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Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

We must work hard together to reverse Macon's decline

Macon is the seventh poorest urban area in the United States, according to Forbes Magazine. Ugh!

Where will the leadership come from to forge a more prosperous future for Macon and Bibb County? Can it be done? Let’s look first at the high performers who have kept us in the game so far. Then, let’s talk about the sectors that will have to step up their game to make a positive contribution.

Leaders

When it comes to economic development, the Chamber of Commerce has taken a strategic approach to job creation and has had some important successes, particularly with distribution centers and associated retail. Kumho Tire is still a bird in the bush, but promising. Our location, water resources, transportation systems and low cost of living should give us an edge as we continue to recover from losing Brown & Williamson five years ago. What’s holding us back? Our underperforming schools and our dysfunctional governing structures are our weak spots.

The Macon Housing Authority is a state leader in community development. Innovative financing and sheer competence has meant that whole neighborhoods are getting a new lease on life, poverty is being de-concentrated and some of the city’s worst blight is being eliminated. If the next HOPE VI application succeeds, Tindall Heights — Macon’s oldest and largest public housing — will be transformed. But we need jobs before truly sustainable change will be possible.

Over two decades, the Medical Center of Central Georgia has moved from being a so-so inner-city hospital to being a state-of-the-art medical complex. It is one of four Level One Trauma Centers in the state and the second largest medical complex in Georgia. But the Med Center can’t do it by itself.

Higher education is one of Macon’s strongest sectors, with four colleges in a city of 90,000. Macon State has grown 80 percent in the past decade. Mercer University is rapidly growing its research capacity in engineering, medicine and pharmacy. Mercer’s leadership for revitalization of the central city has been indispensable. But Mercer depends on Macon too. If things don’t change, Mercer will not be able to flourish in the city.

Finally, Macon’s private foundations have become community leaders. Without the Peyton Anderson Foundation, the Community Foundation of Central Georgia and the Knight Foundation, Macon’s most important community initiatives of the last decade would never have happened

Laggers

Three crucial sectors are failing us. Our public schools, our city and county governments, and our churches have got to step up and deliver.

The Bibb County public school system has had great success rebuilding the physical infrastructure of public education, but it has allowed exceptional programs for superior students to dwindle, and it has proved incapable of the deep reforms necessary to improve overall graduation rates and SAT scores. Everyone in Bibb County knows that the perception of the inadequacy of our public education is a primary reason Bibb County is stagnant in population and job growth in a rapidly growing Central Georgia region. We need new leadership on the school board and in the superintendent’s office.

Over the past decade, city and county governments in Macon and Bibb County have given us a new definition of small-minded and provincial. The county has treated the city as if it were a foreign country rather than the heart of the county and the region.

City Council and the mayor have bickered and postured among themselves. For Macon and Bibb County to prosper, we need an efficient, coordinated government with a long-range vision for change. Sam Hart and Robert Reichert were elected on pledges to work together to move us ahead. They must deliver on those pledges now, not later.

I don’t know if it is true that Macon has more churches per capita than any other city in the country. If it does, then our churches must also have less impact on the community per church than in any other city.

We don’t have strong neighborhoods. We don’t have strong advocacy groups. We don’t have grassroots political organizations. We have churches. But, with some shining exceptions, too many of our churches have become little more than social clubs with an aura of piety or spirituality.

If every church in Macon advocated for the families and children within its immediate neighborhood, we would be halfway there to fixing crime, educational failure and generational poverty in Macon. It’s past time for the faith community to do what it says it believes. You can’t love your neighbor and ignore your neighborhood (or run away from it to the suburbs).

Can We Do It?

It’s going to take all of us working hard and working together to reverse Macon’s decline. Now is the time for leadership from every sector, or we will lose what may well be our last, best chance at a prosperous common future.

As a citizen, a neighbor, or a member of a church, each of us must take more responsibility to lead and demand more accountability from our leaders.

Peter C. Brown is Senior Vice Provost at Mercer University.