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March 2007
A change of behavior needed to stop litter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s always great to see a clean-up crew picking up roadside trash.
But Connie Wiggins had to be especially pleased to see a crew alongside Lawrenceville Highway Wednesday. After all, I was riding shotgun with her, and we had just spent an hour talking about trash, litter and garbage in the county.
We were headed to Oakland Road in Lawrenceville, one of two “hot spots” that will be the focus of a community clean-up next month. More on that later.
As we drove by the workers, Wiggins, the executive director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, tossed out figures that only someone whose mission it is to help combat litter would likely know.
Five years ago, Gwinnett County spent $100,000 a year on road clean-up details. Now it’s half-million a year.
“If the trash weren’t there to begin with, that money could be used for a variety of things,” Wiggins told me. “Schools, police officers. We, as individuals, could do a lot of this ourselves.”
When it comes to litter, Wiggins refers to a biblical parable. You know the one about teaching the hungry to fish rather than simply giving them fish to eat. Contrary to what you may think, it’s not the GCB’s job to clean up roads and illegal dump sites. It’s here to empower us — residents, volunteers — with the tools and wherewithal to practice litter management and prevention.
Sure, the county could contract to put more street sweepers on the job. And by 2008, the county will likely mandate that all households have garbage pick-up service.
But there’s a lot we can do, too. And when paired with the GCB’s education, enforcement, resources and strategies, the impact could be notable.
If you want problematic roads or spots cleaned up regularly, adopt them. There are more than 100 active Adopt-a-Road groups in the county.
Say you see a motorist tossing cigarette butts, as Wiggins did Wednesday morning on her way to work. Jot down the tag number. Report it to GCB, something about 20,000 people do yearly. The police will send a “nasty gram” to the litterbug that advises them of their slovenliness, Wiggins said.
“If an individual sees something and can take care of it — that’s what we want to happen,” she told me. “For the more chronic conditions, we can provide a comprehensive process, with resources, to address it. It has to be more than just picking up the trash. You have to cause the behavior to change.”
A 2006 litter index survey documented trouble spots for trashy roads and illegal dumping. Norcross and the Stone Mountain side of Gwinnett are hot spots for illegal dumping.
When it comes to road waste, major corridors like Lawrenceville Highway, Buford Highway, U.S. 78 and Ga. 316 lead the pack, along with heavily traveled roads like Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road.
Of course, other roads pose problems, too. Which brings me back to Oakland Road, and why Wiggins and I drove to it Wednesday as part of my weekly Badie Tour. It, along with Mitchell Street in Norcross, will be the site of a clean-up project on April 28.
Litter will be bagged and hauled off. Fences will be repaired and painted. Landscaping will be added to restrict access by graffiti taggers. Before that happens, though, GCB staffers and volunteers will go door-to-door in nearby homes to talk about the project, and explain how litter hurts.
“We just can’t keep coming out, painting a fence and picking up litter,” Wiggins said. “We still have to do education, enforcement and clean-up. It takes everybody. Littering is a behavior.”
To report a litterbug, request roadside clean-up or set up an Adopt-A-Road group, call Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful at 770-822-5187; online: www.gwinnettcb.org.
— Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Artist keeps focused on his passion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was spreading weed killer on the front lawn Saturday when he approached the driveway.
He wore a dress shirt, pants and tie. He was sweating like crazy, a lot more than me.
Initially, I thought he was a Jehovah’s Witness. He’d been going door-to-door, obviously promoting something.
LeVar Julius Reese wasn’t witnessing, though. Under each arm, he held a piece of framed art that was for sale.
“I do this about every other day,” said Reese, 30, a South Carolinian who moved to Atlanta seven years ago for its arts and music scene. “My legs usually get real sore, so I give them a rest one day, then get back on the concrete the next. Basically, it’s every other day.”
Art has always been his thing. He took art classes whenever they were offered in grade school and high school. He’s a 1996 graduate of W.J. Keenan High School in Columbia. He tried a little college and has held various jobs along the way. But art, creating it, always hung around.
Sort of like a first love.
“Even if I stop for a month, I’m drawn back to my desk and my pencils,” said Reese, who plans to pursue his art full time as long as he can pay the bills.
On Monday, I dropped by his apartment in Norcross to see complete sketches and works in progress. A couch, art desk and supplies occupy the front room.
Reese dabbles in illustrations, portraits and abstract art. “Creative figure art with a blend of the abstract and my imagination,” is how he describes his style. It relies heavily on intricate details.
Some sketches remind me of tattoos. I tell Reese this. He smiles as if he’s hearing a familiar song. Some of the local tattoo artists buy his work.
