“You stand out when you stand for something— when you go to a place your peers or competitors aren’t prepared to go.” Bernadette Jiwa
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”
– Louis L’Amour
– Louis L’Amour
Those two quotes struck me for different reasons last week. But both make a case for change, innovation and a willingness to look toward the future.
Australian marketing expert Bernadette Jiwa was referring to brands when she made that comment in a recent blog post.
But the sentiment can also refer to cities too.
Cities have brands and identifies too. And if you can establish a positive brand you’ll create enormous value and quality of life.
Similarly if your brand and identity is negative, you’ll pay a price in terms of investment, quality of life, ability to attract business, staff, tourists and residents.
So getting your brand and reputation right is important. Check that, it’s essential.
If you develop a reputation for dysfunction or corruption you’re cooked. Capital flows where it’s welcome. And similarly smart people migrate to where they feel assured that ideas and aspiration are not only welcome but encouraged.
I will argue that the success of Boca Raton and Delray Beach stems from a mindset–let’s get it done, let’s build something here, let’s make it happen whatever it may be.
For example, Boca redeveloped a moribund mall and made it Mizner Park.
I caught a glimpse of the cover of its soon to be released Economic Development magazine on social media and it knocked me out. The city has depth and that doesn’t happen by accident.
Similarly Delray Beach didn’t happen by accident either. It took a city, a CRA, a DDA, a marketing cooperative, a police department, homeowners, business owners and key non profits working together to take back a city from blight, crack, crime and disinvestment.
Much was accomplished. Much remains to be done.
Which leads me to the relevance of the second quote by Louis L’Amour which really addresses complacency and opportunity.
Complacency is a killer. If it takes root, your gains will be squandered and competitors will eat you for lunch.
Right now, in Delray, there exists a weird combination of complacency and delusion.
Just take a look at the debate over East and West in Delray. You have some people saying the east is done (it isn’t) and others saying that basically nothing has been done west in The Set (terribly wrong). That’s the delusion part. A lot has been done: more than $60 million spent on beautification all the way to the Interstate, improvements to Northwest/Southwest Fifth Avenue, a new library, Catherine Strong Park, a thriving Community Land Trust, anti-crime efforts, neighborhood paint-ups, the Spady Museum, the expansion of Village Academy, improved water pressure, dirt roads paved, Atlantic Grove, the Fairfield Inn, the list goes on and on.
Nobody has ever said it’s been enough or that efforts should stop. Nobody.
Everybody understands that a large part of the mission remains. And everyone I’ve talked to over the past 30 years is committed to doing it.
It takes time. But if you look around or asked around you can see it happening before our eyes. A Publix is coming. That’s a big deal my friends. They wouldn’t look at West Atlantic before now. Before all that work and effort.
East Atlantic took time and it still needs help: pockets of weakness, high rents, not enough year round commerce, a lack of office space and an over reliance on food and beverage.
The beauty of cities is they are synergistic i.e. not zero sum games. The west wins when the east succeeds, that’s how the money grows and flows.
Similarly, the east benefits greatly when the west succeeds.
The first quote talks about going where others don’t dare venture.
We went there as a city and found success.
It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t overnight. And just as failure is hardly ever fatal, success is hardly ever final.
But we don’t get to the promised land, we don’t taste the sweetest fruit if we are complacent and or delusional.
We get further (but we never arrive because it’s never over) when we work together. We succeed when we acknowledge, respect, collaborate, communicate and cooperate. We get further when our brand is “welcome smart people, let’s get to work and build the best small city in the world.”
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