James May-June 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 39
STATE BOTANICAL GA R D E N
dear,” said Bradley. “That is validated
by the recognition that we have over
600 non-profit organizations operating
in Athens.”
Asked about the biggest challenge for Athens during his time there,
Bradley points to the turmoil brought
upon by COVID. “College communities can typically withstand ebbs in
an economic slowdown because you
have 40,000 students within a block of
our main shopping area. That works
until the students are no longer there,”
said Bradley. “The community came
together in ways that helped foster
the capacity of small businesses to
keep their doors open, provide daily
communication about news that might
impact ourselves or our neighbors, and
it was all done with the understanding
no one was concerned about being
recognized for that work.”
Bradley has led the Chamber on
two InterCity Leadership Visits— one
to Columbia, Missouri, and another to
Tuscaloosa. These were relatively new
to the Chamber. On the surface, the
objective was to get community leaders away for three days to take a deep
look at common issues that impact
Athens and their host communities
to visualize how they might address
those opportunities.
“As important as looking at issues
was pulling together elected, educational and business leaders together— most of whom did not know each
other— to get to know each other,” said
Bradley. “For community stability and
the capacity to authentically look at
what our future looks like, we must
have some trust in our leadership and
trust that the community leadership is
on the same page. You can’t build trust
until you get to know other leaders. We
learned some great community lessons
but, more importantly, we saw (and
M AY/J UNE 2025
39