Reese appreciates all types of art — African, European, contemporary. When asked what artists he regards highly, he pulls out a stack of prints. They’re the work of Maurits Cornelius Escher, the late Dutch graphic artist.
“I love the depth of M.C.’s work,” Reese said. “It has so many dimensions.”
On Saturday, he went door-to-door in neighborhoods and businesses along Jimmy Carter Boulevard. He carried two framed pencil sketches.
One was the face of a black woman. Plumes of smoke curled from her mouth. He calls it “Moma, Don’t Smoke.” Something his mom preached, he explained.
With Reese, though, it didn’t take. He’s a smoker.
“When I drew her, I was thinking about my mother,” he said. ” ‘Don’t smoke’ is something she would say all the time. That’s why I called the portrait that.”
The other sketch — “Asiatic Fi-Fi” — portrays a woman whose features embody the cross-cultural ties of Africans and Asians. She clutches an African spear.
“Just my imagination,” he said.
It’s easy to wade through a career, maybe even make good money and have a little fun. But what you want to do, what you’re passionate about, never dies. It’s always there, just buried underneath life’s minutia.
Then you wake up one day, asking, “What if …”
“Art, I feel, is my gift,” Reese told me. “It’s always been my calling. I need to get it to a financial level. I would love to have a show to bring my work to, to have it be part of an event.”
LeVar Julius Reese can be reached at 678-754-9151 or e-mail: levar4art@yahoo.com.
— Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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We can do something about trash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
His mother always told him to take care of what he owned.
Charles Graham takes that advice to heart. He lives in the Oaks at Coldwater Creek, a subdivision off Bramblett Shoals Road, in unincorporated Lawrenceville.
When Graham pulls into his driveway and sees litter on the street, he picks it up.
“If it’s a napkin, it’s going to stand out,” said Graham, 41.
“This isn’t a big subdivision. You start allowing a piece of trash here and there, and other people are going to start throwing stuff out to add to it. The more you let it go, the more it grows. Same thing with graffiti.”
Telephone calls and e-mails poured in after my Thursday column about the pile-up of trash and litter around the county. From the responses, it appears that some readers find the garbage issue just as vexing as neighborhood decay. The griping comes easy, though, and county government’s the target.
Residents have suggested trash cops, sort of like code enforcement officers, on the streets. They want stricter litter fines. (How would you catch the culprits?) They want to see more inmate cleanup crews on roads. And they want the county to either make garbage pickup mandatory, which it isn’t now, or to supply the service.
Wait a minute, though.
Let’s step back and look internally.
We are a vital answer to the trash issue, just as integral to it as Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, the pseudo-government agency responsible for curbing the thriving trash.
So what are you doing to clean up the public roads near your neighborhood and subdivision? Better yet, what are you doing to rid the street you live on of wrappers and waste?
Let’s assume most people abhor garbage. In a county of nearly 800,000 people, I’d wager there are thousands of able-bodied citizens who can grab a garbage bag and pick up discards along public roads.
And if picking up trash is beneath you, call Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful when you see volumes of road litter. Get the road added to the cleanup schedule. It might take a while, but at least you’ve made some attempt to address the mess.
Think you can’t make a difference?
Talk to Paul Allen of Norcross. He and his wife, Betsey, have been fighting the fight against blight in their neighborhood and area roads for eight years. Everything from code violators to graffiti.
“The county could do all this work,” he told me in an e-mail. “But it would require an enormous amount of new employees, which of course, would raise all our taxes sky high. That would let people complain about their taxes instead of complaining about the trash, graffiti and such.
“I wish there were some effective, official way to inform the public that as citizens, we should be individually responsible for things like this. Being visible in these efforts is the best thing we can possibly do.”
Graham, an equipment operator, is one of those visible residents.
“I do it because I like my community,” he told me. “It’s no big deal.”
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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Enough trash to suffocate a pretty day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He moved here in 1975 and opened up an office as a private arson investigator.
Insurance firms came calling. Business boomed. Donald F. Zwick practiced for 20 years.
I learn all this after we leave the Gwinnett Senior Center and hop on Ronald Reagan Parkway. It’s a gorgeous Wednesday. This is the Badie Tour. Better yet, a mystery tour. I know what the subject might be, but I still don’t know what it is exactly that Zwick wants to show me.
We park alongside a portion of Webb Ginn House Road in Snellville. I spot a sign for a “luxurious subdivision” with homes starting in the $400,000 range. Outside that manicured subdivision, along part of the public road that serves it, lay enough trash to suffocate a pretty day.
And that’s what Zwick wants to show me.
“This didn’t just blow off,” says Zwick, poking at a household garbage bag and its spilled contents.
“I’ve seen too many bags like this on Mondays for it to be something that just blows off vehicles.”
