Pardon
me, boys...
By Carol Harper
Editor, Amador Community News
I recently had lunch at the Olive Garden with a new friend of mine, Chuck, and his wife, Janice. As I dipped a warm breadstick into my minestrone, I listened to Chuck talk about growing up in Chattanooga, which is about an hour and a half drive from Nashville. He loved being raised there...it was your typical Americana-type town rich with [civil war] history. I told him it sounded like the place I just moved from, and I proceeded to describe Amador County's gold rush downtowns, mining history and zin wine country. Chuck said he had driven through California's gold country on his way from Reno to Monterrey for a coastal trip up to Seattle via Highway 1, and remembered it as "very beautiful".
I told Chuck about the economic struggles Amador County presently faced, and he said that Chattanooga went through the very same thing several years ago. Big box retail and a new mall had basically forced the charming downtown areas into ghost towns. It was a tragedy for sure, but at the same time, the very same people who complained about the new developments could also be seen (hypocritically) shopping at the malls any given day of the week.
What turned Chattanooga around were citizen involvement and a smart developer who worked with and actually listened to the city and its citizens. But it also took people who cared enough to come together to save it. As their city Web site reads: "Chattanooga was one of the first US cities to effectively use a citizen visioning process to set specific long-range goals to enrich the lives of residents and visitors."
Today, Chattanooga is a vacation destination; the downtown areas and riverfronts have been revitalized with shops and restaurants that people would actually shop and dine at. Tourism bustles because of the revived and strengthened economic components of history, arts, music, recreation, fairs and festivals. Nashville folks go to Chattanooga if they simply want to get away for a day trip, a retreat, or a romantic weekend.
After reading Scott Thomas Anderson's very well written piece in the Ledger Dispatch (Inheriting Jackson: Faltering economy, turbulent history will be left to new city council), I am saddened by the attitudes of those in the city seats and amongst the people of Jackson. If people can't get past their own selves, their own biases, can't do anything but complain, can't do what it takes to initiate change, can't even accept change or new, fresh ideas - can't even agree about who will sit on a committee! - Jackson deserves to be what it has become. It would be tragic to see Jackson turn into a ghost town, but what is more tragic is to see, at the most fundamental level, so much division, so many politics, so many opportunistic agendas, misunderstandings and misconceptions about each other.
But just how involved are the majority of Jackson citizens? How many have cared enough to consistently attend city government meetings, or be involved in the update of Jackson's General Plan? Who is active or proactive, or knowledgeable about the specific issues that the city of Jackson faces, or the current developments or ideas on the table? It may sound cliché, but "united we stand, divided we fall." If there aren't enough people who care enough to get past the differences, shed the NIMBY-like "that's the way we've always done it" attitudes at the most basic level, then maybe Jackson needs to swagger through its own streets, hit rock bottom and say, "Hello, I'm the City of Jackson...and I'm a hypocrite."
They say "progress happens one funeral at a time." I've observed Jackson wringing its hands and whittling away at its economic foundations for long enough. It's time for everyone to come together and help with its framework in order to someday pour concrete and cut a ribbon. But this isn't a rehearsal, folks—there are no "do overs". If Jackson could just cease and desist with its elementary school playground cliques and politics, and start working together, appreciating what everyone could bring to the table - whether your a citizen, or a city or county servant - then maybe a common vision could finally be revealed.
Pardon me, good 'ol boys (and girls)...it worked for Chattanooga. It can work for you, too!
Carol Harper