Columns:: University hosts first ‘urban congress’ for medium metro cities

since 12/15/98

Columns::December 1, 2003

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Campus News

University hosts first ‘urban congress’ for medium metro cities

By Ann Allen
allen@cviog.uga.edu

For the first time, representatives from Georgia’s medium-sized metropolitan statistical areas will have the opportunity to come

Jim Youngquist

together for discussion at a conference designed especially for them. The first Urban Congress and Summit will be held Dec. 4-5 at the Foundry Park Inn and Conference Center in Athens. The meeting is part of the Urban Georgia Initiative, a new project of UGA’s Vinson Institute of Government.
The Urban Congress and Summit will bring together public elected and appointed officials, private-sector leaders and community activists from the metropolitan regions of Albany, Athens, Augusta-Aiken, Chattanooga, Columbus-Phenix City, Macon and Savannah. They will discuss such issues of common interest as economic linkages, education, transportation, the environment and multistate metropolitan regions, according to Jim Youngquist, project director and faculty member with the Vinson Institute’s Community and Regional Development Division. “The sessions are designed in a forum setting to allow for the maximum amount of panel and attendee dialogue,” Youngquist says. “The emphasis of this conference is truly on participant discussion.”
Guest speakers include David Crockett, president of the Chattanooga Institute, and George Israel, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and former mayor of Macon. Panel discussions will involve numerous government officials and administrators, business representatives, and community leaders from the target MSAs.
“Most attention to the subjects of growth and economic vibrancy in Georgia seems to often focus on Atlanta or rural Georgia, but the seven medium MSAs are also important economic engines to not only themselves, but to the rural areas that surround them,” Youngquist says. “The Urban Georgia Initiative in general and the Urban Congress in particular are important because at present there is no place where the public and private leadership of these areas can come together to address issues, challenges and opportunities, and in cooperation with local government associations, develop policy and legislation.”
The Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Municipal Association are serving as co-conveners for the summit. The next summit is in the fall of 2005.

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