Homewood Nation

Last Tuesday, I attended a meeting of the "Bridging the Busway" committee, the group of people who are working on a plan to redevelop the parts of Homewood and North Point Breeze nearest the Busway. The discussion veered away from the agenda, and we wound up spending a large chunk of time talking about how to market Homewood.

Saturday, I attended a meeting of a team that has been formed to identify community and neighborhood issues that can become part of a master plan for children youth and families in Homewood.

(Sorry if that sounds clunky, I was just trying to avoid saying "the Homewood Children's Village Children Youth and Families Master Plan Issue-Based Team for Neighborhood and Community")

That meeting also went off-agenda, and again, with a totally different group of people and a totally different starting point, a major portion of the resulting conversation centered on marketing.

In both cases, I was excited to be with people expressing the conviction - not in these words, but I feel safe in saying that this was the feeling - that Homewood has a good story to tell.

I've been convinced of that for years, and grow more convinced all the time.

Part of our problem is no one has the job of telling that story. In a healthy, grown-up neighborhood, the job of promoting the neighborhod typically falls on the business community, who embraces it through a chamber of commerce, or business association.

Homewood has none. Maybe it's time that we did, again.

Argh. Every time I say something like that, I feel like I'm giving myself a job.

Even before last week's discussions, I have thought about how to market Homewood. If it were my job, these are some of the things I would do:

1. Give Homewood a motto: "The best is yet to come."

2. Give Homewood a jingle: "The best is yet to come, and babe, won't it be fine." -from the jazz standard, as recorded by Nancy Wilson (I shared this idea with Kiva Fisher-Green and she beat me to the punch in locating a YouTube clip - Go Kiva!)

3. Give Homewood a symbol: The dogwood flower, an ancient symbol of resurrection

4. Give Homewood a festival: The Dogwood Blossom Festival. (Atlanta already has one, - would that make us competitors, or potential collaborators?)

Your thoughts?