Young Gamechangers Present Strategies For Dalton's Future
Friday, September 30th, 2022
Marked by creativity and enthusiasm, the future of Dalton came a little more into focus on Thursday. After five months of work, the Young Gamechangers presented their final report on Dalton and Whitfield County at the Dalton Convention Center. The presentation included numerous ideas for both government-led and private sector-led initiatives to address the community’s challenges.
Update (10/1/22) - Click here to download the full 160 page final report on Dalton
“It was so refreshing to see so many bold ideas presented,” said Andrew Parker, Dalton’s city administrator. “[They presented] creative solutions to some of the challenge questions that the host committee identified. I really hope that as a community we can get behind this, all of the agencies, not just government but the private sector, the education community, and really try to implement some of the creative solutions to some of these issues.”
“Some of [these ideas] we’ve seen before, but they’ve come up with several new ideas too which are worthy of us really studying,” said Dalton mayor David Pennington.
Caption: The 2022 Young Gamechangers pose at a wrapup dinner in their honor following the final presentation Thursday
Young Gamechangers is a program sponsored by Georgia Forward and the Georgia Municipal Association to bring together young leaders from across the state to study the challenges faced by one community each year and propose solutions. This year, the program’s focus was the greater Dalton area. This year’s group was comprised of 45 young professionals from across Georgia, with a third of the group from Dalton, a third from metro Atlanta, and the final third from the rest of the state.
The participants were divided into four smaller focus groups to study the four challenge questions selected by the Dalton host committee:
- Redevelopment - The City of Dalton is devoting considerable resources to create a more vibrant community that attracts people (and/or especially families) to live, work, and play here. How can Dalton/Whitfield County improve its ability to support neighborhood-based redevelopment in blighted or distressed areas?
- Community Engagement - A significant percentage of our residents do not feel empowered or feel that their voices are being heard. The City of Dalton is a very diverse community where 50.8% of the population is Hispanic or Latino. Unfortunately, the majority of our Hispanic residents don't feel welcomed or included in the community. This reluctance is evident across all cultures, occupations, and socioeconomic levels. How can we engage all sectors of the community to bring everyone to the table?
- Education - In 2019, 70% of Dalton-Whitfield County's K-12 students were considered economically disadvantaged. How can the community better support this student population to improve education outcomes and give them the tools they need to succeed?
- Destination Dalton - How do we leverage the uniqueness of our mult-cultural community, convenient location along I-75, outdoor recreational amenities, and natural beauty of the Northwest Georgia mountains to market Dalton as a destination for visitors, new residents, and businesses?
The redevelopment group focused their study on north Dalton and the neighborhoods surrounding the old Crown Mill. Their work focused on three “big idea” strategies including the greenway project connecting downtown with Haig Mill Lake Park. That project, which is already being developed by the City of Dalton, was nicknamed “the Mill Line” by the Gamechangers and is a centerpiece of their strategy. Led by one of the managers of Atlanta’s Beltline project, the group suggested a number of features for the greenway including call boxes and security features, wayfinding signs and “place making” art installations to create destinations along the path. The Gamechangers also suggested a bicycle sharing program similar to the bike rental kiosks in Chattanooga and other cities.
Other “big ideas” for redevelopment included city-led strategies like the creation of an Urban Redevelopment Agency and implementation of a state opportunity zone or a Crown Mill Historic District with zoning and architectural requirements to preserve the area’s character. The old Crown Mill General Store was recently donated to the City and the Gamechangers latched on to the idea of rehabilitating the building and attracting a business like Clumpies Ice Cream to set up shop there. The group also suggested the creation of a Tax Allocation District for North Dalton that would help fund initiatives there. Community-led efforts such as engaging local nonprofits like the Dalton-Whitfield Community Development Corporation in the area were also part of the plan. The group also suggested several sites in north Dalton that could be targeted by developers for the creation of new mixed-use developments to spur growth.
Caption: Dalton mayor David Pennington welcomes the Young Gamechangers before their presentation Thursday afternoon at the Dalton Convention Center
The group working on community involvement called their project “Dalton United/Dalton Unidos.” They suggested a number of action steps to generate better community engagement and community pride in the minority groups that call Dalton home. One of the big ideas proposed the creation of a position in the city government for a director of community cultural engagement. This official would lead engagement initiatives similar to those enacted in other communities like Decatur, Georgia, which has a development plan called “Better Together.” They also proposed a 12-month program led by Believe Greater Dalton called “In DUE (Diversity Unity and Equity) Time.” This program would bring together local leaders with artists to spur social change. They also suggested an educational program with a steering community of local Hispanic and Latino leaders focused on civic engagement and community involvement.
The group studying education in the Dalton community pointed out statistics that show students who are not reading at grade level by the 4th grade have only a 22% chance of catching up with their peers by high school graduation. The group proposed the creation of a director of workforce development within the Chamber of Commerce to focus on bringing the business community and education community closer together. The group also proposed the creation of Neighborhood Opportunity Centers (NOCs) near every elementary school campus in the city and county school systems. There are two already in operation in Dalton as part of the Dalton Neighborhood Initiative near Roan Street School and Park Creek Elementary. These centers can offer programming like tutoring, college preparation workshops, and parenting seminars. The group also studied expanding public transportation options in Dalton to give students greater access to the community resources that would help them succeed.
The Destination Dalton group suggested strategies for better telling the story of the Dalton community to residents and visitors alike, suggesting that the various public and private agencies work together more to coordinate how they market the community. The group had rave reviews for the development of downtown Dalton and suggested more ways to build on that success to make it a tourist destination. One suggestion included the creation of a “taco trail” similar to Kentucky’s bourbon trail. The trail would feature an app with a tour of Dalton’s great Mexican food offerings in downtown, Block 79, and beyond for visitors interested in sampling the local cuisine. The group also suggested building a new parking deck next to Burr Park with a pedestrian bridge across the train tracks, ground-level restaurant and retail space and an observation deck on top. That proposal included a slick 3D animation video showing what the structure might look like.
The Young Gamechangers’ 160-plus page report will be available online on Monday, October 3rd. (Update: It is now available and can be downloaded at the bottom of this page) The proposals outlined there are guideposts and suggestions that local leaders can choose to try to implement. While not every proposed idea will become reality, they have the attention of local leaders.
“Hopefully we can use their report as what I call a permission slip to do some of this work,” Parker said. “Obviously it’s going to take some effort to continue planning, some resource allocation, but if we accomplish even 30 to 50 percent of what they’ve proposed then I think it would be a big win for the community.”
Click "Play" below to watch the Young Gamechangers' final presentation!
