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Harris Spot on With Analysis of Kokomo Economy

In the July 11th edition of the Kokomo Perspective (link to story), IU Kokomo Chancellor Michael Harris makes comments regarding the show return to lower employment locally.  His comments are as follow, “The world has shifted from the old economy of manufacturing and labor simple production to an economy of knowledge and innovation.”  He continues to say, “The world has moved on.  It’s not going to be the way of the future, which is why we are lagging.  We were so dependent, and now we’re taking the hit.”  According to the article, Harris calls on the area to think regionally in branding itself to attract new businesses and innovators.

It is nice to know that there are still community leaders with a voice pushing other leaders to come together and fix the region.  While there has been a lot of hype about Kokomo “getting better”, it is largely due to the fact that Chrysler is currently on its feet.  I don’t think there is any denying that Chrysler is an important provider to our community, but it shouldn’t be the only one.  We need more business, more innovation, more diversity in the industries our area supports.

We as citizens of the region must step up to do our part as well, even if it is just keeping the pressure on the people and organizations charged with the economic development of the region.  Get involved however you can.  The more of us working for the common good, the better off the region will be.

Contact Information for the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance

Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance

700 E. Firmin Street, Suite 200

Kokomo, IN 46902

(765) 457-2000

 

Do you have suggestions on how Kokomo, Howard County, and our region can do more to bring in new business and revitalize our sense of innovation?  Share it in the comment section below!

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Fiscally Responsible Municipalities?

The term fiscally responsible is rarely used to describe government in today’s day and age.  When anyone starts talking about out of control spending in government, people’s minds quickly and easily jump to the federal government or states like California.  Recently we are seeing more and more local governments confessing to huge spending binges and in some cases having to file bankruptcy.  Stockton, California is the latest example of a mismanaged municipality and its 290,000 residents are eagerly awaiting the outcome of it’s bankruptcy proceedings.

So what leads a city to spend so much, run deficits, and have budget shortfalls?  While there are many reasons, I have identified what I believe to be the top three.

1. Federal Funding  - At first glance, federal funding may seem like a great way to pay for things in a city.  It is often pitched as “not our money.”  There are a few faults with that though.  If you pay taxes, those federal dollars are just as much yours as the local dollars.  They are just coming from a different account.  With federal spending at such high levels, much of what the government spends is printed or borrowed – adding to the national deficit.  Congratulations, your city could have just increased the speed at which the national debt grows.

That isn’t the only problem with federal funding though.  If a municipality gets federal funding, especially one-time or short-term funding, to start a new program or service, what happens to that program or service when the federal dollars dry up?  Does the city stop that program or service?  What happens if it is something really popular – like free mass transit? The city won’t want to do something unpopular.  Instead, they will do whatever they can to continue the service, even if it means borrowing heavily.  Some administrations may even meticulously time the federal dollars and borrowing issues to create budget surpluses during their administration and leave the next administration with the burden of figuring out the mess – especially when the next administration is highly likely to be of the opposite political party.  Federal funding is a dangerous thing for municipalities as it creates a false sense of security.

2. “Keeping Up with the Jones” – We have all had (or maybe even been) those neighbors that no matter what always have to have the best thing on the block – from the newest car to the biggest TV.  It costs money to keep up and in some cases a lot of money.  Municipalities often do the same thing.  They believe that they must compete with neighboring cities through expensive, superficial items like repeated facelifts of of buildings, fancier architecture of government owned properties, and the creation of unused services and features.  Spending lots of money on superficial projects may win some attention in the near term, but in the long term it spends the hard-earned money of citizens without meaningfully serving them in the most efficient way possible.  The downtown area may be on its fourth remodel while the basic infrastructure on the north end of the city falls apart.  In the end it doesn’t matter which city has the most flower baskets or the most expensive government building.

3.  Misguided Economic Development Practices – Municipalities often use the line “spending this X amount of money will better position us to attract new and innovative business.”  Will it?  Do businesses really care that you give every citizen that wants it a free ice cream sundae one Saturday a month?  Do businesses really care if your fire stations are made of metal or brick?  Do business care that the city spends hundreds of dollars a month on maintenance of a mediocre mobile app?  Business will care more about what incentives you can directly offer them.  Can you provide tax incentives?  Is the cost of living in your area lower compared to other areas?  Is the skill set of the area workforce easily diversified to meet the needs of any company interested in your area?  Do the area governments make it a point to support the area businesses by utilizing them for services whenever possible?  What kind of infrastructure is available or can be made available to a new company moving in?  Is the local business incubator actually producing / inspiring meaningful, long lasting companies?  In my opinion, it is better to save the money that would be spent trying to anticipate what businesses want and instead meet the reasonable requests of the businesses moving to the area.

I challenge citizens to ask the tough questions of their municipalities, especially when they are looking to embark on one or more of the paths identified above.  As taxpayers it is our money they are spending and we should hold them accountable for it.

Leave a comment with your opinion.  Don’t have an opinion?  Share the post with someone who would!  Let’s get some conversation going on this topic.

