The situation comedy “Parks and Recreation” — based in the fictitious town of Pawnee, Indiana — finished its seven-season run Tuesday night on NBC.
To mark the occasion, the Indiana Office of Tourism Development wrote an open letter to the cast and crew, assigning a real Indiana city to each of the show’s main characters.
The tourism office gave a nod to Columbus in its description of Tom Haverford (played by Aziz Ansari), an administrator in Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation department:
“The entrepreneur. The visionary. Unique, unexpected and authentic. Tom thinks beyond his environment and has ideas that are sometimes ahead of their time. Tom is Columbus, Indiana. An architectural mecca, Columbus is a surprising city with a rich cultural heritage that is always looking for ways to continue its artistic and economic growth. Just like Tom.”
— Staff Report