Education, transportation and water are three of the largest problems that have vexed this region and state for decades. It’s natural to think about them separately. We would do better to view them as a dysfunctional whole that will hobble our prospects for progress if we don’t fix them soon.
It’s convenient and dangerously easy to discount our challenges and downplay their potential for harm if we view them individually. The prospect of losing sleep as a community should increase exponentially when we consider seemingly separate issues as being part of a larger package of regional hindrances. That’s what businesspeople and scientists call “systems thinking.”
Doing so will be jarring, uncomfortable even, but it should spur this metro area to embrace action as it never has before. If we don’t, some competitors certainly will as a “new normal” arises out of the wreckage caused by the Great Recession. Success yesterday, in and of itself, provides no guarantees for tomorrow.
Some regions will emerge from the downturn with winning strategies for better managing their own problems and luring jobs and growth. Others won’t. Atlanta cannot be among the losers unable to move beyond the past. Such a scenario would consign the future’s opportunities to other, more productive locales. That’s not Atlanta — never has been and never should be.
The Urban Land Institute Atlanta recently linked the biggest regional public policy issues during its first-ever “Infrastructure Summit.” Focused on transportation, education, water and “lifelong” communities, the event gave some of the area’s planners and thinkers a forum to start connecting necessary dots. Good for them in helping discern a cohesive whole among a seemingly disparate list. This type of broad analysis is not uncommon in public policy circles. It should catch on more among political leaders and go viral down to every household in the region.
Seeing the big picture is that important to our economic success. Nothing illustrates this better than Georgia’s, and Atlanta’s, quest for jobs in a time of 9 percent-plus unemployment.
The admittedly dull topic of water might, at first glance, seemingly have little or nothing to do with job creation. The inaccuracy of that assumption materializes when we recognize the interrelationship between our water problems and the local economy. Companies or workers seeking to relocate here will undoubtedly weigh our pending water shortfall against quality of life pluses such as our low cost of living. That should give an added push to efforts on all fronts to assure a stable supply of water here.
Outsiders with talent or capital to invest will likewise also take a hard look at the quality of education offered by our cash-strapped public schools. We hesitate even to mention the long-running, slow-moving traffic woes that have made us a national standout in a bad way. That should cause dogmatic opponents of the 2012 transportation special-purpose local-option sales tax to rethink their position. The cause-and-effect list goes on between various issues.
Systems thinking can help clarify just what we’re up against in Atlanta, and in Georgia. That should lead to either new, comprehensive solutions or faster progress on remedies already proposed. We have no time to waste.
If we can envision together just what we’re up against, then we can all act to create a better Atlanta. The needed work is doable only if we combine forces across this metro area as never before.
We should all see the urgent need to revamp and rebuild our infrastructure. That’s the only way we can remain a leader in the global game of luring economic development.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
Atlanta Forward: We look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers.
Look for the designation “Atlanta Forward,” which will identify these discussions.
