Tuesday, June 21, 2011
"Creative District" study moves forward for SW Raleigh
- from SouthwestRaleigh.com
A quick update on this story from last week: The City Council voted 7-1 today to let the Southwest Raleigh economic development study go forward at a cost of $150,000 (plus $40,000 from N.C. State University).
The lone no vote today, as she was at the Budget and Economic Development Committee a week ago, was at-large Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin.
This is the study that many Southwest Raleigh-ites hope will result in the branding of their part of the city as the Creative District — together with some creative approaches to transit, housing and other programs to spur economic growth.
Councilor Thomas Crowder, whose District D spans SW Raleigh, has been pushing for the study for more than a year.
Comments (4)
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I engaged Councilor Baldwin on Twitter and had the following exchange on this issue. You can draw your own conclusions. I wasn't
particularly thrilled with the outcome...
Jason Hibbets (@jhibbets) wrote initially:
@Jhibbets Councilor @maryannbaldwin miffed over the branding of Southwest Raleigh | http://ow.ly/5iEBu (I'd like to gain her support on this)
To which I (@monseman) replied..
@jhibbets Did not agree w/ @maryannbaldwin 's point. Certain areas can have their own distinctive personalities, nothing wrong with that.
Councilor Baldwin (@maryannbaldwin) then replied..
@monseman My point was we should build a city brand first; area brands are secondary and support the umbrella brand.
I then sent a couple of tweets in response..
@maryannbaldwin well, if the energy is there from one of the districts, it should be supported, it gives the city a broader personality
@maryannbaldwin there's no reason the city should have one brand IMHO.. why limit an area's potential or energy if it's there today?
@maryannbaldwin in any case, thanks for the response, glad to have the open conversation!
And this was Coucilor Baldwin's response...
@monseman I actually make my living as a brand marketing / communications expert.
I waited a bit to see if there was something else coming, but I'm still waiting.. I wrote back a couple more tweets, just in case...
@maryannbaldwin I still don't agree with not supporting this effort which reflects the true character of SW Raleigh at the moment...
@maryannbaldwin this City is diverse, so there will always be differences within itself, this doesn't in any way harm the city's brand
And that was it, no other response. I might need to work on my marketing skills, it seems.
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Councilor Baldwin suggested that no one community in the City should promote themselves as "creative" that it is unfair to other neighborhoods. My opinion... that's backward thinking! Should we attempt to grow and enhance our City according to the lowest common denominator? Of course not, let's highlight our strengths. Each Raleigh neighborhood has its own unique character, and if a number of generous, active volunteers are willing to promote that, Ms. Baldwin should at worst, get out of the way. At best, she she should do her job and support enhancing the quality of life in our City.
She didn't give one. She did offer an amendment, which Mayor Meeker ruled was a friendly amendment and which Crowder accepted. It called for the NCSU researchers to coordinate with the city's planning department. But even with the amendment added, Baldwin voted no on the measure.
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