HERE’S A CONCEPTUAL VIEW of what present unutilized land in Peachtree Corners could look like under a new proposal to link various parts of Technology Park together. It would include one new intersection and street, plus have walking trails and additional housing units.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Proposal For 39 Unused Acres To Upgrade Peachtree Corners
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Georgia Doesn’t Need Casino Gambling within Our Borders
ANOTHER VIEW: Looking Back at Presidential Campaigns in the Last 50 Years
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
FEEDBACK: Comments about the Common Core and Local Goldfinches
UPCOMING: Gwinnett Library To Launch Online High School This Spring
NOTABLE: ARC Releases New Region Plan, Its Long-Range Blueprint for Atlanta
RECOMMENDED: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
GEORGIA TIDBIT: McIntosh County Shouters Perform in Ancient African Tradition
TODAY’S QUOTE: Impressive Talents Worthless Without Motivation
MYSTERY PHOTO: Just Where Does This Stairway Lead, and in What City?
TODAY’S FOCUSProposal is for 39 unutilized acres to upgrade Peachtree Corners
(Editor’s Note: a Peachtree Corners resident and attorney Lee Tucker has come up with an idea to link various parts of the new city via trails, while at the same time opening up the area for additional development. Here is his plan, which was presented recently to the United Peachtree Corners Community Association.—eeb)
By Lee Tucker
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga., Feb. 26, 2016 | The Twin Lakes multi-use project, totaling approximately 39 acres, can be the catalyst for the activation of an underutilized area of the City of Peachtree Corners. The project will amenitize existing infrastructure to stimulate the creation of a vibrant community with a strong sense of place and unique recreational amenities.
Tucker
The proposed development contemplates a mix of property uses including public open space, commercial/retail development and upscale millennial housing. This cohesive development will not only increase the recreational opportunities and walkability of Peachtree Corners, but will also infuse the City with an active demographic that will take full advantage of the property’s proximity to the proposed Town Center and all of its amenities and attractions.
A significant portion of the property will be preserved in perpetuity as green space and include passive recreational uses such as a trail hub for the city’s expanding greenway network. The proposed development will activate “community” assets such as an existing, somewhat hidden, 15 acre lake within Technology Park in order to provide unique recreational opportunities for fishing, kayaking, bird-watching, and paddle boarding in and around the lake.
Additionally, the proposal would provide critical access to the public utility easement running through Peachtree Corners. This would, in turn, improve the potential for pedestrian connectivity to and from the many office buildings in the Technology Parkway area. This would give better access to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Peachtree Parkway, Medlock Bridge Road, and north towards the new proposed Peachtree Corners Town Center as indicated in the City’s Town Center Livable Center Initiative Study.
Area affected in the proposed plan. Click to see a larger image.
The Twin Lakes proposal also complements the city’s 2033 Plan by identifying and prioritizing a retail development opportunity at a key intersection in order to create a walkable, livable center. The plans call for the extension of Engineering Drive across Peachtree Parkway to connect with Technology Parkway. This road extension and new intersection along Peachtree Parkway will be controlled by a traffic signal and take pressure off the existing transportation infrastructure to the north and south.
The proposed uses will work together to enhance the vitality of the city’s Central Business District and create a distinct community and sense of place by enhancing housing, shopping, and recreational opportunities in Peachtree Corners. The proposed development would occur in an area of the city that the recent LCI study identified as an “opportunity for focus on young professional housing.” In addition, the project is designed to meet a growing demand for professional housing options closer to the city’s expanding office centers. With expanded housing options, the city improves its ability to attract millennials and young professionals.
The proposed residential buildings will feature attractive architecture as well as common areas that will include a cyber café with free Wi-Fi, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a resort-style saltwater pool, pergolas and poolside grilling stations. Additionally, the millennial housing community will have bocce ball courts and a dock for fishing, boat launching, and other activities on the lake.
- For more information about this project, please go to the websites for Peachtree Corners and/or the UPCCA. Feel free to contact me via email at ltucker@mptlawfirm.com.
Georgia doesn’t need casino gambling within its borders
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
FEB. 26, 2016 | The casino gambling industry is playing hardball, in a sneaky, unethical and vile manner, as it seeks to compel the Georgia legislature to allow this industry in Georgia.
We don’t want the gambling industry in Georgia.
To begin with, just look at tactics. The industry is preying on Georgia’s children to get this sinister racket to become legal in our state.
