Dave's Blog

I know that City Manager's do their best to stay as apolitical as possible, and we definitely don't advocate voting for one candidate over another -- but in the case of the Haymaker Farmer's Market, I'm willing to make an exception. It turns out that an organization called Care2 is sponsoring a vote for your favorite farmer's market with a grand prize of $5,000 and random prizes of $250 going to support your local market. The Haymaker Market has worked really hard to expand their vendor base, and make the Saturday morning trip to the Kent market a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining experience. So if the spirit moves you, vote early and often for the Haymaker Farmer's Market.

In case you haven't noticed, the Water Street Tavern has been busy lately. Busy adding a new outdoor rooftop patio. Busy adding a new restaurant, Cajun Dave's. And busy adding live music. If you get the feeling that the Water Street Tavern is on a mission -- you'd be right. And that mission seems to be the best place in town to eat, drink and be merry. With all they've done, you could make the case that they've accomplished their mission, and then some.

Ron Burbick had one thing on his mind when he started his Phoenix Project in downtown Kent -- show people what's possible. I don't know if he has spent much time in Missouri but Ron's definitely honoring the Show Me State philosophy. He left the talking and analyzing to the armchair quarterbacks while he rolled up his sleeves and started putting hammers to nails. Those hammers and nails have added up to something special in downtown Kent and here's a video introspective that offers a glimpse into what Ron has showed us about ourselves in downtown Kent.

Putting your best foot forward has been sage business advice for centuries and it's more important than ever in today's hyper-competitive world where the old standard of 15 seconds of fame has been reduced to a nano-second flicker in a stream of pixelated messages that bombard our senses and leave us attention-disordered. Every nano-second matters and done right, those nano-moments give us a chance to create the kind of positive first impression that may just get us a second look. So in the spirit of to know us is to love us, we've assembled another positive video message to help tell the Kent story. Check it out.

I saw this story in Reuter's News Service last week and its commonalities with Kent's retail philosophical bent in favor of small, home grown businesses, got my attention. Long before I arrived in Kent, Kent said no thanks to the mall and it's big box national name brand stores, and that was at a time when malls were the top of the food chain so that couldn't have been an easy decision -- it had to have felt like leaving money on the table of a poker game and walking away. The only way it's easy is if you're strong enough in your values that you can say that's just not who we are. Whether the mall would have been good, bad or indifferent, you have to admire the courage of the community's convictions to stand up for what they believe in. As you can read in this Reuter's article it seems that's a fairly common trait among free thinking university towns. Best of all, the article gives examples in their home town of the Mom's and Pop's winning the retail game.

You don't have to go down to the Bayou anymore to satisfy your ahnvee for the best of those Acadian flavors and spices -- just head on down to Cajun Dave's new restaurant located at the Water Street Tavern in downtown Kent. Bam! Mike Beder, owner of the Tavern has done Emeril proud, introducing Kentites to a whole new taste adventure delta style. Les mudbugs c'est magnifique! Bon appetite!

When I started yesterday's blog post it was supposed to be a commentary on one of my favorite business segments in Kent -- artists -- but I ended up carrying on so much about clusters and the economic ecology of our university city that I never quite made it to the end zone with the artists so I'll try again today. A couple of weeks ago Main Street Kent hosted it's annual Wine and Arts festival downtown and judging from the long lines at the wine booths the event appears to have been a great success. Keep in mind this wasn't a county fair grounds copy-cat arts event with booths lined up as far as the eye can see. Nope, it was classic Kent, which means it was small -- or as we say, right-sized -- a bit understated, intimate and interesting. Quirky is in these days and Kent's got quirky to spare. And quirky loves the arts which is why I see harnessing the power of the arts as smart business for Kent.

One of my favorite economic exercises is to perform a business cluster analysis to see what your community's business portfolio looks like. We haven't had the time to do a formal in-depth analysis here in Kent yet but there are some interesting anecdotal data points that suggest themes and trends that drive much of our economic strategizing.

With City Council's approval to convert to a single trash hauler in May 2009, the City staff is busy making plans for implementation of the new trash service. Residents will be receiving information packets in June that explain the details of the new service, including collection schedule and levels of service available. Residents can begin signing up for the new service which will be available beginning August 1, 2009. For residents that have already paid their current trash hauler for another 3 months, they are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible but they have until February 2010 to enroll in the new service.

Signs, signs everywhere there's signs. Or at least it can feel that way sometimes. The City's Zoning Code provides for regulation of commercial signs but I have to admit we have some corridors in town that suffer from what I would call visual blight. And to be fair, it's not just business signs; it's temporary signs, illegal signs, and even City signs for no parking and no cut through traffic. I'm not diminishing the importance of any one sign to somebody out there but it seems like we need a little visual streamlining. When it comes to signs, less can be more. At this point, with so much clutter it's hard to see anything -- it's all a bit of a blur. This is the kind of conversation that I suspect you'll hear if you join in the next Zoning Review Session scheduled for Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 7:30 PM.

Between City capital projects, ODOT projects in town, and Kent State University projects on the Kent campus, this summer is shaping up to be one of the busiest construction seasons in Kent in years. Kent is doing it's best to live up to the ambitions of putting shovels in the dirt to stimulate the regional economy. There's no doubt that seasonal employment levels, at least in the construction trades should be near record highs in a couple of months -- especially once the Crain Avenue/Fairchild Avenue bridge project gets into gear. These days even temporary construction jobs are welcome news. Here's an update from the University Architect's office on the status of the work planned for the Kent State campus.

