LIMA - Teresa Stewart knows that look.
It's that mix of surprise and alarm when she tells someone she's from Lima. That look means someone's subtly trashing her hometown.
"They're like, ‘Oh.' I've kind of wondered why they react that way," said Stewart, a lifelong resident of Lima now living on its west side. "They must have some kind of negative stigma attached to us. I just don't understand it. I don't feel that way at all."
She describes the city as quiet and friendly. Dorrett Lee, who moved to Lima from Columbus, Ga., eight years ago, chooses words like slow and crime-ridden.
"It seems like a lot of crime for a little town like Lima," she says.
Both perceptions reflect Lima's self-image, a report released last week confirmed. Research for a branding study by North Point Destination Strategies said a large portion of the nearly 1,000 respondents characterized Lima as dirty, polluted and unsafe. Still, it described the people of Lima and Allen County as hardworking and honest.
While it wasn't a scientific survey, it showed people's concerns about the city. One line toward the end of the organization's PowerPoint presentation summarizes a long-standing attitude about the city, saying Lima grapples with "poor internal self-esteem."
The reasons why vary. But community leaders and residents alike agree that Lima's at a crossroads to change its opinion of itself in a positive and permanent way.
"Part of the solution for this ‘community self-esteem' problem is building that consensus," Lima Mayor David Berger said. "What are we good at? What kinds of things make us different and special? That's what we have to determine, and that's where we have to focus."
Finding an identity
North Star's research is part of the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce's efforts to brand the community. The company will take the research results and form a comprehensive marketing plan, including a logo.
Finding a logo to pull the community together is hardly a new concept for Lima. Over the past 30 years, nearly 20 entities tried to find a logo and a sense of identity for the city, Berger said.
This effort could have a more lasting mark, though. As part of the Ohio Department of Transportation's improvements to Interstate 75, Lima literally can leave a lasting impression on the bridges along the way.
One survey respondent equated Lima and Allen County to actor Harrison Ford, noting, "He was really good in his time, but he needs to be revitalized and get a shot of energy. Or, would he prefer to retire and eventually expire?"
Breaking through that negative self-image might be Lima's greatest challenge, said Harry Moyer, Lima's first three-term mayor, serving from 1973 to 1985. While he's 90 now, he maintains an unbreakable enthusiasm about the city he once led.
"We are going through a period which I know is hurting us," Moyer said. "We have a reputation for crime that just happened to happen to come along with all the other problems hitting not just this city but the county and nationwide. But we have to focus on what made us great in the first place."
Timothy J. Haney, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon, found connections between living conditions and self-esteem for people in an area. He studied four larger cities, later presenting his findings at a conference in Montreal.
"Residents read litter, broken windows, abandoned buildings, etc., as signs that neither their neighbors nor the city government feel that residents of the neighborhood are a worthwhile investment of time or money," Haney said. "That is why it is particularly damaging."
Moyer counts the building of Veterans Memorial Civic Center nearly 30 years ago as one of the greatest successes of his tenure as mayor. But North Star's surveys found many people underestimated the strengths here. The report noted the entertainment options at the Civic Center, the retail selections throughout the city and the health-care providers, including the two hospitals.
"You hear there's nothing to do here. I grew up in Lima, so I don't know about that," Stewart said. "We go to the Civic Center for shows, and there are other things to do here."
A family squabble
David Adams, a longtime sociology professor at The Ohio State University's Lima campus, equates Lima's collective self-esteem issues with family dynamics at a reunion.
"It's like a family, where we talk to each other and complain and grouse about this person, who brings that awful stuff with marshmallows on top," said Adams, who serves on Lima City Council. "You hear all that stuff within the family. Then someone from outside the family starts to complain, and everyone rises to their defense."
Cities and counties are no different.
"They live here and have the right to say bad things about the community," said Sam Bassitt, an Allen County commissioner. "But this is their home. Home is the best place to be. And they should feel good about being home."
That squabbling seems to concern residents.
"I think people need to be more involved in the politics around Lima," said Lee Johnson, who noted people from here show pride they hail from here. "They'd have more information and not just reacting when they spring things on us at the end."
Short-term memories
Like those involved in family squabbles, many people have stubborn long-term memories without letting short-term results set in, Berger said.
Berger pointed to one of Lima's best-known employers, the tank plant, as an example. The plant once employed more than 4,000 people before cuts decimated its workforce to about 400. That's where the story ends in some people's minds, he said.
The reality is the plant, now known as the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, survived the federal government's Base Closure and Realignment process thanks to the persistent efforts in the community. It employs more than 1,100 people now.
The same could be said for the Lima Refinery. Community efforts kept British Petroleum from shutting down Lima's link to its oil past in August 1998. Now, several owners later, Husky has big plans for the plant.
"I believe we do have to be realistic about the issues that do exist in our community," Berger said. "That having been said, my general frame of reference is to look optimistically at things."
Self-help
Like any self-esteem issue, a city can fix its image with some hard work, Haney said.
"One thing I found in my own research is a mitigating factor is civic engagement," Haney said. "If you live in a poor neighborhood and motivate people to change it, it has a positive effect on self-esteem."
These grassroots campaigns can change a person's perception of the city and the city itself, said Lacy Young, an Allen East junior who volunteers in the city with her youth pastor at Crossroads Church of God, Tug Taviano.
"We see so much that's depressing in the city," Young said. "If we can do things one person at a time and try to impact one person if we can, it's better than anything else we can do. Through these people, maybe we can improve the city."
Young and Taviano worked at the willrock4food.com concert this weekend. The proceeds go to a summer missionary trip in Lima, "Renovate: Rebuilding Hope." The event, June 8 to 12 at Robb Park, includes outdoor activities and beautification projects for nonprofit groups, Taviano said.
"A lot of times, we focus on overseas missions, which is awesome," Taviano said. "But, a lot of times, we forget about our community and those close to our home."
All it takes is helping one person to show the power of it, Taviano said. He recalled giving a glove and baseball to a child while Christmas caroling when he was young. He said the look on the child's face changed his life.
"If people just take that first step to reach out to their brothers and sisters, man, it's crazy what God can do," Taviano said.
The key is to work for a change, Haney said.
"The solution can come through people's civic engagement or top-down from city government," he said. "There are two ways of getting at this problem. I don't think you necessarily need both. Either one is a step in the right direction."
