Section: NORTHLAND NEIGHBOR
Edition: LEDGER-ENQUIRER
Author: JENNIFER MORGAN
PROGRESS, PRESERVATION AND WOMEN WITH VISION: LAST IN A SERIES
PUSHING FOR PROGRESS--------
Teresa Tomlinson has positioned her desk in the middle of her office. The space is sparsely decorated, accentuating the vintage beauty of this converted home built more than 150 years ago.
Its layout, location and even the position of its front door have changed. When it was built, it sat on approximately five acres. After the deaths of its original owners, Moses Butt and his wife, Priscilla Banks Butt, their descendants sold it. The property was subdivided after the Civil War, and the house was modified as rooms were relocated, attached and reattached.
Now, it is the headquarters of MidTown Inc., 1236 Wildwood Ave., where Teresa is executive director. At the edges of her office, sunlight filtered through trees dances on the polished hardwood floor. It is a peaceful and lovely place to work.
But just as she put her desk in the middle of the house's complex history, Teresa doesn't look for solitude on the sideline; she wants to be in the middle of the complex issues that MidTown tries to address.
SMART GROWTH
MidTown defines its area as the six square miles bounded by I-185 to the east, the railroad tracks south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the south, 10th Avenue to the west, and Talbotton and Edgewood roads to the north. MidTown wants to redevelop and revitalize this geographic and demographic heart of the city through controlled commercial and residential growth.
MidTown's goals partly are about aesthetics: keep the beautiful parts of central Columbus intact and curb development that tarnishes it. MidTown's goals also are about function: create a good place to live by encouraging changes that make it not only more attractive but safer and more convenient.
MidTown began in 2002 as a nonprofit organization for business owners and residents to help determine their community's destiny. The group created a 25-year plan that includes outreach and education about MidTown's projects, making the area more pedestrian friendly with more crosswalks and trees, and developing property to support neighborhoods instead of tear them down.
Teresa said the focus is on quality of life and progress, and smart and sustainable growth. MidTown exists, she said, to prevent problems such as the development on Whittlesey Road, where traffic often is congested and little attention has been paid to sustainability or aesthetics.
COMPELLED TO ACT
Before she came to MidTown, Teresa's career in law flourished. A graduate of Emory University's School of Law, her work centered on consumer protection, complex litigation, catastrophic personal injury and class actions. The Atlanta firm where she worked --- Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison & Norwood --- also has an office in Columbus. When she wasn't traveling the country on business, Teresa often drove to the Columbus firm. Fifteen years ago, after becoming more familiar with the area, she decided to move to Columbus.
As a resident, she realized her new community has resources Atlanta had destroyed, but it was on a similar path: Urban sprawl was beginning to take hold along with Columbus' growth, and she saw the city begin trying to "catch
up" with Atlanta.
Some of this growth, she said, already had eroded midtown. When a road project in her neighborhood threatened her quality of life, Teresa was compelled to act. So she fought the road project. And she found residents welcomed a "proactive, quality-of-life project."
For three years, she served on the MidTown Project Steering Committee. She also served on the Board of Directors for Enrichment Services Inc., an organization dedicated to helping low-income residents, the Columbus Literate Community Program, the Board of Historic and Architectural Review, the Historic Columbus Foundation, Columbus Trees Inc., Columbus South Revitalization Task Force, and the Citizens Advisory Board of the Muscogee County Transportation Board.
After 16 years of practicing law, her passion for midtown, her desire to make a difference in Columbus, and her feeling that it was a "critical juncture for the movement" inspired her to leave the practice to work on the midtown project full-time. In 2006, Teresa became MidTown's interim executive director and officially was named executive director in July 2007.
PASSIONATE
MidTown board member and neighbor Frank Etheridge said Teresa shows her versatility as the administrator and manager of the office, one of two people in charge of the organization's budget, and as marketer, advocate and activist.
"She's got to be," he said. "She is qualified to make (MidTown) a success."
Before she took over, Frank said, the project was "heading downhill."
"I have never met a more energetic, passionate, relentless person than Teresa," he added.
Teresa sees a "tidal wave of positive growth" coming through projects such as the effort to revamp the corridor from Peacock Avenue to Hilton Avenue: underground utilities, brick-stamped crosswalks and more trees.
But challenges remain. When she lived in Atlanta and she witnessed many of the city's beauties become barren, making many residents wonder whether improvement would ever come. For this same reason, she said, it is hard for some Columbus citizens to appreciate the MidTown project. She often battles misinformation, fear and rumors of personal economic development, tenement housing and greedy developers.
Teresa cited "the evil-you-know" mentality as another reason why the public sometimes resists projects that are aimed at improving midtown. She must disseminate accurate information about MidTown's projects and convince residents that they shouldn't settle for mediocrity or become "gripped by fear" of change, particularly because it's as much about preservation as progress.
MidTown's projects are "perfect examples of preservation as a development tool," Teresa said. Historic resources, she noted, are economic resources; if a community builds on top of these resources, it sustains what is good and improves the dilapidated properties.
"Not all that is old is bad, and not all that is new is good," said she.
RIPPLE EFFECT
While Teresa's reasons for continuing her work are manifold, she said the reason for Columbus residents to support MidTown is simple: If we live in Columbus and pay taxes, we already have paid for schools, fire protection and police. "If there is a vacant property or boarded-up buildings, then you are not getting a return on your investment."
This applies to all of Columbus's residents, she added, not just those who live in midtown, because quickly and haphazardly developing a city does not produce long-term livability; broader economic development is more sustainable. She also noted planned development helps Columbus be more competitive. It gives newcomers more viable choices of where to live and is an incentive for new companies to move in and existing ones to stay.
The effects of these projects are far-reaching. "It's a ripple effect," Teresa said.
And her office is a microcosm of the development she supports. The useful parts of the property, those that could benefit the community, were divided up, and the house was reconfigured to fit a new century. The parts that were functional for modern life remained; those that had outlived their usefulness were not thrown away but were modified.
In the end, its beauty has endured --- the play of light through its windows, the architectural details that modern houses often lack, its sense of peace and place and sustainability.
PROJECT UPDATE
In this month's edition of MidTown's e-newsletter, MidTown board member Sam Wellborn, who also is the local representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation board, gave the following project update:
"In 2007, MidTown, Inc. made great strides in its efforts to stabilize and renew our in-town neighborhoods and business districts. Maybe its biggest accomplishment was working with the City of Columbus, private contributors, and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to obtain a $1 million Transportation Enhancement Grant for the purpose of restoring the 1920's-style Wynnton Road streetscape from roughly Peacock Avenue to Hilton Avenue.
"This grant will improve pedestrian access to a road that because of its current design actually divides us. Few would feel comfortable crossing Wynnton Road on foot. Anyone who has walked along Wynnton Road recently knows that the sidewalks are inadequate and uninviting. Watching the children who attend Wynnton Elementary cross the road each morning and afternoon would make anyone uneasy.
"With the $797,840 provided by the GDOT TE funds and $200,000 raised by MidTown, Inc. as matching funds, this structural community divide will soon be behind us."