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Interviewing Kokomo: Rudy Kizer

Below is the transcript from my interview with Hit the Deck’s Rudy Kizer.  Rudy and I chat briefly about the city of Kokomo, the cancellation of his show, and what’s next for him.  It was a great time.  I thank Rudy for the opportunity and imagine we will have him on the blog again in the near future.

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P: What brought you to Kokomo?

 

Rudy: Funny you should mention that.  Really getting involved with the girl I was dating at the time.  Well.  It is a little bit more complicated than that.  I was a grad student at Purdue, blew my knee at, needed a place to live.  A friend of mine was living on the west side of town and offered me a room as a place to stay so I could finish up my degree.  It was during that time that I met the girl that was to be my wife.  She was from here and I got stuck here.

 

P: Haha.  You got stuck here.

 

Rudy: It’s what happened!  As much as people complain about Kokomo, it’s like the Fortress of Solitude – closer enough to Indy that you can get there if you need to but if you want to insulate yourself from all of that stuff you can.  And it’s inexpensive to live here.

 

P:  I am guessing that the insulation you mention is the reason you chose to stay here?

 

Rudy:  When you are a one kind of a one man operation, there is a lot to do on a daily basis….in addition to holding down a day job.  If you are in the middle of everything there is going to be pressure from every corner of the world to go out and get involved in what’s going on.  There is something going on every night of the week down in Indy.  If you are in the middle of that, the distraction and temptation to do that is going to be there all the time.  The ability to get things done, particularly as labor intensive as the show has been the last couple of years, it would have been impossible to continue to do the high caliber work and get it on the air every week.

 

P:  So talk about living in downtown Kokomo.

 

Rudy:  I’ve been down there three, almost four years now.  I tend to think it is getting better.  It is a slow, progressively getting better kind of operation.  Some of the things the city as done, like the entertainment corridor has probably helped.  Some of the stimulus money that has gone into some of the businesses downtown has probably helped.  The fact that the city has committed to making downtown more of a community gathering kind of place and things like Ribfest and Taste of Kokomo help.  There has really been more of a press to make the downtown square more of a hub and a destination instead of a place where there is just a bunch of businesses.  I think the one thing that may still be keeping folks out of downtown is the fact that the rent is so high for those buildings.  If they can crack that nut, then you’ve got something to talk about.  It will pick up steam and start feeding off of each other.

 

P:  Living downtown, is it a hassle?

 

Rudy:  It isn’t a hassle at all really.  It is close to everything.  Two grocery stores within 5 minutes of each other.  Got a couple of restaurants and bars right down there.  The fact that you do have all of the community stuff, you just walk out your front door and you are right there.  There really isn’t a whole lot of hassle living downtown.

 

P:  We jokingly say you have two day jobs.  Recently you were told one of them is no longer on the air.

 

Rudy:  Right…

 

P:  Can you give us some insight into that and whether or not we will continue to hear Hit the Decks or some variation there of?

 

Rudy:  X103 made a budgetary decision and let the program director go.  He was the guy on the inside really championing the show from within the Clear Channel machine.  He is the one that really understood it.  It could be one of two things.  It could be that the folks programming the show now don’t understand electronic music and how it is connected with the younger listener, or they could be going with a completely different format and electronic music doesn’t fit in there.

 

They made the decision not to pick up the show.  Honestly, I can’t really complain.  I was there for 12 years.  I outlasted two general managers at that complex and a program director.  I really don’t have a bad thing to say about anyone there.  When you are working for a behemoth like that, these things happen.  I’ve been told “You’re not really a radio person until you have been unceremoniously fired by a large corporation so welcome to the club”  And here we sit.  It took a couple of days for it to sink in.  I still stink there is a place for that kind of program on Indianapolis radio.  Electronic music is the one thing that is kind of vibrant in music sales, particularly digital sales right now.  Somebody may want to pick the show up.  If not, we will continue it as a podcast and do some other things.  I still have my industry contacts so we will still be able to do the same kinds of things we were doing before and maybe do them with less restrictions than when we were broadcasting.  That could be kinda fun too.

 

P:  Are you going to continue to play out and about and run yourself ragged?

 

Rudy:  Yes, run myself ragged indeed.  That is why the timing of this seems so crazy because things are starting to blossom and there has been more demand for, not just myself, but the other guys on the Indy Mojo DJ roster as well playing more commercial venues.  I mean the last thing I did for X103 was open May Day and play between the bands at May Day.  That is a monster kind of thing.  To make the moves that were made at a time that electronic music has penetrated to where Skrillex and DeadMaus5 are house names seems short sighted.  I’ve played out more in the past few months than I have in probably the four years.  It’s been a lot of fun.  Running yourself ragged a little bit, but I guess you can sleep when you’re dead. (laughs)

P: Are you still going to do a monthly here in Kokomo at the Social?

 

Rudy:  Actually.  The Perspective is starting an internet radio station and has asked for some help programming that.  There is a possibility we may try to live stream, at least audio, from the monthly we do here in town.  So we will see how that goes.  Everyone knows that broadcast media is important but is not the Holy Grail it once was.  There are all of these other venues you can leverage to get you stuff heard or develop a product.  Going forward broadcast is a part of what we want to do, but not all we want to do.  We will try this streaming thing and do more with Hitthedecks.net and RudyKizer.com.

