I was born and raised in Atlanta, the son of small-business owners. I chose to stay in Atlanta to study at Emory University, an Atlanta native surrounded by students drawn to our campus from across the world. Like many young people after college, I could have chosen to leave town and move anywhere. I didn’t do that. Instead of packing my bags and heading for the door, I decided to stay. I chose Atlanta.
Atlanta has succeeded because it is a city that says “yes” to progress and embraces opportunity. I was 10 years old when I sat in the Georgia Dome for the Olympics, and in my lifetime, I have seen this city undergo a transformation that still stuns me with each glance of the skyline.
When I graduated college in 2009, I saw a city to which people from across the country were bringing their immense talents. Nightlife was exploding, nationally recognized chefs were launching restaurants across the city and the Beltline, perhaps the most exciting transportation and urban redevelopment project in the country, was proving naysayers and skeptics wrong as its first trails opened for public use.
My college friends were fighting to stay in town, and young people from the suburbs were flocking into the city’s neighborhoods. I found myself spending time in Piedmont Park with the Atlanta Sports and Social Club, attending gallery openings in Castleberry Hill, and marching late into the night with thousands of my neighbors beneath the glow of the Beltline lantern parade.
In short, the old critique of Atlanta as a city of transplants without city spirit was being undone. The Atlanta of the 2010s was emerging.
Young people need jobs if they are to stay in a city, and despite the traffic delays, I was happy construction cranes crowded my commute. Some of my former peers found positions at Fortune 500 companies, while one launched a technology start-up from one of the city’s start-up incubators. In the years since I graduated, the tech sector has exploded. I have gotten to know former Silicon Valley types who have eagerly come to Atlanta, as well as filmmakers equally happy to have come to my home town.
Some statistics: 55 percent of millennials have started a business or desire to be an entrepreneur; 91 percent of us expect to stay in our current job for less than three years and are willing to move for another opportunity. Add to these figures the strong preference young people have to live in urban areas that offer social, cultural and recreational opportunities and access to public transit. We are a generation that seeks excitement and has high expectations. We see ourselves as leaders and innovators.
But Atlanta for me and so many of my friends today is hitting the right notes. I recently graduated from the LEAD Atlanta leadership program for young professionals and was struck by not just the ability of the city to attract young talent, but by the resolve of so many young people here to make this city an even better place to live by confronting its challenges and looking them square in the eye. Young Atlantans are committed to making this city the best place it can be through opportunity for all its residents.
Atlanta continues to inspire, and our leaders across the metro region need to work together to ensure this growth continues.
Young people support smart regional policies and cooperation that promotes the unity of the region we all call Atlanta. At the city, metro and state level, policies supporting a strong, cohesive Atlanta are the policies that will propel us forward, sharpen our global competitiveness and make the next generation proud to call this beautiful town home.
Nick Juliano is a public affairs consultant with Resolute Consulting.
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