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DEL.ICIO.USIt’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?
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Comments
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By Bruce Wilcox
November 27, 2005 08:21 AM | Link to this
It will take just a few short years but the Vulcan Rock Quarry’s refuse of unusable rock or slag is getting almost as high as Stone Mountain. Why waste it, use it.
Instead of honoring Confederate Generals sitting astride their mounts, we could honor Wayne Hill and the Commissioners sitting atop bulldozers.
It’s progressive, it honors the counties uncontrolled growth and it represents what Gwinnett is most famous for.
Hey it’s worth an idea.
By Michael H. Smith
November 27, 2005 10:39 AM | Link to this
WHOA! It’s too early on a Sunday morning for this. Time for another pot of coffee, minus the gravy on everything, an Espresso please…. at least an Americana!
You’re pumped Rick. Wild, wild, horse couldn’t turn you away.
(coffee break)
Ah that’s better. Just waiting for the caffeine rush to kick in, it’ll take warp-speed to catch up with you on this one Mr. Badie. Though my knower says you’ve got something on tap, served-up in the next article perhaps?
Meaning while excusez-moi. The dots are aligning, got to be some connections somewhere in there for daydream believers.
Latter, y’all.
By Bruce Wilcox
November 27, 2005 03:59 PM | Link to this
Mr. Smith whatever type of coffee you’re drinking pass a mug around.
Fact is Gwinnett is just too big an area to have a single identity. The county has more than twelve cities competing with one another, Duluth has it’s Town Green, Old Town Lilburn, Historic Norcross and Historic Larenceville to name a few. Each city is trying to gain somekind of identity that is it’s own.
When the Gwinnett Village becomes a reality it still will represent just a small slice of the county.
If somehow we find this magical attraction to enjoin all of Gwinnett where could it be placed? You couldn’t place it in any of the neglected area’s, it would give off a bad image, the higher class sections wouldn’t want it, they don’t like outsiders inside their enclaves and anywhere else in the county is just fed up with all the traffic and growth.
Face it, a county the size of Gwinnett cannot compete with cities like Atlanta and Chattanooga.
By Michael H. Smith
November 27, 2005 04:16 PM | Link to this
Enter the mad, mad mind, of Mossback Mike. (He’s back Ms. Tucker)
How can you take what you have, create what you and others don’t have, make it fun, educationally challenging and quite possibly profitable leaving no one behind or down and out?
How entertaining, are you ready?
Creative Objectives:
Restore Hope Effective Conservation Energy Independence Job Creation Advance Education Efficient Government Techno-science Center
The Governor is likely pushing an agenda next year in his re-election bid. With an assortment of initiatives obtained to tout, one remains left to achieve, state funding of faith-based organizations. Gwinnett County has no shelter for the homeless to restore hope; a place where society’s discarded can regain dignity lost. Not so unlike the state, which has no idea of how much land it owns, Gwinnett has long left its resources undiscovered and untapped. Many potential energy resources are simply discarded into landfills. Yet another waste of valuable land resource, with an unseen possible derogation of aquifers vital to meeting future water demands of a state and area that must grow in order to stay alive; as an underutilized human resource slumbers in the woods or in cars, only desiring to regain a meaningful life. What a pitiful commentary: outsourcing vital human and natural resources to waste.
Big on the Governors agenda is boast, efficient government. Though, a government that cannot meet the demands and needs of its’ people is wasteful. Can Sonny Purdue lay honest claim to government efficiency merely based on frugal spending of tax dollars while human and natural resources are being spent to waste at an ever alarming and increasing rate?
I dare to say not.
Rather I say, take what we have, to create what we have not. Recent events driven by current affairs reveal vulnerabilities to our nation, state and county. Hurricanes that ravaged an area producing a nation’s life’s blood left us in the perils of an energy disruption. Robbing people of real dollars by reason of a pseudo-supply shortage. Whereas in our schools a real shortage is being produced of scientists and engineers – India produces twice as many graduates in the fields of science and engineering as now the United States has exiting colleges and universities. Another pitiful commentary: outsourcing dollars to fuel other economies ever becoming more dependent on the resources and brains of others to solve our problems, while wasting our own.
