Like Rome, Selma can become great

Published 10:16pm Tuesday, May 22, 2012

I have been to Rome, Italy before, but these past two weeks, I made frantic effort to ascertain why thousands of people enthusiastically visit the historical city from all over the world. I asked lots of questions, participated in some events and in the process, I discovered that Selma has some similarities with Rome or potentials that could be maximized for greatness.

The similarities include richnesses in history, spirituality and hospitality, and also sumptuousness in fashion. These factors draw massive numbers of people yearly from May to August, who go there to spend money as tourists. Accordingly, we shopped and visited restaurants, a fashion manufacturing industry and historical sites. Remarkably, when my wife and I went to tour the prison where Apostle Peter and Paul were imprisoned, we were blessed to go in with a group from Alabama.

I observed that when tourism is paid the deserved attention, it fetches large amounts of money through goods and services associated with tourism. Services such as transportation services, hospitality services, entertainment services, shopping, etc. Sales tax climbs too.

What else could help the expansion of a place more than having a strong spiritual foundation? A church teaches responsibilities toward God, one another and authorities, and how to practically turn away from wicked ways. If these large numbers of churches in Selma keep teaching these effectively and the evidences continue to be obvious, there is no doubt that heaven will keep responding and Selma will continue to expand accordingly.

Many people here are also gracious, particularly when politics takes backstage. I honestly do not believe that politics should affect God’s commandment relative to love and how people treat one another. When love and friendliness are not in existence, peace diminishes. When peace shrinks, tourism and all that it draws becomes hugely affected.

Also evident is the fact that people here are fashionable people. I see the interest and the looks of some people here and I’m sometimes flabbergasted that such looks are from small town people. The truth is that whether people visit Rome or Selma, they shop for fashions.

In view of all these, one can easily conclude that Selma can be greater. Many times people see less fortune from what God blessed them with. I’m confident that mightier are what we have than some distractions that are repugnant to growth and stability; and I’m persuaded that God is capable of helping us in the right direction.

There is something special about an entity that knows about Fred Fielder’s contingency approach to management which stipulates that the efficient management of resources should be based on situation at hand and available resources; it should not be based on speculations, manipulations, assumptions and politics. It is not about how much resources or talents; it is about the optimum utilization of available resources.

Email Comments

D-man

The riverwalk is the best “physical attraction”. If built right and somehow keep rose out of the planning, but instead find some planners who focus on making it a success, then tourism could build this city to greatness.

Use montgomery as an example. Ask questions, what works, what doesn’t work… visit the riverwalk in San Antonio… there are riverwalks in Suffolk and Norfolk… There are riverwalks in thriving communities everywhere and the businesses along those riverwalks need careful planning as well…

The amplitheator with the bridge as the backdrop has tremendous potential to create revenue through ticket sales, vendor sales and concessions… But without a proactive and intelligent planning committee researching and scheduling events it will simply not reach its potential.

popdukes12

D-man—A couple of things—I’ve heard that Grumbles is on the market for $350K if you really think The Riverwalk is going to be a success in the short term, let’s go ahead and buy it. Secondly, the Ampitheater had gone from a cost of $640K to $3million over the past three years. Fortunately, Councilwoman Keith had the council lock-in a maximum expenditure on the project of $640K. What the city will receive for this amount of expeniture remains to be seen. As far as the development of a downtown tourist meca, the current economy is not supporting many of these as originally envisioned. See Crocket st. project in Beaumont Tx. pops

D-man

I see your point popdukes, but my idea of success is based solely on rose being completely out of the picture and not just her, other “negative” people…

The trick is to have an actual “working committee” of active and progressive (not to mention intelligent) people who love the city and want to see it prosper.

This committee needs to be well thought out and working now.

If I knew for certain the proper research had been done and certain people were not involved, then I would jump on the idea … if I had any money…

I don’t think major grumbles closed because of location.. I think it may have been other factors… but there have been many to move out of selma…

I base my thoughts on several things.. one thought that contributes is the success in downtown montgomery and the other is how many people complained about the 1.3 million or so that was spent on the softball complex and how in just a few years the concessions and admissions had it almost paid off… however, it isn’t doing as good as it once was, but it is still in profit from what i understand..

There’s a lot of money in concessions… but not without getting events to come out… and calling vendors for events… once they find out and come once, you just build on that.. I would think…