Macon Magazine

36 maconmagazine.com | February/March 2026 like Macon: authentic, historic, creative, and rooted in community. But it must also be stronger, more competitive, and more intentional about growth. The difference will not come from luck. It will come from choices we are making right now. By 2035, Macon has the opportunity to be a community known for growing its own talent, welcoming new residents with purpose, aligning education to careers, and ensuring that the people who work here can afford to live here. Our future success depends on whether we build a place where opportunity is visible, accessible, and connected. We must treat people as our most valuable economic asset. That means investing in local students, creating career pathways tied directly to our industries, retaining young professionals, and intentionally recruiting new residents who see Macon as a place to build a life and not just take a job. Growth stalls when local workforce cannot live near opportunity. By 2035, success will mean we expanded housing options across price points, revitalized neighborhoods, removed barriers to homeownership, and helping employees put down roots here. Business, education, philanthropy, local government, and civic leadership must move in the same direction around shared goals. That's why here at the Macon Chamber, we just launched our Choose Macon 2030 strategy, which focuses in these areas: Talent Recruitment and Retention, Local Workforce, and Income-Aligned Housing. Choose Macon 2030 is not Stephen J. Daugherty CEO, Piedmont Macon Medical Center and Piedmont Macon North My hope that Macon retains its welcoming, small town feel while continuing its path to regaining its place as an affordable, livable community and important commerce center in Central Georgia. We will need to continue to build and improve existing infrastructure that will support growth. This infrastructure will be the ecosystem that connects different parts of the community to anchors such as healthcare, education, business centers, cultural landmarks, and green spaces. This will require enhanced corridors between these sites and neighborhoods, with expanded multi-modal forms of transportation. This work will require the continued collaboration between citizens, community leaders, business leaders, and the consolidated government across Macon-Bibb County. Jessica Walden President & CEO, Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce Macon in 2035 should feel unmistakably just a campaign. It's a commitment to shaping what Macon becomes over the next decade and beyond. If we do this right, Macon in 2035 will be a city that didn't wait to grow — it chose to do so, together. Paul Little II Pastor, Bibb Mt. Zion Baptist Church I envision a city where poverty is dismantled, equality is prioritized, youth are developed with purpose, and crime is reduced not merely by policy but by sustainable solutions. At the core of this vision is spiritual renewal. When hearts are restored, minds are renewed, and values are grounded in faith, communities are transformed from the inside out. Economic opportunity expands when dignity is affirmed by a clear vision to improve the quality of life of all people. Young people thrive when hope is cultivated by those who invest time, energy, and resources for the forward progress of the next generation. A holistically renewed Macon can become a model of wholeness, A vintage photo of the Macon Mall at its heyday. During our 40th anniversary, we thought we would revive this future- forward thinking. We reached out to a handful of new visionaries and asked them: Macon in 2035 — Will it be any different? What does the community need to do to be on a trajectory to thrive?

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