And that’s why Zwick of Lilburn called.
Atlanta’s got potholes. Well, Gwinnett’s got roadside trash, litter and in the case of Jimmy Carter Boulevard just this Monday, the wrecked remains of a car’s front grill.
Zwick isn’t the only one sick of trash.
When I speak to clubs and groups, Q&A time typically finds its way to the Dumpster. People wonder about their anecdotal assessments, wonder if Gwinnett — where about 20,000 households have no garbage pick-up service — is growing less clean and beautiful.
I went online to the county Web page looking for information about sanitation. Seems the county, along with Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, wants to update the county’s solid waste management plan.
They’d like to hear from you, and have asked for resident input at upcoming community forums (go to www.gwinnettcounty.com for forum dates and locations). The forums deal more with how garbage is collected in the county, but litter and illegal dumping is part of the equation, said Connie Wiggins, director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful.
“I don’t think the county has become more trashy, based on the surveys we’ve been doing for 20 years,” she told me. “These community forums will be a great opportunity for people to come and share their opinions.”
Last year, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful conducted a survey using a “litter index” compiled by the Keep America Beautiful organization. The index assesses and ranks, supposedly scientifically, the amount of a community’s litter.
On a scale of 1 to 4, Gwinnett came in at 1.6. We had litter, but we weren’t swimming in it. Just wading, perhaps.
To heck with the surveys. Trash seems omnipresent.
On Wednesday, litter-hunting was easy, not even a sport.
On Dickens Road, we spot a bag of household garbage in addition to several loose pieces of litter. (We took the bag of garbage with us). The intersection at U.S. Highway 29 and Ronald Reagan Parkway has hundreds of discarded cigarette butts along the curb on the Parkway side.
“It makes mad, angry and sad to see the way things have become,” Zwick told me.
“When you see an area that looks like this, it invites more trash.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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On Dixie, be honest; on apology, save breath
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Mr. Badie:
“You are very careful to show both sides of these issues. Your column is titled, ‘My Opinion.’ What is ‘your opinion’ as a black man that probably has roots in slavery and [has been] raised in the South?”
Someone who claims to be Fred G. posted that in my blog in response to Sunday’s column. It dealt with two controversial, though intensely intertwined issues. One is the call for a state apology for slavery. Civil rights leaders and Democratic state lawmakers have asked for one. The other is a request for a permanent designation of April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. It was proposed by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, a Republican from Chickamauga.
As Fred G. opined, I didn’t share my views on these complex issues. Rather, I let readers hear two other voices — Debra Denard, a Lawrenceville resident and historian for the Atlanta chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; and Nathaniel Brown, a retired civil rights leader who helped integrate Gwinnett schools.
If you didn’t read what they said, go online at ajc.com/gwinnett. Pull up the column.
Like Fred G., several readers wanted to know my take. So here goes.
Saying I’m sorry has never meant a whole hell of a lot to me. It’s particularly trite when offered up by someone guilty of egregious and outrageous acts. Save your breath is what I say. And when it comes to the state deciding whether or not to apologize for slavery, state leaders should save their pen and paper.
A state-issued apology won’t change diddley for me, my kids, nine siblings, nieces, nephews and cousins. It won’t pay for college, ensure equal treatment in a restaurant or make us walk taller. Self-esteem, motivation and preservation are inner strengths, not symbolic ones.
Many people offer a simplistic perspective when pooh-poohing the need for an apology. Today’s white Southerners didn’t own slaves, they argue. True. But it’s not about wanting individual whites to admit wrong or to harbor guilt.
For supporters, an apology is about getting the body politic, our government, to acknowledge a period of history in which the state prospered off human chattel. And slavery — even when dressed up with the silly arguments that African kings sold people into bondage, and that some obscure black baron owned slaves — remains despicable.
As for honoring Dixie heritage, go for it. Southern whites are right to honor their ancestors, to celebrate their heritage and what many had to sacrifice by no choice of their own. If April becomes the designated month, though, make it comprehensive.
Don’t white-wash the history, dress it up and selectively romanticize it. None of this “Gone With the Wind” treatment.
Tell the entire story.
That will require more than visiting a Civil War battleground and dressing up in period clothes. It would cry for credence to be given to the abhorrent lynchings (including poor white sharecroppers, I’ve been told), rapes and separation of families that took place.
Dig deep.
Or like that apology for slavery, let the idea for a month-long observance die.
— Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Heritage, apology: It’s all in the eye of the beholder
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April’s always a busy time for Debra Denard.
On April 14, she plans to attend the national Confederate memorial service at Stone Mountain Park. Three days later, she’ll help the United Daughters of the Confederacy present military crosses to soldiers (or their relatives) of the major wars at the Atlanta History Center.
