"At the southernmost length of the Blue Ridge, part of the Appalachian Mountains, sits the town of Anniston, Alabama. Named “The Model City” by Atlanta newspaperman, Henry W. Grady for its careful planning in the late 19th century..."
Due to a change in jobs I moved my family to the Anniston area in 2002 and up until 2010 we actually lived within it's corporate city limits, although it was on the very most outskirts. However it wasn't until 2008 when I started paying closer attention to what was happening with what then seemed to be more like a "dysfunctional" city council to me. I'm sure the citizens of Anniston recall these days, perhaps even further back than I personally do. For those outside of this area, all you have to do is a quick internet search with the terms such as Councilman Ben Little and Mayor Gene Robinson or Anniston City Council, among others for starters to learn more. Somewhere along the way someone has broken "The Model City", but maybe one day someone somewhere will ensure that the city of Anniston will still have a viable future!
But before we get too far involved in the future of Anniston let us take a look at it's past. It was founded in 1872 and incorporated as a company town, built by the Woodstock Iron Company, in 1879 . It was not opened for general settlement until 1883.
While I have only read excerpts of the book "The Model City of the New South: Anniston, Alabama, 1872-1900" an editorial review on the back cover reads "Anniston's early years constitute a fascinating story - of the collaborative efforts of an Englishman and a Connecticut Yankee to develop the iron resources of northeast Alabama at a time when the area was struggling to recover from the devastating effects of the Civil War. The result was a robust, successful new town that benefited from their profit-minded business acumen and from their paternalistic but utopian mind-set. With town-building and boosting efforts, Anniston soon became known to contemporaries as "the model city of the New South." The town's economic survival through booms and busts is a study in marketing and diversification, of reliance on old liaisons in hard times. Originally published in 1978, the book explores Anniston's first quarter century and yields rich material because it cuts across several historical fields, including urban, economic, quantitative, social, and political history, as well as labor and race relations."
Now here we are in the 21st century, some 146 years after the city of Anniston was founded, or 135 years after it opened for general settlement, and many of those same issues still plague this city and it's people. And it seems that some, but not all, of these current issues can be squarely laid upon the shoulders of those that the citizens have elected to continue to attempt to lead Annsiton into the future.
Today I'm sure the citizens of Anniston that are truly concerned for that future are seeing exactly what is going on. And again for those outside of this area, all you have to do is a quick internet search with the terms such as Councilman Ben Little and Councilman David Reddick or Anniston City Council, among others for starters to learn more. Somewhere along the way someone has broken "The Model City", but maybe one day someone somewhere will ensure that the city of Anniston will still have a viable future!
It was sometime after 2008 when I started commenting or posting on The Anniston Star's Facebook page and had even written a letter or two to the "Speak Out" Section of the newspaper, some of which were actually printed, about what was happening with what then seemed to me as more of a "dysfunctional" Anniston City Council. There was a day during this time-frame in which I was a guest at the local radio station WDNG to be interviewed on-air, as then the Public Information Officer for a local amateur radio club, about the use of and help the many volunteers in the amateur radio community can bring to the public in times of a disaster, such as a tornado. It was on this day as I was waiting in the studios that in walked Anniston City Councilmen Ben Little. It was the first time I had seen him in person but I quickly thought that if he knew who I was and about those few postings and letters to the Anniston Star would he have become violent and possibly verbally or physically attack me. I mean after-all there have been other incidents reported in the past and even more recently of when he and other members of the Anniston City Council including a Mayor that have become very confrontational in public places.
As I still live in the area, but now outside the corporate city limits of Anniston, I do on occasion still conduct some personal business and shop there. Some around here may feel that I do not have a voice or that I should "speak out" in regards to the happenings of the continued "dysfunctional" Anniston City Council of today. But I will say this without reservation, that if one or more of these elected officials in the city of Anniston appear to be not willing to even attempt to take steps that will provide for Anniston's success, then the citizens and other members of the Council must take appropriate actions. Somewhere along the way someone has broken "The Model City", but maybe one day someone somewhere will ensure that the city of Anniston will still have a viable future!
The Preface to the paper-bound edition of "The Model City of the New South: Anniston, Alabama, 1872-1900" may also be worth noting. It starts with, "Almost two decades have passed since the research for the book began. It was, in a way, an attempt to continue what Henry Grady began, to tell the world about Anniston, a remarkable iron-producing, textile-manufacturing, industrial town born in the difficult Reconstruction days and which came to be known as the "Model City."
Further on that preface reads, "Anniston continues to be the real story of the ideal New South in microcosm. It was the paradigm, the best, not the only, example." I will conclude by adding where it later reads, "Anniston still bears the stamp of careful planning of its founders. Their promotional methods and town-boosting efforts remain for a present generation still seeking to attract jobs and capital to the South. Samuel Noble outlined his accomplishments in the 1886 banquet speech, recorded in Anniston, The Model City of the New South, published in 1887 by the Anniston Bureau of Information. Noble looked to the future as he eloquently spoke about increasing wealth and purchasing power for all people, so that they might "command what every man from youth dreams and struggles to acquire, the greatest amount of the necessities, the comfort and the luxuries of life."
Anniston continues to be a "real story" that has reached the world. Although it may not be the one that it's founders had originally envisioned. Perhaps the current and future leaders of Anniston, as in the City Council and Mayor, need to plan more carefully their promotional methods that will attract jobs and capital which will boost this town for generations to come that are seeking to acquire the greatest amount of the necessities, comforts and luxuries of life. Somewhere along the way someone has broken "The Model City", but maybe one day someone somewhere will ensure that the city of Anniston will still have a viable future!
