“The first day of January 1965 again brings to mind that the month drew its name from Roman deity, Janus, who in mythology had two faces – one looking forward, the other backward. He was the god of gates and days, thus of all beginnings. This year Georgians and all Americans can look backward with Janus to one of the most prosperous 12 months in the nation’s history and forward to even greater heights of progress and prosperity.”
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution editorial page, Jan. 1, 1965
A half century later, those words still find a ready application across metro Atlanta and the rest of Georgia. In 2015, this crossroads of the South should decide which fork in the road we choose to travel. Will we stride with purpose, moving audaciously into the boldest future we can envision – and beyond? Or will we trod the comfortably easier, deceptively circular, familiar path — the one paved with tentativeness, doubt, closed-mindedness and fear? Progress — or backsliding? That is the choice now upon us.
For there is no idling in neutral anymore, stuck on status quo. Not in this global economy. Not when our competitors are moving, planning and building, zeroing in on desired goals much as hunters set their sights on prized game. Will we be the prey – or the pursuers?
That is the choice now before us.
And similar to the season that saw 1964 advance into a new year, Georgia – like the nation – faces an economy that has reclaimed some scattered ground. The claw-back hasn’t been without some unsteadiness and can’t be described as anything near spectacular. Yet, the upturn is undeniable. You can see it in both the gray data of economic reports and in the sight of timber and steel once again being fashioned into dwellings and commercial space around metro Atlanta.
In November 2013, Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was a frown-inducing 7.6 percent. Following months saw it fall as low as 6.9 percent before settling at 7.2 percent for last November. That remains significantly higher than the national average of 5.8 percent, but Georgia’s current seems to be flowing in the right direction.
For the 10-county Atlanta region, Georgia Department of Labor preliminary figures recorded a 6.5 percent jobless rate last November, down from a year-ago’s 7.0 number.
All of which, and more, adds up to notable progress, especially given the recent Great Recession.
Georgians and metro Atlantans seem to feel it in their bones that things are looking better too. Findings from the second “Metro Atlanta Speaks” survey by the Atlanta Regional Commission noted a significant drop from 2013 to 2014 in the percentage of residents who saw the economy as the biggest problem facing this metro.
As encouraging, the ARC’s numbers found that transportation had eclipsed the economy as the biggest worry during this short time period. Legislators should take heed of that, and act forcefully on the issue — this year.
Other ARC data suggests our region’s populace is, at this moment, fairly comfortable with where things now stand around here. When asked “If you could move, where would you move?” only 24 percent said they’d leave town for good. A full 74 percent of respondents said they’d either stick around, or only move to a different neighborhood.
It’s undeniable that well-being and comfort have a place in all our lives and even in the broader community. Yet, in assessing a region’s vitality, it should be unacceptably risky for comfort to devolve into complacency. An unhealthy level of “We’ve Arrived!” smugness poses grave danger over time to our economic and civic success. It’s an insidious ailment. By the time we realize it’s upon us, it can be devilishly hard to get rid of.
All of which is to say that 2015 should be a year of getting aggressively moving on fixes for the biggest challenges which remain before us. By now, we know them intuitively. It’s a short, yet deceptively robust list. As in our problems seem deeply dug in to bedrock granite, the better to resist half-hearted efforts to tear down the stout walls that block solutions.
Transportation. Education. Workforce development. Water woes. Too many Georgians who remain unemployed, or underemployed. We’ve got our strengths, certainly, but the above bugaboos beckon us into a New Year, daring us to even try to conquer them.
Yet, that is exactly what Georgia, and Atlanta, must begin doing this year.
Fixing our biggest botherations won’t be easy. Or quick. Or fast. It likely won’t be particularly cheap either. But the old saying “you can pay me now, or pay me (more) later” has hung around in common usage for a good reason.
The Atlanta Constitution, in its editorial welcoming 1965, cited words spoken by President John F. Kennedy a week before his assassination. Kenneday said that, “Marshal Lyautey, the great French marshal, went out to his gardener and asked him to plant a tree. The gardener said: ‘Why plant it? It won’t flower for 100 years.’ In that case, the marshal said, ‘plant it this afternoon.’”
“That is what we have to do,” said Kennedy.
That was then. Time moves much faster these days, or it seems to. Which is to say that greater Atlanta and Georgia don’t have a century to get our act together. Solutions – at least ones worth enacting – won’t happen overnight either. Yet we need them — now.
So there’s no more time to waste in dithering and dawdling. We must begin building for the future. We have no other choice. Not if we want to remain a force to contend with in the future. Or even in the present order of things.
