Perhaps the single most serious but easily correctible mistake the City makes is in its marketing effort. If the City constantly short-sells itself, is it any wonder that many people expect little of the City?
Two fairly prominent examples come to mind:
1: The City’s “Vision Statement” is negative. It is fabulous that the City has a vision statement, however, it is self-defeating to a degree.
“By 2010, the City of Seaside will be a prosperous and fiscally sound family-oriented community with a full range of housing, business, cultural, and recreational opportunities in a safe and attractive environment for its residents and visitors.”
In other words, the statement suggests the City is not currently any of those things!
This is a vision statement. Let’s state the vision positively without any hint that we might not be completely there yet. Far better would be:
“The City of Seaside is a prosperous and fiscally sound family-oriented community with a full range of housing, business, cultural, and recreational opportunities in a safe and attractive environment for its residents and visitors.”
Every bit of the improved statement is true (although some might argue about degree) and in no way indicates that we don’t need to keep working at it.
Better yet we could add a sentence like: “The City Council will continue its work to ensure resources are made available to continue improving the quality of life for residents and the quality of business climate.”
2: At least one of the City’s promotional videos is negative.
In the ending moments of A Vision for Our Future speaking of future housing developments on the former Fort Ord, the narrator states: ". . . this untapped landscape will one day be dedicated to residential development making Seaside the perfect place to live, work and play."
In other words, the suggestion is that today Seaside is not a perfect place to live, work and play.
(click here to view the video in a new tab or window)
Proposed Solutions:
Sure our city needs improvement, but Seaside will benefit far more from a positive message that seeks to build on past success rather than indicating it needs a new project or just move a couple years into the future to thrive.
This negative marketing attitude — no matter how subtextual — must end right away.
Paid for by Felix For Seaside City Council