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More to building a community than just buildings
Everyone is due their own opinions but I thought a letter writer last week was particularly harsh on Jackson, its leaders and citizens. The individual has moved away and gotten a taste of suburban living and is horrified at the thought of having to move back to a little hamlet like this. I admit that I wish we had some of the bigger stores and restaurants that she describes. But wishing them won't bring them here and suggesting that all "whoever is in charge" has to do is put out a call and "they" will come and build great stores here is far-fetched too. The better way to tackle the issue is the way Mayor Richard Long, city council members and other community leaders are working to build a solid foundation for growth. Their work is paying off, perhaps not as fast as some would like, but positive change is coming. A community is made up of more than just places to shop and places to eat. A good community begins with good people. You have to have good jobs paying good wages. You have to have infrastructure such as good roads, water and sewerage systems and now, Internet service, hopefully high speed. A good community has to have good schools, recreation and cultural attractions and other opportunities ...things that can be called "lifestyle" amenities. If you build these, to paraphrase the saying, the rest will come in good time. It is kind of like setting up dominoes so that when you flick one over they all fall in unison and in a pleasing pattern. For instance, the acquisition of a new $8 million Hampton Inn for the intersection of the Walker Springs Road across from Wal- Mart will do a lot to help build up that location. I predict that other shops and restaurants will likely be drawn to the area. The construction of a new and huge Harvey's Home Furnishings just up the road will lure more traffic and encourage other businesses to build in the area. Look at this section of Jackson in five to 10 years and see what I am talking about. The dominoes have to be set up just so and correctly spaced for them to fall in perfect alignment. Of course, sometimes the dominoes aren't aligned just right and we have to reposition them and readjust the configuration. Readjustments take time. That doesn't mean the end result can't be the same and won't be just as pleasing. It might just take a little longer. I think the dominoes are lining up pretty good in Jackson right now. The city and region are growing and will continue to grow. Eventually the stores and restaurants that many see as progress will come. They may be the most visible and often the most desired part of progress but they are only one part in a complicated scheme that requires other components too. The condescending tone of many who have left here and moved to bigger areas but then come back and want to overly criticize is a little aggravating to me. Not long ago I had a person who grew up in Grove Hill but moved away for college and a career lament about how sad it was that the place was not the way they remembered it in the 1950s and 1960s. They wondered what had happened. For one thing, life is not the way it was in the '50s and '60s and it never will be again. The good roads and good automobiles that took folks away back then are even better now. Today, you can drive to Mobile in less than an hour in the late morning, do a little shopping, eat lunch and be back home by mid-afternoon. The world has grown smaller and more competitive, to the detriment of small town America. I don't fault anyone for leaving here and obtaining a better life somewhere else but I sometimes think they are a little too condemning of where they grew up or that they sometimes think in a time vacuum of the way things "used to be." After all, these little towns must have had some redeeming qualifications if they had an influence in educating and teaching values that have helped so many to have a good life...either here or somewhere else. Jackson is moving in the right direction. Progress never moves fast enough and we never build fast enough. We are an impatient and demanding people.
"If you build it they will come" and "If you don't build it they will leave" may contain some elements of truth but we must remember all buildings require solid foundations. A solid foundation is being laid in Jackson and southwest Alabama as we work with an eye to the future.
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