Later that month, she wraps things up at Nash Farm Battlefield in Henry County. Denard, historian for the Atlanta chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, will don her 1860s-period dress for an educational program.
Denard and Nathaniel Brown, a retired civil rights activist, came to mind when I read about two proposals in the General Assembly. Some lawmakers want to permanently designate April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. And some civil rights leaders have asked the Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue to offer a symbolic apology for the state’s role in slavery.
I thought it would be interesting to get Brown’s and Denard’s take on these two polarizing issues. They, after all, have brazenly dedicated their lives to their respective causes. No need to skirt the truth as they see it.
Initially, Brown of Norcross chuckled at the thought of an apology. “If they give us our 40 acres and a mule, then we can sit down and talk,” he told me.
Then he talked seriously about history, about Jim Crow South. He mentioned a great uncle of his wife’s who was lynched in Forsyth County.
“Whites could do what they wanted to,” said Brown, who helped integrate local public schools. “Blacks couldn’t. We kept our mouths closed. Of course, that’s changed now.”
He said all that to say yes.
He’d appreciate an apology for one of the most despicable periods in American history. Even if it is symbolic and lacks reparative action, like that mule and acreage he joked about.
“It would help unravel the truth,” he told me. “I think they should.”
Denard understands the reason for the request but fails to see a purpose. Besides, she wondered, how can you ask somebody to apologize for something they had zip to do with?
“Last time I checked, I didn’t own any slaves,” the Lawrenceville woman told me.
“The only way to do away with a lot of the feelings is to educate people about what life was like in the 1860s. We’re judging something that happened in 1860 by [21st-century] standards. You can’t do that.”
You can teach and educate, though, and that’s why she supports a Confederate History Month.
“We have to educate not only children, but adults on what life was really like, the true story behind it,” said Denard, who invited the public to next month’s Confederacy events.
“Education is the whole key.”
Brown has no problem with Southern whites honoring their heritage. But he has mixed feelings about a state-ordained Confederacy month. And whites who partake should be forewarned: Some black friends and co-workers just won’t get it, he said.
“Some whites will honor the Confederacy and everything, but I don’t think a lot are going to be involved in it,” he said. “They won’t want to offend.”
Senate Bill 283 would encourage Georgia to honor the Confederacy, its history, soldiers and the people who contributed to the “cause of Southern Independence.” It calls for creation of a curriculum for elementary and high schools, as well as colleges and universities. The bill sailed through a Senate committee on Thursday. It could eventually come up for a full Senate vote.
The request for a slavery apology has gained a little traction. It calls for reconciliation with contrition. Some of the state’s Republican leadership, according to news reports, have been cool to the issue, consider it nonsubstantive.
Substance is in the eye of the beholder, though. Brown and Denard prove that.
Now it’s your turn. What do you think?
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Senior-friendly developments on rise in county
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doug Hall lives in a big house in Chamblee. He’s ready to downsize.
Park Springs, a continuing-care retirement community in Stone Mountain, looks good to him.
“I’m seriously thinking about it,” said Hall, 79.
There, he wouldn’t have to tend to the yard, cook or fuss with upkeep. Unless, of course, he chooses to. Health care is part of the plan. Cobblestone, a 64-unit health center, provides assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care.
So besides a comfy lifestyle, you’re guaranteed health care if the need arises. Until then, residents 62 or older who live in these private homes, cottages and villas can dabble in a horde of activities.
Or do absolutely nothing.
Their choice. Their home.
Metro Atlanta has several continuing-care retirement communities, but not enough for a growing population of baby-boomer retirees. This has gotten the attention of some governments and builders. Gwinnett County, as well as Dacula and Snellville, has enacted zoning laws that embrace senior-friendly development.
“We’re all aging, so the need is not going to let up,” said Anresa Davis, the Park Springs director of sales and marketing. “But these communities call for years of proper planning.”
Mark Gary of Gary Holding Company is building Noble Village, a 110-cottage complex off Old Peachtree Road and I-85. Unlike Park Springs, this complex won’t have a health center, but it plans to offer 24-hour care for assisted independent living.
“You’re not just building something, selling it and saying goodbye,” Gary told me. “You’re there with them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You have to have a passion for seniors.”
Andy Isakson, owner and developer, was inspired to build Park Springs after witnessing his elderly parents struggle to find housing that fit their needs. His creation, three years old this July, is beautiful.
On Wednesday, the Badie Tour dropped by for a glimpse of this style of retirement. It was my second visit. A few weeks ago, I had lunch with Martha and Mack Taylor, Park Springs residents who attend my church.
They rave about the place. Easy to see why.
