Photo credit: Jessica Walden.

On a spectacular second day of spring, over 500 of us who should have been at work—including me—sat outside in Mercer Village watching on a giant screen as the Mercer Bears defeated Duke in the NCAA tournament. What a team! What coaching! What dancing!  While everyone else thought Mercer didn’t have a chance, we knew better. We knew what vision, talent, solid planning and execution—and not caring who gets credit—can do. For, you see, five years ago the place we were sitting was two parking lots and a building that had been boarded up for almost 20 years. It’s now surrounded by restaurants, apartments and the Center for Collaborative Journalism, which houses the newsroom of our city paper The Telegraph. And on a brilliant Friday afternoon it was overflowing with excitement.

Through the partnership of Mercer University, Knight Foundation, Historic Macon, the Community Foundation of Central Georgia and so many others, we have worked together for the past seven years to create the College Hill Corridor initiative and the Knight Neighborhood Challenge. Mercer Village is just one example of the change in the built environment here, complemented by meaningful revitalization of the Beall’s Hill and College Hill neighborhoods, creation of community gardens and the ongoing renaissance of our public parks. Events such as Second Sunday concerts in Washington Park and movies in Tattnall Square Park are giving us a reason to get out and get to know one another. It’s the people of Macon who have made this a new place we can be proud to call home.

Sunday night 1,000 people turned out to watch again, this time as the Mercer Bears fell to Tennessee. That doesn’t dim our enthusiasm, however, for what’s happened here. At the end the crowd even stood up and cheered for the Bears. Coach Bob Hoffman has built an outstanding basketball team the Mercer Way. The neighborhood revitalization is succeeding the College Hill Way. All in all, it’s the Macon Way. Come see for yourself what shared vision, great planning, sound execution and enduring partnerships can do for a community.

Beverly Blake, Macon program director at Knight Foundation