2/27: On Rep. Coleman; Suburban changes; Extremism

GWINNETT LIBRARIES are also community centers, as this scene by Roving Photographer Frank Sharp beautifully shows. These children at the Suwanee Library are busily enjoying themselves on LEGO day, right in the middle of the library. How cool is that! A big “Attaboy,” for Frank!

TODAY’S FOCUS: After 26 Years, Brooks Coleman To Leave Georgia Legislature

EEB PERSPECTIVE: Suburban Gwinnett Changes, as More Multi-Family Units Arrive

ANOTHER VIEW: Some Corporations step up to counter the NRA’s extremism

SPOTLIGHT: Mingledorff’s

FEEDBACK: Parkland Shooting Will Bring Sociological Change in Next Few Years

McLEMORE’S WORLD: How Firm a Foundation

UPCOMING: Snellville civic dinners tackling issues of the day one meal at a time

NOTABLE: Winn DAR Chapter Announces Good Citizen Awards

RECOMMENDED: What Can I Do?  By Clyde Strickland

GEORGIA TIDBIT: North Georgia Mountain Land Now Valued in Tourist Dollars

MYSTERY PHOTO: This Nighttime Scene of a Skyscraper is Today’s Mystery Photo

LAGNIAPPE: More Evidence of Beautiful, Blooming Gwinnett

CALENDAR: Abstract Art Workshop Coming Soon to Kudzu Art Center

After 26 years, Brooks Coleman to leave Georgia legislature

By Betsy Lynch, Duluth, Ga.  |  State Representative Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) has announced that he will not seek re-election to the Georgia House of Representatives. Rep. Coleman will retire at the end of his current term after serving 26 years in the Georgia General Assembly.

Coleman

He says: “It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to represent the citizens in my district under the Gold Dome all of these years. Being a state representative for the last 26 years has allowed me to work alongside some incredible Georgians and create education policies for the good of our state’s students and educators. I am sincerely grateful to have been able to serve in the Georgia House of Representatives for so many years, and I will greatly miss serving in this honorable role.”

Rep. Coleman was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1992 and currently serves as Chairman of the House Education Committee. He has represented portions of Gwinnett County since he was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly.

During his career in the House, he authored and co-authored legislation that provided support to low-performing schools, reformed benefits under the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, eliminated the Georgia High School Graduation Test, revised teacher certification renewal rules, enacted the Student Health and Physical Education Act to ensure Georgia’s students are physically healthy, raised compensation for math and science teachers in Georgia and authorized the Public Education Innovation Fund Foundation to receive private donations to be used for grants to public schools.

Coleman Middle School opened in the fall of 2016 and is named in honor of Rep. Coleman. Coleman Middle School is the first Gwinnett County school to add an arts focus to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) based curriculum.

Rep. Coleman has served as a teacher, principal, director of curriculum for Gwinnett County and assistant superintendent. He has also spent time as a motivational speaker and an auctioneer helping to raise money for charities and schools.

Representative Coleman has a Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Administration/Curriculum. He holds two Education Specialist degrees in Administration/Supervision and Elementary Education. He received his Master of Education in Administration/Supervision from the University of Georgia and attended Mercer University where he gained his Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.

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Suburban Gwinnett changes as more multi-family units arrive

By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher  |  As suburbs move toward maturity, they change, in that they are more welcoming to multi-family housing.

This comes about for several reasons.  First, as communities have more people in single family houses, land becomes more eaten up and therefore more valuable, since there is less open land in those communities.  As more jobs open up in suburban areas, more people want to live in those communities to be close to their work. Too, it’s more economical per unit to build multi-family housing.

And soon, these emerging work forces include many more young people, who suddenly find it frustrating to commute in traffic from the inner city to their jobs in a suburban community. So they seek housing, and for the younger set, it usually begins as multi-family housing.

These days we find more Gwinnett cities “maturing” as living centers.  However, some Gwinnett cities seem to be stagnant when it comes to multi-family housing. Some seem to resist town houses, condominiums and apartments.

Calling on a possibly inadequate memory, it appears to us that the City of Suwanee was the first city in Gwinnett to embrace with open-arms people living close together. You may remember that when the Suwanee City Hall was built in 2009, the area closely around the City Hall was zoned for apartments, town homes and condos. Some of the plan was to have retail activities on the street level, and living facilities above.  And the town homes were required to provide parking for its residents.

