The City of Macon



Macon ( /ˈmeɪkən/) is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the largest city in central Georgia. It lies near the geographic center of Georgia, approximately 85 miles (136 km) south of Atlanta, hence the city's nickname as the Heart of Georgia. As of the 2010 Census, Macon had a population of 186,205; in terms of population, Macon is the fifth-largest city in Georgia.

The city has several institutions of higher education, as well as numerous museums and tourism sites. The area is served by the Avondale Regional Airport and the Herbert Smart Downtown Airport. The current mayor of Macon is XXX, a former XXDemocraticXX member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Ronnie Thompson, served from 1967–1975 and achieved some national recognition. He was the first of two Republicans to have been elected as mayor, the other being George Israel (1979–1987).

History
Macon lies on the site of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, where the historic Creek Indians lived in the 18th century. Their prehistoric predecessors, the Mississippian culture, built a powerful chiefdom (950–1100 AD) based on an agricultural village and constructed earthwork mounds for ceremonial, burial and religious purposes. The areas along the rivers in the Southeast had been inhabited by varying cultures of indigenous peoples for 13,000 years before Europeans arrived.

Macon developed at the site of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, built from 1806–1809 at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River to protect the new frontier and establish a trading post with Native Americans. The fort was named in honor of Benjamin Hawkins, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeast territory south of the Ohio River for more than two decades. He lived among the Creek and had a Creek wife. This was the most inland point of navigation on the river from the Low Country. President Thomas Jefferson forced the Creek to cede their lands east of the Ocmulgee River and ordered the fort built. (Archeological excavations in the 21st century found evidence of two separate fortifications.)

Fort Hawkins guarded the Lower Creek Pathway, an extensive and well-traveled American Indian network later improved by the United States as the Federal Road from Washington, DC to the ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana. A gathering point of the Creek and American cultures for trading, it was also a center of state militia and federal troops. The fort served as a major military distribution point during the War of 1812 against Great Britain and also during the Creek War of 1813. Afterward, the fort was used as a trading post for several years and was garrisoned until 1821. It was decommissioned about 1828 and later burned to the ground. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was built in 1938 and stands today on a hill in east Macon. Part of the fort site is occupied by the Fort Hawkins Grammar School. In the twenty-first century, archeological excavations have revealed more of the fort's importance, and stimulated planning for additional reconstruction of this major historical site.

As many settlers had already begun to move into the area, they renamed Fort Hawkins as “Newtown”. After the organization of Bibb County in 1822, the city was chartered as the county seat in 1823 and officially named Macon. This was in honor of the North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon, because many of the early settlers hailed from North Carolina. The city planners envisioned "a city within a park" and created a city of spacious streets and parks. They designated 250 acres (1.0 km2) for Central City Park, and passed ordinances requiring residents to plant shade trees in their front yards.

The city thrived due to its location on the Ocmulgee River, which enabled shipping to markets; cotton became the mainstay of Macon's early economy, based on the enslaved labor of Africans. Macon was in the Black Belt of Georgia, where cotton was the chief commodity crop. Cotton steamboats, stage coaches, and later, in 1843, a railroad increased marketing opportunities and contributed to the economic prosperity to Macon. In 1836, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Wesleyan College in Macon; it was the first college in the United States chartered to grant degrees to women. In 1855 a referendum was held to determine a capital city for Georgia. Macon came in last with 3,802 votes.

The Civil War Era
During the American Civil War, Macon served as the official arsenal of the Confederacy. Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, was used first as a prison for captured Union officers and enlisted men. Later it held officers only, up to 2,300 at one time. The camp was evacuated in 1864.

Macon City Hall, which served as the temporary state capitol in 1864, was converted to use as a hospital for the wounded. The Union General William Tecumseh Sherman spared Macon on his march to the sea. His troops had sacked the nearby state capital of Milledgeville, and Maconites prepared for an attack. Sherman did not bother to go through Macon.

