Op-Ed Columns

Drive along Quintard Avenue, and see Anniston's commercial and retail progress.

The expanded office of BB&T.

The recently-opened Southern States Bank, a figurative temple up on the hill.

The Noble Bank and Trust, festooned with columns and elegant style.

The not-so-new Walgreens on the prominent 8th Street corner.

The not-yet-opened Little Caesars, a small player, but worth noting nonetheless.

Nearby, the block-sized medical office building just east of Quintard, so fresh it still has that new-car smell, and the Wachovia Securities building going up only a couple of blocks to the west.

And, though it's not downtown, the soon-to-be-completed Walgreens in Golden Springs.

Now, drive along Quintard Avenue, and see Anniston's commercial and retail blight.

The vacant Food World north of Oxford.

The former home of Regions Bank.

The vacant Food Max alongside Centennial Memorial Park.

The vacant building that housed Kitchins, one of Anniston's best-known local department stores.

The row of vacant storefronts at 8th and Quintard; Quiznos: gone; a car-parts place: gone.

And the sheer abundance of shuttered fast-food joints: Hardee's next door to The Victoria, Back Yard Burgers, Captain D's, and Pizza Inn just north of 18th Street, Wendy's and Hardee's (yes, another one) in Lenlock.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

Is any of this Anniston's fault? Or is Anniston doing OK — if not better than that — for a small, Southern city whose list of trepidations is as long as an Alabama summer?

"It's a real concern (for the city)," said Toby Bennington, Anniston's city planner. "It comes up quite a bit." And it came up this week when I phoned Bennington to discuss this very issue: Is Anniston's retail and commercial basket full of success stories, or is it overburdened with struggles and failures? Or, in fairness, is it somewhere between the two?

As I expected, there is no sweat-free answer.

If you're like me, when you drive around Anniston, you often see the same things. It's human nature. If you're convinced that the retail core is pocked with failures, then all you see are empty parking lots and shuttered buildings. If you're encouraged by the recent successes, then your eyes are drawn to the swanky and new.

Like much in life, it boils down to discernment. Bennington — perhaps one of the more progressive thinkers in the city's employ — refused to argue with me over that point.

"I think you're right about perception," he said. "And I think the larger perception is that it does get overstated or overblown. (But) perception is a difficult thing to battle."

So Anniston shouldn't.

Instead, Anniston must plan — and that's not comforting, considering the state (or dysfunction) of Anniston government these days.

The city doesn't own these vacant properties; some have local ownership; others are owned by out-of-towners, such as the Food World property on south Quintard. It's not as easy as yelling at the city to do something — sell or lease or anything constructive — with these properties. Plus, recruiting new development, or redevelopment, must be couched in the sobering reality of the fast-souring economy. For now, there's more bust than boom.

Point fingers at Anniston and its past leadership — leadership that predates Chip Howell's eight years in City Hall — all you want for not being more proactive in recruiting retail and commercial development and retaining that which it had. Such criticism is warranted. It's easy, too, to find harsh critics of the city's planning commission.

For years Annistonians with foresight have known that the Army might one day leave, that Oxford's growth would be a magnet for those seeking more profitable pastures, that Anniston would have to toil harder not only to retain the status quo, but to thwart stagnation.

Well, we know what happened.

Bennington proposed one sane idea: the creation of a Commercial Development Authority that would act as the "eyes and ears" for the city's business interests and outline policies and concerns that the city would address. Working within a board structure but having no power to zone, the authority would be independent of county government, and would seek out businesses willing to consider Anniston and offer them information.

Anniston does not have such an authority, Bennington said, but Gadsden, where he used to work, does. "The early bird," Anniston's city planner said somewhat rhetorically, "gets the worm."

Here's what Anniston's new leaders — if they can congregate without arguing over McClellan lawsuits — should do the day after they're sworn in: Develop a plan of five goals for increasing Anniston's retail and commercial market during the next four years. Tell residents about those goals. Steal Bennington's idea; create an authority to assist the city. And then see if those goals are viable.

Who knows? In four years, we could all see the same thing when we drive along Quintard. But we won't know if we don't try, and not trying equates to failure.