Wentzville Missouri City Analysis and Investment Opportunities

Introduction
Wentzville, MO is the city under scrutiny in this study, and we get to understand how the “Crossroads of the Nation” has managed to survive its strategic planning process. Evidently, city planners should look at maximizing their municipality’s strengths while minimizing on the weaknesses. Moreover, they will need to take advantage of the upcoming opportunities and limit their threats so they can remain competitive. Therefore, the city planners and the mayor will need to look at the individual departments of the city like the law enforcement, administration, and emergency services among others to make a conclusive analysis. Moreover, they need to look at the city as a whole by looking at things like its infrastructure, economy, businesses, amenities, and politics among others. Through this SWOT analysis, the city will be able to market its area to other potential residents and prospective business owners.
The competitive advantage of Wentzville, Missouri is the fact that they are located in urban regions that have high population densities, and the city’s management should exploit such an advantage. The population of Wentzville is large inferring that there is a good purchasing power among the inner-city households. Therefore, the city has managed to make a substantial internal market (domestic) that has helped it in marketing and grow its homegrown products.
Strengths
Wentzville is a city that appears to be serving well its purpose in a vibrant downtown and has many public services, shops, places to eat and even to conduct one’s business activities. Moreover, it is a city known to accommodate community events and has many gathering implying that social gatherings are mostly advocated if they bring growth to the city’s economy. When congestion is evident in the city, many people will decide to move downtown Wentzville. Therefore, it serves as a ‘relief route’ for many city dwellers (Wentzville). Therefore, the quality of life in Wentzville is unique because of the presence of good school district and or systems. The public involvement has seen many schools provide quality education to the students. Moreover, the city has exceptional services and safety forces, and scenic parks that ensure the city becomes a great place to explore, work and even live.
Moreover, the sense of community at Wentzville is high as it has a high network of volunteers and the downtown is attractive. Furthermore, the city has well-maintained hospitals, local medical access programs, and healthcare systems that cater to the needs of its growing population. Wentzville is a city that attracts many regarding raising a family because they feel it has is that of a small-town but with amenities of a big city. The location of the city is at the intersection of Interstate 70 and 64. This gives parents the chance to commute to their job places. In this city, the crime rate is low, and schools are enjoying glowing reputations due to their ability to include parents in the learning process (http://www.wentzvillemo.org/). Additionally, school administrators have also embraced project-based learning and classroom approaches that are used by other schools around the globe. The school community of Wentzville city has supported many of the students with illnesses such leukemia. Many parents to take their children to the schools because teachers are not transferred haphazardly.
The many residents of Wentzville are living in the city because they enjoy the way of life. Overall, the cost of living for Wentzville, MO is at 99, while its food index is at 96, which depicts its affordability compared to the US average. The utility index is at 105, and miscellaneous one is at 100 thereby expensive (http://www.wentzvillemo.org/).
The population growth of the city in Missouri shows that it is fast growing for instance, in the 2000 Census the population of the city was nearly 7,000 while for the 2010 Census it had reached 29,000. The current population is estimated at 37,000, which is a growth rate of 5.15% with the majority of the people as whites. In 2015, the unemployment rate of the city lied at 2.9% while the participating labor force was 74% (Wentzville Mo Population, 2017). Such a population means that the city has amenities that will cater for the needs of its entire people. Therefore, the civic facilities present in Wentzville include a post office, city hall, parks, and a Veteran’s Hall. Residential building permits are seen to be increasing with the house offerings staying the market for an average of seven to 10 days. Such large number of sales shows that the houses are relatively affordable (Wentzville).
Weaknesses
The weakness of Wentzville city is attributed to the aspect of accessibility regarding its transportation network. Downtown Wentzville has become harder to get to and get through due to the exacerbated issue of parking problems and the inability of people to walk conveniently among multiple venues. Downtown Wentzville has a look that is unattractive, tired, and run-down, which has become displeasing for many businesses who would want to conduct their activities. The city has only one railroad crossing; this is a threat because the growing population might result in congestion and cars’ usage will suffer. The narrow streets of Wentzville city are because of the utilities being all over the place (http://www.wentzvillemo.org/).