The Macon Telegraph wrote that, of the 23 companies which the city had furnished the Confederacy, only enough men survived and were fit for duty to fill five companies by the end of the war. The human toll was very high.

The city was taken by Union forces at the end of the war during Wilson's Raid on April 20, 1865.

The Civil Rights Era and the Vietnam Conflict
The civil rights era was a remarkably calm period in Macon when compared to the rest of the nation. Charismatic leaders and progressive legislature prevented riots and disruptive strikes while patriotic Maconites unified behind their soldiers, regardless of race. By the time the Vietnam War ended in 1982, the tumultuous civil rights period had passed Macon by.

In 1992 Macon, outraged by the federal government's reaction to the second Bonus Army March, set aside land, with the assistance of the Peyton Anderson Foundation, to be used exclusively by American Veterans. Water's Stand, south of Parkway Avenue, is still exclusive to American Veterans and their dependents.

The following year the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, bringing some relief to Macon's veterans, but progress was slow. The Macon Historic Society resisted making alterations to Macon's historic downtown area and jobs that could be performed by individuals with particularly limiting physical disabilities, while providing sufficient pay and benefits to maintain a family, were few and far between.

Minorities In Macon
During the civil rights era Macon became known as a safe-haven for African Americans. As a result, African Americans from across middle Georgia flocked to Macon in hopes of a fresh start and safety during the turbulent times. Macon could not support its new residents' housing and employment needs. In 1963, YKK, a Japan based zipper producer, opened in Macon. With Macon's economy sufficiently boosted, construction companies begin bidding on residential developments in the city. Small, cheap and quick to produce, hundreds of cramped houses were slated to begin construction in Macon's Bloomfield area. In 1966 construction of what would develop into Macon's first ghetto was completed.

To secure their future, the minority community's wealthy and influential citizens pool together their resources and create The People's Credit Union. Inexpensive banking provides Macon's minorities, veterans and impoverished a chance to plan for the future.

The next thirty years saw the end of the Vietnam War, a population boom and a recession. Like everywhere else in the country, Macon faced hard times. In 1994 Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Florida dumping 24 inches (61 cm) inches of rain, which resulted in major flooding in Georgia. Macon was one of the cities to suffer the worst flooding. The flood damage left many minorities homeless. Thirteen years later a disaster destroys several neighborhoods in Macon, displacing a large portion of Macon's lower class, primarily comprised of minorities, to the Bloomfield area. Gang tension rises and the unemployment rate continues to go up.

As industry from Atlanta begins to pour into Macon, The People's Credit Union is revitalized by local Methodist and Baptist churches in 1997.

In 2008 gang violence erupts in Bloomfield. Police struggle for months to regain control of the situation. The region south of Eisenhower Parkway, east of I-475, north of I-75 and west of Water's Stand became a war zone. For the next two years the police maintain a permanent presence in the Bloomfield area until violent crimes seemed to stop completely in September of 2011. It is unclear how the eerie peace will affect The People's Credit Union's decision to shut down their Bloomfield branch in October of 2011.

Industrial Boom
In the mid 1990s Macon benefited from Atlanta's crumbling infrastructure. Shipping and production companies began to build warehouses and factories in Bibb County. By 1997 Macon had experienced a massive industrial boom prompting the quick completion of I-475 in 1997 and the beginnings of the Borderlands Industrial zone in 2001. By 2006 the Borderlands Industrial zone, a 900 acre stretch of land in southeast Bibb County, was a reality and construction of the Borderlands Residential district, Avondale, had begun. Despite a border dispute between Bibb and Houston County that took two years to resolve, Avondale was completed in 2007. Thanks to a generous offer made by The People's Credit Union in which credit union members who were employed in the Borderlands Industrial zone were offered 0% housing loans, the Avondale quickly reached 90% occupancy by 2008. Today the Borderlands Industrial zone and the Avondale community are consider one of the safest places to work and live in the United States.

