By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Starting a new year means it’s a good time to point out and review GwinnettForum’s list of Continuing Objectives for Gwinnett and the state of Georgia.
These are major ways for improving the life of people of Gwinnett and Georgia. These items have been written about here in the past. Items are removed from this list when the objective has been accomplished. Sometimes it takes several years to see improvements enacted and come to fruition.
We’ll go through these objectives one by one. First, we’ll look at local objectives.
- Development of a two-party system for county offices. This is a bright spot on the list of objectives, as significant progress was made in this corner. What we seek to accomplish here is a parity of the two major parties. In the last election, there were significant gains made by the Democratic Party in the percent of votes candidates garnered in local races. We look forward to the day when both parties will offer viable candidates for office with a chance of winning. Gwinnett is approaching that now.
- Light rail for Gwinnett from Doraville MARTA station to Gwinnett Arena. Though lot of talk, there’s been little decent progress on this long overdue objective.
- Extension of Gwinnett Place CID area to include Gwinnett Arena and Sugarloaf Mills Mall. This scored major progress, not in the way presented, but in the formation of the Sugarloaf Community Improvement District for the area around the Gwinnett Arena, which began business January 1. The CID now operates out of an office on the second floor of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. However, the Sugarloaf Mills Mall has yet to join this new CID. We change this Objective to read: “Strengthen the Sugarloaf CID by adding other significant properties in this area to its boundaries.”
- Banning of tobacco in all Gwinnett parks. No progress.
- More diverse candidates for political offices and appointment to local boards. We saw more minority candidates in local races, and even some victories in the last election. We continue to list this as an objective, and look for even more appointments of diverse candidates to local boards.
- Creative efforts to support the arts in Gwinnett. There is continued progress throughout Gwinnett in support of the arts. There is still a long way to go to support the fine arts at a sound level in Gwinnett.
- Advancement and expansion of municipal and Gwinnett historical societies. Little progress.
- Stronger regulation of late-night establishments with alcoholic licenses. No progress. It’s a shame what happens during the wee hours around such facilities. Our quality of life would be far better if such business had stronger regulation.
Statewide objectives:
- Moving statewide non-partisan judge election runoffs to the General Election. No progress. There’s no reason to elect judges in the primary, when fewer people vote. This is a gross oversight which needs correction.
- Requiring the Georgia Legislature to meet once every two years. No progress. “Oh, we’ve got too much to do,” Legislators tell us. That’s the problem: we need legislators doing less to us. The General Assembly would be just as effective, perhaps concentrating only on significant legislation, if it limited its sessions to once every two years.
- Establishment of more Community Gardens. We’re seeing more progress on this idea, by cities, by churches and communities. The Island nation of Cuba has seen significant increases in growing fresh produce for its nation with governmental encouragement of such gardens. The United States could take lessons from Cuba on this front. We’re encouraged with opening of the new Discovery Garden in Norcross.
- Development of more roundabouts at heavy traffic intersections. While Gwinnett County has a few more roundabouts, and some in the works, we’re seeing more and more of these traffic improvement facilities around the state of Georgia. Hurrah for other communities and state agencies encouraging this modern vehicular intersection improvement!
While we recognize that our list of Continuing Objectives often takes long to develop, we think it’s important to keep promoting these worthwhile improvements. We invite readers to send in ideas for other Continuing Objectives.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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