James_May-June_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 51
his spring, as the
General Assembly
met under the Gold
Dome, cities across
our state were doing
what they always
do: solving problems.
The problems are as varied
as the cities themselves. In Johns
Creek, city officials are working
through what it means to prepare
for electric aircraft: the zoning
questions, the landing sites, the
safety considerations for technology that’s still young. Two hundred
and thirty miles away, Tybee Island
is losing its beach. Sixty percent of
its shoreline has disappeared since
2020, and the city is pursuing all
available resources to address the
issue. Both are Georgia cities but
beyond that, the challenges they
face, and the solutions they need,
look nothing alike. That’s true for
most of Georgia’s 536 cities:
Savannah is a port city and tourism
destination with a history unlike
anywhere else in the South.
Winder and Auburn 昀椀gured out
how to turn a former rock quarry
into a regional reservoir holding
more than a billion gallons of water.
Alpharetta is reviewing a proposal to redevelop a mall site into a
mixed-use entertainment district.
Leesburg just launched its 昀椀rst
farmers market and is nurturing its
downtown revitalization one entrepreneur at a time.
Rome is building a $200 million
water treatment plant to address
contamination, and a dozen smaller
cities are pursuing grants to address
the same problem.
To me, that variety is Georgia’s
greatest strength. It comes from
places that are genuinely different
from one another, led by people
who understand those differences
and make decisions accordingly.
I’ve spent my career watching
cities at work. There are lessons
learned from city to city, but a solution that fits one rarely fits another
perfectly. State and civic leaders, as
well as pundits and commentators,
should remember this.
ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL
Each year, state lawmakers
wrestle with questions about local
decision making, local standards
and who is best positioned to
make decisions for communities as
different as the ones I’ve just described. Those are fair questions
and they deserve honest answers.
Georgia’s cities are not perfect.
Local decisions sometimes fall
short. Standards get bent under
pressure, and it’s the residents
who pay later. Nobody knows that
M AY /J UNE 2026
51
