It’s always interesting to hear what kind of impression Richmond leaves on someone visiting, and of course I especially enjoy it when that perspective reaffirms what I already love about the city.
Take a look at how a correspondent from Cleveland.com views the River City: “Richmond: Southern charm with an edge” (thanks to @verystickyrice & @sharischaefer for tweeting about the article, or I would have totally missed it)
I think he captured the feel of Richmond very well, and the piece was well thought through. Granted, it’s a certain piece of Richmond and there are plenty more aspects that weren’t covered, but hey…he was only visiting for short time! It’s hard to get the full view even while you’re living here.
Feel free to leave comments here on RVA Business, but it might be better to leave comments on their site to keep the discussion going.
Come on back anytime, Stephen!
Nice writeup of the Fan/Carytown areas.
But I will say I find his mention of the “weirdness” a bit off. Cleveland has a homeless population of nearly 20,000 to Richmond’s just under 1,200. RVA’s may be a bit more centralized or noticeable in that there are a lot right on top of VCU, but nothing too weird.
Yeah, I think our homeless population is less….endemic (?) than most places — but I didn’t want to quibble about a bad impression when the rest of the article was so positive.
Did you really mean 20,000 vs 1,200? Or did you slip an extra zero in there? If that’s true then he must have bumped into every homeless person in RVA to feel like it was worth mentioning.
Yeah, I don’t mean to quibble but it caught my attention and numbers fascinate me so I was compelled to look.
Those numbers come from the following:
Cle – http://www.neoch.org/stateofhomelessness2009.pdf
RVA – http://www.upiu.com/articles/7-increase-in-richmond-s-homeless-population
Now, the Cleveland stats probably include Cuyahoga County with a population of nearly 1.4 million, but at 7x the greater population of Richmond, proportionately RVA still holds out.
I was surprised to see the number so low for RVA but density may make the difference.
Thanks for the links to the numbers. That certainly does put the comments in a different light.
NP. It was just a passing comment, tho, and certainly doesn’t take away from the glowing praise of the Fan/Carytown areas. I’m hoping he comes back to enjoy more of what Downtown has to offer or even Church Hill and Northside communities.
So, loved the piece but curious who might be working to capitalize on its message and attract more tourists (or potential new residents) from Cleveland. Not sure what the Dealer’s circulation is, but gotta believe it’s big. Ideas on how to better use these stories to support a stronger local economy? From a pr perspective and if money wasn’t a concern, how would you resin d to this opportunity?
OK – I’ll be the first to jump. How about we deploy a roving band of Segways to Cleveland promoting a trip to Richmond. How about an app to help Clevelanders plan their dream Richmond getaway?
How about a “Cleveland Rocks/Richmond Rolls” two-tone tour bus with full color wrap. Customized tour packages from Cleveland via this jazzy bus (engaging weird and wonderful tour guide included) or an airline equivalent.
All-inclusive package involves a romp through all things Richmond -front doors, back alleys. I don’t know, “backstage passes”? Full color ad in the Plain Dealer Travel section. I’m sure they have one. How about a fun ad campaign showing recognizable Cleveland characters in Richmond scenes? Or play on the tone of the orginial article – a #RVA historic figure singing karaoke at Sticky Rice?
Or how about we use the opportunity for a targted approach to encourage our precious university alum who may reside in Cleveland to come back by for a visit?
………I know there’s more 🙂 There are some people way more creative than I am out there…..and kudos to the great work being done to encourage travel tourism in #rva.
The follow up ads in the Cleveland paper, maybe it would even make sense to hit some of the local Cleveland blogs with ads and link back to the article. I like your ideas on how to do the campaigns, especially tying in Cleveland characters somehow!
I’m not sure about direct flights from Cleveland to Richmond, but if there are any then we could coordinate with the airline and push those flights to let people know how easy it is to get here. If there aren’t any, then let’s approach the most logical carriers and see if we can get some set up and promote them.
Maybe we could get RichmondMom’s “Richmond Rocks” books into Cleveland outlets? Come to think of it, we could benefit from arranging a good sampling of books promoting Richmond to be placed in key target markets.