Charles Oliver
charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com
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Just a few years ago, downtown Dalton seemed to be developing the sort of clubs, bars and other businesses that attract young people.
“We had Planet of the Grapes, and the Blues Train Cafe had opened, the recession hit and some of those business owners ran into problems and they closed,” said Dalton City Council member Gary Crews, who is also a board member of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority (DDDA).
The closing of those nightspots hurt more than downtown Dalton.
At a recent meeting of young professionals, Archway Partnership Professional Melissa Lu said that area companies indicate the lack of activities for young adults makes it difficult for the companies to recruit young professionals to Dalton. Archway is a University of Georgia program that brings university professionals into the community to help with long-term planning.
That group, the Young Professionals of Northwest Georgia, has formed to help provide more for young professionals to do. Members plan to hold mixers and networking opportunities as well as to be a voice for young professionals in the area.
“We can be visible so that when people come to town to check out Dalton if they are considering living here, they see something going on and see people around and see something they might want to be part of,” said Erin Malone, one about a dozen people who attended the Young Professionals organizational meeting last week.
Malone moved to Dalton four months ago from Tallahassee, Fla., where she was a member of a similar group, the Tallahassee Network of Young Professionals.
“We made a distinct effort to provide almost a welcome wagon service for organizations that were recruiting. If they were bringing somebody to town, we would show them around and take them to dinner, tell them some of the fun things to do,” she said.
An October appearance here by Rebecca Ryan, author of “Live First, Work Second,” drove home the importance of having fun places to go and things to do for young professionals. After the meeting, Ryan polled young professionals in the Dalton area about what mattered most to them in terms of an area’s quality of life.
The top answer given — by more than 50 percent — was “authentic local places to have dinner, meet for coffee, hear live music, visit galleries, attend theater or just hang out.”
The survey found that, after a more active night life in Dalton, the next most important things to Dalton’s young professionals are “a stable economy with good jobs, a broad choice of places to work and an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurs” and “walkable neighborhoods/downtown, bike lanes, public transit.” But those two answers were given by just 15.38 percent of those taking the survey.
No one who took the survey said cost of living or “a vibrant community where people are healthy” was the most important thing to them.
“I don’t know if that was very surprising,” said Alex Stall, economic development senior project manager for the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, who was one of the people attending the Young Professionals meeting. “At the meeting, people kept talking about how they wanted more places for performing arts or places to have dinner with family or with friends. They said they currently travel to Atlanta or Chattanooga for those things but would like to have them closer to home.”
Ryan advised local leaders not to simply try to recreate the offerings in Atlanta or Chattanooga. That’s a competition the city can’t win. She advised them to find the area’s own niche and create unique things to do locally.
Crews said local leaders recognize the need to attract young professionals. They are, he said, the people who help large companies grow and who form new companies. And Crews, who is the City Council’s liaison to the DDDA, notes that the council during the past four years has taken a number of steps to help foster a more lively social scene in Dalton, from cutting fees for pouring licenses in half to changing alcoholic beverage laws to help foster festivals downtown.
T.J. Kaikobad, owner of the Dalton Depot restaurant and a member of the DDDA, said those changes have begun to pay off.
“We had a late start. We have played catch-up very quickly. But it takes a while for people to recognize and think differently. It takes a while for people to realize there are things to do,” Kaikobad said. “There’s the Dalton Little Theatre, the Creative Arts Guild’s shows, the freight depot has events. We’ve seen a couple of new places open up. We keep our entertainment format. But it’s going to take a little time for that to sink in.”
David Cook, one of the people who attended the Young Professionals meeting, said that group can help make people aware of everything that is going on around town.
“Dalton isn’t a ghost town. We can showcase the things that are going on around this area,” he said.
But Kasey Carpenter, owner of the Oakwood Cafe and also a DDDA board member, said there is only so much that government can do to create a vibrant social scene.
“The problem is finding people who want to work that hard. Starting a nightclub is a difficult business. It’s a huge investment with a lot of risk, and the hours are long. Most people don’t want to come home at 4 in the morning,” Carpenter said. “That’s why the people who start them tend to be young themselves.”
