John Goodill of the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew. “You don’t like to have your community labeled “Murder Town USA,” obviously, but I think in some ways we deserve it until we fix the problem,” said congregant Dr. The News Journal last week quoted a Trinity Vicinity doctor after church: All of our futures are intertwined in the lifeboat named “the City of Wilmington.” Rotary members, and virtually every civic leader of any stature, are devoted to making our city better. I’ve been a part of inner city public health campaigns for three decades, and of criminal justice reform programs for over a decade. We’re getting a mentoring program underway. In fact, my own Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Wilmington, the oldest and largest in Delaware, has set as its 2nd Century objective – since its Centennial last year – to make Wilmington a “world class city.” Our programs often focus on the diagnostics about the problems, along with prospective solutions.įrankly, we’re working on infrastructure issues, like parks. I’m in the city daily, passing through Hilltop and West Center City and LoMa (Lower Market Street) near Amtrak virtually on a daily basis, usually two or three times a day. I’ve moved counter to trends, having lived in Wilmington, and its immediate environs, since 1998. I’ve lived in New Castle County since 1978. The combination of the urban – often random – crime and violence coupled with the diminishing stature of public education combine exponentially as a disincentive to economic development, to presenting our city, indeed our entire community, as an attractive destination for businesses to locate and grow. Hence, that old saw today should be, “Reality is Reality, from which Perception flows.”Īs business people, each of us sees such perceptions at work, and they’re hurting our home town. But, the level of transparency in society today makes masquerades very difficult to carry off and sustain for long. “Perception is Reality” is an old saying in public affairs and public relations, and the media. Mayor, it’s not the media that is defining the City of Wilmington, it’s the City of Wilmington that’s defining the City of Wilmington.
And he issued an open letter to ABC last week to that point.Īt the heart of it is a Newsweek story last December by Abigail Jones, headlined “Murder Town USA (aka Wilmington, Delaware),” which called Wilmington one of the most dangerous small cities in the country and chronicled efforts to quell crime.įrankly, Mr. The city cannot let the media define it, he told the press. “We are not even going to shut the streets down for them.” “They are not going to get any cooperation,” Williams said. “Why should I – when all you are going to do is beat us up and talk about violence in the city when we are trying to curtail that and turn that around? Why should I let you come in and pour hot sauce on the wound?” Williams asked. “That’s no longer the case,” the mayor said in backtracking his initial offer to roll out Wilmington’s red carpet to the TV show production company. Instead, he hastened to get in front of the parade of Wilmington civic leaders decrying ABC’s decision to move forward with such a Wilmington-based production. Given a day to reflect, perhaps under some urging from his subordinates, and frenzied calls to City Hall, the mayor quickly abandoned his initial response. I just hope they get somebody good looking to play me,” the Mayor told the News Journal papers.
If they want to come into Wilmington and spend some of that money, go to the west end, the Hotel du Pont, bring in 500 people to spend at our restaurants.
“A bunch of has-beens playing in different roles to try to rebuild their acting careers. 12.įrankly, Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams had it right in his first response, which he should not have backed away from. Wilmington, um, Murder Town, will figure prominently in the ABC lineup, a story the News Journal played prominently and appropriately on Nov. Variety, the show business trade newspaper, announced that A+E Studios had inked a deal for a “put pilot” for a TV show named “Murder Town” starring Jada Pinkett Smith as Wilmington’s first black district attorney. Murder Town USA, Newsweek magazine’s handle for the City of Wilmington a year ago, is now the issue in play in Delaware.
0 kommentar(er)
