How Do You Improve America's #1 Place to Live? | Sue Finkam, Carmel Mayor

On today's show I sat down with Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam about how Carmel grew from rapid early-2000s expansion into a 106,000-resident city voted the nation's best place to live, driven first by schools and later by walkability, arts, and distinct districts like the Art & Design District, Midtown, and City Center. Mayor Finkam credits Mayor Jim Brainard's success to listening to residents and selling a long-term vision, including architecturally significant development, public art, and roundabout-centered design standards. She addresses misconceptions that Carmel is snobby or uniformly wealthy, noting district diversity, 110 languages from 90 different countries spoken in schools, and local poverty concerns that led to a food access commission. Mayor Finkam outlines her leadership priorities of keeping Carmel safe, clean, and beautiful, plus government modernization, cultural "one team" operations, and public safety innovations like drone first responders and advanced firefighter helmet technology. If you like this episode and want to hear more Get IN. episodes where I interview Hoosiers making a difference, visit getindiana.com/podcast. You are going to learn about: - How Carmel Grew So Rapidly - Misconceptions About Carmel - Mayor Finkam's Priorities to Making a Better Carmel Check out these great clips from the show: 00:00 Carmel Vision Teaser 00:29 Guest Introduction: Sue Finkam, Carmel Mayor 01:59 Moving to Carmel 03:16 Growth and Schools 05:19 Building Downtown Districts 07:37 Advice for City Leaders 09:44 Carmel Misconceptions 12:13 Food Access and Poverty 13:44 Mayor Week in Review 14:53 Modernizing City Hall 18:41 Safe Clean Beautiful Brand 22:05 Public Art and Identity 24:54 Roundabouts and Design 29:25 Homeplace and Annexation 31:59 Roads Construction Priorities 36:34 Roundabout Challenges 37:42 Community Safety Priorities 38:40 Drones And Real Time Response 40:36 Firefighter Helmet Tech 43:07 Listening And City Vision 45:17 Building A City Identity 49:00 Intentional Growth And Amenities 50:36 Becoming Carmel Mayor 53:10 Handling Online Criticism 58:20 Why Indiana Feels Like Home 58:56 Rapid Fire Carmel Picks 01:03:53 Hidden Gems And Hoosiers 01:07:16 Favorite Indiana Memory 01:10:17 Final Thanks And How To Connect Get IN. is brought to you by our friends at Sweetwater. Whether you are looking to start a podcast or level up your current show you need to hit them up.