Macon saw its first foreign Consulate in 2006, the Royal Danish Consulate of the Kingdom of Denmark. The first ever Honorary Consul of the Principality of Liechtenstein established in 2007.

By 2008, with the completion of the I-316 bypass and the Avondale Regional Airport, Macon was on the verge of replacing Atlanta as a Major transportation hub.

Enviromental Activism and Terrorists
Initially the Green Movement picketed local factories in protest of Macon's quickly expanding industrial life-style. Despite benefiting from numerous acts of legislature after years of lobbying and activism a number of environmentalists fall off the radar in late 2009. A year and a half of silence passes before the night erupts into flames. On March 21st bombs rip through factories and power plants across the country. Over the next several months steel mills, power plants, automotive manufacturers, hydroelectric dams and water reservoirs are targeted for destruction. The string of destructive events is attributed to a single group that is dubbed the Green Movement by the media. In late 2011, Macon witnesses the fury of the Green Movement first hand as the group simultaneously bombs General Steel and Honda, two of Macons most respected corporations.

Underfunded police departments call upon overworked federal agencies for assistance, only to find limited resources to go around. By the end of 2011 Congress would enact the Private Securities Acquisition and Maintenance Act. An act that allows American corporations to establish and maintain a private militia for security purposes on American soil.

Geography
Macon is one of Georgia's three Fall Line Cities, along with Augusta and Columbus. The Fall Line is where the hilly lands of the Piedmont plateau meet the flat terrain of the coastal plain. As such, Macon has a varied landscape of rolling hills on the north side and flat plains on the south. The fall line causes rivers in the area to decline rapidly toward sea level. In the past, Macon and other Fall Line cities had many textile mills powered by the rivers. The Ocmulgee River is the major river that runs through Macon.

Macon is located at 32°50′05″N 83°39′06″W (32.834839, -83.651672).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 57.7 square miles (149 km2), of which, 57.2 square miles (148 km2) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2) of it (0.82%) is water.

Macon is approximately 901 feet (275 m) above sea level.

Demographics
Macon is the largest principal city of the Macon-Warner Robins-Fort Valley CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Macon metropolitan area (Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs counties), the Warner Robins metropolitan area (Houston County), and the Fort Valley micropolitan area (Peach County), which had a combined population of 520,201 at the 2010 census.

As of the official 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Macon was 186,205. There were 57,666 households, and 34,149 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,227.1 people per square mile (1249.7/km2). There are 70,945 housing units at an average density of 1229.6 per square mile (476.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 62.45% African American, 35.46% White, 0.19% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.20% of the population.

There were 57,666 households out of which 57.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.0% were married couples living together, 37.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.6% were non-families. 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 23.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.94 and the average family size was 4.52.

In the city the population was spread out with 38.9% under the age of 18, 17.3% from 18 to 24, 21.5% from 25 to 44, 5.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 71.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.8 males.

Personal income
The median income for a household in the city was $28,775, and the median income for a family was $35,384. Males had a median income of $32,945 versus $22,636 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,564. About 29.6% of families and 35.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 57.7% of those under age 18 and 36.0% of those age 65 or over.

Retail
Malls include: The Shoppes at River Crossing and Macon Mall and Eisenhower Crossing.

Military
Robins Air Force Base, the largest single-site industrial complex in the state of Georgia, is just south of Macon, next to the city of Warner Robins.

The headquarters of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Georgia Army National Guard is located here.

