Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse

Episode 4 - Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse | 'Transforming Richmond: A Future Reimagined!'

• Kevin Shook • Episode 4

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Join host Lindsay Darnell on Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse as we dive into Richmond’s exciting transformation with Mayor Ron Oler. Explore the city’s rebranding journey, from community workshops to strategic consulting, all aimed at shaping a vibrant, forward-thinking identity. Discover how Richmond plans to attract young families and graduates, ensuring a thriving future for generations to come.

Mayor Oler shares his deep connection to Richmond and the vital role of community input in this bold initiative. Learn how traditional media and social platforms are being leveraged to reach every demographic, and hear about creative ideas—like city-marketing blimps—that could redefine Richmond’s image.

Your voice matters! The perception survey is your chance to influence how the city is shaped, reflecting both the heart of Richmond’s residents and the aspirations of future newcomers. With a goal of 33,000 responses, your input is crucial. Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RichPerception

Subscribe to Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse and stay engaged by watching the latest episodes on the City of Richmond’s YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiDRkUoj17wgaG7fGs6c9MGp8VbK-ZTTR

Be part of this transformative journey—your story shapes Richmond’s future!

Speaker 1:

Welcome back. This is Inside Richmond, the city's pulse. I'm Lindsay Darnell, your host, and today we have Mayor Ron Oler joining us. We are going to be talking about the branding initiative that the city is undergoing. We have a new perception survey we are going to get out. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about some of the updates about the rebranding of the city. Mayor, thank you for joining me. How are you?

Speaker 2:

Thank you. I'm glad to be here today on a cold day, so hopefully the rest of you out there and interwebs are where it's warm and dry. So, yes, glad to be here today. We'll talk about this branding so, but yes, glad to be here today We'll talk about this branding, so go ahead.

Speaker 1:

So we've done some workshops for the rebranding. We've brought some people in out of the community and just got some of their ideas of what they think about how the city is now and what we want it to be in the future ongoing and what do we want to be known for. So can you talk about a little bit about the workshops?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so exactly yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we, being newly elected mayor last year and there were 53 new mayors last year went into different offices and a lot of them started a process of branding their cities, looking at their logo, their marketing, their entire brand across all departments.

Speaker 2:

And we started looking at ours and we waited a year to just get a consensus that we really need to do this and pretty much everybody's convinced our flag looks one way. We have just a lot of disparate branding out there in the city, so it's time to come up with a cohesive brand. So we went through the whole process of finding consultants and we found a group that has a lot of experience branding entire cities like ours. So we've landed with a really good group and it started this week just meeting with the core team. Some of the city employees and a couple of community leaders started meeting this week. So the next step is the perception survey to the general public, to anyone out there who has an idea about what Richmond has been, what Richmond is, what Richmond will be. We want your perception about the city of Richmond and that'll really kick this thing off from the public side.

Speaker 1:

So the perception survey is something that's going to help us communicate who and where we are today as a community and where we want to be in the future. The perception survey is only about 10 minutes long. I think it was less than 10 minutes when I took it, so we really, really need to get you guys to get out here and take it. There'll be a QR code that comes up on the bottom of the screen. I'll have the link in the comments to this podcast. So demographics is going to start it off your age, your race, and then we're going to go into if you live here or if you work here or both. Then they're just going to ask you some different questions. You know what's important to you, what's not important to you, like quality of housing, job opportunities, several things, access to work, shopping and entertainment.

Speaker 2:

Right, it starts out with opportunities and amenities. So what are things are? How important are these things to you? Yes, some really good questions, and you'll get to rate all these on a on a five point scale. So are they very important? Of little importance, not important at all. We want everybody's input and the reason we do, the demographics we have. We've been thinking about the demographics of the city and the people who live here, the people we want to attract here, and divided some stuff into the different demographics, different age groups, different ethnicities, trying to make sure that we're reaching and communicating our brand, what we want our city to be, to everyone without leaving anyone out, as diverse a group as possible. So that's kind of why we ask those questions to begin with. So we talk about housing and job opportunities, school education, et cetera, recreation what else do we ask about?

Speaker 1:

We ask about how would you rate Richmond on those same attributes? So Is our work in shopping? Is it good or is it poor? Same with education. And one thing I really want to stress is why this is important. That we are going under a rebranding initiative is you know? We were known as the Rose City and we're not that anymore. We need an identity. We need something to help attract new people to come in and live in our city. Our population has dwindled. New people to come in and live in our city. Our population has dwindled. We're an aging community and we really want to attract, you know, the younger families, college graduates.

Speaker 2:

But it's also a chance for the current residents, too, not to leave them out. We want to hear from them a chance to shine. There's a lot that you're proud about our city. There's a reason. You still live here, so there's a lot you're proud about. We want to hear that, too, from your perception. Still live here, so there's a lot you're proud about. We want to hear that, too, from your perception. So, like you said, how is it? How easy is it to access work and shopping? You know what's. How easy is it to access job opportunities, city services, parks and recreation? But one of the things that's kind of fun is what brings you to and keeps you in Richmond. So what brought you to Richmond? What's keeping you in Richmond? We really want to know those questions. We want to know all these answers, but some of these are really get down to the nitty gritty, if you will.

