City Springs Rising: The New Downtown Takes Shape

Lyrics

[Intro]
There was a body, but no heart.
A map of roads, but no 'here'.
Just a current of cars on Roswell Road,
a river with no place to pool.
We were a city on paper, searching for a center.

[Verse 1]
I remember the quiet of it. November, 2014.
The rustle of blueprints, the scent of old paper and new ink.
A vote was cast. A promise made.
Eva's ghost must have been smiling in that room.
Thirty years of fighting for a name on a map...
Now, the fight for a soul.
Fourteen acres of red Georgia clay, waiting for a pulse.

[Chorus]
And the city spring is rising, from the asphalt and the dream.
A concrete heart is beating where a parking lot had been.
We drew a circle on the ground, and said "This is the place."
We're giving you a face, my love.
Giving you a name.
City Springs.

[Verse 2]
Then came the noise. February, 2016.
The groan of the earth movers, the smell of diesel and damp soil.
Steel bones reaching for a winter sky.
A skeleton of a downtown, taking shape day by day.
We watched from our cars, from the windows of the old ranches.
A new skyline, just one story high at first.
Then two. Then the curve of the Byers Theatre.

[Chorus]
And the city spring is rising, from the asphalt and the dream.
A concrete heart is beating where a parking lot had been.
We drew a circle on the ground, and said "This is the place."
We're giving you a face, my love.
Giving you a name.
City Springs.

[Bridge]
August eleventh, twenty-eighteen.
The sun was low and warm.
The first notes from a brass band echoed off the new City Hall.
Children ran on the City Green, a green it had never known.
We found a table at The Select, and watched our own reflection in the glass.
We were here.
Finally, here.

[Outro]
Now, in the morning, there's yoga on the lawn.
At night, the theater lights spill out onto the plaza.
I walk across the green... I put my hand on the cool stone.
Hello, heart.
It's good to finally meet you.