The other weakness is that of advertising where the municipality has not carried out any promotion notifying the residents and other visitors about the good thing that it offers. From such actions, the city has not managed to progress well regarding its infrastructure and tourism industry because people lack awareness. In any part of the world, knowledge is power, and by not giving the people of Wentzville this power, the city stands to lose because many growth opportunities and avenues will remain closed due to their undefined gateways (Chon, Nykiel & Jascolt, 2012).
Opportunities
The growth opportunities present for Wentzville city related to growth and development include improving the public and or community infrastructure by looking at things like their lighting, signage, and streetscapes. Moreover, creating pedestrian and bike paths in the city will mean that congestion will be minimized. It can be achieved by constructing a tunnel around railroad crossing. Diversity for Wentzville is something of major concern and is linked to having pedestrians enjoying their walks, dining, shopping, and recreation activities because the environment that will be created is more vibrant and clean. The issue of parking in the city is also a problem that presents itself as an opportunity because by adding parking spaces cooperate growth will be enhanced in the city.
The other segment that presents itself as an opportunity in Wentzville is the shopping, dining, and recreation where the municipalities need to look into court specialty retailers dealing in books, antique, and wine among others. Through the expansion of these specialty retailers, the city will have increased their income necessitating the creation of recreation options that involve the family. The fact that the city has close ties to the Rock-n-Roll industry creates an entertainment theme for Wentzville and the automobile manufacturing industry, the theme will relate well to cars. Therefore, combining the two themes means that the city will have a chance of enhancing their drive-in restaurants, ‘sock hops,' and summer concerts. Things like bowling centers, art galleries, aquariums, and skating zones for the children will mean that parents and children spend quality time together and build their community.
In 2018, the city is planning to have an electronics-recycling event that will look at the safe disposal of unwanted electronics. Having such events will open more doors for the city regarding attracting business personnel who will look at investing in the city because the municipality looks at reaching its millennial goals. Furthermore, the event will be promoting recycling activities, which are some of the things that will attract major investors and funding programs from different environmental organizations (http://www.wentzvillemo.org/).
Threats
The patterned growth at Missouri shows that it is now isolating the low-income earners and minority groups from various opportunities in the city. More middle-class residents are seen to move outward regarding seeking employment opportunities thereby creating a wide physical distance. Such a separation will force the city not to cater for the needs of these families. The workers will not have the opportunity to take their children to the best schools. Furthermore, job paths and social networks are limited because of the separation factor.
Racism is also seen in some parts of Wentzville. This creates tension because by discriminating the minority group the city is showing that they are not together. For instance, a General Motors plant in Wentzville had to beef up its security after threats were issued to minority workers written on bathroom walls of the facility (Associated Press, 2016). The threats depict inappropriate behavior that can result in lack of productivity in the plant because employees are not confident of having safety in their work environment. Such are the things that threaten the stability of a given area because it may result in war.


References
Associated Press. (2016, December). GM increases security at Missouri plant after racial threats. Fox 2. Retrieved from http://fox2now.com/2016/12/01/gm-increases-security-at-missouri-plant-after-racial-threats/
Chon, K. S., Nykiel, R. A., & Jascolt, E. (2012). Marketing your city, U.S.A.: A guide to developing a strategic tourism marketing plan. New York, NY: Routledge.
Welcome to Wentzville. (2017). A resource guide for new Wentzville residents. Retrieved from http://www.wentzvillemo.org/welcometowentzville_2017.pdf
Wentzville, Missouri: The crossroads of the nation. Retrieved from http://www.wentzvillemo.org/
Wentzville Mo Population. (2017, October). Retrieved from http://worldpopulationreview.com//