Building community through a shared sense of identity

Samuel Sanders, Executive Director, Mid City Redevelopment Alliance
 
The Challenge: Mid City is Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s urban core, but the neighborhoods are a mix of experiences and conditions, most notably social and economic extremes. Poverty, crime and blight persist in some parts of the area. Elsewhere in Mid City, housing is in high demand and businesses thrive.


 
Baton Rouge’s urban core, Mid City, is home to a mix of diverse neighborhoods. Poverty, crime and blight persist in some parts of the area, while nearby housing is in high demand and businesses thrive.
 
For 25 years, the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance (MCRA) has worked to develop and promote the growth and renewal of Mid City Baton Rouge by attracting new and retaining current residents and businesses. MCRA accomplishes its goals through a series of community and economic development programs, community-based initiatives and creative placemaking programs. As the arts, heritage and culture have become key advantages in this area, MCRA has worked to elevate them as economic development drivers capable of spurring additional investment.
 
To help create a common vision of Mid City, MCRA embarked on a creative placemaking journey in partnership with the Mid City Merchants Association and the State of Louisiana Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. This collaborative produced CREATE Mid City, MCRA’s committed approach to leveraging the arts, culture and heritage of Mid City as a cornerstone for economic revitalization.

CREATE Mid City’s first deliverable was a creative placemaking plan, which received a grant through the Louisiana Creative Communities Initiative in 2013. Later that year, MCRA and the Louisiana State University School of Architecture founded Mid City Studio, a collaborative exploration of academic exchange and community engagement.

In the fall of 2014, Mid City Studio began to address the issue of identity within the Mid City region. With the help of social media and support from local businesses, organizations and residents, Mid City Studio launched the #IAMMIDCITY branding campaign.

Mid City Studio created and distributed wooden hashtag signs all with the phrase #IAMMIDCITY. The hashtag campaign was launched during an art festival where photo booths were also constructed for people to take pictures of themselves with the hashtags. To continue the branding campaign after the art festival, the Studio and MCRA distributed the signage to iconic and popular places around the Mid City region. During a Martin Luther King Day service project, an IAMMIDCITY mural was painted on the walls of MCRA’s offices. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have taken pictures in Mid City, and posted associated photos with the #IAMMIDCITY hashtag on social media.

The #IAMMIDCITY branding campaign has grown over the past year. Nearly 30 businesses now have hashtag signage. MCRA added the production of branded coffee mugs and tee shirts, with help from Mid City merchants, as an extension of the campaign. MCRA is also working with area third graders on an IAMMIDCITY art installation project. 

One of the most valuable lessons MCRA has learned so far has been about the power that small, grassroots campaign can have in creating a sense of inclusion in a highly diversified region. The power that came from the #IAMMIDCITY branding initiative was the ability for the Mid City region, particularly the various Mid City neighborhoods, to capture images that express how their neighborhood best exemplifies the vision of what Mid City is and should be.