Home > Norcross.Talk > Archives > 2008 > March > 31 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTalk about the Gwinnett Village Community Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All this time that I have been writing about the Gwinnett Village I have focused so much on the Community Improvement District (CID) portion that I neglected to pay attention to the other critical area of the organization that is helping to lead the charge for change to the area - The Gwinnett Village Community Alliance (GVCA).
It’s high time and well deserved that I fulfill my promise to show them some love… right… now.
There are some key differences between the CID and GVCA. Where The Village CID relies on property owners that voluntarily self tax themselves and focuses on improvements to the infrastructure and economic development, the GVCA is funded solely by donations, grants and sponsorships and focuses on quality of life and community development.
The two sometimes cross paths and collaborate on projects such as marketing and branding for the area and the Village Green project, which is beautifying the area at exits along I-85.
The GVCA does hear plenty from residents about various code violations and from businesses complaining about the lack of customers and clients.
To improve this, The Village Alliance is encouraging businesses to join their merchant association and residents to keep a list of folks that live in their neighborhood with contact information so they can keep in communication and send announcements regarding the Gwinnett Village.
The Village Alliance’s biggest accomplishment so far was the 2007 summer program at Radloff Middle School, where they took 150 students off the street for eight weeks at 10 hours a day for tutoring and recreation with the Boys and Girls Club.
This year, in addition to Radloff, the GVCA will be adding Summerour Middle School to the program and Lilburn Middle School in 2009.
The Village Alliance biggest need is donations. BIG donations and grants primarily from the major businesses and corporations in The Village and abroad to support their summer school programs. Sally Sherrington-Haggard, Executive Director of the GVCA, pointed out to me, the level of performance by the local schools feeds directly into the equation of our property values.
So answer these two questions for me:
1) Do you want your property values to increase?
2) Do you want to keep the little brats busy and (hopefully) out of trouble this summer?
If you answered “YES” to either or both of these questions, then isn’t it time you called the Gwinnett Village Community Alliance and see what you can do to aid them in their mission?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Woody Bass
Comments
By Bruce Wilcox
March 31, 2008 9:54 PM | Link to this
Why doeen’t the Gwinnett Village become a city? Seems to work out well in Fulton county, why not here? The county has decided that is area is pretty much a waste of time, heck our commissioner let the Braves pick where they wanted the field and it wasn’t in this neck of the woods.
We had to hire our own county police officers off-duty to add additional patrols.
Since the county abandoned this end of the county, like they did in so many area’s of Fulton county, maybe it’s time we took care of ourselves.
Another option would be to annex half to Lilburn, the other half to Norcross.
Out here in the no man’s land of unincorporated Gwinnett, to get anything done depends if your commissioner wants to play ball with you or not.
By PoliticalMan
April 1, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this
Woody, first of all what the heck are the CID and GVCA? Under what authority are they formed? How do they differ from say the Chamber of Commerce or a HOA? It all seems to be voluntary, including funding, right?
Secondly, what’s so special about three I-85 exits. There are lots of exits and lots of roads in Gwinnett. Are they not all to be maintained under a gov authority? If the gov dept is underfunded why not add the so-called voluntary funds to increase the capacity of the gov dept to do the entire job.
Thirdly, summer programs for a couple of schools for a few kids seems like a drop in the bucket. If schools are to be summer babysitters, then programs should be fully funded for all schools and all kids permitted to participate.
By Sally Sherrington Haggard
April 1, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
I don’t usually post comments on here but since Woody so kindly put out the word about the Gwinnett Village Community Alliance - I thought I needed to reply to the above entry.
When exactly does the community stop expecting the government to take care of everything and when exactly does the community step up and take responsibility for some of their own challenges? I don’t think it is a “drop in the bucket” to take 150-300 students that are potentially at risk for dropping out and for joining gangs and get them back on grade level and on track to graduate. This is hardly “babysitting” - this is 6 hours of summer school with an added recreational program to keep the students healthy and active. I don’t believe the Boys & Girls Club is a nationally known and respected non-profit because of their babysitting efforts. They are incredible mentors for these students and these kids now have something to look forward to each day. Again, I don’t think that is a “drop in the bucket”.
