MACON, Ga. — It’s unusual to see a man of the cloth zipping down a crowded highway straddled on his motorcycle with a guitar slung over his shoulder.
“I love riding my BMW,” said Rabbi Larry Schlesinger. “I’ve been doing it for a number of years, not just the last couple of years. I bike by myself or sometimes with a group, but it’s pretty much in and around Macon-Bibb County.”
Schlesinger retired three years ago as rabbi at Macon’s Temple Beth Israel. He’s now the temple’s rabbi emeritus.
Meanwhile, he’s remained active in local politics. Before the city and county consolidated in 2014, Schlesinger served seven years on the Macon City Council. He’s served as the District 2 commissioner since the merger.
He was interviewed recently at the WMUB Studio at Mercer University by 13WMAZ and partners the Telegraph, Georgia Public Broadcasting Macon and the Center for Collaborative Journalism.
BLIGHT: Court must get tough with violators
When it comes to tackling blight, Schlesinger said two things need to be done.
“Number one is we need to really strengthen code enforcement within the county itself,” he said. “We have a code in place. But a code is not a code unless you enforce it and, frankly, part of the problem has been that our Municipal Court has been way, way, way, way, way too lenient with code violators. Again, we really need more code enforcement officers to work going through our neighborhoods, and, you know, issuing citations that really need to be taken.”
As far as renovating properties, Schlesinger said what he “would like to do is to get these properties that are not being rehabilitated into the hands of the land bank authority, and the land bank authority get the properties into the hands of people, homeowners that would put money into renovating, rehabilitating the properties. I would just like to see these properties back on the tax rolls.”
ROADS: Fix the potholes, turn on the lights
Schlesinger said potholes top the list of complaints he gets about improving road conditions, safety and traffic.
“You know, we have a responsibility to the public to make sure that they get from point A to point B safely. And if our roads themselves aren’t safe, then we need to fix them, and so, I would give them a very high priority.”
Construction on I-16 and I-75 has created traffic congestion near the downtown area. That should end when the construction is completed, but he says it’s time to look at some other problems as well.
“A traffic engineer needs to be looking at how we’re going to deal with, you know, situations, particularly Bass Road. We’ve got to give those bottlenecks top priority and stop the traffic issues, and then move on to the next. I think that’s sort of a good problem to have, because it shows growth. But that good problem needs to be solved.”
Schlesinger also said roadside lighting should be improved.
“That’s a way of fighting crime, too. So, we need to make sure that our roads, our neighborhoods are adequately lighted themselves, stretching out into what used to be the unincorporated county.”
The pedestrian safety board is doing a good job in identifying problems, he said.
“I anticipate that we are going to have a lot more people who are walking, especially in the downtown area. Downtown has now become a neighborhood. I think we’re going to have bicycle traffic as well… So, I think that modes of transportation are changing themselves, and we’ve just got to provide for the safety of the people, no matter how they get from point A to point B.”
SCHOOLS: Boost neighborhood activities
Responding to the question of what the county government could do to help the Bibb County Board of Education, Schlesinger pointed out that the school board is a separate government entity, and its members are elected by the people.
He said being supportive of the school board is the best thing the county government can do to help.
He said board members should always feel free to contact the county government if they want.
However, Schlesinger said he would like to appoint a youth development and after-school council to discuss providing activities and options “that will complement the school day that the children are in, and again, 80% of their time is spent outside of their classroom. So, we really need to make sure that they have activities after class in every neighborhood.”
COUNTY STAFFING: Boost business development
A shortage of deputies has plagued the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office for years. While Schlesinger acknowledges the law enforcement shortages, he listed the business service department as the agency that needs more staffing.
“We really need to make it easy to do business in Macon-Bibb County, because economic development is really the future,” he said, citing a conversation he once had with a business person hoping to expand in Macon. “His comment to me was that in Macon-Bibb County, he had to jump through hoop after hoop after hoop after hoop. He went to Warner Robins and boom, boom, boom it was just done."
Schlesinger said he wants Bibb County to make the situation go 'boom, boom, boom' for potential business growth and potential developers who want to bring business to the county.
“So I would say of all the departments, that’s the one that we want to pay the most attention to because our economic development, our economic future, depends on the speed at which we are able to help business owners and potential business owners develop,” Schlesinger said.
RACE: Macon is a diverse family
Improving race relations, Schlesinger said, would happen if the community came together as a family.
“I feel that we are a family," he said. “I don’t know that we recognize that we’re a family. I basically spend an awful lot of time building relationships in all of our communities. We tend to think of Macon-Bibb in terms of black and white, but we are really much more diverse than that.”
Among others, Schlesinger said, there are Indian, Korean, Latino and Islamic communities in Macon-Bibb.
“So, I think our next mayor really needs to be cognizant of the real diversity of this community and needs to have connections in all those communities," he said.