Today that area not only has a thriving downtown area with shops and open space, it is the center of the town activity.  And more closely-packed living is coming, as a new multi-unit complex is now rising just south of the original Town Center area.

Perhaps the town most active in providing multi-family living today is Duluth, with its massive District at Duluth (371 units) project well underway and slated to be open in June, 2018.  Not only that, but in the area west of the city Hall and Festival Center, new town homes and single family homes are rising. Altogether, there will soon be more than 131 housing units adjacent to the City Hall and Festival Center.

Those changes in Duluth didn’t just happen by accident. The City conducted an extensive planning effort, and came up with what they called a 10-10-10 plan about 2013.  The city wanted to make sure that the soon-to-develop downtown area had 10 places to eat, 10 places to shop, and 10 things to do after 5 p.m.  This came from a study of 400 most successful communities in Canada and America, which indicated this formula would produce a sustainable area.

What a terrific plan!  You can see in downtown Duluth these days that it is working. There is terrific excitement in Duluth today, with new retail outlets and restaurants opening.

There’s new multi-family activities in several other Gwinnett cities, particularly in Peachtree Corners, Sugar Hill, Lilburn and in Lawrenceville.

At one time, people in Peachtree Corners were resisting more apartments. However, in the new Town Center, there are over 70 upscale town homes under construction, anticipated to be open by December.  However, adjacent is another project of 169 luxury apartments, plus a boutique hotel of 100 rooms, plus more retail activity.

In unincorporated Gwinnett, apartments have always been in the housing mix. However, in recent years many of the new multi-family construction have activity been concentrated in the cities. There’s something about having a “walkable downtown” that seems to appeal to development people.

That’s some of the activities going on in some of the incorporated cities of the county, making for still more changes in Gwinnett.

• Have a comment? Send to:  elliott@brack.net

Some corporations step up to counter the NRA’s extremism

By George Wilson, contributing columnist  |  Several major companies, Enterprise Holdings, First National Bank of Omaha, Symantec and Hertz, Delta and United Airlines have ended co-branding partnerships with the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the BoycottNRA social media movement picks up steam.

Like many other organizations, the NRA has deals with companies designed to make membership more appealing. The NRA “member benefits” page offers savings on a credit card, hearing aids, car rentals, travel, car purchases and prescription drugs. FedEx, for example, gives NRA Business Alliance members up to a 26 percent discount on shipping expenses.

Reshma Kapadia writes in the “Streetwise” column of Barrons: “For many Florida teachers, it’s an indignity on top of a tragedy. Inside their retirement plans, they hold stock in the companies that make the AR-15 rifle. The $163 billion Florida Retirement Pension Plan had a $4 million stake in gun manufacturers as of December 31. Nearly half of that comes from a low-cost index fund that tracks the broad-based Russell 3000.”

She adds: “Indexing giants Vanguard and BlackRock are the largest investors in the three major publicly traded gun makers. BlackRock owns 11 percent of American Outdoor Brands, formerly Smith and Wesson. Together, BlackRock and Vanguard own 26 percent of Sturm Ruger, which makes semi-automatic rifles including the AR-15. And they’re the No. 2 and No. 3 owners, respectively, of Vista Outdoor.”

Finally, we have now entered a time that the NRA has become a radical far-right fringe organization. Recently, it has taking on positions other than guns. Actually, in fact, most NRA members support rational and reasonable measures to reduce gun violence, namely background checks, keeping guns from the mentally ill and terrorists.

It is the NRA and the gun manufacturers with their scare tactics that prevent sane laws that reduce killings. So, if our legislators are afraid of the NRA; corporations and businesses should continue to take up this task of preventing organizations like the NRA from promoting more violence.

• Have a comment? Send to:  elliott@brack.net

Mingledorff’s

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s featured sponsor is Mingledorff’s, an air conditioning distributor of the Carrier Air Conditioning Company. Mingledorff’s corporate office is located at 6675 Jones Mill Court in Norcross, Ga. and is proud to be a sponsor of the Gwinnett Forum. With 34 locations in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina, Mingledorff’s is the convenient local source with a complete line for the quality heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration parts and supplies you need to service and install HVAC/R equipment. Product lines include Carrier, Bryant, Payne, Totaline and Mitsubishi.