My sense is that they share more of a neighborhood/community than many of us experience in our pre-retirement years. I don’t have enough space to list the clubs, classes, groups and activities that the 435 residents have designed and take part in. There’s a market, bank, barbershop and beauty salon. Scheduled transportation is available.
Park Springs has a 4-acre lake, fitness center, library, indoor swimming pool, clubhouse with formal dining, pub, bistro and clinic. A trail connects to Stone Mountain Park.
When you buy into Park Springs, you don’t get a title. Isakson-Barnhart Properties keeps it. Under an “asset preservation plan,” 90 percent of the entrance fee is returned when a resident no longer resides at Park Springs. Entrance fees range from $150,000 to $500,000, depending on size and location of the property.
Monthly fees, based on lot size, range from $1,500 to $2,800. Among other services, that pays for water, gas, electric, basic TV, trash removal, pest control, and interior and exterior maintenance of the residence. Everything except phone service and high-speed Internet.
Peace of mind. No yard work. No house maintenance and upkeep.
Like Hall of Chamblee, I’m ready to move in.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Web site proves Green serious about cleanup
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County Commissioner Lorraine Green has been given a nickname.
I’m going to start calling her the Cleanup Woman.
It’s quite fitting, and I mean that in a very complimentary way. No other elected official has stood up for and worked on behalf of citizens the way she has when it comes to property maintenance and code compliance.
At least that’s what readers tell me.
In the early months of the Badie Tour, neighborhood decay was a contentious bone at practically every stop. Residents, disillusioned and occasionally angry, turned out in droves to vent about a drop in property values due to neighbors who failed to do the upkeep.
The meet-and-greets offered up one other common thread. Residents typically gave kudos to Green for responding to their calls, e-mails and cries for help. Green — who recently spent a day in Recorder’s Court to see how cases of repeat code violators are handled — remains on the job.
Now she’s launched Cleanup Gwinnett, a Web site for me and you. The name says it all. The site, at www.cleanupgwinnett.com, offers a discussion forum and links to property maintenance laws. What’s super cool is that residents can file complaints, anonymously, about code violators. Green will forward them to the county’s Quality of Life Unit.
In the future, articles will be posted on what homeowner groups can do to preserve neighborhoods. Sample letters that can be sent to code violators will be provided, too. And if you’re looking for a speaker to address quality-of-life issues, Green will help you book someone.
On the Web site’s discussion forum, she wants folk to move beyond venting. She prefers an exchange of ideas on successful tactics that have been used to combat problem homes. Questions are posed on the forum page to generate conversation:
• How did you get that guy to clean up his yard?
• What has changed in your neighborhood since the Quality of Life Unit came through?
When I heard about the Web site, two issues came to mind, so I asked the Cleanup Woman to address them.
Why a personal Internet site instead of a county-run one?
“Government is limited and can’t be everything to everybody,” she told me. “And one of the things I heard from people is that, sometimes, they are intimidated going on a county Web site.”
Naturally, some may view this as a publicity ploy to buoy a 2008 run to become chairperson of the Gwinnett County Commission. Green hasn’t said what her plans are, though. Her district seat also is on the ballot in 2008.
The Web site, she admits, is a publicity stunt. Just not for the sake of politics.
“I want to get more attention and publicity for cleaning up the community,” she told me. “I’ve been passionate about this issue since the day I took office.”
The site launched Friday. As of Sunday, 12 complaints had been filed from various parts of the county.
“As time goes on, I can only hope that people will see this as a serious effort, and that it won’t go away,” Green said. “I hope people begin cleaning up their property.”
The Cleanup Woman plans to help see to it.
— Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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‘Cocaine’ gave more than a caffeine high to one teen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Stephen Martinelli, last week marks the first and last time he’ll ever try Cocaine.
He fell in the shower. His stomach churned. He vomited. A friend told him he looked yellow.
Martinelli, 16, thought he was going to die.
“When I vomited, it felt like my ribs were coming into my stomach,” the Dacula High sophomore told me. “It felt better for me to bend over than to stretch out.”
He’d consumed high-energy drinks before — Mountain Dew Amp, Red Bull. But not “Cocaine,” a concoction with a tongue in cheek marketing scheme that has riled anti-drug advocates.
The drink doesn’t actually contain cocaine, but each 8.4-ounce can packs plenty of caffeine — 280 milligrams. It’s advertised as being 350 times stronger than Red Bull.
On Monday, at a friend’s suggestion, Martinelli gave it a try.
He plucked down $3 or so for a can at a gas station. Martinelli said he drank about half of the drink. That night, he slept fine. Tuesday morning, while preparing or school, he became ill. His parents, Pete and Elaine, were out of town attending their daughter’s graduation from cosmetology school.
