United we have grown, united we'll grow

(Chuck Roberts, a commercial real estate broker, is chairman of the DeSoto County Convention & Visitors Bureau. )

At 38 years of age and having reached what many consider to be the midpoint in one's life, it is only natural to glance back in time to reflect not only on where you came from with an eye of nostalgia, but also to see how your past has influenced where you are now and where you intend to go in the future.

During the first 19 years of my life, I lived in Memphis; the past 19 years I have lived in Southaven. I was born at Baptist Medical Center; and, yes, I was saddened, as were many others, when the building was recently imploded for new development.

My mother went through nursing school there and my wife teaches at the Baptist College of Health Sciences. Although saddened by the news of the loss of part of my own history, I am excited about the promise of a new future and the biomedical research that is to be done at that site.

I grew up in Whitehaven and saw that community grow and change as I did. Holy Cross for kindergarten, Whitehaven Methodist Day School for elementary school and Memphis Prep for high school . . . three thriving schools in the 1970s and '80s that were known for educating many area children.

Three schools no longer open today.

Then my family decided they wanted more land than a subdivision had to offer. So my dad found this overgrown piece of property on a two-lane, sparsely traveled gravel road called Church Road and we became residents of Mississippi.

I still drove into Memphis to attend Christian Brothers University, to work, to go to church and to attend Tiger basketball games -- my four priorities, not necessarily listed in order.

No doubt, times continued to change.

My church on Airways closed, merged with another Whitehaven church and opened as Trinity Baptist Church in Southaven. The Southaven area to which we had moved began an incredible pace of growth that continues today.

Resident after resident moved into some part of DeSoto County, and suddenly many of the issues that Memphis had dealt with as I was growing up were now being faced in DeSoto County.

For me, it was somewhat like listening to the same song but a different verse.

DeSoto County needed to build new schools, roads and other infrastructure to handle the influx of people, just as Memphis once struggled with the same issues when I was younger.

In fact, the superintendent of schools in Memphis was my neighbor, and I remember seeing him in the news talking about the need for new schools in Memphis to handle a shifting and growing population.

Then as I grew older, that same man became mayor of Memphis, and Willie Herenton's desires for Memphis matched what would be the desires of DeSoto County years later: better schools, better roads and better infrastructure for the people.

Over these many years, phenomenal growth has happened in this metro area. The growth has provided many new amenities that have improved our communities and the quality of life for the citizens of these communities.

There have been numerous changes in smaller communities, such as those that happened in the Whitehaven area. Some areas decline over time, some have remained stable, and yet others have continued to grow and prosper.

DeSoto County has been the primary recipient of much of the growth in the area. For the first time ever, DeSoto County and more specifically the City of Southaven added more new square footage of distribution space than all of Shelby County.

New schools continue to be built, with seven under construction at present.

Residents continue to move into the area to take advantage of the high quality of life that has been created in each of its cities.

While all of this provides much excitement in the area, we must remember that the success of the greater metro area is due to the cumulative success of all communities in the region, not just one. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

The City of Memphis is the ultimate engine that drives the car.

If it were not for the Memphis International Airport, FedEx hub and other infrastructure that make this area so viable as a distribution hub, most likely none of the surrounding counties would be experiencing the influx of new residents and businesses that has been occurring over the past decade.

Memphis and DeSoto County will always be diverse and different communities, yet the two can remain communities that complement one another and work well together for the benefit of the entire region.

A regional vision by the leaders of both communities will provide lasting and measurable benefits to everyone.

By: Chuck Roberts
Special Section to Viewpoint
February 5, 2006