• For all of your HVAC needs, and information on the products Mingledorff’s sells, visit mingledorffs.com and www.carrier.com.

Parkland shooting will bring sociological change in next few years

Editor, the Forum:

On the Parkland School murders: There is something different in the reaction to this shooting, as folks have said: “Enough” before, but this time I sense a sociological change afoot.

The affected youth are enraged and motivated by sadness, grief, loss and love. These kids are going to change things; they are young voters with a mission. Listen to what they are saying.

If you take the freshmen and sophomores at college or those that have graduated who lost friends, and the 10th and 11th graders, there now you have a huge voting block for the 2018 and 2020 elections. Once this spreads out through the school systems, it could be in the many millions.

The youths that were targeted will use and wear out social media.  They will do what their grandparents did with only letters and posters and rallies. This will be no different than the anti-war and civil rights sociological changes.

Yes, I support gun rights, but there is now a “But” in there, and that “But” is spreading. This will be an interesting sociological experiment to watch over the next six or eight years .

— Tom Payne, Gray

Don’t count on mental health field to prevent gun violence

Editor, the Forum:

As a mental health professional for 30 years, I need to clarify how mental health relates to background checks when buying a gun.

First know that to be placed on the No Buy List someone needs to be adjudicated to involuntary hospitalization or to be declared unable to care for themselves. Most mentally ill do not fall into this category.  Secondly know that professionals are prohibited from reporting possibly dangerous clients unless there is an immediate and specific threat. Thirdly there is no real requirement for states to report adjudicated mental health cases to the national gun registry. In fact several states report less than 100 cases a year.

I had only three cases in my 30 years of practice where I was required to report a specific danger.  As a result, in one situation, the sheriff simply drove the person to the county line and warned him never to return. A second case the Secret Service interviewed me but no action was taken.  In the third case the person was jailed for knifing someone.

Using the mental health system to prevent gun violence, I think is wishful thinking.  I would rather that we develop a system of identifying individuals with a propensity for violence and prevent them from buying guns nationwide.

— Alan Schneiberg, Ph.D., Sugar Hill

Remembers years of opposition by Republicans to President Obama

Editor, the Forum:

A recent writer (Ms. Upchurch) wrote that President Obama had eight years to pass gun control legislation and, in her opinion, did nothing.

She apparently has a very short memory.  The Republicans in congress had a publicly stated policy of opposing anything President Obama proposed and acted on that policy daily.  I said frequently that the congressional Republicans would suffocate if Obama issued a statement in favor of respiration, as they would cease to breathe in opposition to that statement. Again, Ms. Upchurch has a very short memory.

— Robert H. Hanson, Loganville

Plenty of “Wow! I didn’t know that” in 366 Fact Book about Gwinnett

Editor, the Forum:

The Gwinnett 366 Fact Book is awesome. There is an interesting factoid for everyday of the year. Did you know that many of the early Gwinnett settlers were winners in the 1820 Land Lottery or that we have 17 mosques in Gwinnett or that we return 34 million gallons of clean water to Lake Lanier each day?  It is full of “Wow, I didn’t know that” moments of interest to all Gwinnetians!

— Mary Hester, Berkeley Lake

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How Firm a Foundation

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Snellville civic dinners tackling issues of the day one meal at a time

Snellville residents have been meeting in City Hall periodically for discussion on issues facing the region.

The dinners, an initiative of the Atlanta Regional Commission, have brought policy discussion off the floors of congress, the statehouse and council chambers, and into a casual environment where talk is less formal – though it is summarized and sent to the ARC for review and to use to refine future plans.

Free from the confines of bureaucracy, the group tackles issues of the day, such as the recent discussion of transportation in Metro Atlanta. Among those in attendance at the last dinner was Congressman Rob Woodall, Loganville Mayor Rey Martinez and Councilman Dave Emanuel, the dinner’s host. Emanuel says: “With traffic and road congestion in and around Atlanta being on the minds of anyone who has to travel in the area, it’s no surprise that mobility is one of the hottest topics discussed at Civic Dinners. The conversation was lively. It was also very productive, as attendees discussed not only a variety of mobility problems and challenges, but potential solutions.”

