Three big players in Davenport an nounced last week that they are launching the Go Davenport initiative, a public-image effort designed to "boost Davenport's image." It's a noble goal, and the community should actively promote its strengths and pat itself on the back for its accomplishments. But we should all be watchful to ensure that this isn't just a whitewash to cover Davenport's shortcomings. Any good-faith public-relations effort must be accompanied by a plan to address the community's problems.

The City of Davenport, DavenportOne, and the Davenport Community School District are partners in the initiative, which is being described as a long-term process rather than a brief campaign. The project is being funded by DavenportOne's D1 Initiative, and the first target is people right here in Davenport.

"We have ample discussion of what's wrong with Davenport," said DavenportOne President and CEO Dan Huber at a press conference. But "I know no one in Davenport who would say we shouldn't be celebrating ourselves."

The message - that good things are happening in Davenport, and that the largest of the Quad Cities is a good place to live, work, and play - is ostensibly necessary because of the community's inferiority complex, described as "the lack of confidence that we sometimes reflect on the place that we live" by Quad-City Times Publisher Michael Phelps on April 1 at a DavenportOne breakfast.

To address that, DavenportOne, the city, and the school district have joined forces for Go Davenport. The Web site (http://www.GoDavenport.com) is slated to debut on Thursday, billboards are planned at five sites, and the partnership also expects to use radio, newspapers, and direct mail. In addition, posters and logos will be available to the public. The message of one billboard uses the phrases "Momentum" and "Big Cities Do Big Things" and refers people to the Web site. Businesses will be able to include the "Go Davenport" logo in their advertisements, as well. The idea is to market internally first, creating new ambassadors for Davenport, before promoting the city in other communities.

But there are some things wrong with the premise of the public-relations initiative. First, research done in preparation for Go Davenport shows that the city actually has a pretty healthy self-esteem. Second, the research reveals that people in Davenport have a good understanding of the community's shortcomings, and when there's a real problem rather than merely the perception of one, no public-relations effort can do as much as actually solving it.

DavenportOne commissioned research last fall that found that 72 percent of 387 surveyed Davenport residents or employees rated their satisfaction with the city at seven or higher on a scale of 10. That shows a strong self-image and calls into question the necessity of a public-relations effort.

The research also measured the "gap" between what people expect from their community and what it delivers. Davenport met or exceeded expectations in two areas - distinctiveness and its festivals. The largest gaps were identified in the areas of (from biggest to smallest discrepancy) wise government spending, careers for young people, progressive government, safety, quality public schools, a lively downtown, and good infrastructure.

That naturally leads to one question: Are these perceptions accurate? If they aren't, that's where a public-relations campaign can do some good.

But Davenporters have a pretty good sense of what's good in the community and what needs work. Deteriorating infrastructure is a serious concern that the Davenport city council has yet to address, and the exodus of young people from the area is another long-standing problem for the Quad Cities. Various under-construction River Renaissance projects are designed to create a new downtown Davenport, a destination for tourists, businesses, and Quad Cities residents alike. Crime has been on the rise in Davenport for the past three years.

As for progressive government and quality schools, the city and school board are battling PR nightmares of their own creation.

First, recall that the City of Davenport fretted that other communities were using tapes of unruly Davenport city-council meetings to discourage companies from doing business in this city. The response was to eliminate the public-input part of the meetings, although it was later reinstated.

And the Davenport Community School District generated plenty of ill will with the closures - and the process leading up to them - of Johnson and Grant elementary schools last year. The school board so botched the deal that after pushing through the closings in January, it had to go through an entirely new, more open process to affirm its earlier vote.

This is the same school district that sees declining enrollment as an irreversible trend, and not a problem to be addressed. It's the same district that has tried to make it more difficult for parents in the school district to enroll their children in other districts, rather than making this district more attractive for them.

Those two situations provide good examples of what to avoid in trying to boost a community's image, and they show that there's no substitute for addressing problems before they become public-relations issues to be spun.

And aside from new downtown attractions and some steps toward more open city government, the gap areas identified in the research - infrastructure, safety, schools, etc. - aren't being addressed in a public, community-wide way. Without visible, substantive progress on those problems, no amount of image advertising will erase accurate negative perceptions.

"We're all in sales," said Davenport Mayor Charlie Brooke at the DavenportOne breakfast. "Perception does become reality."

The first sentence makes sense, and the second has a grain of truth, as well: If people believe their city is worth improving, they'll make the effort to improve it. And the reverse is also true, that people who don't have pride in their community will let it deteriorate.

But the sentiment has a danger. Sometimes we can focus too much on surface and not enough on substance. As Betsy Bransgard, DavenportOne's executive vice president and senior vice president of community image, said, what the community packages needs to be authentic.

In other words, an effort such as this requires the community to be vigilant, ensuring that the participating bodies are promoting our community but also addressing its faults.

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