Here’s how: It is operating under the name of the “Committee to Preserve Hope Scholarship.” But when you examine the working of that group, it should properly be called: “The Way To Sneak Casino Gambling by Georgians.” Riding on the popular Hope Scholarship, which would get a piddling of the revenue from gambling, is despicable! How dare they!
We feel most Georgians, while pleased with HOPE, don’t want it funded from the ill-gotten profits of casino gambling! The lottery is about our limits for funding HOPE.
This casino-pushing group even has the audacity to promote the number of jobs which would be created by this gambling industry within our borders. But look carefully: imagine the level of pay for casino jobs! It is not something you want your son or daughter to be involved with.
Do you know any even middle-class employees in the gambling field? Most of the job would be low-level poker dealers, cocktail waitresses or security guards. The gambling industry also talks of jobs outside gambling, including hotels, car rental agencies, other allied fields and accountants. They are right about one thing: gambling will produce many accounting jobs — to make sure they add up all the money the profits of the casinos must move to their high-stakes owners!
Think too how many of those profit dollars would wind up in Georgia. Not many.
Another element in the “Committee to Preserve Hope Scholarship” (remember its real name of the “The Way To Sneak Casino Gambling by Georgians”) is claiming how much money Georgians spend at gambling arenas in the neighboring states of Alabama, Florida and North Carolina. The gambling industry smiles and says that Georgia should keep this money within the state. How about we let Alabama, Florida and North Carolina keep this Georgia money, for they will need it for all the problems that gambling will bring to their states. Gambling breeds insecurity, distrust, poverty and families in trouble. It takes a lot of state money to fight these problems that the gambling industry brings. These three states will need it.
We cite a place where gambling once thrived: Atlantic City, N.J. Along with Las Vegas as two places once for legal gambling in the USA, now the city has fallen on harsh times and is decaying. Gambling has not made the town attractive. Just ask yourself: would you want to live in Atlantic City, or even Las Vegas? Do we see our reasonable, productive and sound way of life in Georgia going on in cities where gambling is the major industry? Most Georgians, we feel, do not think this way.
Just examine who is funding the front for gambling, this so-called “Committee to Preserve Hope Scholarship.” It’s the likes of MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Harrah’s Entertainment and other gambling big boys. Are these the type of people we want in Georgia?
Gambling is no panacea to solve Georgia’s budget problems. The only way to beat gambling in Georgia is to tell your legislators that you don’t want gambling here. And remember, also tell them that their name will be on the ballot this November. Let’s keep Georgia casino gambling free.
ANOTHER VIEWLooking back at presidential campaigns in the last 50 years
By Hoyt Tuggle
FEB. 26, 2016 | In modern times, political primaries seem to be a better indication of undercurrents in American political life than do general elections.
Tuggle
Goldwater’s success in the primaries and utter defeat in the general election in 1964 led to a temporary comeback for the GOP establishment with Nixon and his Southern strategy in 1968 and 1972.
Eugene McCarthy’s strong showing in the early primaries of 1968 led to Johnson’s withdrawal from the race and the entrance of Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
The fractured Democrats led to Humphrey’s defeat and George McGovern’s nomination and utter defeat in 1972. Non-establishment Carter won in 1976 and non-establishment Reagan won in 1980 and 1984. By then Reagan had become the establishment. The first Bush was basically an extension of Reagan. Bill Clinton was neither establishment nor non-establishment, but became the establishment much as Reagan did.
The next fracture came in 2008 with Obama’s overthrowing the Clinton establishment. That leaves us with today. Will history’s pattern prevail? I think not!
Both political parties are being fractured at the same time. That’s something different! The GOP’s Southern strategy, which has become a national strategy, is unraveling. The GOP establishment’s using, and thus abusing, of this constituency is real and has boiled over into a real insurgency. The genie is out of the bottle.
The Democrats are facing a similar insurgency. As Obama overthrew the establishment in 2008 so may Sanders do the same in 2016. Where the GOP establishment came back in 1968, establishment Clinton may not.
(This is written before the caucuses in Nevada and the Republican primary in South Carolina. Whatever the results, some things remain constant.)
Presidential elections are determined neither by facts nor rationality. They are often determined by either fear or hope. It is fairly easy, at this point, to feel that the fear of unwanted change, manifesting itself as anger, pervades the Republican Party. Only Kasich is running on hope. If he can hang on until the Ohio primary, he has an outside shot.