Speaker 1:

So you know real quick I'll say what's you know kept me here is I'm a native of Richmond. I was born and raised here. You know my family's here, my friends is here, this is home. This is comfortable. You know, I don't see myself leaving. I really do see the opportunities that Richmond has and I, you know this is important for the current residents to to get involved in as well. We, we really want you guys to to come out, show up for the city. We, we know there's been a lot of negative going on, but there's also that positive, and so we really want you to see the positive in the things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the problem with the negative, especially on social media. There's a, there's a, there's a few loud voices out there. So there's three, 3000 people in Richmond and there's a handful that make negative comments. This is a chance for you to make positive comments the rest of you, people out there who don't engage in keyboard wars, so to speak. So questions like how do you feel about Richmond as a place to live, work or visit? Is it good, acceptable or poor? What areas can be improved? On a scale of one to five, one being the least, five the most, how would you rate your pride in the city of Richmond? Pride is very important. We hope you take pride in your city. There's a lot of things to be proud about in our past. There's a lot of things to be proud about in our present and, even more so, what can we take pride in the future? What do we want to improve in the city?

Speaker 1:

And improving things in the city. I know a lot of people want things to happen now, and it does take time. It is a process, and one analogy that I like to use is Rome was not built in a day. It does take some time. So you know, we are working forward to making the city great again. We're progressing forward, and so it's really important to get that out there as well.

Speaker 2:

And early settlers here along the river were 200 years ago, so we have some infrastructure that's well over 100 years old that we're working on upgrading, especially in the sewer front. So being able to activate the gorge, which is a huge project coming along, that's because we've separated the sewers now, so all these things have been in the works for a couple of decades. One of the questions we'll have is do you believe that the city's long-term planning aligns with the needs and desires of residents and businesses? So do you think we're doing the right things? Do you think revitalizing downtown is important? Is adding more housing within the city limits and these housing projects important? Is attracting more businesses and retaining businesses important?

Speaker 1:

And you know. Another question, too, is how effectively does the city communicate its vision of the future development and growth? This is very important to get this feedback back to us so we know. Is there something that we're missing? Do we need to spearhead and get more information out, or is there some other way to get the information out? Versus social media and the city councils, you know this will help us know how do we reach out to you. What's the best way to get to you and get this information out there?

Speaker 2:

that's very important. We still have two newspapers but readership, especially of the, the oldest paper, is not very good and the coverage we. There's a reporter here now who's trying to keep up with what's happening in the city, but it's since so few people subscribe to the local newspaper, that's not a great communications medium. I mean, we'll still use it, we still have it, but we need so much more social media radio. We don't. You know, we have community television but not really local tv necessarily. What else do we have?

Speaker 1:

so, in your opinion, how inclusive is the city and involving its residents and businesses in the planning and decision making processes? So this is another important thing that the city does need to know. So we really do hope you guys get out here and do this survey. Another one is do you feel that the city is capitalizing on opportunities for growth, which I can see it, you know, working for the city, I do see that we are capitalizing, but you guys might not see it. So definitely do this survey, let us know. Are we getting this information out there? Are we keeping you updated and informed? Hopefully, with this podcast, it's going to be more information for you guys to have.

Speaker 2:

And again, this is a, like you said, a perception survey, so we want your current perception of how things are. There'll be more surveys coming Once we get rolling onto this idea of branding a city. There'll be opportunity for a lot of input.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Oh, we do ask which social media platforms you use. So that's important too, and that's going to be kind of fun, because the geek in me, the scientist in me, I'm going to look at the demographics and see how people answer this Based upon the demographics. Do they use social media, yes or no? Do they watch our meetings on YouTube, twitter X, linkedin, instagram, facebook and other? So that'll be fun to figure that out, cause, again, we want to make sure we're reaching everyone, not just the young people, not just the middle-aged people, not just the older. No-transcript. If we're missing something, let us know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and in the other, if you don't use social media, put your email in there, and that way we can reach out to you by email.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because if the mayor had unlimited funds, we would have a Zeppelin, a blimp, at the airport that he would fly in and he'd have a message board on the side of it, flying around the city, and it would be so cool to share messages and information, because who doesn't love a Zeppelin or a blimp flying overhead? I remember as a kid when the Goodyear blimp would fly overhead to the Indianapolis 500, we everybody would just come out of their houses because you could hear it for like 20 minutes it's coming, it's really slow, and then everybody would come out and watch it. So anyways, I digress.

Speaker 1:

I got off a little tangent there.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, if the city wins a lottery, we're buying a blimp and we'll have free rides, and that's how we'll market the city and tell what we're doing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So our next question is how do you prefer to receive your information email text, social media, city website by mail or by your employer Definitely need to know this as well. I think we we could possibly do a flyer that goes out in the mail.

Speaker 2:

Postcards or something.

Speaker 1:

Postcard, yes, but I'm, I'm, I'm guilty of one, that if I see something and it's just a little postcard, I kind of just toss it, so you know if we can get.

