A couple of urban experts had a conversation about the future of Muncie last night with city locals as well as Ball State officials and students.
Jud Fisher, president and CEO of the Ball Brothers Foundation, and Aaron Renn, consultant and writer of the blog "Urbanophile," stressed not trying to find revolutionary ideas to change a town in their talk of "Quality of Place in Muncie."
Renn said people should look at what assets already exist and what kinds of things have worked for other communities in the U.S..
"It's difficult to step back and take a very honest look at your community," he said. "Not everybody wants to live in a new-production home. Some people want to live in a home with character. When you destroy the architecture in a place like Muncie, you're destroying one of your biggest assets."
Another discussion topic during the seminar was the Muncie Action Plan, a year-old initiative to change the face of the Muncie community, which both speakers endorsed.
Ginny Nilles, MAP co-chairwoman, said she was excited to hear some of the ideas being used in the MAP echoed by Fisher and Renn.
"One of the core things about the Muncie Action Plan is the neighborhood councils," Nilles said. "The neighborhood councils can do a lot of what they were talking about in terms of maintenance and sustainability of parks and intersections and roadways."
Renn and Fisher said a good relationship with Ball State is important for Muncie, but the community shouldn't be concerned with graduates not staying in the area to help Muncie flourish.
"Ball State's reputation is that the people who go here, go off and achieve great things all around the world," Renn said. "You should think of universities like steel factories. If you have a lot of steel mills in your town, don't be surprised if your town exports a lot of steel."
For more about how Muncie is changing, go to muncieactionplan.com.
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