Money isn’t exactly falling from trees into these schools and we are doing exactly what we should be doing - we are getting the residential and the business community involved in their local schools in order to save the schools and save the property values in the area. That is what community is about - not sitting around and waiting for the someone else to step in and save the day.
I am quite passionate about this subject and I want to thank Woody for his incredible blog - we appreciate the love.
By Sandy_G
April 1, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this
“first of all what the heck are the CID and GVCA?”
A Community Improvement District (CID) is an organization of business owners who band together, agree to a voluntary self-tax to be used only in that district. They use the funds to pay for beautification, privately-paid security, etc. They can then apply for government grants to hire consultants to draft studies and plans to improve traffic, etc. The GVCA is the residential component of that organization. CID’s like the one at the Cumberland area in Cobb county have actually paid for interstate interchanges to be built to ease traffic. Our Gwinnett Village CID paid to have all three I-85 interchanges relandscaped. The reason they do this? Our tax money is being squandered by our elected officials. We pay more taxes now than we ever have in the history of the U.S., yet our transportation infrastructure is outdated and crumbling, our schools are in shambles both structurally and operationally and politicians seem hell-bent on doing nothing except posturing and creating new government programs that do nothing except waste more money.
“Secondly, what’s so special about three I-85 exits” This area generates the majority of the crime in Gwinnett county. Law-abiding people have left in droves to escape the crime, traffic and failing schools. Our Federal, county and state governments created the mess and now sit on their hands and do nothing to fix it. Private property owners have decided enough is enough and have taken matters into their own hands. It’s our generation’s version of the revolution of 1776. Our government no longer answers to the people it governs and therefore, we the people have the duty to establish other forms of self-government. It’s an idea as old as the Declaration of Independence and it’s long overdue.
“If the gov dept is underfunded why not add the so-called voluntary funds to increase the capacity of the gov dept to do the entire job?”
Ha, ha, ha, ha!! That’s a good one. Give the government more money and they’ll do the job!!! Thanks for that laugh, (hee, hee) I needed that today!
As far as summer programs for kids, I’d bet that two months of a private summer program greatly exceeds the quality and quantity of education that these kids receive in government schools during the course of the school year. Again, citizens have to take on their own self-government when government has ceased to function as it should.
We live just outside the borders of the Gwinnett CID. I dearly wish we lived in the CID. We are seeing the effects they are having on crime, mostly because we are seeing the criminal element pushed into our area where there is less police presence. Keep up the good work. We need it.
By PoliticalMan
April 1, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the last two comments; however, my questions/comments were not really answered.
All roads deserve proper maintenance. I believe that is a gov function. That is why we have elections: to elect those who will do the job. Of course, since gov bashing is in these days, we elect those who likewise bash gov and don’t do the job. Look no further than the man sitting in the oval office and the slackers that he has hired. They are all gov haters. And then there are taxes. You starve gov, you don’t get services. There is really no need for yet another org to do the job - fix the one that is staffed by incompetents or the lazy.
Secondly, all kids deserve extra programs. It’s not right to single out special kids. Boys clubs are strictly private. They don’t use public schools for their programs.
By Sandy_G
April 1, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this
“You starve gov, you don’t get services”
Our government is the most bloated, overgrown organization in this country. One fifth of all workers in this country are government employees. If I had the money that our government wastes every day, I’d be a billionaire.
“Secondly, all kids deserve extra programs. It’s not right to single out special kids.”
So, you’re saying that if I, as a private citizen, raise money from private donations and start a program in my neighborhood for kids, then I should not be allowed to limit my program just to kids from my neighborhood?
If you want your kids to have special, privately-funded programs, then start one! Noone is stopping you, but I don’t believe the government is responsible for educating and caring for your children. That’s your job as a parent.