Speaker 2:

I know people who get their sanitary district bill and they're rich from power and light electric bill and don't even open them because they have auto pay on a credit card. They just throw them away and I'm like, no, I opened mine. I want to know how much electricity I use, how much water I use, how much sewer I use. I want to know those, those details, even though I may have an auto payment. I want to know, I want to open them. So that's important too, so we can do stuffers and mailers in those. But I I don't know how many people really just don't open those too and just throw them away right what else we have, so we also have yes, these ones are kind of like a text filling out.

Speaker 1:

So, in your opinion, what makes Richmond special and or unique? What is your favorite attribute, your quality or future feature of Richmond and what is your least favorite attribute of Richmond? So this is very important and, like the mayor was saying, this is now your perception of now, not the past, not the future. This is your present.

Speaker 2:

One of the things we did in our groups. We wrote love letters to the city of Richmond. So we had to write a. We had a form we filled out and says dear Richmond, this is what I love about you and why I live here. So kind of think about that when you get to this, think about what you love about Richmond, the favorite attributes, the qualities or features you like. Do you like that we don't have too many one-way streets? Do you like that we have all these parks? Do you like that you know the restaurants, the dining choices?

Speaker 1:

and I. I just want to say too that I I want to welcome anyone to email me or call me and just tell me their story. If they want to give me their love letter of Richmond, they can email it to me, um. Or if they don't want to take the survey, if they want to email me or call me and just answer these questions for me on the phone, let's say they don't have a means to take this survey via, you know, their phone or a computer, um, I am more than willing to sit there and go through it with you on the phone, with you, and the last one is how would you describe Richmond to a friend?

Speaker 2:

Think about that elevator speech. You know most of us have heard you know you're doing something, you're wanting to do something, even when you're running for elected office. You have like a two or three minute elevator speech. So how would you describe Richmond to a friend? In a positive note, hopefully?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, hopefully in a positive note. Richmond does have a lot of things to be proud of. Um, there is a lot of amenities. Um, outdoor, we have the trails. Um, you know, with the gorge activation, I know that hasn't started yet but it's in the process.

Speaker 2:

Some of it. Stargenet Park is underway, the Veterans Park is underway, the Gorge Trail through the gorge from Thistleweight Falls down is three and a half miles and that connects to the Cardinal Greenway. It goes 67 miles all the way to Gas City. So you can bicycle or walk or hike. So, if you want, there's no excuse to not get outdoors. In Richmond we have so many parks over a thousand native parks and even kudos to the Hayes Arboretum. They have walking paths there too, which is a private park, necessarily, or a private arboretum, so there's a lot of ways to get outside and get fresh air.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I know, being in the Midwest, you know the weather's not always the greatest not today. It's windy and cold. You know winter months it is, and that's like that in any city that has this type of weather. The winter months kind of slow down and there's not much to do, but definitely in the spring and summer and fall you know there is a lot of things that we can get out there and do.

Speaker 2:

we can go to thistleweight falls and we have three golf courses if you're a golfer, and there's pickleball courts if you're a pickleballer. Is that the word I? I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Pickleballer yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then the parks department. They host a lot of events for our youth. Oh, everything from JUCO, almost, from toddlers, from little bitty kids to the elderly. They run the senior center for older people and all the stuff they have in the summertime in the parks. And then the nonprofit organizations.

Speaker 1:

They do a lot of events too. So, you know, Richmond does have a lot going on. We just got to get out there and do it.

Speaker 2:

There's always something to do. I know, two weekends ago I'm like I've got three things I can do. Tonight, which one am I doing? And I think I actually got in two of them, which is kind of cool. But there is. Don't say there's never anything to do, because there's always something to do and a lot of it's free. Some of it costs, of course. So going to the, the symphony, the theater, you pay a little bit, but it's really not much compared to what you pay in a bigger city. There's so many amenities here that are free or low cost that there's no reason why you can just sit in your basement and not do anything and we have have great museums.

Speaker 1:

You know you were telling Guide Studio, who is the branding firm, yesterday that the state of Indiana has three mummies in it and Richmond has two of those mummies in which I did. I knew we had two mummies but I didn't. I did not know that Indiana only had three mummies in the state.

Speaker 2:

So all the wannabe Indiana Jones archaeologists down at IU Bloomington, if they want to study Egyptian mummies they have to come to Richmond, for two of the three in Indiana, so that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so get out there, go visit the museums, do the trails, go to the parks, do all these other events that nonprofit organizations have for us. So is there any other information you want to get out to the community about the branding process?

Speaker 2:

On this survey. Do this survey. If we could have 33,000 people compete this survey in a couple weeks, that'd be awesome because, don't worry, there's more coming. This is just a start. Quite a bit more to come over the next four months. We just started this week and we have a four-month time frame to finish this project and come up with something really cool.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, mayor, for joining us and, like the Mayor said, make sure to take the perception survey. I'm Lindsay Darnell. This is Inside Richmond, the City's Pulse. Make sure that you subscribe to our podcast and like this podcast on Facebook, share it, share it on Twitter, share it on Instagram, but make sure you take the survey for us. Until next time, guys.