Where are the Democrats? I don’t see hope here either. Sanders, should he win the general election, would have less chance than Obama in getting anything he has promised accomplished. It’s zero chance, in my opinion. Clinton is running on the fear of what will happen if the GOP is successful.
Where does that leave us? In the primaries I don’t know. In the general election, if it’s Clinton versus anybody but Rubio-Kasich, then Clinton wins.
With either Rubio or Kasich, we have a blast out of the past, such as Kennedy-Johnson 1960. The similarities are many. Kennedy ran for an open seat previously held by a two-term president of the opposing party; a young, and young looking, highly articulate charismatic candidate, who is/was not fully accepted by a large segment of his party. He was given party credibility by an older proven member of the establishment (Johnson).
Most importantly for Rubio or Kasich, both are most popular in their home states, arguably the two largest swing states. Only by carrying these states can the GOP overcome the advantage the Democrats have in the Electoral College.
These are exciting, if not very unsettling, times.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTGeorgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
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Appreciates recent comment concerning Common Core
Editor, the Forum:
Dr. David Fincher of Greater Atlanta Christian School comments in the last edition of GwinnettForum impressed me, as he discussed the use and role of Common Core at GAC. Common Core (CC) is a much abused and misused term to describe an unrelated problem of major curriculum and textbook changes that have been sold to school boards by publishers.
People associate the unfamiliar and bizarre approach to common multiplication and subtraction introduced by Every Day Math with CC. There is no connection! People blame the confusing language and logic in the new social studies textbooks as CC – not related!
There have been many changes in the textbook industry trying to adapt to not only to goals based learning but more to online and interactive presentation (trying to avoid the 80-pound backpack!) that much has been lost or garbled in the re-writes. This is not CC – it’s the failure of school boards to read and scrutinize the textbook submissions before approval. But also its aggressive sales tactics used by the textbook companies to sell ‘systems’ that sometimes involve substantial organizational change to go with them. Again, this is not CC but school boards being misled in the sales presentation and possibly being told that its dictated by the ‘state’ or DOE when in reality its not.
The key benefits of CC is first an agreement on what a fifth grader in Alabama should know so that if he moved to a Georgia school that he would not be moved up or down a grade. Second, important to all parents and stakeholders, is the ability to hold teachers accountable and to finally allow principals the freedom to staff their schools with educators who can get the job done. This has been long in coming.
Confusing CC with ‘Race To The Top’ or ‘No Child Left Behind’ will throw a very good baby out with the bathwater just because Obama embraced it. It’s worth going back and understanding why the governors embraced it in the first place. Thanks to Dr. David Fincher for not cowling to the political winds.
— Joe Briggs, Buford
Ooops. Looks like goldfinches remain in Gwinnett year-round
Editor, the Forum:
In a recent edition of GwinnettForum, it was said that American goldfinches are flying northward. They are present in Gwinnett County year round.
As the males take on their winter color, which is much like the female, they are more difficult to identify. The females keep the same color year round.
— Elizabeth Neace, Harbins
- Send Feedback and Letters to: elliott@brack.net
Gwinnett library to launch online high school this spring
Gwinnett County Public Library will launch Career Online High School this Spring, an accredited high school completion program offered by database partner Gale Cengage Learning. GCPL will be the first library in Georgia to offer the program and among the first in the Southeast.
Pace
Career Online High School, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, is part of the world’s first accredited private online school district.
Library Executive Director Charles Pace says: “Through the generosity of Clyde and Sandra Strickland, we’ll be able to help adults in the Gwinnett community complete their high school education and give them the tools to start or advance their careers.”
Students can complete the program in as little as five months and graduate with an accredited high school diploma and a certificate in a high-growth, high-demand career field, along with a resume and cover letter.
The library is currently seeking matching donations to help fund the initial 25 adult students that will earn a high school diploma and become career and college ready. There is no cost to program participants. For more information about donating to the program, contact Executive Director Charles Pace at 770-822-5321.
Braselton seeking volunteers for its Main Street program
Volunteers are a key element to the Town of Braselton’s successful Main Street program. In fact, each year, community-minded volunteers contribute thousands of hours to help plan events, complete projects, plant flowers, provide general maintenance and so much more. There are plenty of ways to get involved in Downtown Braselton.
An immediate need is for someone to lend a helping hand to our Design Committee.
The primary responsibility of the Design Committee is to create an attractive, coordinated and high quality image capitalizing on all aspects of design that affect downtown’s image, unique assets, heritage and distinct aesthetic character. They are responsible for design improvement activity relating to building maintenance and rehabilitation, historic preservation, new construction, public and private signs, public improvements, traffic, parking and landscaping.
