Focusing too keenly on the past — or the present — isn’t the best way to prepare for the future.
That holds true both for individuals and the cities they inhabit. It makes sense considering the tightly interrelated relationships between people and their places of residence.
Recognizing all that means that metro Atlanta and Georgia need to be thinking about, planning toward and building for the world that post-Baby Boomer generations are rapidly coming to occupy. Generational transitions are part of the natural order of life. The world, its ways and infrastructure change with the times as a direct result.
The most-vibrant metro areas are usually those that somehow manage to stay young in their thinking. They do so in part by quickly bringing along talented young people into positions of prominence where they can be heard, and come to influence public- and private-sector policies.
Cities that fail to do this well are at risk of stagnation and decline as outdated thinking and policies cling stubbornly past their expiration date.
Thankfully, Atlanta has an history of listening to younger people and rapidly integrating them into civic life and leadership. Our growth’s been positively impacted as a result.
That strategy is continuing, it seems.The Atlanta Regional Commission has established a Millennial Advisory Panel, comprised of leaders 18 to 35 years of age. The ARC notes that millennials “represent about 25 percent of the region’s population, more than the Baby Boomers.”
The AJC asked several of the ARC’s millennial panelists to write about what a better, more-attractive metro Atlanta looks like to them, and their age group. Their essays follow. They’re worth reading by those who want to keep Atlanta in the global mix as an attractive city in which to live and work.
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