Decatur’s Success is No Accident
Scott | July 11, 2011It’s always nice when Decatur gets good press but there’s really nothing better than the sweet love of a piece that not only sings our praises but does so while contrasting us with other DeKalb towns choking on Decatur’s leading-edge dust.
Such was the case in Saturday’s AJC as local commentator (and retired furrier!) Bill York, in this op-ed, waxed fawningly over our little ‘burg:
“Decatur has been a runaway success. Others waited too long and moved too slowly.”
The real point of the piece is that, in these times of scaled back consumer spending, it’s the towns that previously invested in their commercial districts that are best surviving. Even thriving. He goes on to detail faltering efforts around the county and concludes with the assertion that, to be competitive, towns need to be prettied up and rents need to be jimmied down.
I don’t suppose I disagree with any of that, and it’s nice to see Decatur get some much-deserved props, but I do think a bit more ink could have been applied to just how difficult such ideas are to implement.
Bottom line, every city thinks they deserve to be great but few cities actually are. That’s because saying you’re great is easy. Being great isn’t.
Sometimes I get the feeling people don’t fully appreciate just how rare our little situation is: Elected leadership capable of working together and responsive to a citizen-led, collaborative vision; together with a business community savvy enough to see profit opportunity in city goals and willing to put forth private money to contribute to it.
We’re not seeing success today because we have nice downtown streetscapes (though that’s a part of it). We’re seeing it because, for decades now, a functioning city government has consistently made decisions and allocated funds in ways that are aligned with the broader goals of the community, which has created a predictable environment attractive to private investment.
Consistency of action builds trust. And people who trust each other tend to get more done.
It’s all right there in the Strategic Plan, a virtual crystal ball for business, laying out what the city intends to do for the next ten years.
It’s rare enough among municipalities that Decatur orchestrated the elaborate process that led to the Strategic Plan’s creation. But what’s exceptionally rare is that it’s taken seriously. Yearly departmental budgets are tied to its goals and action items and, when things come up for a vote, our elected officials tend to vote in support of the things we’ve asked them to do.
I’ll say it again. Do you have any idea how rare that is? As someone who works with communities all over North America seeking exactly what we already have, I can tell you: Sasquatch rare.
That’s what our family strives to be too–not perfect, not the best, not the brightest, not the richest, but non-dysfunctional!
Seriously, is it Decatur’s council-manager style government that’s worked so well? Plus some good luck in who filled those positions over the last 30 years? Plus fabulous and loyal residents?
I’ve run into some similarly blessed communities in New England. I think a fair amount of assertive, dedicated, idealistic citizenry is key.
I think it’s circular in many respects. City leadership listens and acts because people speak up and participate. People speak up and participate because city leadership listens and acts. It’s perpetually reinforcing, which explains why participation in the past year’s planning process was near double what it was in 2000, despite the fact that residents are largely satisfied right now while, ten years ago, there were some seriously contentious issues on the table.
This year, people didn’t participate because they were angry. They participated because they trusted their ideas for the next ten years would be taken seriously.
“They participated because they trusted their ideas for the next ten years would be taken seriously.”
As evidenced by the fact that 80% of the the items from the previous roundtables were implemented.
“City leadership listens and acts because people speak up and participate. People speak up and participate because city leadership listens and acts. It’s perpetually reinforcing…” I think you summed it up beautifully, right there. Well spoken, Scott.
Good news and bad news in Avondale. They’ve annexed and cleared a giant plot of land for future development – that’s the good. The bad news is that Howard Sprague, Aunt Bee, Floyd the Barber and Barney Fife will spend the next 20 years arguing over what should be done with it.
I moved to Decatur in 1988 from Los Angeles in some part because of the “manageable local politics.” In LA, we were represented by a weirdly gerrymandered district that traveled over the Santa Monica mountains from West LA into the San Fernando Valley.
We arrived on Sycamore Street having purchased the home that a greedy developer wanted to pillage (the back yard) for an office condo project. It was amazing to be thrust into heated citizen-participatory government. That plus the Inman Park parade put us into small town heaven.
Decatur has been saved from a host of earlier bad decisions (destroying the Square for Marta, demolishing historic architecture) by enlightened leadership who recognized the promise of New Urbanism before it was cool. The CVS shopping center was a near miss (the City had to fight for a front door on Ponce!).
The next frontier will be to wash the sticky sidewalks in front of the eateries — just like they do in Europe.
Actually, I think having MARTA go under the Square (and not run on the RR tracks as was proposed) WAS actually one of those decisions “by enlightened leadership who recognized the promise of New Urbanism before it was cool.”
We would not have had the kind of economic development we have seen in downtown Decatur in the past 20 years had MARTA been run above ground at the RR tracks instead of underground through the heart of downtown.
Running MARTA above ground at the RR tracks would have also destroyed South Decatur and would have forever split our town in two with no connection between the two. (Example: Kirkwood/Edgewood connected rather seemlessly with Candler Park prior to the big MARTA wall that now disconnects them).
Hooray for the courageous people 30-40 years ago, who demanded that MARTA go underground at Decatur!
All right, I’ll give you that one… but as a result, a) marta practically runs under our house, so we took a bullet for the team, and b) the above-grade “plaza” led to years of decay before the tide finally turned. In 1988 people were sleeping in urine where Raging Burrito now stands. Cakes & Ale marks the glorious transformation.
To Bruce: MARTA came in in 1979 or so, so if you moved in in 1988, you should have known MARTA was going to run under your house. I’m not sure where you “took a bullet.” But yes, it did take a long while & a good deal of re-construction to create the current Decatur Square/MARTA Plaza. It’s a shame MARTA didn’t go completely underground. Yes, it was much less expensive to use the existing CSX railways, but many neighborhoods were divided to a much greater extent, and it is that division that still has the rest of the metro area wary of further subway or even trolley-like expansion. Kudos to Decatur’s citizens for push to go underground!
For several years MARTA used to shake all the houses on the street. China in the cabinets would rattle every 11 minutes or whatever the timing was. After a concerted neighborhood outcry, they slowed the trains to their designated speed — or so I imagine– the rattling went away. That ’twas the bullet.
Wow, that’s like living in NYC where the traffic noises, building rattling, cabs honking, parking by sound, sirens, trains, construction drilling, etc.are the white noise of life. Didn’t realize that many Decatur residents had to deal with that, although I’ve realized that homes up on Swanton Hill and Gateway residents have to hear the MARTA train rattle through their neighborhood before it goes underground and downtown residents have to listen to the restaurant garbage pickup in the early AM. Thanks for taking that bullet because the CSX railroad tracks are enough of a divider, hazard, and annoyance without having MARTA do that too.
+1
thank you for sharing this perspective