Nathalie McCrate, project manager for the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency
What do you do at work? Is it fun, challenging, exciting?
The Gainesville CRA is an awesome place to work. Redevelopment literally means urban renewal.We go into areas that have a long history of disinvestment and help these underserved regions attract private investment through community partnerships, competitive economic development incentives and improved public infrastructure. CRA projects have ranged from constructing the signature 13th Street Helyx Bridge to incentivizing high tech job growth. Governed by the Gainesville City Commission, sitting as the GCRA board, we target our redevelopment efforts in four core urban areas: Downtown, Eastside, Fifth Avenue/Pleasant Street and College Park/University Heights.
I work alongside some highly-accomplished go-getters and passionate citizens to effectuate meaningful change. Some key upcoming projects include: Downtown Bo Diddley Plaza: revitalizing the heart of the city–improvements to the public plaza include a water wall entry feature, green room, new bathrooms & a second cafe space. Re-opening in March 2016. Depot Park: transforming a 32-acre brownfield into a “Central Park” for Gainesville with a historic train station, football-field sized children’s playground, world-class museum, nature trails & more. Opening in Fall 2016. Heartwood: building a beautiful new neighborhood in East Gainesville near the city’s first business incubator GTEC and local schools.
It’s wonderful to drive past a sidewalk we built or a building we renovated. Our work has a highly visible, concrete impact on the community. Example: SW 5th Avenue: More than Just a Sidewalk Project
How do you use public relations at work?
As a public agency, our work is very much citizen centered–community feedback shapes all of our initiatives. I launched the CRA’s first foray into social media (managing our Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram pages), handle all our press inquiries, produce videos, support community outreach + events, lead branding efforts for several of our projects, write columns/speeches/presentations, etc. Previously, I coordinated marketing for the UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator and wrote for FORWARD Florida economic development magazine. I graduated from the UF College of Journalism and Communications about a year and a half ago with a B.S. in public relations and a minor in entrepreneurship.
Who was the first person you met in FPRA? What was that interaction like?
Alisha Kinman (my supervisor during my intern days at the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce) encouraged me to get involved with the local FPRA chapter. She’s wonderful!
Why did you join FPRA? What are you hoping to get out of your membership?
I joined FPRA to connect with and learn from local public relations professionals. I’m looking forward to leveraging the experience of all the accomplished professionals in the room to become a more polished, effective communicator. Leah Spellman, APR, recently asked me to join her educational services committee.
What’s the most interesting thing you know about FPRA?
Everyone in this room is trusted with significant brand voice. If you added up the organizational social media and email subscriber lists that each FPRA Gainesville professional manages–and posted a single message across all platforms–you could reach literally millions of people around the world in seconds. A limited percent of people have that kind of access–the ‘influencer’ multiplier effect is pretty interesting to consider.
We heard you collaborated with S.A.W. to make this incredible annual report. Can you share a few words about the process, the collaboration and what it’s been like since you published it?
Florida Statutes require that we publish an annual report every spring. Sadly, most of the time these public records collect dust in the backs of municipal filing cabinets and rarely engage the people we serve. This dilemma led us to join forces with the creative folks at the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) to find an inventive way of capturing the attention and imagination of new, diverse audiences. Our Interim Director Sarah Vidal-Finn connected the CRA with SAW–which is based in our Downtown redevelopment area. SAW artists hand-drew 16 custom illustrations ranging from a Peanuts-styled sketch about the CRA’s façade grant program results to a Dilbert-inspired office strip about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into revitalizing urban spaces. We partnered with our local newspaper (the Gainesville Sun) to distribute the annual report comics parody inside their Sunday print edition and bring local government to the doorsteps of 31,000 citizens! The opportunity to partner with local talent was especially meaningful.
This fall, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) recognized our creative partnership with a bronze award in the small cities category. With more than 4,500 members across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other nations, the IEDC is the world’s largest professional organization for economic development practitioners. More info here: http://doorstep-gcra.
We’ve gotten lots of positive feedback from the community–and we have had several people say that this edition was the only annual report that they’ve ever read from cover to cover. I really enjoyed turning a boring document into an engaging (and informative) piece of art.
What’s something about you or GCRA communications that most folks don’t know?
I’m a sucker for clever wordplay and corny puns. Sometimes notoriously so. They say that: “A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself.”