The idea was simple – and your reaction told us just how powerful it was.
As the nation and region struggled through the Great Recession, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution launched a concept on its Opinion pages known as Atlanta Forward.
As we wrote in 2009, “It was not by chance that Atlanta – from its central core to the suburbs fanning outward in all directions – rose into the ranks of America’s great cities.”
Atlanta’s ascension to become one of the world’s great regions was the result of a lot of hard work and steely determination.
Yet, there are still many challenges ahead.
That’s why we are bringing back Atlanta Forward.
The timing seems right, as it did in 2009.
As part of Atlanta Forward, we want to be a leading voice for safety, integrity and common sense.
We want to foster a discussion and offer solutions so that we can keep this community focused on the important issues.
In short, we want to help make this region and state a better place in which to live – for this generation and the next.
Think about where we’ve been – and where we are now.
While our regional and state economy remain relatively strong overall, the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, battering our strained health care apparatus and sickening and killing tens of thousands of Georgians.
Across our region and far beyond, a toxic blend of politics has sapped and soured our spirits and weakened communal ties that used to link us across the red, blue and purple lines of demarcation.
And after years of relative safety on our streets, a spate of violent crime has erupted in recent years, heightening fear and unease among us – and not without good reason. It’s apparent that real answers must go well beyond the usual platitudes and would-be quick fixes.
The cumulative downbeat effect of these phenomena is real. A region and people constantly at odds won’t get much accomplished.
It’s time to try and come together around the big issues – just as we did when we first launched Atlanta Forward 13 years ago.
While it’s tempting, now is not the time to fixate on looking back to seemingly better days. That’s an alluring, deceptive – and losing – proposition.
Instead, it’s time for the place we call home to rise again. That’s the spirit which, paired with innovation and hard effort – launched us onto the world’s A-list.
Back in 2009, when we first introduced Atlanta Forward, we laid out five key areas of focus. They were:
- The regional economy
- Regional cooperation and governance
- Transportation
- Education
- Quality of life.
Even in this age of arguing about most anything, we should all agree that those topics are still worthy of our interest and collective energy.
But times have changed, and there are new issues facing us, too:
- Crime and the criminal justice system
- Corruption
- The pandemic
- Voting
And that’s why we’re re-launching Atlanta Forward.
We plan on offering paths toward solutions, relying heavily on lessons that others around the nation and world are learning as they tackle the same problems.
We’ll share ideas from leaders and others in the business, government, nonprofit and community sectors. Their views are important.
And we’ll rely on our own news reporting, and opinion “voice” where needed, to help make our communities stronger.
We don’t plan on stopping there.
We also want you, our readers, to share your thoughts and ideas.
Where do we need to go from here to keep pushing this place forward toward greater success?
We hope you think of us as a civic square of sorts and a marketplace of different ideas.
How effective we can be in doing all of this depends on you.
Which is why we want to hear from you.
In this divisively partisan age, this type of solutions-focused discussion will be far more productive.
In his book, “Triumph of the City,” Edward Glaeser wrote that, “we must free ourselves from our tendency to see cities as their buildings and remember that the real city is made of flesh, not concrete.”
We’d add the power of ideas and innovation to that.
We hope the re-launch of Atlanta Forward helps fuel a resurgence of such thinking on our pages and elsewhere around here.
Glaeser had another thought that intrigues us still. He wrote that, “Great cities are not static – they constantly change and take the world along with them.”
That’s a ride we want to take along with you.
No place can do that better than metro Atlanta.
With the re-launch of Atlanta Forward, let’s get to work.
The Editorial Board.
