission actually act on some of the economic and growth issues that have been brought up, instead of sweeping them under the rug.
I'm disappointed to see the commission's inaction on the downtown windows issue. The way they are handling it is like permitting your 13 year old nephew to bring his boombox with you while deer hunting.
If you want to change peoples' attitudes, then change the future. People will change with it. The same old song and dance is the basis of the negativity you see.
How could an outsider with fresh ideas help?
Hire her for a seminar given to the city commission talking about the progress changes made in other up-and-coming cities and how to market the city to potential retailers, including big box (Lowes type) stores and replacement downtown businesses.
It is a shame that you see the commission as inactive or sweeping things under the rug. Up until a year ago it looked like the commission was on the right track, being progressive, looking to the future, taking issue with the way things were. Then after this past election the new commissioners put a total and complete stop to that. Stopping the progress, unwilling to take a stand against the old regime. I would say that the lack of candidates in the last election put us in a situation where we are moving backward to situations as seen in the past. Maybe after a few more years we can replace these commissioners and get the city back on track. Maybe we can get lucky and some of them will get tired of the work and quit!
I think Joel and Patrick have the city's best interest in mind, but the other 3 amigos just want to help out the downtown business owners.
What's really funny is that in most cities, it is the businessmen and sometimes a formal group of businessmen that bring growth to a town with their direct investments.
Ark City businesses have had an attitude that locals "had to" shop in their stores, because they are stuck with whatever they have to offer. Otherwise they have to drive to Wichita where the traffic is scary.
Don't look now, but the current generation is not afraid of Wichita traffic like their parents were and Ponca City has a lot of competition for Ark City.
That "stuck in town" attitude is going the way of the dodo bird, but the businesses are planting their heels and trying to make one "last stand" to create competitive protectionism for their stores.
It is a matter of time before it all breaks loose. Until then we will have to put up with poor service, stale inventory, crappy looking buildings and high prices as we have for 20 years.
A lot of people want to look back on the 50's as a heyday of Ark City. In the 50's and 60's the seatcovers in the restaurants were new, the business interiors were nice and there was a lot of product selection in the stores. Anybody remember Gilliland's? Big difference from what is offered now. Graves is giving us a small image of the 50's in AC, in their soda fountain.
In the 50's today's run down downtown buildings were only about 10 years older (then) than the middle school is now.
The AC office building (which was 25 years old in the 50's) has an ancient and dangerous elevator that would have to be replaced. It would cost more than the building is worth to replace it with one that is safe in today's standards.
Although it was a hard pill to swallow, the old high school and junior high were to the point that they were run down and not useful for their purpose anymore. They were torn down to make room for something with a better purpose.
Sooner or later that will also happen with most of the ragtag buildings downtown. We should prepare for that day.
If the building owners don't maintain the buildings, then let's find someone who will or tear them down and replace them with golden arches or standard build out office buildings.
You could probably sell the silverdale stone for more than it would cost to buy the building, remove it and ship it. Maybe make a buck.
Let's see how important boarded up windows are on that day.
You know, I went to college in Indiana for a bit and became very homesick. Weird thing is, this town did look really nice to me on my arrival home. It seems the longer I'm here, though, I DO
see more of the bad instead of the good. I'm sure this is probably normal???
I think it is pretty normal.
What is it that makes people do that here?
We can choose to be positive and still be in reality.
Negative thoughts are no more real than positive thoughts. Both are just interpretations of reality.
Maybe its a habit or a cultural influnce?
I just want to say that the folks at KACY were the most fun of all the radio stations we visited this past week! And we went to A TON in the last three days...
I really meant what I said about Ark City! It's "really cute." (Although the traffic lights were really hard for me to get used to blending in with trees and light posts! It was like driving in Europe again!) I definitely have the travel bug in me and appreciation for new and unique places. I was expecting much worse based on talk and blog comments. And wish I could say I was a "marketing pro," but I am definitely a journalism major through and through! I was also surprised by Parsons, Kansas as well. I didn't know Kansas would have such well perserved main streets and downtown brick buildings. Of course, I have never really toured Kansas before, just driven through to get to Omaha or Okla City.
Thanks for hosting us and being open to ideas about traveling in Oklahoma in general. We are busting stereotypes that THERE ARE fun things to do and see in our state!
Best of luck to you all,
Emily Reagan
Public Relations, Frontier Country
Post a Comment