Points of interest

 * Ocmulgee National Monument is located near downtown Macon. It preserves some of the largest ancient earthwork mounds in Georgia built by the Mississippian culture a millennium ago, c. 950-1150. It was sacred to the historic Muscogee (Creek Nation) as well. Archeological artifacts reveal 13,000 years of human habitation at the site. The park features a spiral mound, funeral mound, temple mounds, burial mounds, and a reconstructed earth lodge. It is the first Traditional Cultural Property designated by the National Park Service east of the Mississippi River.
 * Fort Benjamin Hawkins, a major military outpost (1806-1821) was a command headquarters for the US Army and Georgia militia on the frontier, as well as a trading post or factory for the Creek Nation. It was a supply depot during US campaigns of the War of 1812 and the Creek and Seminole Wars.
 * Cannonball House - Historic site
 * Luther Williams Field
 * Rose Hill Cemetery is one of Macon's oldest cemeteries.
 * Sidney Lanier Cottage - historical home of the poet Sidney Lanier
 * Temple Beth Israel - The Jewish congregation was founded in 1859, and now occupies a domed Neoclassical facility built in 1902.
 * Wesleyan College - first chartered women's college in the world.

Museums

 * The Allman Brothers Band Museum - the "Big House" used by the Allman Brothers Band in the early 1970s, now a museum of Allman Brothers history and artifacts
 * The Georgia Children's Museum - interactive education, located in the downtown Museum District
 * Georgia Music Hall of Fame
 * Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
 * Museum of Arts and Sciences (Macon) and Planetarium
 * Tubman African American Museum - the largest African American museum in Georgia.

Community

 * City Hall, Georgia's capitol for part of the Civil War
 * Douglass Theatre
 * The Grand Opera House, where the Macon Symphony Orchestra performs.
 * Hay House - also known as the "Johnston-Felton-Hay House", it has been referred to as the "Palace of the South"
 * City Auditorium, the world's largest true copper dome
 * Macon Coliseum
 * Macon Little Theatre, established in 1934, the area's oldest community theatre producing seven plays/musicals per season
 * Waddell Barnes Botanical Gardens

Hospitals

 * Central Georgia Rehabilitation Hospital
 * Coliseum Medical Centers
 * Coliseum Northside Hospital
 * Medical Center of Central Georgia

Airports

 * Macon Downtown Airport is located near downtown. It has a large number of corporate and private aviation aircraft.
 * Avondale Regional Airport, provides public air service to Macon as well as cargo flights. The airport is situated 9 miles (14 km) south of downtown near the newly constructed Avondale.

Highways
Interstates: U.S. Route: State Routes:
 * Interstate 16
 * Interstate 75
 * Interstate 316
 * Interstate 475
 * U.S. Route 23
 * U.S. Route 41
 * U.S. Route 80
 * U.S. Route 129
 * State Route 11
 * State Route 19
 * State Route 22
 * State Route 74

Mass Transit
MTA-MAC City Bus/The Macon Transit Authority (MTA) is Macon's public-transit system, operating the bus system within Bibb County. Most commuters in Macon and the surrounding suburbs use private automobiles as their primary transportation. This results in heavy traffic during rush hour and contributes to Macon's air pollution. As pollution continues to increase, environmentalists begin to lobby city hall resulting a string of legislation during 2009 including an increase in an emission tax on the renewal of registration tags. In some extreme cases the increases resulted in doubling or even tripling the cost of vehicle registration. Later that year the Macon Transit Authority expanded its service area and triples the number of active buses.

Macon Transit Authority has a tourist trolley system. The trolleys have offered tours of the downtown Macon area since 1999. The tours consist of all of the major historical sites such as the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Hay House, and the Tubman Museum. There are three trolleys holding up to 39 passengers.

Macon Transit Authority has only one stop inside the Borderlands Industrial zone. The bus stop is a secondary hub for the Avondale Transit System, a free transportation system for all Borderland employees and Avondale residents.

Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service.

Macon grew as a center of rail transport after the 1846 opening of the Macon and Western Railroad. Two of the most note-worthy train companies operating through the city were the Central of Georgia Railway and the Southern Railway. The city continued to be served by passenger trains until the 1970s. Macon is included in the proposed Georgia Rail Passenger Program to restore inter-city rail service.

Sister cities
Macon has six sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):