Pete Martinelli thought Stephen was trying to ditch a day of school when he called and said he was sick.
But this wasn’t a Ferris Bueller moment.
A chaperone who was staying with Stephen said the kid looked yellow, appeared weak and was sweating profusely. Martinelli told the chaperone to get the boy to the doctor.
On the way, Stephen worsened. They pulled over so he could upchuck. He faded in and out.
At Gwinnett Medical Center, Stephen was put on an IV drip. A urinalysis test detected a high concentration of caffeine in his system.
And that’s potentially dangerous, said Dr. Maiysha Clairborne, a holistic practitioner in Tucker.
“It’s a stimulant,” she told me. “A high amount can affect everything in the system.”
When it comes to energy drinks, Clairborne gives this advice:
“Don’t drink them,” she said. “Honestly, get off the high-energy caffeine drinks. If you want energy, go to the B vitamins, that kind of thing.”
A few studies have shown that incidents of sickness caused by energy drinks are on the rise. Dr. Gaylord Lopezof the Georgia Poison Center said several factors figure into how the body might react to high caffeine intake.
“It’s based on tolerance, body size, the medical condition of the person and other conditions,” he said.
Redux Beverages LLC, a Las Vegas-based company, sells Cocaine. Senior partner James Kirby admits that, if you’re sensitive to caffeine, and crazy enough to guzzle dozens of cans in one day, you might get ill.
“I won’t drink more than one a day,” he told me.
The Martinellis feel compelled to warn teens, so they contacted me to help spread the word.
“Who knows what could have happened,” Martinelli said.
Stephen is back to his old roller blading self. He recovered at home on Wednesday and Thursday by drinking plenty of fluids.
His days of downing high-energy drinks are over. Especially Cocaine in a can.
“I told my friend that if he ever catches me drinking one, he should take it away.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
The Badie Tour The bank, salon and health care services are just a few steps from your front door. Park Springs, a retirement community right on the Gwinnett/DeKalb county line, has homes, cottages, villages and an assistant living facility. It’s the type development Gwinnett will see more of as the senior population grows. On Wednesday, Rick Badie, your AJC Gwinnett News columnist, will tour the 54-acre campus. Read about his visit, online and in print, in Thursday’s AJC Gwinnett News.
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The Badie Tour: March 14
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The bank, salon and health-care services are just a few steps from your front door. Park Springs, a retirement community right on the Gwinnett/DeKalb county line, has homes, cottages, villas, and an assisted- living facility. It’s the type of development Gwinnett will see more of as the senior population grows. On Wednesday, Rick Badie, your AJC Gwinnett News columnist, will tour the 54-acre campus. Read about his visit, online and in print, in Thursday’s AJC Gwinnett News.
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Are young people growing more self-absorbed?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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- gallery: The Badie Tour hits GGC
She took offense to the question, but I had to ask.
After all, its what drew me to Georgia Gwinnett College , the self-proclaimed “campus of tomorrow.”
“Are you narcissistic?, I asked Sara Francis Spencer, 19, a freshman at Georgia Perimeter College, which has a campus location at GGC.
“I’m not self-absorbed at all,” said Sara, a 2005 South Gwinnett High grad and aspiring nurse.
“Wow. That really bothers me.”
A new study conducted by five psychologists has found that today’s college students — Generation Y — are in love. With themselves. They live life with a sense of entitlement and self-absorption that outpaces their predecessors, that makes Paris Hilton appear humble.
According to the study, 30 percent more college students showed “elevated narcissism” last year than in 1982. In that 25-year time span, researchers posed a series of personality questions to more than 16,000 students.
On Wednesday, the Badie Tour went looking for a few narcissists at GGC. I’d hope to find droves of them enjoying a beautiful Georgia day, smug and self-indulgent, and chanting:
“I am special. I’m perfect. I know it.”
Out of several students I talked to in Building A, all but one reacted the way Sara did — with disbelief that they had been labeled so darkly, dismissed as selfish.
“That’s terrible,” said Vanessa Giles , 22, a Georgia Perimeter coed and early childhood education major.
And in her opinion, untrue.
“Young people in general get a bad rap,” Giles of Monroe told me. “I’m working for all this stuff, paying for my classes and everything, and most of the people I know are doing the same thing. That’s not being self-absorbed. We just want to better ourselves.”
Chad Chapel , 22, who just earned his associate degree from Georgia Perimeter, said there’s some reality to the data. He said college students do think they’re special. “Obviously, it’s not every student,” said Chapel, a 2002 Dacula High grad who plans to study accounting at Georgia State.
“But I would say it’s a majority of them. I’m guilty of it myself. There are lots of cliques. Nobody mingles.”
