Need for Regional Approach on Gulf Coast

Regionalism was one of the sixteen focus areas of the Charrette. Each of the eleven towns had a specific team and other general topics were architecture; coding; transportation and environmental.

George Schlogel, President and CEO of Hancock Bank, a locally headquartered $5 billion bank with 105 branches in four states, told me, “With our individual towns it is tough for us to think beyond our picket fences. This event has really brought people together, working toward a common goal.”

His love for the Gulf Coast was quickly evident in my talk with him. He was born and raised here and summed up his feelings about it, “It is a fine place to make a living, but a wonderful place to make a life.”

George talked about how infrastructure and access to capital are some of the first priorities that need to be worked on in the region. “We had been looking at regional issues prior to the storm, but Katrina has brought our need for more regionalism into focus. We’ve got to take this regional approach if we are to remain connected. We have to remember that the roads don’t stop at our town boundaries.”

He clicked off a number of areas of commonality between communities that could be regionalized, “We duplicate a lot of services in each town. Some that could be regionalized are the fire department, wastewater, water service. Police is probably too controversial.”

Leland Speed, head of the Mississippi Development Authority, talked about regional approaches to economic development with me, “The Stennis International Airport Business & Technology Park is a wonderful example of our approach to regional economic development. Stennis has 37 entities that are involved in its success. Moss Point is looking at doing something very similar on the east end of the Gulf Coast in a joint project with Grumman.”

I saw an incredible amount of sharing and commonality of interests at the Charrette. If that spirit continues on the Gulf Coast, you are going to see what can happen when a region looks at itself as a whole rather than in pieces.