A lot has changed since last year. COVID-19 impacted every community, and we certainly have felt its effects in the city of Alpharetta.
Last year was an extraordinary one for the city of Alpharetta in every sense of the word. As 2020 began, local businesses were booming. Each weekday, more than 60,000 people visited Alpharetta's office parks, hotels, restaurants, and shops. Tax revenues were strong, and all fiscal year budget projections were in great shape.
Dealing with a pandemic has been every city's top priority for the last several months. But, in the City of Alpharetta, we have not let current challenges derail our efforts to prepare for the future. And, since many of Alpharetta's most recent accomplishments may have been overshadowed by other headlines, we would like to highlight them here.
The City of Alpharetta started 2020 with every expectation of it being a banner year. Then, on a Monday in early March, the Fulton County School System discovered one of its substitute teachers had been diagnosed with COVID-19. That was the day the coronavirus changed how the year 2020 would go down in history.
Schools shut down. Headlines screamed that millions of Americans could die if drastic measures were not taken immediately. Experts said we had to “flatten the curve,” or our entire health care system would be overwhelmed.
By almost any standard, Alpharetta is a remarkable community. While there are many things that make our city exceptional, one of the biggest things that most residents aren’t aware of is the extraordinary size of our daytime population.
Approximately 64,000 residents call Alpharetta home, but on an average weekday, our city attracts tens of thousands of people who work at local businesses and/or patronize our stores and restaurants. That daily influx brings our total number of people to over 120,000, creating one of the largest daytime population increases in Georgia. This great distinction presents unique blessings and challenges.
One of those blessings is that residents can enjoy an amazing selection of restaurants, entertainment venues, and other amenities that are often only available in much larger cities. Without the abundance of daily visitors, Alpharetta could never sustain Avalon or the great shopping and dining scene downtown, the entire North Point corridor, Ameris Bank Amphitheater, or any of the other great dining and entertainment options we enjoy.
For the City of Alpharetta, 2019 was another extraordinary year. As our nation’s economy grows, the State of Georgia continues to provide an outstanding business climate, and unemployment levels remain at historic lows. Alpharetta has also grown and evolved in ways we could have only imagined just a few years ago.
Downtown Alpharetta offers an exciting place for our community to come together. An area many people once considered a ghost town in the evening has become a place filled with people, music, and laughter. Nearly every week, new restaurants and shops open, and now that the second parking deck has been completed on the west side of downtown, there is plenty of room for people who want to join in the fun.
As the mayor of Alpharetta, I am incredibly proud of the collaborative environment emerging between the north Fulton cities, as well as the strong partnerships that are developing and growing with local organizations.One year ago, leaders from the north Fulton cities of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Roswell, and local organizations including the Ed Isakson YMCA and Fulton County School District came together to discuss the growing recreational needs of families and individuals with special needs.
This meeting evolved into the creation of a task force, which was established to find solutions for special needs populations and provide an enriched quality of life for all residents. It is important for us, as a community, to offer children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities places and programs where they can have fun and feel safe and comfortable participating in adaptive recreation.
Alpharetta is a special place, and this fact has never been more obvious than over the last 12 months. Our community offers a unique blend of the perfect environment for building successful businesses along with a friendly, hospitable atmosphere to live and raise a family. Such a combination inspires people from all over the world to call Alpharetta home. As great as this city is now, the future is even brighter.The much-anticipated City Center project, approved by voters in 2011, finally opened last year. The restaurants, shops, and special events now accessible in our downtown attract countless families, neighbors, and shoppers to share in the exceptional sense of community Alpharetta has to offer. With new shops and restaurants opening all over downtown every week, more is still to come. Thankfully, the new west side parking deck on Milton Avenue will soon provide additional parking spaces for those who visit downtown every day.
to your business!