Granted, my random sampling doesn’t hold water when compared to academic research. The five professors who conducted the study talked to 16,475 students. Then they apparently used the results as a template that was applied to the college nation.
I’m always leery of poll and surveys, especially when results are presented in black and white, with no nuance. Still, I’d imagine there’s some truth, somewhere, in the results of this college student personality survey.
But if our young people are growing more self-indulged, perhaps it’s time to conduct a companion study. Self-centeredness can’t fall too far from the tree.
Spencer , the aspiring nurse, thinks the survey provides a snapshot of a broad student population.
“The interviewers didn’t interview me or my friends,” she said.
Spencer plans to attend the University of Illinois, where she’ll play soccer. She’s heard that students at the Chicago school tend to have attitude.
“They’re stuck up,” she said. “That’s what I heard about them.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Run-down retail center now easy on the eyes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What a difference a year makes.
And in the case of Lilburn Square, a strip mall on Lawrenceville Highway, it’s distinct.
If you shopped at or drove by the retail center last year, here’s what you saw: A complex that hadn’t had a paint job in, oh say, one or two decades. A weathered parking lot with faded stripping. Dilapidated store signs. Junk vehicles.
In essence, the Square was a mess, and it was right in the heart of Lilburn.
Drive by today. It’s like night and day.
The parking lot’s been resurfaced and restriped. The building has a new paint job. There’s new, illuminated signage. A total make-over.
“It makes me proud,” said Eddie Price, a Lilburn city councilman. “We’re seeing improvements. The property owners and city came to an agreement.”
You may remember Lilburn Square. It was the first strip mall I wrote about in a series of columns devoted to unkempt retail centers in Gwinnett. With your help, we compiled a “List of Shame” in which I cherry-picked centers and described their shortcomings in AJC Gwinnett News.
I pass by Lilburn Square several times a week, and had noticed the cosmetic changes. It was a call from Howard W. Brown Jr., though, that prompted me to write a column that notes the turnaround. He’s the city’s neighborhood improvement manager.
As a follow-up to our conversation, he e-mailed me before and after photographs of the property. They show what it was and what it’s become. Startling makeover. Brown says the building hadn’t been painted in 15 or 20 years.
“The owner tried pressure-washing it, but we told him that wasn’t going to cut it,” he said. “He’s taken down nonconforming signage and put up signs in line with our current code. He restriped the parking lot area and repainted the building.”
The square, according to city records, belongs to a corporation — Podber Limited Partnership of Atlanta. It consists of Abe and Morris Podber. Back in February 2006, I tried to interview Abe Podber, the manager, about the site’s condition, but he ended the telephone conversation abruptly.
Brown suspects that the Podbers thought the city was harassing them for the sake of harassment. While they may not realize it, the partners just may benefit from City Hall’s diligence.
“This helps everybody,” Price, the councilman, told me. “It gives the town better street appeal, and he’ll be able to attract better tenants. That’s what it’s all about. It’s just a shame it took this long.”
Because the Podbers cooperated with the city, the city suspended the fees of several citations issued for noncompliance. They didn’t want to be punitive. They simply wanted the property cleaned up, and maintained.
“I’ve been watching that site for quit some time,” said Brown, noting that the city file on Lilburn Square dates to January 2006.
“It’s one of our older strip centers, and was one of the most challenging because of its age. Now he’s in compliance. He just needs to make sure that he maintains his property.”
— Rick Badie’s column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
Before: A year ago, Lilburn Square — a strip mall on Lawrenceville Highway — was in need of a paint job and new signs.
After: Lilburn Square now has a fresh coat of paint and new signs. In addition, the parking lot has been resurfaced and restriped.
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The Badie Tour: March 7
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Narcissistic. Self-centered. That’s how a recent study describes today’s college students. Rick Badie, your AJC Gwinnett News columnist, heads over to Georgia Gwinnett College to hang out with Generation Y. He’ll be on campus, at 1000 University Center Lane, Lawrenceville, starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Read his report, in print and online, in Thursday’s AJC Gwinnett News.
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Arena is county’s gem - and the parking’s free
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He pulled into Gwinnett Arena, ready to plunk down $10 or $20 for parking.
J. Will Jones, a Tennessee Vols fan, got a welcome surprise.
“You drive up and ask, ‘How much to park?’ ” he told me Thursday as the South Carolina Gamecocks battled the Auburn Tigers.
“Nothing. That’s fantastic!”
The 2007 SEC women’s basketball tournament concludes tonight. We’re hosting it in a $65-million arena with a growing reputation similar to storied venues like the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden.
In 2005, the Duluth concert/sports venue was nominated for the Arena of the Year award by Pollstar, the trade publication. The recognition, based on concert ticket sales, goes to indoor venues that seat more than 6,000 people.
