This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

What is the Community Here?

It’s nice to talk about a community who shop together, go to school together and go to church together. And that’s the way some people think it was years ago (hint: it never really was that way, and many people are painfully aware of that). Today, our community shops at a dozen Publix’, Krogers, Whole Foods, Patel’s, OGM, and the Farmers Market. Our kids go to Lakeside, St Pius, Yeshiva, Druid Hills, Woodward, Marist, and probably more High Schools. Some are home schooled! And Churches are everywhere! Including religions that “old timers” didn't know existed.

We speak different primary languages, and we laugh with our neighbors, trying to figure out each other’s version of English. We come from countries in every continent. There’s nothing homogeneous about us; and nothing nostalgic about our attitudes. Our “community” is where we live. But we can make that community more than just a bunch of people if we organize for it.

The community of interest here is how we feel about our neighborhoods and how we can improve our lives by working together. There is a difference between Oak Grove and Hawthorne; between Druid Hills and Medlock; between Echo Lake and Scottdale. But we all want a better ability to control our own destinies by having a government responsive to our own needs and interests.

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And one of the most important common interests in this area is our relationship with Emory and CDC. They are the largest employment base in our area. And a significant amount of our small businesses provide services to those organizations and their employees. Just think what this area would be like if those institutions left! Our property values would collapse; our local businesses would be devastated; our population would drop.  Have you seen pictures of Detroit now that a big base of their community has moved out? Emory and CDC are a central core to our community!

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