Vaughan mayor?s dream inspires unofficial slogan

Noor Javed Staff Reporter

Last May, in the middle of the night, the mayor of Vaughan had a dream.

Maurizio Bevilacqua rushed out of bed at 1:30 a.m. and began writing a song for his beloved ? the city of Vaughan. After writing for two hours, he titled the ode ?Vaughan Is the Place to Be? and went back to bed.

Pretty soon, the lyrical tune was being sung at the mayor?s gala by local singer Carlo Coppola, and title found its way into a number of the mayor?s speeches. In the absence of an official slogan for the city ? the municipality dumped the catchy The City Above Toronto in 2010 ? the song title, unofficially, has become the new one.

?It?s not official, but I think it resonates with people and with the city on a variety of levels,? said Bevilacqua, who enjoys writing poetry but had never written a song before. ?The reaction to it has been extremely positive.?

Two years ago, the city of Vaughan decided to be known simply as Vaughan. The old ?above Toronto? slogan was nearly two decades old and crafted at a time when Vaughan was home to just a fraction of its current 300,000 residents.

?I thought it was time to drop any association with another municipality, because the city of Vaughan was mature and growing,? said Ward 5 Councillor Alan Shefman, who initiated the rebranding effort. ?I thought at that point we had our identity that didn?t need to be connected to Toronto, as great as Toronto is.?

?We got a lot of use out of the slogan,? Shefman said.

It also helped make the city the butt of numerous jokes, with wags describing it as ?The City Above the Law? in reference to the antics of Vaughan?s scandal-plagued city council.

The decision to go simple came after a three-year rebranding exercise and multiple meetings with businesses and citizens. The new image also coincided with the opening of a new city hall building last year.

Shefman says that if there is interest, he?s ready to reopen discussion about a city slogan. ?Many of us thought it would be good to have a gap between the old slogan and a possible new one,? he said. ?If people have ideas, I?m receptive to having a discussion about it and hearing them.?

Bevilacqua says he may consider putting his idea forward for consideration. ?I will talk to our team at the city to open it up to the public, to see what they think, before we incorporate it,? he said.

In the meantime, the mayor said, the song is being used at city events, and he?ll include the slogan in his speeches. ?It?s been all about bringing positive energy to this city, and this slogan is all about that. It?s that simple.?

Famous city songs:

??? ?New York, New York?

??? ?I Left My Heart in San Francisco?

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1111326--vaughan-mayor-s-dream-inspires-unofficial-slogan

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