Let’s craft a vision for future

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will themselves not be

realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work…

— Architect Daniel H. Burnham

It was not by chance that Atlanta — from its central core to the suburbs fanning outward in all directions — rose into the ranks of America’s great cities.

This has long been a get-it-done kind of town — a place where disparate constituencies have, for decades, come together to make great things happen.

Resurgens, Latin for “rising again,” is more than a buzzword struck onto the sides of city streetlights. It’s more than a description of what Atlanta accomplished in its earnest rebuilding from Union-wrought ashes and rubble after the Civil War. The word symbolizes a spirit long found here that’s led our community to struggle against often-considerable odds to grow and prosper.

The economic unpleasantness that our nation’s now enduring has laid an additional weight upon this community. Our once-rapid growth has slowed to, at best, a slog. Georgia’s unemployment rate stands at 9.3 percent, up 60 percent since April 2008. The area’s once-hot home building activity is negligible for now.

We could go on, but there’s little reason to do so. This is a region that casts its glance backward briefly, takes stock of things, then steps boldly forward. This deep recession requires that Atlanta must, once again, draw deeply from its century-old spirit if the region is to emerge even stronger from this downturn.

Our belief is that we can do it if we focus on the future and are mindful of the past.

Any run-of-the-mill city’s capable of crafting expensive master plans.

Atlanta prospered by turning plans into action, and into concrete and steel monuments to what vision, unanimity and shrewd investment could accomplish. A few examples:

»Atlanta called for an innovative new airport. Last year, 90 million travelers used the busiest airport in the world.

»Other cities stagnated or went up in flames during the civil rights struggle. Atlanta’s civic and business leaders began dialogue with African-Americans. What resulted was increased opportunity for all and the saying that black plus white equaled green in Atlanta.

Today’s challenges will require equal innovation and energy to resolve. They will also demand cooperative solutions, in some cases involving broad swaths of the community and state.

In our view, these are the biggest issues facing the region as Atlanta emerges from this recession:

» Improving the region’s economic health. What can we do to maintain and enhance a climate that supports and draws businesses large and small, as well as the jobs and tax revenue that they bring?

» Fostering cooperation among Atlanta’s local and county governments for our mutual benefit. We believe efforts of the type long driven by groups like the Atlanta Regional Commission are vital to reaching mutually beneficial solutions. Atlanta and Georgia must also somehow bridge the political gulf between the South’s business capital and the state wherein it resides. As competing cities ramp up around us, region-state cooperation is critical to maintaining and building on our hard-won competitive advantages.

» High-quality education is a necessity, and not a luxury, for world-class cities and regions. Our schools are an inconsistent patchwork of excellence, mediocrity and threadbare. Sub-par schools equate too often with both poor job prospects for graduates and poor communities where those grads live, plain and simple. To compete against cities, states and even countries that’ve gotten education right, we must do better as a region and state. Or we will be left behind as capital and jobs look elsewhere in search of a well-educated populace.

» Transportation is often-discussed in Atlanta, but decisively acted on far less often. Time is money, and we burn way too much of it idling in near-incessant traffic snarls. We need solutions, whether they be more asphalt roads, or the iron roads that enable true mass transit.

» Quality of life is important to a region. Companies seeking to relocate look hard at these issues because they either have to convince existing employees to move to a new place or recruit new ones. Atlanta’s got a lot of pluses, but outsiders will balance that against things like the headache of driving at rush hour or a water supply that’s in such short supply at times that planting a rock garden at home seems a safer alternative than sowing grass.

» Health care is a national challenge. In Georgia, how can we best provide quality, cost-efficient care? What’re the most effective ways to improve, and pay for, trauma care? What can government and business do to temper relentless cost increases?

The challenges for our region and state are many. We’re confident that Atlanta and Georgia will lead the nation again if we cooperate to move “Atlanta Forward.”

Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board