 

It is one of those things where you find out on Monday afternoon and I was upset Monday evening.  I woke up Tuesday and was oddly fine with it because I didn’t have to go through the production ringer of getting a show together for a station that didn’t really understand or appreciate it.  Then you get the scorned lover effect where you start to get mad about being dumped and start making other moves.  I have started investigating internet radio as well as other broadcast media.  We have had some nibbles but nothing set in stone.  It is oddly liberating to get dumped like that and look around and just think, wow, there are a lot of options.  The twelve years of experience, five on the air, plus all of my industry contacts makes a pretty compelling package for someone.  I honestly believe we won’t be without a home for very long and we will just continue to prep for bigger and better things.

 

Indy has been really spoiled because of the amount of top-notch local DJ talent that we have in this scene.  I am humbled and honored to be a part of it and present this music that has been such an important part of my life.  I’m not done yet.  There is still more work to be done.

 

P:  Two more quick questions.  First, as an employee of IU Kokomo, do you have any comments on it’s transformation over the last couple of years in really becoming a part of this community?

 

Rudy:  It’s an interesting question.  For so long as an employee there, it was like treading water.  We were a part of the community but we weren’t doing anything to reach out to become a more integrated part of the community.  Then Chancellor Michael Harris walked into the room and all of that did a 180 in about three tenths of a second.  The first week he was there he was already meeting civic leaders, trying to get IU Kokomo more involved in all of the community efforts.  I think it has made a huge difference.  IU Kokomo is no longer thought of as that glorified high school down there on South Washington Street.  It is becoming not only a more well-respected educational institution, but a more well-respected partner in the rebuilding of Kokomo.  It was kind of dire there for a moment, but, luckily, the region has had some breaks go our way.  Chancellor Harris has been there every step of the way making sure we are front and center of any exciting things going on here.  It has made a marked difference in the way the university is perceived by the general public.

 

P: Last question, or comment really.  You get the last word.  You can give advice, comment on anything, tell a story.  It’s your time to say whatever you want.

 

Rudy:  Well, as far as getting into this game, I’ve been doing this for close to 30 years now and I ha the idea when I was in high school and then the technology finally caught up to my ideas.  Close to 15 to 18 years later.  None of this ever comes easy.  Nothing that is worthwhile, worth doing ever comes easy.  You’ve got to have a goal in mind, focus toward that goal, and you’ve got to continue to work at it every day.  Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Then when you are sick of practicing, practice some more.  I was talking to a friend of mine that does social networking for the likes of IBM and a bunch of those heavy weights and he claims that studies have shown that to become an expert at something it takes 10,000 hours of practice.  So that kind of puts it in perspective.  You can’t do a little bit and expect it to just come to you.  You also can’t do a little bit, experience failure, and walk away from it and expect things to be okay.  You have to really want it and it has to be something that you feel deep down in your soul.  I’ve always felt that way.  There are lessons to be learned from failure.  The important thing is you take those lessons, apply what you’ve learned and continue to step forward.

 

P:  I thank you for your time, Rudy.  It is always a pleasure chatting with you.  I know our readers are excited to find out what you will come up with next.

 

Rudy:  You know, I am too.

You can keep up to date with what Rudy is up to by visiting Hitthedecks.net or following him on Twitter @hitthedecks.

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A Night at the Haynes Apperson Festival 2012

My visit this year to the Haynes Apperson Festival was by far my most enjoyable in all my years of attending. My brother, myself, my mom and her friend Joe decided we would hit the Friday night concert to enjoy a little Foghat. We bought our tickets so we could be nice and close. Mom was pretty insistent on this, so I begrudgingly caved – not entirely understanding why I was paying to see something I could see for free if I set 20 feet in any other direction. Well – as usual – Mom was right. Having those tickets got us an opportunity to meet the members of Foghat and do the whole picture and autograph deal. (Those guys are really cool.) As we approach Foghat tragedy strikes! My cellphone battery dies. No pictures with Foghat for me. We managed to get some with Mom though that really made her night. Anyway – back to the show. Fran Cosmo (former lead singer of Boston) & his band opened for Foghat and Paul Wyman open for Fran Cosmo with what a 15 minute (just a guess) “Let’s talk sponsor’s to stall” spot. Fran and the band played well. In fact, my brother thought they were better than Foghat. I have to disagree. I thought Foghat was phenomenal. Mom and I managed to get a couple of picks and Mom pulled off getting a drum stick which made her night. I think what made the night for me wasn’t the great music, meeting the band, or Paul’s attempt to get an applause for Duke Energy, it was definitely seeing my mom truly enjoy herself.  I collected some of the photos from the various cell phones together in an album below, giving you an opportunity to see the night through the eyes of me and my family.  Before we look at pictures though, I want to give a big thanks to all of the people that make the festival possible year after year.  It is a part of summer in Kokomo and will hopefully continue for my years to come.

Pictures!