There are eleven universities and colleges within Atlanta’s city limits which includes the Historically Black College and Universities Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College. Additionally, there are about 57 colleges and universities in the metro Atlanta area, including Kennesaw State University, according to universityguru.com. All of those institutions graduate talented individuals in various career fields. Some remain in Atlanta, adding to the city’s diverse workforce and thus to its population, while others leave to live elsewhere.
The question of how to keep the city’s talented graduates while also continuing to attract people by the hundreds of thousands every year was part of the question being explored during the “Atlanta as America” panel at the 10th annual Hope Global Forum.
Day two of the three-day event had an afternoon discussion on defining new strategies for success in Atlanta that included Atlanta Mayor and Georgia Tech alum Andre Dickens, Spelman College President Dr. Helene Gayle, and Atlanta Hawks Principal Owner and Governor of the Board of Directors Tony Ressler. The conversation was moderated by Bloomberg Originals chief correspondent Jason Kelly, an Atlanta native.
“This southern city punches above its weight class. We continue to do that because of inclusivity,” said Dickens when asked by Kelly about why Atlanta continues to thrive in so many different professional fields. The three panelists and the host approached the conversation from the standpoint that Atlanta has come a long way to become, in some cases, the most business-friendly state in the country, but still must make sure to spread the wealth equally.
“Investing in people. At the end of the day it’s critical to invest in people,” said Gayle, who lived and worked in Atlanta several times before returning to lead Spelman College. “Every time I came back to Atlanta to work it was a different city.”
In terms of tech talent remaining in Atlanta and branching out to include Black people, Gayle said the challenge is to get the financial resources to the Black tech talent throughout the city. “You can’t have a solution if you’re not addressing the underlying issues as well,” she said. “One of the things we try to do is expose our students to different parts of Atlanta. “We want to be a magnet for them and have them stay in this wonderful city.”
Dickens has bigger goals for the city’s tech entrepreneurs, talented artists, and business owners. “My goal is to make Atlanta a top-5 ecosystem in technology,” he said.
Downtown revitalization
Ressler, who bought the Atlanta Hawks nearly a decade ago, is a part of the development team that is looking to reshape downtown Atlanta with the Centennial Yards project. The part residential, part retail project will add places to work, play, and stay in a part of Atlanta that is growing, but remains ‘A ghost town,” according to Dickens. Ressler said a pro-development city government has been good for business. “In Atlanta, you can be pro-good government, pro-diversity, and pro-good business,” Ressler said, pointing to the mayor, who continues to champion public/private business partnerships throughout the city.
Dickens knows a total revitalization of downtown is going to take work, but feels like it is doable. “If it was easy it would have been done already,” Dickens said. “We have a nexus of people saying we can do it. Now we have a community-minded effort.”
The City of Atlanta recently opened the Housing Help Center downtown across the street from Five Points. This can be viewed as another indication that downtown is critical to the mayor’s first-term plans. “We want a vibrant downtown filled with arts and people,” Dickens said. “So that it doesn’t turn into a ghost town at night. Intentionality is our ally in this.”
A few weeks ago there were 80,000-plus fans inside and outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the SEC championship game. Another 40,000 attended the Falcons game Sunday and another 40,000-50,000 will attend the Celebration Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 16. Thousands more are attending the Hope Global Forums this week.