Government was intended as a way to provide police and military protection, secure our borders, hold elections and make laws. It was never intended to provide cradle-to-the-grave financial support and personal services to it’s constituents. The reason we have no money for roads, is because a huge chunk of our federal budget is used to pay disability, welfare, food stamps, WIC, subsidized housing, Medicaid and Medicare to a large part of our population. Some need it, some don’t, but it’s not government’s job to feed, clothe and house people.
Our government cannot and will not fix itself because it is broken. Collecting more taxes, creating more government and more government programs will not fix it. Most Americans now work from January to May just to pay their tax bill. That’s right, most people’s total tax bill (income, sales, gasoline, property, personal property, etc.) is equal to about five months of their gross income. Where does it end? When we are handing over our entire paycheck to the government and getting free cheese and an apartment in return?
What is happening with these private organizations is that they are tired of trying to get government to do what it is supposed to do, and they are taking back their own communities. It’s the American way. When government no longer represents the governed people, the people abolish the government and replace it with a new form of government.
By Bruce Wilcox
April 1, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this
Sally Sherrington Haggard, I don’t believe in paying for what is nothing more than another level of government.
Some here wail about blooted government, so lets add another layer to correct it?
Why should a CID have to hire our own off-duty county police? Does that even strike you at a least a little odd?
The county screwed up years ago when Jimmy Carter was Gwinnett, greed and build, build, build for all those extra tax dollars. Only one problem, a problem that exsists today, no plan. no plan for parks, no plan for highways to handle the influx.
The countys answer has always been, let’s move up 85 an exit and we’ll do it better, have you taken a good look at Pleasant Hill lately?
There are only so many exits left. And I never trust someone with three names.
By Sandy_G
April 1, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
“Sally Sherrington Haggard, I don’t believe in paying for what is nothing more than another level of government.”
No one is asking you to, Bruce. If you own a business and you decide to hire a security guard, who is paying for it? You are. But let’s say your neighbors want extra security too, so all of you go in together to hire security guards to patrol your whole block. That’s what a CID does. It’s completely legal and it costs you nothing. These business owners still pay the same amount of property and sales tax they always did. They just agree to pay an extra $500 a year each to fund a private organization. They pay for it and surrounding residents benefit from a safer community. Should the government be doing this? Sure. But they’re not and they won’t.
Not one single penny is coming out of your pocket to pay for this and no money is being withheld from the tax coffers. So why are you upset? If you don’t want to pay CID dues, then you don’t pay them, period. It’s 100% voluntary.
By Bruce Wilcox
April 1, 2008 2:01 PM | Link to this
What part of the county isn’t doing it’s job if the CID has to hire our own off duty police to patrol the area?
We can build Bert’s Field of Dreams, but we can’t hire more police? Where’s the Quality of Life unit lately?
“when exactly does the community step up and take responsibility for some of their own challenges? “, when I have to power to arrest, write code violations and control traffic signals, because that is what I pay taxes for.
By PoliticalMan
April 1, 2008 5:35 PM | Link to this
I think there is a certain amount of inflated talk going on here. Like,
“Private property owners have decided enough is enough and have taken matters into their own hands. It’s our generation’s version of the revolution of 1776. Our government no longer answers to the people it governs and therefore, we the people have the duty to establish other forms of self-government. It’s an idea as old as the Declaration of Independence and it’s long overdue.”
Okay, I live on a street in GC with no sidewalks, no shoulder, and a real problem with speeders, and we have a lot of walkers and bicyclists. So my neighbors and I are now going to build a sidewalk and enforce speed limits. Good luck. The authorities will have me in jail way before the speeders and will probably bulldoze any sidewalk we may build.
The fact is that we have no authority to do any of that. Anti-gov talk is not going to solve the problem, nor is a pseudo-CofC org going to work either. There are few businesses in the area. The answer actually is that we the citizens should have been electing people to office who are people friendly instead of business friendly. Development should have been tied to improving infrastructure first. Now “build first” is the prevailing sentiment and worry about infrastructure later, if ever.