“We didn’t get it,” said Preston Williams, the general manager. “But we were one of several nominated, up against places like the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden.”
We groan about growth, the traffic it manifests and the crunch it puts on schools and law enforcement. And it’s all a bit much. We challenge leaders to address ills like homelessness, poverty, crime and decaying neighborhoods. Legit concerns.
When something is done right, though, we need to celebrate, and the most visible example of that right now is the arena. It’s giving this disheveled county a geographical identity, a nucleus, a — for lack of a better word— a city center or downtown.
On Feb. 9, 2003, the county held an open house to show it off. Then-County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill talked about the significance of the venue, its location.
“I never agreed with that [perception] that Gwinnett doesn’t have an identity,” he told me. “The area from here to the Mall of Georgia has become our identity.”
Mr. Hill may have been right. Thanks in large part to the arena.
It’s the county gem, the anchor of the Sugarloaf Parkway/Satellite Boulevard corridor. And it’s been an unmitigated, unqualified success.
Good enough to host, or co-host, major sporting events. The SEC women’s championships; the U.S. Figure Skating Championships; various state high school athletics contests.
Good enough to attract top talent. Eric Clapton. Cher. The Eagles.
A-list artists for an A-list venue.
Jim McCoy, a part-time events staff member, gets to see many of the big names and big games.
“When the Eagles played, the acoustics were CD quality,” he told me Thursday during the SEC tournament.
“And there’s not a bad seat in the house.”
J. Will Jones and Reta, his wife of 56 years, are avid sports fans. They hold season tickets for Vols football, softball and the men’s and women’s hoops squads.
So the four-hour drive from their 90-acre farm near Knoxville to Duluth to see the Vols was a no-brainer.
We chatted in the food court near section 119 as the Gamecocks and Tigers went toe-to-toe. The retired Martin Marietta engineer offered up praise unsolicited.
“Somebody had a vision, obviously,” he said. “And the free parking. Surely they’ll have to change that.”
Let’s hope someone has the wisdom not to.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Starting over, with help from angels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He lost nearly all of his material possessions in a fire.
He rescued his 5-year-old son, and suffered third-degree burns on his hands and arms. He has a copy of the incident report from the Jan. 31 fire at a Lawrenceville apartment complex.
Eddie Jefferson, a single parent who works at a Publix warehouse, needs help. He’s starting over.
“This is the first time something like this has ever happened to me,” said Jefferson, 36.
Michael Johnson and his wife were evicted from a duplex they’d rented for 11 years. He’s not mad at the landlord, though.
He was nearly $4,000 behind on rent, a situation he attributes to tragedies and mishaps. An admitted love for the bottle hasn’t helped, but the laborer - who said he’ll work any job - has sworn it off.
“The Lord has got me here for something,” Johnson, 51, told me. “I’ve asked him to show me the reason.”
Two men. Two situations. Both found help at the Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry, which provides emergency aid to the needy.
Volunteers at this center hear lots of tear-jerkers. Sometimes, fate plays an ugly hand - layoffs, sickness and, in Jefferson’s case, unforeseen destruction. Other times, poor choices and addictions lead to destitution, and sometimes to the doors of the county’s six co-ops.
The road the clients travel doesn’t much matter, though. Volunteers don’t criticize and chastise. Their mission is to uplift - with food, clothes, shelter, sometimes money to pay a utility bill or fill a prescription.
Before you criticize, start popping off about virtue, personal responsibility and choice, stop and think. About yourself. Maybe you didn’t know it. Maybe you deny it, or have conveniently forgotten. But somebody, somewhere along the way, gave you a hand, too.
“A lot of people we see have made poor choices, said Linda Freund, director of the Lawrenceville ministry. “It doesn’t mean that we can’t help them and that a child should have to live without water or heat in their homes, and it doesn’t mean that people can’t change.
“I’ve been here six years. It’s the exception for anyone to be here and not need help.”
On Wednesday, the Badie Tour stopped by the Lawrenceville ministry. It operates out of a church on Church Street, behind Lawrenceville City Hall - the old Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. The ministry uses the pews for its waiting area.
This operation doles out about 20,000 cans of food each month, and spends $16,000 a month helping clients with prescriptions, shelter and utility bills. More than 20 churches supports the center; 80 percent of its operating budget goes toward client services.
Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 57 people sought help. Jefferson, the single dad, received a $100 check to apply toward rent on his new apartment.
“I’m just blessed,” Jefferson told a case worker.
Johnson, the evictee, praised the organization. On Monday, the ministry put him in an extended-stay hotel. Volunteers even helped him move his belongings to storage.
“They’re beautiful people,” he told me. “They have halos over their heads.”
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