The goals for 2016 are:
- Promote walkability;
- Add visual elements to enhance appearance and enjoyment of the Downtown; and
- Continue to enhance the streetscape throughout Downtown.
Those interested in ways to get involved in the downtown community and would like to consider joining this fun and exciting team, should contact co-chair Cheri Winham at cheriwinham@hotmail.com.
- To learn more about other volunteer opportunities visit http://www.downtownbraselton.com/volunteer.htmlon.
Film opening this week concerns autism, has local tie -in
Jack of Red Hearts – a film opening this weekend (February 26) at AMC Sugarloaf Mills – is inspired by an Atlanta-based family’s experience with autism.
Taylor Richardson (“Glory,” in the film), Jennifer Deaton and AnnaSophia Robb (“Jack”)
Born and raised in Atlanta, Jennifer Deaton graduated from Stone Mountain High in 1989 with dreams of Hollywood taking her far from home. Her family was always supportive of her aspirations even as her niece became captive to a then-unfamiliar condition known as autism.
On a particular visit home from Los Angeles, Deaton was babysitting her niece. Out of frustration and exhaustion from the repetition and energy that severe autism requires, she wished for an Annie Sullivan-type person to come into my niece’s life and help break through to her, just as Annie Sullivan as Miracle Worker had managed to break through to Helen Keller.
And so “Jack of the Red Hearts” was born from a fantasy. But in reality, it has become an homage – not just to the William Gibson play – but an homage to her family and to families like theirs who deal with autism with courage and humor and love.
Beyond being an homage to families like her brother’s, the film seeks to build empathy in the greater society at large, through an entertaining suspenseful, and even romantic story.
NOTABLEARC releases new Atlanta Region’s Plan, its long-range blueprint
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) board has approved the Atlanta Region’s Plan, a long-range blueprint that details the investments and programs needed to ensure metro Atlanta’s future success and improve the region’s quality of life.
The plan, developed with public input, incorporates all of ARC’s planning areas: transportation, community development, natural resources, workforce development and aging & health services. The ARC board previously adopted a plan framework that focuses on a three-fold vision: providing world-class infrastructure; fostering healthy, livable communities; and building a competitive economy.
- The plan is available online at www.atlantaregionsplan.com.
ARC forecasts that over the next 25 years, the Atlanta region’s population will grow by 2.5 million – the equivalent of adding all of today’s metro Charlotte. The plan calls for an $85.1 billion investment in the region’s transportation system. Nearly two-thirds of the funds will be needed to maintain existing infrastructure, such as paving roads and repairing bridges, while $28 billion will be spent to expand the region’s transportation network.
Expenditures through 2040 include:
- Expansion of the network of managed toll lanes on area highways (I-75, I-575, Ga. 400, I-285 topside, I-20, I-85) promising better commutes for people who ride transit, carpool or pay a toll. Cost: $7 billion (for projects not yet under construction)
- Widening and improving major arterial roads. Cost: $5.8 billion
- Highway interchange improvements – 13 new interchanges and 22 major upgrades. Cost: $3.1 billion
- Potential transit expansion projects (Clayton County, Ga., Highway 400, I-20 East, Clifton Corridor, Connect Cobb, Atlanta BeltLine/Streetcar). Cost: $11.9 billion
To ensure the region remains economically competitive, the plan includes initiatives such as Aerotropolis Atlanta, an alliance of public and private organizations that seeks to transform the airport area into a world-class economic hub.
Sugar Hill releases Sweet Life Concert Series lineup for 2016
The City of Sugar Hill has released their Sweet Life Concert Series lineup for 2016.
The season kicks off with Grammy award winning musicians, The Mavericks on May 28. From their earliest shows as a garage band playing the punk clubs on Miami Beach, The Mavericks have had a skill for getting people to groove.
Others performing include:
- June 11: Blues Traveler.
- July 16: Kool and the Gang.
- August 13: Prince tribute band, The Purple Xperience.
- September 3: Third Eye Blind.
- October 15: Eagles tribute band, Seven Bridges.
The Sweet Life Concerts will all take place in The Bowl, Sugar Hill’s state-of-the-art amphitheater. The Bowl has been undergoing improvements to prepare for the new concert series.
Mayor Steve Edwards is proud to present The Bowl improvements with the residents. He says: “The lineup represents a multitude of choices for concert goers and we get to show off our amphitheater improvements.”
