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7. THE SAVANNAH STORY: THE ROAD TO EQUITY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
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CHAPTER SEVEN THE SAVANNAH STORY: THE ROAD TO EQUITY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Henry Moore and Christopher Morrill INTRODUCTION In his first year in office, Mayor Otis Johnson, former Savannah State University faculty member and administrator and long-time community activist, sought to make the City of Savannah a more “just and caring community” (Swope, 2005). Inspired by the visions of Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. DuBois, and Savannah civil rights leader W. W. Law, Mayor Johnson took an aggressive stand on the city’s social challenges and their root causes, establishing quarterly town hall meetings to invite citizens to discuss the issues face-to-face with him. The mayor and city council have authored a powerful plan for strategic community improvement that includes very specific goals for neighborhood quality, public safety, poverty reduction, and economic development (Savannah’s Poverty Reduction Initiative, 2005). Improving the local education system and increasing economic opportunities are keys to this plan. But Mayor Johnson is not the first Savannah leader to advocate for social equity; his vision continues a thirty-five-year legacy of progressive leadership seeking action and equity in Savannah’s neighborhoods and communities. The City of Savannah can be viewed as two very different cities. One is the picture postcard historic district with well-maintained public squares, 189 190 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AMERICAN CITIES hotels, and mansions visited by more than five million people annually. The other Savannah is one of poverty, dilapidated houses, and deteriorating neighborhoods . Though considered one of the most beautiful cities in the country, Savannah has struggled with ways to deal with its “invisible population.” These neglected residents are predominantly African Americans, representing half of the city’s citizenry but undereducated, underemployed, and living in poverty. Savannah has been actively involved in neighborhood redevelopment for more than twenty-five years. However, this agenda has focused on reducing the extensive physical decay and blight in inner-city neighborhoods. During this extended process of physical improvements, city hall and Savannah residents have grown a citizen-centered government philosophy. The city and its residents now recognize that improving troubled neighborhoods means not only fixing physical problems but also overcoming a variety of social barriers to foster neighborhood and family development. Years of collaboration between the city and its neighborhoods have fostered an equity agenda that includes services and tools for directly addressing the human conditions of poverty that affect its citizens’ quality of life. This chapter on Savannah’s “best practices” presents the story of Savannah’s asset-building journey on the road to equity and sustainable community development to more comprehensive efforts to connect Savannah’s residents to jobs and mainstream economy. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAVANNAH Located on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River, Savannah possesses a rich history important to the founding and development of our nation. One of the first planned cities, Savannah was founded by General James Oglethorpe in 1733. He envisioned a utopian community, a place without slavery, speculation , religious persecution, or oppressive class differences. Oglethorpe’s generous concept for the colony offered persons of modest means and even debtors an opportunity for a new beginning in life (O’Toole, 1998; Robertson, 2002). The city was famously laid out as a series of wards, each one centered on a central square. The plan focused the life of the city on its common green spaces, making an urban environment of physical beauty and pleasing interaction. In fact, General William Tecumseh Sherman, citing the city’s beauty, spared Savannah’s destruction during the Civil War and then offered the historic city as a Christmas present to President Lincoln in 1864. Its residents thrived, and Savannah became known for its large free black community , composed of African immigrants, freed slaves, and, later, Haitians (Robertson, 2002). Given its ideal coastal location and proximity to the river, Savannah prospered as a crossroads of trade with England as well as the frontier towns upriver. Local cotton and tobacco crops served as principle trade commodities through the end of the Civil War. The city replaced King George with [54.166.234.171] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 12:11 GMT) 191 THE SAVANNAH STORY “King Cotton,” and the Savannah Cotton Exchange set cotton prices around the world for nearly a century. But Oglethorpe’s utopian enterprise was not immune to economic and political pressures. The collapse of the cotton market at the turn of the century left the city languishing until just before World War II, when new industries...