Program Manager, Georgia Center for OpportunityAdmin, Columbus Community Resource Network What exactly is the Georgia Center for Opportunity?“The Georgia Center for Opportunity Is a wonderful organization. I’m so blessed to work there with people who have the heart that they have for others and the purpose that they have to make our communities better. It’s an organization that’s been around in...
Executive Director, Dragonfly Trails Network Why is bicycle infrastructure—from both a commuting and recreational standpoint—important to economic development?“Take the Riverwalk for example, designed to be a really beautiful service road for our Combined Sewer Overflow [CSO] system. Cities started building trails for recreational purposes and then noticed people were using them to get to work...
Managing Producer, Columbus Ballet’s ‘The Masked Nutcracker”Faculty, CSU Youth Dance Conservatory Why is “The Nutcracker” such an enduring Christmas classic? “It’s such a sweet tradition for so many people. In general, it’s very classic. There are a lot of people out there trying to make “The Nutcracker” into something else. But what I have found is people love the...
Director, StartUp Columbus Why has Columbus struggled in recent decades to foster small businesses and entrepreneurship?“There are a lot of different reasons that people have given for it. I have my speculations, which are that we’ve had a lot of really successful large businesses. For the population, we probably have more Fortune 1,000 companies than any community our size. the size of our city...
Georgia Political Director for Biden/Harris 2020 Campaign Were you surprised that Joe Biden won Georgia? “No. We had a tremendous campaign with volunteers giving up their time and driving all over the state to encourage voter turnout. This was positive and important work for the [Democratic] Party. Plus all the voter registration efforts of Stacey Abrams and the Fair Fight organization...
Plant Manager, Goldens’ Foundry & Machine Co. After Golden’s filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, what changed as far as your business model to foster the type of success the company has today? “Not really anything changed as far as our business model. To go back a little further, in 2001 we made a massive investment in the Columbus plant. We put in a brand-new molding operation...
Director, Illges Gallery, and Professor of Art, Columbus State University Advocate, We Cannot Walk Alone What is We Cannot Walk Alone and what inspired it? “We Cannot Walk Alone Is a group that got together sometime in June in response to the George Floyd incident. It has since grown into a much bigger discussion about social injustice, racism, and all the other issues that history has...
A Columbus-based Registered Nurse shares their observations from the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19. Due to the sensitive nature of their job—and to speak without the filter of administrators and attorneys—this established local RN was granted anonymity for our interview. What have you personally encountered while working at the hospital during the pandemic?“In my six years as a nurse...
At a time when the pain of life during pandemic brings a spike in suicide and substance abuse, Georgia this month slashed state funding for the mental-health programs that combat “the epidemic within the pandemic.”From the Georgia Mental Health Consumers Network, Roslyn Hayes and Chris Johnson sound off on the coming consequences of these budget cuts ahead of hosting on Thursday the Mental Health...
Director, Chattahoochee Valley Libraries Why the decision to become a ‘fines free’ public-library system?“Nationally, a lot of other library systems have done that. Not everybody has been paying as much attention to it as much as we could have in this profession—I’ve been doing this for 30-something years. Fines are not a deterrent for people to bring materials back. When you realize there’s no...