Ramblings From Justin Penney

The Blue Springs city council is talking abotu spending $98,000 on a branding campaign. The following is a letter I wrote to The Examiner:

$98,000. Nearly twice the average annual household income to brand Blue Springs. Are we really at the point where a slick logo and a catchy tag line are take priority for our city? In the last election there was a measure for street and sidewalk repair, why not take this $98,000 dollars and put it into the roads and sidewalks? Nothing says, "come live in our great city," like pot holes! Branding and marketing and competition... why is there an insatiable need to constantly grow at huge rates? Steady, organic, sustainable growth is nearly always preferable to an explosion which can quickly go from boom to bust. It seems like we're doing good so far! A great school district, reasonable infrastructure, wonderful parks... who wouldn't be attracted to Blue Springs? Obviously Wal-Mart and Home Depot were happy to set up shop. I'm not against Blue Springs growing, I just don't think that should be a priority. If we continue having a nice city with good schools and a reasonable cost of living businesses will be attracted. We don't need to wave money in their faces, they should already see that in their potential customers.

# posted by Justin @ 6:54 PM