That ‘City of Palms’ survey you heard about? It’s not what you think

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Could the city lose its slogan, “The City of the Palms?”

Media reports suggest that a survey circulating online is asking residents to chose a new nickname for Fort Myers. And while people are becoming concerned that the century-old slogan will be trashed, on Wednesday Mayor Randy Henderson said “the likelihood of (it) ever going away is just nonexistent almost.”

Henderson was not initially aware of the survey because he said the city regularly uses informal surveys to gather information. But the city was simply trying to document public opinion, he said.

“Surveying I think is an excellent tool — and that’s what it is: a tool where we can have transparency, we can reach out to citizens and document their input,” Henderson said. “So this is I think a very good and thorough process that helps us document what our citizens may or may not like.”

Henderson said he could understand how the survey may have startled people, but wanted to correct the misinformation being spread.

“I could very easily see in a second, a moment’s glancing or observation of a survey, where one could in a short uninformed way say ‘Oh, they’re changing the name of the city’ or ‘They’re changing the City of Palms’ but that’s a misfire. That is a complete misunderstanding, misfire, and it’s inappropriate to say to anybody that we’re changing the name or we’re changing the logo or we’re changing the City of Palms,” Henderson said.

Some of the city’s $100,000 budget for re-branding in 2015 was spent on the survey, according to Henderson. It was constructed over the last several months, but did not eat up the entire budget, which was purposed for other things.

“What we’re interested in is ‘What else can we do?’ plus the City of Palms to further enhance that and make it attractive to people who may be considering living here and bringing their business here,” Henderson said.