I just got the word from our engineering department that the contractor for the Spaulding Drive bridge is set to begin work on Monday, June 8th which means the bridge will be out of commission until late August. Detour signs will be put up and traffic that normally crosses the bridge will need to find alternative routes. Unfortunately there's not a lot of detour options and admittedly all of them are much less convenient which speaks to the importance of this bridge and why we have to get in there to replace it as soon as possible. Here's the details from the City Engineer.

Lately I've felt like the blog has been more of a community calendar than a dialogue on all things Kent but this is the time of year for outdoor events and this weekend has another big one lined up: The Wine and Art Festival -- being billed as Masterpieces on Main -- sponsored by Main Street Kent and local Kent businesses will be this Saturday, June 6th at Main Street and S. Water Street from 1 to 9 pm. This event brings art out of the galleries to be shared (and purchased if the spirit moves you) and enjoyed. Mix in a little vino from our favorite local wineries, put on your most sophisticated pair of sandals and you've got yourself genuine high culture society event, Kent style. Don't miss it!

As a user of the newest section of the Portage Hike and Bike Trail off of Crain Avenue I've been pleasantly surprised by the number and variety of trails users that I see out there. We like to brag that Kent prides itself on it's eclecticism and that theme carries over into trail users as well. I've seen bike racers, kids with training wheels, a unicyclist, roller bladers, joggers pushing strollers, runners, speed walkers, slow walkers and everything in between. It amazes me that no matter what the weather is doing or the time of day that I go to use the trail I'm sharing it with a dozen or so others. And age is no obstacle, I've been passed by folks with many more miles on their legs and years on their birth certificate but I'm also pleased to report that it seems to be a favorite of students as well. A new trail segment opens this weekend, June 6th at 11am with a ribbon cutting at Fred Fuller Park.

I've had the good fortune to live in small, medium and large cities. I've spent time in villages and towns and I grew up in the kinds of suburbs that had no charms to soothe the restless dreams of youth. And actually if you count my college years I've even lived in rural areas. I guess I've been around the block a bit and the truth is each place has its gifts. Some gifts you cherish, others you'd like to give back. I tend to be a glass is full sort of a guy so I'm grateful for the experiences of each place and while I'd never dwell on the downsides they do provide a basis to appreciate how much the Kent area has to offer. Moving and acclimating to the eccentricities of each place is always hard but appreciation isn't earned easily. It's learned through those times we'd just as soon forget. I may not actually forget them but I'm pretty good at boxing them up and using them as inspiration for appreciating what I have today.

Since I raised the topic of strategic planning yesterday with my discussion of the 2008 Strategy Update, I thought it was a good time to distribute the Council Activity Report for the first quarter of 2009. In a nutshell, whereas Economic Development dominated Council's time in 2008, much of 2009 has been devoted to broader community issues like neighborhoods, sidewalk shoveling and trash service. But don't worry Economic Development is still getting a lot of air time and it is likely to get more as long as the economy continues to be such a significant challenge.

We've been busy working on our 2008 Annual Report for City operations and as nice as we hope the Annual Report will turn out, we thought there was value in a Reader's Digest version for those ADD among us who don't have the time or attention span to thumb through 10 to 12 pages but still want to know a little bit more about what their City has done for them lately. For anyone that falls into that category we've put together a new 2008 Strategy Update that tries to show not just all the work we've been doing but also how that work contributes to the goals of our community. One of our greatest challenges is not just being busy but being busy at the right things. Those right things are what we call our strategy goals and objectives.

Even in good times retail is a fickle business but when the economy turns south retailers can be in a world of hurt. Building customer loyalty is more than just selling great products at great prices; it's understanding your market, leveraging your niche and merchandising the heck out of your product and service lines. The big box stores have proven formulas that they have tested and re-tested in all kinds of different markets which is a great way for them to get a leg up on the competition but that leaves the little mom and pop stores on their own to try to figure things out along the way. That's probably why so many mom and pops don't survive -- they can't get up the learning curve faster than their costs add up. Kent is proud to be more of a mom and pop than big town and to prove it, Main Street received a grant to assist 5 small businesses in downtown Kent get the kind of professional advice they couldn't afford on their own.

Not a lot of cities get a chance to admire and enjoy the Budweiser draft horse team up close and personal but it looks like lightning is striking twice in Kent, and for the second time in as many years, the good folks at Budweiser have offered to bring their horses into downtown Kent. The last time they came there were throngs of people so I'd recommend coming early to get a good vantage point as the horses plan to pull the Budweiser wagon and make a few deliveries. The horses should arrive on Thursday, May 28th between 4:30 and 5:00 pm and the parade is planned for 5:30 to 6:30.

Starting June 1, City water crews will begin the annual fire hydrant flushing program. The crews will be flushing the hydrants Tuesday through Friday, from 2 am to 7 am for a period of approximately four weeks. We will be posting signs in neighborhoods and putting announcements in the news media to advise our customers but I also wanted to share the neighborhood flushing schedule so you can see where and when we'll be working.