WYSO's Jerry Kenney has been speaking with local mayors across the Dayton metro area about what's going right and what are the challenges their communities face.
In a recent edition of the WYSO Weekend podcast, Digital Editor Kaitlin Schroeder flipped the script and interviewed Kenney about the series.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Kaitlin Schroeder: So you're listening to WYSO Weekend. I am Kaitlin Schroeder. As you might have realized, I am not your normal host. Instead of Jerry Kenney today, he is actually in the interview chair, and I am interviewing him because he has a series he has been working on and is continuing to work on. Tell me about what is your WYSO Mayors series?
Jerry Kenney: So the WYSO Mayors Series started a couple of years ago, actually, as just a way to get out and learn about our local cities. And so we started that effort with a little outreach on social media, asking residents what were the challenges going on in their cities? What did they like about their hometowns? Just give us a picture of city life and how residents were responding to living there aesthetically or otherwise. So that's how it started and we got a lot of great responses, and we talked to a lot cities in that first round of interviews. So we're slowly winding up the gears to generate some more interviews. We have a couple of new mayors on the scene. We're going to hear from the city of Xenia's new mayor, Ethan Reynolds, who did a great job. We had a lot of fun with his interview. We actually jumped in his car, and he drove me around town to point out some of the things he had been talking about.
Schroeder: And you know, I think you mentioned an important point earlier, you and I, about a year ago, we worked together to go on Reddit, on Nextdoor, on Facebook, to try to ask people, what do you want to ask your mayor? What do you want to hear from your mayor and this series, it really started with you, the audience member, listening, weighing in and setting the foundation. Why do you think it mattered to the series that we started out that way?
Kenney: I think for me to just go out without getting input from residents didn't really make sense. Why not find out what the people want to know? It really came down to just that simple equation. We talk about what's going on in the business community, what's going on arts and culturally, and what are the issues that are challenging both residents and city leaders. So the people who have heard the series and commented on it have said it's a great thing to help them become more aware of our neighboring communities.
Schroeder: Yeah, and I can tell you as the digital editor here, I see really good response to this. People want to know what their local leadership is doing about their current problems. And people often are, I think, pleasantly surprised to learn about initiatives, about stuff on the horizon coming up in their community and that we're making sure that they're aware of.
Kenney: Yeah, they want a strong economy. They want jobs. They want good homes to bring their families up in, and they want a good arts and cultural district. They want to go out and have fun in their hometowns and be with their neighbors and experience life.
Schroeder: Let's say someone's listening and they've got a question for their mayor. And if you happen to be one of our local mayors listening, we would love to hear from you. Jerry, how can they get a hold of you?
Kenney: Yeah, absolutely. I think probably the best thing to do would be to email news@wyso.org. If you are a resident and you have a question about your city and your city mayor, just put in the subject line, WYSO City Mayors Series. If you are mayor of a city, a local town, you can do the very same thing. Let us know that you're interested in an interview. As well and getting the word out about what's happening in your community, challenges. I'm going to ask about challenges. What maybe is not going right? We want to hear about that as much as we want to hear what is going right and why do people want to come to your hometown.
