Metro/State Unity: One Georgia needed in 2010

By Monday, with New Year’s revelry but a memory, many of us will be back at work, perhaps still scribbling 2009 on checks or other documents. That, too, shall pass.

What will remain, as 2010 begins, are the challenges facing our region and state. They’ll demand our full, honest attention, given their immensity fueled by this Great Recession. Economists note that the G.R. is, by now, most likely behind us. Even if the number-watchers are right, the downturn’s backwash will remain a sizable drag on our economy through 2010 and beyond. That makes it imperative for Georgians to make the tough, and right, moves for our state as early as possible in this new year.

A productive place to start would be banishing the phrase “two Georgias” from our minds and hearts. We should then work to make the exile permanent in deed and word. A phrase more conducive to economic development might be “one Georgia,” although there’s already a OneGeorgia Authority devoted to the worthy goal of fostering rural growth.

A more-unified Georgia will enable us to best embrace the wrenching change needed to both get us through 2010 and align ourselves for the years to come.

We don’t expect the Gold Dome to be wrapped in a “One Georgia” banner in advance of the coming legislative session, but the sentiment should be top of mind for lawmakers.

As in much of existence, the concept of enhanced state unity will be easier to embrace than the work needed to make it a reality. To recover, Georgia must lean into this task and get ’er done.

It won’t be easy. Politicians have an understandable self-interest in winning elections. And loudly championing Atlanta’s interests often does not play well outside the metro area, given rural needs that are as real as those of the capital region.

To begin in 2010 to repair what this recession has damaged, we must move beyond I-win, you-lose thinking. The election of former state legislator Kasim Reed as Atlanta’s mayor holds promise in this regard. During an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editorial Board before November’s election, Reed spoke about the necessity for our region to build working relationships from Young Harris to Fowlstown.

Reed said that, “What I learned in the House ... I used to think it was just the strangest thing that people bashed Atlanta so much. Well, when you actually go visit legislators where they are, [you understand that] if people in small towns in rural Georgia were walking around with ‘I love Atlanta’ [buttons] and [saying] ‘Atlanta is the greatest thing since sliced bread,’ how would those communities hold their sons and daughters. Nobody ever hears that conversation; I understand it very well.”

“What I learned from my friends in the other parts of the state is you can’t get them beat [in elections] and you have to present legislation in a way that is thoughtful enough so that they can justify it back home,” he said.

We’d urge new mayor Reed to put his Statehouse relationships to profitable use as often as possible, even leading fact-finding missions across Georgia if warranted. Honest meetings of urbanites and other Georgians at, say, Country’s Barbecue in Columbus or Sue’s Log Cabin in Ellijay could benefit us all.

The Atlanta region should be concerned about problems outside the metro area. And the other half of Georgia’s population should likewise make a good-faith effort to learn more about the issues hobbling Atlanta’s progress.

In so doing, we should find common interests. For example, consider the negative economic impact generated statewide from having thousands of tractor-trailers waste time, money and fuel wading slowly through snarled traffic on I-285. That value lost is growth lost for all of Georgia.

In 2010, our limping state economy needs help from all of us, thanks to plunging tax revenues, record-high joblessness and other woes.

Let’s get on with the task and show the world what a united Georgia can do.

Andre Jackson, 
for The Editorial Board.

In coming weeks and months, we will look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers. Look for the desgination "Atlanta Forward," which will identify these discussions.