There’s a reason why the Latin phrase “E. Pluribus Unum” is inscribed both on the quarters inside our pockets and the Great Seal of the United States. Its meaning is as profound as it is simple: “Out of Many, One.”
It’s a slogan worth remembering locally as the Atlanta metro ponders its present and future. We’ve got some added freedom to do that these days, now that the Great Downside of the recent recession continues to slink back into history.
With construction cranes again busy adding to the Atlanta skyline and HR departments scrambling to make new hires at employers seeing increased business, the Atlanta region and its myriad subcomponents have the luxury of thinking in greater detail about how we position ourselves for tomorrow’s opportunities and growth.
The necessity for this type of reflection was top of mind recently at The Atlanta Regional Commission’s annual State of the Region breakfast. An upbeat Doug Hooker, ARC’s executive director, told attendees that, “Friends, our region is making significant progress on some critically important issues.” He went on to add that the ARC, as the metropolitan planning organization for this region, was keen on seeing progress continue across this great area.
“We must ensure a vibrant, livable and affordable metropolis for all of us,” said Hooker. “The possibilities are truly endless if we imagine our competitive future together… . And act in concert to achieve it.”
Which gets us back to the Latinate many-becoming-one thing. We believe that, for this vast assemblage of diverse communities known as metro Atlanta to achieve as much of our potential as possible, we must redouble efforts to work in concert on common issues that hobble our success.
No one in their right mind here envisions that such needed collaboration would result in a cookie-cutter megalopolis resembling one big high-rise set from a futuristic movie. No, much of this region will remain a place of single-family homes on spacious, tree-guarded lots. Some of those same suburban communities, however, will come to share space with denser, multi-family live-work developments increasingly favored by both aging Baby Boomers and Millennials. That’s already happening here. Demand is driving supply, as capitalism requires it should.
We all know this area’s shortcomings, such as a Georgia 400 so overstuffed with traffic that a desperate Gov. Nathan Deal had to quickly convert highway shoulders to part-time traffic lanes. Other roads inside and outside of the perimeter are so tightly packed with vehicles that big employers, to the shock of some old-schoolers, are scrambling to locate next to MARTA lines. Our K-12 schools remain sub-par in too many cases, and the region’s water supply is still in limbo within the legal system. We’ve got work to do on these and other issues.
People increasingly want fixes. Righting matters we’ve neglected for decades and adding capacity for the millions expected to move here in coming years will require all of us to collaborate if we expect Atlanta to rightfully claim the future’s bounty.
Continuing on with partisan squabbling along geographic lines may make for political entertainment, but it will do nothing to position us for big dollars-and-cents wins in the economy and world of today and tomorrow.
Economists and businesspeople alike know that the future doesn’t mirror the past. Metro Atlanta’s leaders and citizens should not overlook that as we prepare for tomorrow.
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