Usually, cities focus on attracting businesses or attracting tourists. A group of prominent residents in North Canton wants to focus on attracting new residents.
CantonRep.com / Ray Stewart |
Chase Beauregard of North Canton tackles the big toy at Price Park.
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Robert Wang
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Aug. 11, 2014 @ 7:00 am NORTH CANTONYou’ve probably heard “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” “Pure Michigan,” and “Virginia is for Lovers.”
And perhaps even Ohio’s “Too Much Fun for Just One Day,” “Pittsburgh. Mighty. Beautiful” and “Positively Cleveland.”
But if a local group has its way, “Live. Right. Here. North Canton!” also will roll off your tongue.
A local nonprofit group has launched an ad campaign seeking to attract new residents to live in North Canton.
North Canton Chamber of Commerce President Doug Lane says the North Canton Community Growth Association, which he founded in 2012 with former Councilman Jeff Davies, has spent more than $3,000 to produce four 30-second commercials extolling the virtues of the city. The group says it has spent about $10,000 to run the commercials locally.
Lane, a former councilman who is the group’s president, said the commercials will run until the middle of this month in hopes of winning the attention of people looking for the ideal city to move to before the start of the school year.
The group has also launched a website liverightherenorthcanton.com, which includes links to rental and real estate listings.
Lane said the ads are “laying the groundwork for the next five years” so when people who’ve seen the commercials think years from now about where they’d like to live, they’ll think about North Canton.
“We’re trying to get on their radar, so we can get some younger families, some single-parent families and even some empty nesters,” said Lane. “The whole idea is to put us on the map, so people think about us when they’re looking for homes.”
WILL YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
The ads feature scenes from the North Canton YMCA July 4th race, Interstate 77, the North Canton Public Library, city neighborhoods, the Hoover Trail, City Hall, Hoover High School athletic games, Little League games, Dogwood Pool and Price Park.
Groups of people, many of them children, say enthusiastically in the commercials, “Live. Right. Here. North Canton!”
Several families give glowing accounts of living in North Canton, praising the city’s schools, the parks, the friendliness of the residents, proximity to I-77 and the Akron-Canton Airport, affordability and a good environment to raise children.
“When I came back to Ohio, North Canton was the only place I wanted to live. The community is so safe. The schools are fantastic. I can bike to church. I can bike to the library,” says a woman with a bike and a child in front of the old Hoover Co. plant at the July 4th parade.
Read more: http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140810/News/140819985#ixzz3AMv7htkM