The Mayor Speaks
A city is like a person going for an important job interview: It should have a shine on its shoes, a smile on its face, and a firm handshake for those it is trying to impress.
While he didn’t word it in exactly those terms, Madison Mayor Tim Armstrong said Friday that this is the general reason his administration has been busy with facelifting programs on Main Street for the last couple of weeks.
“I want us to take more pride in what we have. That’s why we’re trying to fix things,” Armstrong said.
The city’s new mayor, now in the fifth month of his term, took time out from his busy schedule to sit down in his office for an exclusive interview with Old Corporal.
During the interview Armstrong also addressed his recent trip to Japan on behalf of the city’s economy.
Armstrong noted that in recent weeks city employees have been planting flowers and young trees in newly landscaped plots in the brick portion of the Main Street sidewalks, and that last week a brick pillar in front of the Main Street parking lot was replaced and the iron fence connecting it and other pillars, long in disrepair, were reconstructed and given a new coat of black paint.
The brick pillar was destroyed when an unknown motorist hit it on a Saturday night some time last year. Old Corporal discovered the damage the next day and reported it to the Madison Police.
“It reflects badly on our city, if we don’t take care of those types of things,” Armstrong said. The mayor said his administration is starting its program of facelifting with Main Street because it’s a focus for the downtown — the part of the “under the hill” portion of Madison that first-time visitors are most likely to see.
Adding the landscaping — which was recommended by Roger Brooks, a consultant who gave a presentation recently about what things should be done and undone in the downtown — and repairing the fence in front of the parking lot are not the only changes Armstrong plans.
The public restrooms in the parking lot have been locked for some time, Armstrong noted. The action was taken after the Al Huntington administration opened the city comfort station across the street.
“We thought about knocking it down and putting up a gazebo there,” said Armstrong of the old restrooms building. “But there’s nothing definite yet. Maybe we’ll put a sitting area there, with a water fountain.”
Noting that he has received some criticism for the Japan trip — part of it posted on the Old Madison website — Armstrong said Madison has needed such an initiative on the part of its leaders for a long time.
“Look at neighboring cities — Columbus, Seymour, New Albany, Jeffersonville, are all there every year, and look how they’re thriving,” he said. “The Japanese are all about relationships. When I addressed (Japanese business and industrial leaders) they had hardly heard of Madison, Indiana. But they were fascinated at hearing about our history. When I talked about the filming of ‘Some Came Running’ here, they all recognized the names of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, and so on. Now, they know where Madison is.”
Armstrong said he hopes his visit and meetings will help in landing jobs for Madisonians through some type of Japanese industry or business establishing itself here. “We’re sending them folders and letters,” he said.
Turning back to his facelifting program for Main Street, the mayor said it’s all a part of the city’s making better efforts to promote itself not only to prospective employers but also to possible future residents.
“People aren’t just going to come here — we have to promote ourselves,” he said. “We have to ask, ‘Are we doing everything that we could to promote our city and our community? The hilltop AND the downtown?’ ”
Armstrong said the city’s website is now in the process of being revamped, and that MIDCOR will be re-named. A strategic plan for the city is also being developed, he added. “We have to move forward. We have to do things in a different way.”
But he said this doesn’t mean that Madison’s historic heritage will be de-emphasized in any way. “We’re not doing anything different from other communities who have been successful.”
The mayor brought up a problem which has dogged any improvements made in downtown Madison for years — the danger of vandalism from drunks and/or street hoodlums late at night.
Armstrong said that he has instructed Police Chief John Wallace to have his officers be especially vigilant about the new improvements. But he said that citizens can help also by immediately reporting any vandalism they see, or that they see someone committing.
The mayor said his trip to Japan opened his eyes to how immaculately spotless some societies keep their public areas.
“It amazed me how clean Tokyo and Nagoya are,” he said of the two major cities his group visited. “And you don’t see trash cans on the streets! They are tremendously disciplined, and have a tremendous sense of pride in their communities.”
Armstrong said in his drive to improve Madison, he is open to suggestions from anyone who has ideas that are “positive, and want to do things for the right reasons. I’ll talk to them.”
The new mayor said that some day, when he is no longer heading the city, he hopes that “at least people will remember this administration for trying to make things better. We have to want more than what we are.”
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Now a comment or two on the mayor’s statements. I couldn’t agree with him more about the vandalism which has been tolerated for too long, by a number of administrations, in downtown commercial areas late at night. Saying, “Oh, the police can’t be everywhere at once” doesn’t cut it anymore. No, the police CAN’T be everywhere at once. So, let’s be inventive. There are other ways to catch these people whose greatest pleasure is spoiling something that other people enjoy. Got any ideas? Call the mayor’s office — 265-8300. Or drop me an e-mail and maybe I’ll mention your idea in a later column.
Yes, Armstrong has taken some heat — a lot of it foolish — about his trip to Japan. If it’s working for the other cities he mentioned — he could have also named North Vernon and Carrollton, Ky. — then why shouldn’t Madison give it a try? Let’s face it, fellow Madisonians — we’re falling behind the others. When a brand-new mayor tries something different, it doesn’t help to have a group of nay-sayers making cracks about “rickshaws” and “chopsticks.”
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Finally, I noted the other day that a local restaurant has a brief mention on their menu about a little-known fact involving John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln, and a visit Booth once made to Madison. They’ve got the details wrong, and I’m trying now to find the correct information on the Internet. When I do, I’ll share it with the readers of this column.
Old Corporal <corporalko@yahoo.com>
The mayor speaks, – Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 19:14:49 (EDT)
