Wallace: District 6 Must Develop Its Positive Brand Image

Even as Orlando/Orange County ramps up its new branding campaign under the slogan, “Orlando, you don’t know the half of it,” District 6 Orange County Commission candidate Derrick Wallace, doesn’t think it will impact the area’s residents in any meaningful way. Wallace, who spoke exclusively with West Orlando News Online on Thursday, was responding to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs’ State of the County address earlier this month, in which the roll out of a new branding campaign was announced.

“I don’t think the branding that Orange County or the city of Orlando is doing has anything to do with District 6,” said Wallace, who is seeking to represent a district where many live below the poverty line. “We have to develop a positive story on what can be accomplished in District 6 and that’s how I look at branding it.”

He added: “When I’m elected to office we have to do an evaluation of the opportunities within District 6.”

Wallace said he would like to develop a Neighborhood Improvement District plan for the whole of District 6, not any different from what’s taking place in the Downtown South Neighborhood Improvement District, where the City and the neighborhood put together plans to identify potential improvement that would benefit the area.

“Just as they have done for Downtown South, we need to bring the best and the brightest together and determine how District 6 can be improved,” he said.

While acknowledging some of the drawbacks of the district – poverty, income inequality, lack of educational opportunity and homelessness, among others – which helped paint a negative picture, Wallace said, there’s several positives assets that would help in branding the area.

“You’ve got a university that’s almost within walking distance, you’ve got an Interstate Highway, I-4, you’ve got the East-West Expressway and the Turnpike – you’ve got all of these things around District 6, but it’s all still looked at as being negative. I think it’s a positive,” he said.  “You’ve also got Universal right on the outskirts, again, almost within walking distance from a lot of people.”

Pointing to Lake Nona, as an example, Wallace said, just as the government and developers had turned the formerly wooded area into one where people now live, work and play, the same could be done for District 6, if there is the political will to do so.

“People who live in District 6, love their community, it’s the people who don’t live here that are negative about the area, he said.  “And, because the County and City have neglected the area for so long, little progress is evident in so many parts of the district.”

Check back later for the full interview with Derrick Wallace.