Solve big problems and smart kids will flock to Atlanta

Metro Atlanta's future hinges on regional solutions to big problems and building a metro area attractive to young, accomplished millennials, said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed Friday in remarks to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Metro Atlanta must solve the region's transportation problems, secure enough water to support a still growing region and improve a K-12 public education system that graduates too few students prepared for work and higher education, Reed said.

He was the keynote speaker at the ARC's 2014 State of the Region breakfast.

Atlanta must solve those large, entrenched problems to position itself to attract the young, skilled workers that business covet and all large cities are working to attract.

"We have to be the center where smart people in the southeastern United States want to come," Reed said.