"FORWARD TO THE PAST" - A VISION FOR HAMPTON'S FUTURE

The Vision

One of the most endearing elements of the Back to the Future film trilogy was the town of Hill Valley. Exciting stuff took place in the quaint town square with one of the buildings even playing a "starring" role (remember the courthouse with the clock tower?). A sense of nostalgia was created as the town remained relatively unchanged across historical nodes ranging from 1885 to 2015. We were entertained as we watched the favorite mode of urban transportation evolve from skateboards to futuristic hoverboards, while the backdrop of Hill Valley remained familiar and established, maintaining a sense of place; a place worth protecting and preserving. We rooted for Marty McFly as he employed the technology of time travel to move back and forth along the time line in order to thwart the evil Biff's greedy and self-serving efforts at transforming Hill Valley into a web of casinos and pleasure palaces.

Those popular movies provide us with the perfect metaphor for our vision and goals for Hampton, Georgia. "Forward to the Past" describes perfectly where we want to go. Sometimes progress means admitting that what we thought was progress was really moving in the wrong direction. Outlawing zoning that allowed for more compact, mixed-used neighborhoods and towns was a bad way to go. Disallowing a shop-keeper the right to live above her shop has deprived many of a practical and logical way to live and do business. Modern zoning and city planning has ushered in the age of the "Big Box" retail giants with scores of small towns dying in the process. Our communities have become so disconnected that children rarely walk or bike to school. The end result is urban sprawl, an unhealthy dependency on the automobile and oil consumption, alienation from our neighbors, and a loss of community. We can't say it any better than is already stated in Reconnecting America's Mission Statement. Our goal is to see Hampton embrace these proven concepts for smart growth as soon as possible.

You say you want a railvolution?

Our definition of New Urbanism is really just the old urbanism or sub-urbanism of livable villages or towns built around a railroad depot. A town built on a scale that allows its citizens to live within walking distance of the station and every other modern need or convenience that they might have. We combine the revolutions of New Urbanism and the national rail renaissance and see Hampton, which currently sits on the coming Atlanta-to-Macon Commuter Rail Line, evolve into a Transit Town of the 21st Century.

How about a velorution?

But we propose a third component that will truly make Hampton unique in metro Atlanta Transit-Oriented Towns (TOT): Weave into the fabric of the town a system of paths and trails that make the growing use of alternative transportation an easy option for the residents. Until hoverboards are available, your child could scooter to school, your spouse could bike to the bakery, and you could Segway to the Station or tool around town in a cycle car. We want to put Hampton at the crossroads of three synergistic American revolutions (New Urbanism, transit lines, and bicycle/pedestrian paths) and see a town develop that is the perfect and logical blending of these positive social movements.

HOT for TOT

This vision won't be realized without leadership. A newly formed group of Hampton citizens has formed a grass-roots political action group called H.O.T. (Hampton's Our Town). We've adopted the motto for Hampton, "The little town that CAN!". Our goal is to get wise and visionary officials elected to office that can help steer our village into a prosperous future while effectively managing the tsunami of growth soon to wash over us.

We believe we've got a setting in Hampton in which we can reverse the trend of unsustainable and undesirable growth in the metro Atlanta area and move in a new, and yet established and familiar direction.

Join us for the trip. We can't offer you transportation in a time-traveling DeLorean but with the right leadership and a lot of hard work, the city of Hampton can become a place that inspires people everywhere to return to classic elements of city planning and design that echo the quality-of-life of an earlier era and one that so many yearn for today.

And so, with anticipation and a sense of adventure, we say: "Forward to the Past".

Burke Sisco
404.421.9968
burke@burkesisco.com