Note: In cleaning out my email inbox over the past couple of days, I found the following, which is something I had written back in March when I was having a twitter/email debate on the issue with an Athens-area city councilman. Since it doesn’t appear I’ve ever posted it here, I decided to do so now.
Atlanta is congested because decades ago, before the rise of modern telecommunication (and even transportation) technology, people HAD to be in close proximity to the things they needed and the people they needed/wanted to be around. This includes everything from grocer to doctor to work. Organizations COULDN’T spread out, because they needed their people to share documents, attend meetings, etc.
With the rise of modern communications and transportation technology, none of the old factors are relevant. I can talk to you and even attend a meeting with you without us ever being in the same continent, much
less the same room. You’re a techie nearly as much as I am, you KNOW this to be true. You’ve probably even taken advantage of it from time to time.
Why then, do we insist on our major government facilities being located near each other?
Spread State government through the Regional Cities. All of them. Dalton, Rome, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus, Valdosta, and Albany. Even allow some of it to locate on the GA side of the Chattanooga area.
Even the Legislature is debatable as to whether all 236 of them have to be in the same building.
Once you move the State agencies, begin with a regional solution to enhance the infrastructure. Business, even big business, will follow the State agencies. (For example, businesses that rely on close physical
proximity to the Department of Human Resources would move to wherever DHR moves. As the infrastructure is built, businesses such as Home Depot would decide that maybe Valdosta is better for their HQ than Atlanta.)
Then you have the terrorism angle. A backpack nuke placed near the CDC could level much of Atlanta – including any government agencies therein. If placed in downtown, it would be even more catastrophic, though the ‘urban valley’ effect would mitigate it somewhat, unless you could get the device near the top of one of the taller buildings such as the Westin or the Bank of America building. Currently, such an attack would
devastate State government. Move the agencies as I’ve described, and you’re now talking about a much more intensive and coordinated series of attacks to do the same amount of overall damage to State government.
Clearly, the military saw this long ago in their own planning for the Cold War. Notice that many of those regional cities I mentioned earlier – specifically including Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Valdosta, Savannah,
and Albany – ALL have major military bases? These COULD have located in the Atlanta area.
Jeff.
Your decentralization idea is actually a pretty good one. There are other benefits as well. Facility acquisition/lease costs will be less expensive in the smaller cities. You could even coordinate with local colleges to offer a curriculum complimentary to training and work/study transition into whatever “governmental center” was locally present.
However, implementation would be very political.