Stand fast Atlanta, but dont be selfish
Stand fast Atlanta, but dont be selfish
Atlanta is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. It is the beating heart of Georgia, and one of the main centers for economic activity with the head quarters of several major companies located in its CBD, including Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, and AT&T. Just behind Chicago and Minneapolis, it has one of the highest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies located within the greater Atlanta Metropolitan Area.
Atlanta then, is the most important city in the state, and what goes on in Atlanta will directly affect the rest of the state.
In his recent State of the State address, Governor Sonny Perdue put the future of the state in perspective when he said “It would be easy to sit here and dread the tough decisions that lie ahead. But now is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to dig in even deeper and do the hard things so that our children and grand children will know a better Georgia.”
His words seem rather similar to those made by the President after the healthcare bill passed on March 22, “We were not afraid of our future, we shaped it.”
The future of Georgia needs shaping, and the actions taken by Atlanta’s leaders will play a major part.
Like other major cities across the country, Atlanta has been hit hard by foreclosures in the wake of the financial crash, and now has an oversupply of homes, the construction industry that boomed with the development of up to 61,000 new homes in 2005, has now contracted by around 81%. In addition, the city’s budget deficit for 2009 was in the tens of millions, while the state is facing in 2010 a shortfall of over $1 billion.
The problem is severe then, and there is no doubt that budget cuts must be made. The problem is where to make the budget cuts, and where to generate new sources of revenue to close the gap. This is what the governor seemed to be alluding to in his speech (if one reads between the lines).
The budget problem facing Atlanta, and the state as a whole, should be seen as an opportunity rather than a curse. In the good times, when the bacon and the bread was abundant, the city allowed the real estate market to become a force of its own, market reforms can prevent this happening again, and prevent the prolific number of foreclosures that have ensued.
This is just one example.
The central issue is to identity the sort of city one wants Atlanta to be, to identify how Atlanta should lead Georgia into a future where the city and the state are stronger than they were before the financial crash.
It is never popular to cut spending and increase taxes, and there is no doubt that many Atlantans are struggling to get by as the crisis eats away at the middle classes. Nevertheless, painful decisions must be made in order not to substitute long-term progress with short-term gains.
This is why Atlanta can’t afford to slash its budgets for education, law enforcement and welfare (the three largest money absorbers), because this will be to the detriment of the city in the long run. If the city were to do this, it would find itself on the back foot when the recession abated, and find that large investments were needed to regain ground lost.
There are certain areas in the budget that must be focused on, education, transport and other infrastructures for one, which, when the worst of the recession is over, will enable Atlanta to remain attractive to big business for investment.
It is this kind of targeted investment that leads to economic growth, not simple chiseling away at the city budget and lowering taxes for various industries. People across Georgia and within Atlanta have had to take salary cuts because management insists the business can’t survive otherwise, the city’s employees should do the same.
Mass layoffs aren’t the answer, because that would jeopardize social services and the efficient administration of the city.
In effect then, short-term pain in return for long-term security is better than short-term gains at the expense of long-term stability.
How city leadership handles the present problems facing Atlanta, will directly shape the city that emerges from the recession in the future.
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Stand fast Atlanta, but dont be selfish
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, therefore it is the leader of the state, and the actions and decisions of city leaders will influence the stability, or lack thereof, of the state. It is a substantial responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly. Atlanta must weather the current recession in a manner helpful to the wider region as well as itself.
Atlanta is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. It is the beating heart of Georgia, and one of the main centers for economic activity with the head quarters of several major companies located in its CBD, including Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, and AT&T. Just behind Chicago and Minneapolis, it has one of the highest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies located within the greater Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Read more
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