I took a long walk through the beautiful, deserted streets of the Historic District on Wednesday evening.
I left my house in Thomas Square just a little after 6:30 p.m., and the roads were already as quiet as they would typically be after midnight.
There were a few signs of normalcy.
A group of guys was practicing soccer in Forsyth Park in the ambient light from the vacant tennis courts. A couple of little kids were having a grand time skipping along the sidewalk on Gordon Street.
And there were the occasional dog walkers, plastic gloves at the ready.
Almost no cars were traveling on Bull Street, but, ironically, I twice had to walk around vehicles that stopped in crosswalks as their drivers tried to park. There were few traces of the winter storm that had pretty much shut down the city — a coating of ice on the weathered wood benches in the squares, an even thinner coating on trees and shrubs.
Some of the larger crape myrtles were especially beautiful, the north sides of the smooth trunks glistening in the lamplight.
I almost stopped at The Public Kitchen & Bar for dinner, but the barstools were all taken. There seemed to be brisk business at some other spots too, like the Six Pence Pub, but a number of other establishments were closed until Thursday.
Most of the restaurants on Broughton Street seemed to be open, but business was slow. Of course, business is often slow on chilly Wednesday nights downtown.
On my way back through a nearly deserted Forsyth Park, I was walking perhaps a little too close behind a woman headed south on her own. She glanced back at least once, as we do in dark public spaces when we know we’re not alone.
So I decided to let her get farther ahead. I stopped and played the public xylophone for a few minutes, which resonated more than I expected when rapped by glove-clad knuckles.
I eventually wound up grabbing a bite at Betty Bombers All-American Eatery inside the American Legion Post #135.
Given the fine condition of the downtown streets, it was easy to chuckle at Savannah’s apparent over-preparedness for last week’s storm.
Of course, some local business owners certainly weren’t chuckling. A couple of days of lost revenue can be tough, especially during a time of year when sales are traditionally sluggish.
So did we really need to shut down the entire city for two days? Given the treacherous conditions on bridges, the occasional hazards on other thoroughfares and the threat of much worse icing conditions, the widespread closings seemed prudent at the time.
Even late on Wednesday night, a friend reported dangerous slick spots on the Thunderbolt Bridge on U.S. 80, and the Islands Expressway drawbridge did not reopen until Thursday.
Also, many Savannah workers and college students travel from outlying counties. There was no reason to lure those folks onto hazardous roads unnecessarily. And it almost always seems better to err on the side of caution if severe weather looms.
Leaders in the Atlanta metro area did not err on the side of caution. As a consequence, thousands of residents faced frightening road conditions, and Atlanta got some terrible attention in the national press.
By contrast, as the traffic crisis in Atlanta developed on Tuesday, Savannah looked quiet and inviting as The Weather Channel’s correspondent waited futilely for some action, with the Forsyth Park fountain as beautiful as ever behind her.
Local labor force continues shrinking
Tuesday’s City Talk detailed some of the dreary employment data for the Savannah metro area.
After that column was published, the Georgia Department of Labor released more numbers that looked good in the headline but pretty lousy in the details.
The Savannah metro area unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in December, down pretty sharply from 8.1 percent in December 2012.
But the decline in the local unemployment rate was a result of a steep decline over the last year in the size of the civilian labor force. According to the estimates from the household survey, 168,509 Savannah area residents said they were employed in December 2012, but that number fell to 165,250 in December 2013.
Given those numbers, one would expect the unemployment rate to increase, but the size of the civilian labor force fell even more quickly, from over 183 thousand at the end of 2012 to about 177 thousand at the end of 2013.
The labor force participation rate has been falling for over a decade across the country because of some combination of demographic shifts and weak economic conditions, but we’re seeing a much sharper decline right now than the nation as a whole.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.