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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
“Badie tour will return to its original purpose”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some things take on a life unto themselves.
They start out one way, then become something totally different.
Which brings me to the Badie Tour, now a year old. It began as a vehicle to get me off the phone, out of the office, and among you, the people who live, work and play in Gwinnett.
Every Wednesday, I was supposed to set up shop - in a City Hall, coffeehouse, anywhere, really, that put me in touch. While that’s been accomplished somewhat, it hasn’t happened as planned, in a fashion preferred. So the plan is to return to the tour’s original premise.
The Badie Tour debuted Oct, 18, 2006, at the Snellville Recycling Center. Surely, Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer called in favors. Dozens of folk dropped by to say hello, press flesh, and most important, talk about their neighborhoods, their homes, our county. The good and the bad.
A week later, I was at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. Residents offered an earful about neighborhood concerns - weedy lots, excessive numbers of people living in one dwelling and other code violations. As their communities decayed, so did their hopes regarding homeownership.
During this stop, Sylvenia Doby told me she moved to the Brookville subdivision off Williams Road about 12 years ago. She’d spent $30,000 to add a sunroom, lay sod and dig a fish pond. She posed a question that turned out to be on many minds:
“What can we do?”
Her query spawned a series of columns about Gwinnett’s quality of life, its perceived or real demise, the government’s response. Readers posted comments online, called and e-mailed to share their stories, to say that similar unsavory situations festered around them, too.
Then, at some point in the first year of the tour, it took a detour, not for the worse, necessarily, but away from its origins. Columns on places and events became de rigueur. Uncle Doug’s Fresh Cuts barbershop. The Gwinnett Transit System. The Gwinnett Arena. The Elisha Winn House.
These places and others are worth writing about, and I will continue to do so. But Thursday’s columns are based on Wednesday’s tours and that makes them unique. Methinks a change is in order.
And that would be a renewed focus on you - the people, your passions, pains, concerns, stories.
People like Jean Evans, known as “Mama Jean.” She decorates the front yard of her Lawrenceville home to reflect themes - Christmas, Halloween, Sept. 11, 2001, and so on.
Artists like Reginald “Smitty” Highsmith of Snellville, a scroller who honors fallen U.S. soldiers by crafting free wooden portraits for their families.
And individuals like Craig A. Molnar, the late homeless man who gave a face to the county’s homeless.
Interesting people abound. With your help, I’d like to find more of them. If you can spare the time, drop by the Red Sky Cafe & Coffeehouse, 2033 Buford Highway, around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Badie Tour will be there. In search of its roots.
And yours.
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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