EDITORIAL: Accelerating toward 'escape velocity'

In his State of the Community speech before area leaders Thursday, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert used a physics term, "momentum," to describe the city's transition. "If we lack confidence," the mayor said, "if we don't work regionally and if we don't do what we need to do, we can lose the momentum that we have built up and is moving us in the right direction at an ever-increasing speed. Losing our momentum, in my opinion, is our biggest threat."

The mayor has a point. The city has been trying to get off the ground for some time now. All the work of various groups and organizations, from foundations to institutions, over the years is beginning to pay off. While it may seem it all started to shine when the consolidated governments took over, it started far before that. Remember when the Macon Housing Authority demolished Oglethorpe Homes and replaced them with Tattnall Place. At the same time, the Knight Foundation and Mercer University were working on Beall's Hill. MHA wiped blighted properties off the landscape in eight other neighborhoods and replaced them with new, modern housing. NewTown Macon has been at its work for 20 years. Elected leadership has come together to realize the seriousness of blight. One Macon! has the business community singing out of the same hymnal. Downtown has come alive with loft development. And then there's Mercer University that continues to shine, from its football team to its Innovation Center.

Reichert is right about momentum. However, we would use another physics term: "escape velocity." By definition, it's the speed an object needs to travel to break free of a planet or moon's gravity. We want to see our area escape the can't do, not-in-my-backyard gravitational pull that has kept us from flying toward our potential.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 7:47 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Accelerating toward 'escape velocity' ."