WORDS Brent Rosen
In the middle of July I received an email from a colleague in Birmingham excitedly announcing a “Before I Die” wall being created near Regions Field. The original “Before I Die” wall was painted in New Orleans, providing a way for people in the community to publicly share their hopes and dreams. If that sounds vaguely familiar to you, it should: Montgomery had its own “Before I Die” wall painted on an abandoned building next to Irish Bred Pub last Spring. Congratulations Montgomery, we are now a place other cities, including our supposedly more advanced sister to the North, look toward for new ideas.
I bring this up not just to stick my tongue out at Birmingham -- although it feels nice -- but also to highlight a major loss suffered by Montgomery. Chad Emerson, in his role as director of development, encouraged the creation the “Before I Die” wall on Dexter Avenue. He, along with Deputy Mayor Jeff Downes, also played a major role in your ability to eat vegetables from EAT South farms, have a cocktail at the pedestrianized Alley, and live in a loft downtown. Chad regularly asked people in the Montgomery community for their input on major projects, and his development department invited people to their “idea factory” for brainstorming sessions on a regular basis. Unfortunately, by the end of the summer, both Chad and Jeff will have moved on to other jobs in other cities.
Realizing what a loss this would be, a group of concerned citizens visited the Mayor to discuss replacements for these important positions. The Mayor discounted the suggestion of a Southeast-wide search for candidates, and instead appointed two locals who are steady, capable people, each with decades of relevant experience. My problem is not with either choice personally, but with the idea that both people charged with the development of the city have decades of experience in Montgomery.
Montgomery has done the easy development: the ball park is built, the anchor hotel is open, the restaurants in the alley are packed every day. Now, the development department has to build on this foundation, looking toward places like Charleston, Savannah, or Greenville, SC as models for how mid-size, Southern cities can become thriving, dynamic places. Why not hire someone instrumental in re-making those cities to help remake ours? You get new ideas by bringing in new people, especially people with an excellent history of making things happen in similar places. If we want Birmingham to keep looking toward Montgomery as a place to steal good civic ideas, we need people with new ideas working in the development department.
There is another problem with hiring someone with decades of experience. Think of it this way: Would you ask your grandfather for advice on hip hotels, bars, or restaurants? Would you trust your aunt to create an environment where young, creative, engaged people want to live? But all joking aside, it wouldn’t hurt to have someone that understands what attracts young people when a big part of the development department’s job is making Montgomery an attractive place for young professionals.
Remember, the development department’s job is to make Montgomery a thriving place to live and do business, but how one defines “thriving place to live and do business” looks like a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Young people are starting to find Montgomery appealing, and it takes young, engaged people to make a city thrive. If the development department ignores that, Montgomery will continue to lose its young people to Auburn, Atlanta, and Birmingham, and all that will be left to develop is retirement homes.