My interest in city promotional items, or trinkets, started at a local history festival last fall in Chandler, Ariz., and led to my first CAR story. The event took place at a park near the ruins of the old Southern Pacific Railroad line. To commemorate the event, city officials handed out small foam choochoo trains. The trains looked like squeezable stress-relief toys. More importantly, they had the city's logo and Web site on their tops.
I took one back to the newsroom. A few weeks later, I talked to a former colleague in New Jersey. I told him I picked up the trinket, and he mentioned that cities in Jersey wouldn't spend money on those items. I realized he was right. I never saw a city in New Jersey give away pens or notepads with their logos. If they did, residents would criticize officials for overspending.