When Austin Bonta looks at Portage, he doesn’t just see a city where people live. He sees a community with the potential to stand on its own as a destination.
As a former educator and current small business owner and mayor, Bonta has made it his mission to create a city that supports local business growth while giving residents more reasons to stay, shop and invest in their hometown.
His leadership is grounded in the belief that Portage can “be its own anchor,” fostering opportunity from within rather than depending on neighboring communities.
“Portage has always been a safe place to live, but one of the big things you see is how many people live here but drive 20 minutes away for shopping and restaurants,” he said. “I felt there was more we could be doing to bring opportunities here to the city.”
While Portage has a quaint downtown area, it’s just 5 miles from the recognizable steel mills along Lake Michigan. Behind Bonta’s desk, he keeps a painting called “Blast Furnace Kite” that features a boy whose kite has become stuck outside a blast furnace.
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“It represents Northwest Indiana, where we have a great industrial heritage, and at the same time, we’re trying to figure out how to blend recreation and fun in this beautiful area,” he said. “I keep this painting here because it means something to me.”
Before taking the helm as mayor in January 2024, Bonta was a special education teacher with Portage Township Schools and co-owner of the SoundTide Music School with his wife, Meg, which they have run since 2016.
Appointed to the Portage Plan Commission in 2016, Bonta gained an inside look at how the city operated by reviewing development plans and proposals. That experience inspired him to push for changes that would make Portage a more business-friendly place to invest and grow.
“We began changing our city’s policies and procedures when it came to opening a new business in our city,” he said. “A lot of that was changing the culture to a ‘say yes’ culture. A lot of people couldn’t even get a phone call back, and they gave up and went to another city that was easier to work with. We still have a long way to go, but it’s been noticed just how much easier the city is to work with on the user side.”
Bonta has also worked on updating the city’s sewer infrastructure and updating the city’s fee schedule to be more in line with Porter County’s. The city’s Market on the Square gatherings on Fridays during the summer at Founders Square have also seen a resurgence.
“I think geographically something is changing,” Bonta said. “As people are moving east and south, Portage is shifting where we aren’t the edge of the Region. We’re more in the middle of the Region, and I think that’s giving residents ideas that we can have nice things and expect good things in our city. I’m very much a glass-half-full type of person.”
