"Fort Collins, where renewal is a way of life"

Our city recently got the results back from a multi-year study to help give the city a brand, and it looks like this is the tagline they're going to use. Renewal--I like that. I think there are a bunch of different layers to that word that could be teased out.

The report (or at least the newspaper article on the report) has a few negatives the city needs to work on, but mostly it's a ra-ra, yay-for-Fort Collins report. So some of it, well, you get the sense it's written to please those who already believe great things about the city. So here are some of the things that are supposedly important to us: Green and pro-business; highly educated and down-to-earth; healthy/active and loves beer; arts/culture and outdoors. Does this really represent Fort Collins? Probably to a certain extent, but I think much more it represents what those who live here believe the city to be and want the city to represent to others. A slight distinction, perhaps, but it pushes the report toward what I feel about most astrology/horoscope type things: telling you vague things you want to believe about yourself.

Even so, saying we want to believe this about our city says something about us, I think.