So what have we besides great need, great waste and a great lose of technical edge – the lack of a village vision?
Perhaps seeing the unseen is relevant but a vision, that takes faith.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Lets challenge our Guvna’s and my do right, do right, till the stars fall Senata’s faith and a few churches whose mission it is to restore souls and lives.
How about creating a living techno-science center, open daily as a public venue to bring science and engineering alive to young and old minds alike. Encompassing multiple educational disciplines to produce renewable alternative energy as a primary goal, from the waste of natural resources. Utilizing the homeless as a workforce by housing, employing and training them in recovering, processing and producing resalable end products from waste resources.
Well Rick, you said a vision. This probably qualify as a legacy of hallucination to Chairman Bannister – as well many others –, so I’ll put Mossback Mike, my alter ego, back to bed. It’s about time for his medication anyhow.
By Lois Muir-McClain
November 28, 2005 10:04 AM | Link to this
I agree; Gwinnett needs to develop a unique sense of identity to set it apart from other areas of metro Atlanta. One major drawback of Gwinnett is that it is just one subdivision and one shopping center after another. Incredibly boring and unimaginative.
We don’t need more WalMarts or chain restaurants. We need a town center. A place where we can park our cars, walk, and enjoy a variety of attractions, all on foot. It should contain the following: Quaint shops, galleries, taverns, coffee houses and restaurants to visit. Clubs where local music acts could perform. A teen center with security guards so the kids can have a safe and fun place to go and be with friends, listen to music, dance, and have snacks. Cultural centers where people of many ethnic groups and ages can go. Maybe a green space with bike trails, a playground, a sports complex and fields to enjoy outdoor entertainment. Perhaps an arts center, like what you see in Asheville. And I repeat: the area must be accessible on foot, skates, bikes, etc. We need to be able to limit automobiles through the area - perhaps one-way streets? Traffic is the number one problem in Gwinnett.
I am originally from Tennessee, and Knoxville has revitalized an area similar to what I describe here, called the “Old City.” It is similar to the Little Five Points area in Atlanta. However, I foresee that many will object to this type of thing in Gwinnett, saying it will increase crime by bringing in the “undesirable element.” This is par for the course. We simply cannot create a unique flavor in Gwinnett without also having some alternative characters. That is part of the charm of a community (Think Greenwich Village).
Another idea: how about a technology museum? When I first moved here over 20 years ago, jobs in technology were a major draw. With Gwinnett’s new four year college opening in 2006, we could use that as a springboard, to create a technology, education, and business center.
By Amazed (Independent Woman)
November 28, 2005 12:32 PM | Link to this
If I wanted a mega structure, I would move to Atlanta. Whatever happened to a nice quite suburb, with trees and walking trails?
I moved to Gwinnett, 10 years ago, because it was green and quite. I choose it, because it was close enough to Atlanta to visit the Megastructures, then go home to peace and quite. Why can’t we go back to that? We can replant the trees and call our location “Green and Clean, just the way we like it”.
I guess I will have to move again. Thanks Rick, I usually agree, but not this time.
By D Darren
November 28, 2005 01:29 PM | Link to this
One thing I don’t quite understand is why do we have to identify a county with anything? I agree with the other writer, we have numerous cities within Gwinnett County that would like their own identity. I have never understood the need or desire to promote or refer to Gwinnett as where I reside, it is simply a county for which I live and the city I reside in is Duluth.
By Darla Dixon
November 29, 2005 08:05 PM | Link to this
Gwinnett (and all of the Atlanta metro area, frankly) is lacking in places to go and fun things to do that are FREE. I used to live in Savannah GA and there were many interesting places - even museums and nature centers - that are free admission. I agree that Gwinnett needs something to define itself.