We should quit the chest-thumping. We the people have a gov. When are we going to start controlling it to make it work for us. We don’t need other quasi-governments.
By Woody Bass
April 1, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this
Sandy is correct… the self taxing district is 100% voluntary…. and I understand what everyone is saying.. but as Bert Nasuti recently said on a BOC meeting (yes I watch)… its a shame we had to go and create a CID in the first place.. but its a prime example of where the community DID pull together to do something themselves about the problems in the area.
By Woody Bass
April 1, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
PoliticalMan If you live in The Village or any other CID.. you may want to contact them before you build any sidewalks. I know especially along Jimmy Carter they are planning a series of sidewalks already to be built very soon.
By PoliticalMan
April 1, 2008 5:46 PM | Link to this
Woody, I live in Grayson. No CIDs or the like. No “needy” groups to beg for sidewalks. Just wall-to-wall cars.
By Sandy_G
April 1, 2008 6:50 PM | Link to this
Dear M. Political Man, When your lovely home in Grayson is surrounded by parking lots, strip malls, convenience stores and single-family homes bursting at the seams with 10 - 12 people living in one house and 15 cars parked in the front yard, we’ll see who is doing some “inflated talk”. When your neighborhood entrance sign is covered with graffiti and half the people in your neighborhood are selling their homes and moving out, when your neighborhood school posts messages on the sign out front in Spanish (i.e., Beaver Ruin Elementary), then we’ll see who is overreacting. Good luck to you in Grayson. I expect it will take about five years to recreate downtown Snellville in your area.
By PoliticalMan
April 2, 2008 8:44 AM | Link to this
I’ve posted a couple of comments on this blog emphasizing in the interests of practicality, authority, and fairness that gov is the proper level to perform some services such as road maintenance and school functions. As long as gov does do that at a adequate level, private orgs can supplement those functions. I don’t think, however, that CID and GVCA should be or can be a substitute for gov. That is putting a bandaid on a bigger problem.
Now I’m trying to figure out how expressing a desire for gov to perform its proper role, is a desire for neighborhood deterioration. The CID certainly has no land use planning power, or the power to issue or restrict building permits, or the power to prevent virtually everything mentioned in a previous post.
Maybe a little reflection on how we have gotten into this mess would be good. Gwinnett County gov has for decades been a rubber stamp for developers, builders, real estate brokers, banks, etc. We still to this day elect people from those backgrounds to county gov. We have reaped and are reaping our choices. The GC gov has constantly ignored land use plans and infrastructure readiness. And we do not enforce our laws. CID might clean things up a bit, but as I said, it is a bandaid to our failures as citizens to be interested enough in our communities to elect a responsible gov. And that is the bottom line.
By Stone Cold
April 2, 2008 10:00 AM | Link to this
Because Stone Cold says so.
By Michael
April 2, 2008 11:24 AM | Link to this
I would just like to get some info on the pregnant woman murdered and burned up in her house and a week later 2 men shot in their apartment. All on the same street corner, with no suspects mentioned. They will not even say how the Woman was killed except that it was not from the fire in her home. But hey if we get some really cool sidewalks, and I am alive to use them I guess it is ok.
By WindwardLnGirl
April 3, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
Michael I agree. I live in the neighborhood where the woman was killed, burned. I also came home to two news helicopters circling my house when the two men were shot Tuesday afternoon. It sure would be nice If Gwinnett Police could let us know what is going on in those cases!
By Cindy
April 5, 2008 9:20 AM | Link to this
Woody, How about make your next blog a really good one?
Do you realize I’ve had to hang out over in Badie’s blog all week?
Spice it up man…you know how they say two heads are better than one? Well two blogs are also better than one. There’s enough of me to spread between both blogs…and I still have time left to get bored. Maybe it’s just me huh? haha.
Anyway, dial it up a bit Woody, entertain me…don’t be scared to lay it out for us. This is your blog…for your words. Let’s have it, man…