Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2005 > November > 27
Sunday, November 27, 2005
It’s time for Gwinnett to build its own sense of identity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We need something, y’all.
Something big.
It has to be bigger than the arena. And it definitely must offer more appeal than the so-called “Gwinnett Village.” It has to make our two mega-malls look like guppies and attract media attention from around the globe.
Finally, it has to set us apart from Atlanta, yet be as equally enticing as the new Georgia Aquarium. It’s a hit. But how can you miss with a tank that holds more than 100,000 fish and two whales?
We need an attraction, an event — something — to ratchet up the county’s coolness and give it a sense of identity.
I wrote a piece this summer that asked readers, what, exactly, makes up Gwinnett’s identity? What signature asset (or assets) entertain the people who live here and draw tourists who stay and spend money?
I posed those questions after my family and I spent a spectacular July 4 weekend in Chattanooga, 125 miles away. We saw the Tennessee Aquarium (Is there a need to do that anymore?) and the cool places it anchored — Coolidge Park, the Bluff View Arts District and strip called Frazier Avenue that’s similar to Little Five Points. All were hip, clean and kid-friendly.
Chattanooga made me think about the image of Gwinnett, my home. The Georgia Aquarium, which opened last week to rave reviews, has done the same thing.
This is a topic with no easy answers. It’s worth weighing, though. Just what are we going to be when we grow up? And if we are already an adult county, are we happy?
Can we rest our laurels on being a bustling suburban magnet, a part of greater Atlanta and all it offers — the zoo, professional sports teams, Stone Mountain Park, Six Flags and now the Georgia Aquarium?
There’s nothing wrong with being a bedroom community or patronizing the attractions in the metropolis. Be honest, though. Gwinnettians visit them by default. We have nothing to compare to them, or to pound our chests about.
We just make do.
If Gwinnett is your home, and if this is as good as it gets, I doubt you’re satisfied. If you’re like me and care about where you live, you want something else, and not necessarily more of what we’ve already got.
And whatever that definitive place, event or attraction may be, you want it close to your backyard and within the county you call home.
The last time I broached this subject, lots of readers wrote to either defend what exists (county parks) or to lament what’s missing (a natural attraction).
The comments of Glenn Stevens, a Lilburn resident, ran as a letter in AJC Gwinnett News. They are worth repeating.
“I have traveled to other cities, states and countries and I am appalled that we pride ourselves as having the best quality of life, but there is nowhere for my teenagers to go safely,” he wrote.
“Now that we have a new commission chairman who was voted in to get rid of Wayne Hill, maybe he can create a legacy by making Gwinnett a place where families want to live and be entertained. ? Without a vision, the people perish.”
That new chairman would be Charles Bannister.
Are you ready to create a legacy, Mr. Bannister?
