Canine officers talked about the role their animals are playing in crime prevention
photo by Claire Henley Miller
The Cleveland City Council has partnered with Bradley County and the Chamber of Commerce to consider hiring Livability – a community marketing website – to help promote Cleveland on a larger scale.
Council members discussed Livability during Monday afternoon’s work session. It is a third party narrative that “explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live,” a company representative said.
The company aims to put Cleveland on a bigger map through photography and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies to draw in new visitors, families, and businesses.
Livability officials say, “Through proprietary research studies, engaging articles and original photography and video, we examine topics related to community amenities, education, sustainability, transportation, housing and the economy.”
The website, which has caught the attention of major media outlets like CNN and USA Today, takes the collected data to develop city rankings for a range of topics including small towns, college towns, and its annual Top 100 Best Places to Live.
During the work session, Councilman Bill Estes asked how much it would cost, to which the representative answered $30,000, a price that would be split evenly between the City Council, County Commission, and Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor Tom Rowland said it is a great program, and that he would add it to the agenda for the voting session later that day.
Councilman Estes said the representative’s five-minute presentation was not long enough for him to be able to vote on the program today. He said he would like to see metrics of the company’s effectiveness to bring people into the cities it promotes.
On his way out of the meeting, the representative handed out a company list of references to the City Council. Mayor Rowland moved voting on hiring Livability to a later date.
The website markets nearby cities like Brentwood and Chattanooga as places of livability. Chattanooga landed on the site’s Top 100 Best Places to Live in 2014.