The Sweet Life Concert Series tickets will be released one concert at a time, starting with on March 8. Persons interested in purchasing tickets should follow the City’s website for information.
- For additional information, contact the City’s events department at (770) 945-6716.
William Day NSDAR chapter announces essay contest winners
Four students were honored February 14 by the Duluth William Day Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), for winning essays. From the left are Akash Patel, Mason Elementary School, grade 5; Braden McKnight, Hull Middle School, grade 8; and Vani Senthil, Duluth High School, grade 9. Akash and Braden were winners of their respective grade level American History Essay Contests. Vani won at the high school level for the Christopher Columbus Essay Contest. Vani is a three-time repeat winner. Not present is another winner, as Haley Harvard of Brookwood High. The William Day Chapter serves largely the Duluth school clusters. Other Gwinnet NSDAR chapters who hold annual essay contests are Suwanee Creek and Philadelphia Winn.
Go Set a Watchman
A novel by Harper Lee
This is a thought-provoking portrait because the events it portrays underscore longstanding but not always easily recognized influences on American Ideology. ‘Scout’ of To Kill a Mockingbird comes back to Maycomb, Ala., to visit her father Atticus, her former best friend/beau Henry and others. Initially content with poignant reminisces of her childhood, she begins to see a culture that has not changed since the jury trial in which her father served as the defense attorney decades ago. Disappointed with what she believes is her father’s betrayal of his values and after a searing argument with him, she is catapulted into adulthood by her wise uncle. He assists Jean Louise in setting her own interior ‘watchman’ or conscience. This book starts out slowly but builds to a powerful conclusion. It presents ways to face truths that can be obscured by what seems to be virtue during dark times.
— Karen Harris, Stone Mountain
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBITMcIntosh County Shouters perform in ancient African tradition
(Continued from previous edition)
While the word shout is used to describe the collective elements of the tradition, it more specifically refers to the dancelike movement. Today’s shouters differentiate between the singers and the shouters, the latter referring to those who move counterclockwise in the ring.
Linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner has convincingly proposed that the word shout here derives from the Afro-Arabic saut, referring to movement around the Kabaa in Mecca. The shout movement is a forward hitching shuffle in which the feet never cross; the practitioners of the tradition maintain that crossing the feet would be unholy dancing, whereas the shout is in the service of the Lord.
When the living ring shout tradition in Bolden became known to outsiders in 1980, a performing group from the community was organized, calling themselves the McIntosh County Shouters. Under the leadership of elder songster Lawrence McKiver, they endeavored to present on stage faithful re-creations of their community tradition that had been passed on from their slave forebears, especially London and Amy Jenkins, grandparents of the current group’s elder shouters.
From their first appearance at the Sea Island Festival on St. Simons Island, the group went on to such venues as the National Folk Festival at Wolf Trap Farm in Va., Atlanta‘s Black Arts Festival, and New York’s Lincoln Center. They were featured in a Georgia Public Television documentary and on a Folkways LP. In 1993 the group was awarded the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 2010 it received a Governor’s Award in the Humanities.
Although the tradition is in some ways modified for public performance, adding what their presenter Bettye Ector calls “showmanship,” the shouters maintain that the core spiritual and community values are intact—what one shouter calls “the same sweet, sweet spirit.” Continuing the dynamic development of tradition, some elements added in stage presentations have reentered practice in the Watch Night shouts in the community.
Survival of the venerable ring shout tradition in Bolden can be attributed to several factors: a relatively stable community with economic viability, significant outside recognition of the value of the tradition, and the perseverance of several elder tradition-bearers who are deeply committed to continuing the tradition in both community practice and public performance and to encouraging its practice by a new generation.
- To access the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Just where does this stairway lead — and in what city?
This impressive stairway leads the way to all sort of treasures. Have you seen this scene before, and might know where it is? If so, send your idea to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Last edition’s mystery photo was close to home, but only two people recognized it. Tim Keith of Sugar Hill recognized the reservoir at the Lake Lanier Water Plant as the mystery photo. So did Karen Burnette Garner of Dacula. The reservoir holds fresh water from Lake Lanier before the water is run through the water system to remove impurities, gets treated with ozone, then is filtered before being released to the Gwinnett Water system. The county also has another water plant with intake from Lake Lanier at the Wayne Hill Water Plant.
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- MORE: Contact Editor and Publisher Elliott Brack at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com
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