When the conversation moved to mass transit, the most telling comment was, according to Emanuel, “Why is so much of the conversation centered around light rail and heavy rail? Those are outmoded relics of the past. Just as air travel just about killed long-distance passenger rail service, autonomous vehicles and bus rapid transit will have the same effect on commuter rail.”

Conversation moved from creating an internet portal to enable citizens to stay apprised of all transportation projects to MARTA transitioning to autonomous rail cars to improve service and reduce costs. To be included in future civic dinners, email Emanuel at demanuel@snellville.org.

Parks at George Pierce and Mountain Park Getting New Equipment

Two Gwinnett County parks will soon get new playground equipment and improved handicap-accessibility under a new SPLOST-funded $750,192 contract approved by commissioners recently.

Landscape Structures Inc. of Delano, Minn. was the low responsive bidder to remove and replace playground equipment and surfaces at George Pierce Park in Suwanee and Mountain Park Park in Lilburn.

George Pierce Park is at 55 Buford Highway in Suwanee and Mountain Park Park is at 5050 Five Forks Trickum Road in Lilburn.

Winn DAR Chapter announces Good Citizen Awards

Philadelphia Winn Chapter has presented several Daughters of the American Revolution awards annually to deserving youth and adults in local communities. The DAR Good Citizens Award is presented to one high school senior from each participating high school.  DAR Good Citizens must have the following qualities: Dependability; Service; Leadership and Patriotism.

Each of these students has received monetary awards of $100 for being chosen as their school’s DAR Good Citizen and $100 for participating in the essay contest.

The DAR Good Citizens Award winners are:

* Amber Cone, Central Gwinnett High School. She also gets $100 for being the Philadelphia Winn Chapter NSDAR Essay Contest Winner. She the daughter of Linda Cone and Rick Cone. She is an excellent student with a 4.0 GPA, and a class rank of third out of 525 students. After graduation, Amber plans to attend college.

* Akugbe Imudia, Grayson High School. He is a senior at Grayson High School and the son of Godfrey and Queen Imudia. Akugbe has been a member of Student Council for four years. Akugbe has many personal achievements such as a Black Belt in Tae kwon do. After graduation, Akugbe plans to pursue a degree in physics and computer engineering.

* Natalie Boutwell, North Gwinnett High School. She is the daughter of Michael and Laura Boutwell, and a senior at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee. Natalie is an AP Scholar with Distinction, taking five AP classes in her senior year. She is active in her community in dance and scouting, receiving the prestigious Girl Scout Silver Award, and has worked with her troop to create a Little Free Library for the Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta. After graduation, Natalie plans to attend college and to major in International Affairs and minor in Spanish.

 * Grace Davis, a senior at Loganville Christian Academy. She is the daughter of Drew and Cynthia Davis of Covington. Grace has served for the past two years as a member of the Student Government Association.  She has served as their Class Representative, and this year is her class Secretary/Treasurer.  Grace is very active in gymnastics and serves as a positive role model and leader on her team as the oldest team member. After graduation, Grace plans to attend Lipscomb University to major in history or political science, and plans to attend law school to become an adoption attorney.

Lake Lanier Islands winner of award as best wedding site

Lake Lanier Islands has been selected as a 2018 winner in The Knot Best of Weddings, an award representing wedding professionals as reviewed by real couples, their families and wedding guests on The Knot, an online wedding brand. Offering more than 20 indoor and outdoor event venues, Lanier Islands continues to gain favor with brides and grooms-to-be as wedding site.

Stephanie Orr, vice president of sales and marketing at Lanier Island said: “We are incredibly honored by this distinction from The Knot.”

In addition to this most recent accolade from The Knot, Lanier Islands was recently named “Best Rehearsal Dinner Site” by 2017 Best of Atlanta Bridal Awards.

• To learn more about weddings at Lanier Islands, wedding planners and couples are invited to visit https://www.lanierislands.com/weddings..

What Can I Do?  By Clyde Strickland

Summarized by Clyde Strickland, Lawrenceville:  “My oldest son, Mike, said that I needed to write another book that covered my last 17 years, ‘Because you never stop and God has done so much through you.’ Yes, I keep working on whatever God puts in my mind.  Our world is in a mess and our leader just fights to stay in office and our families are falling apart. Some 54 percent of kids in schools have no father in their homes.  We must teach families the work ethic and how to feed a family.  So I decided to give them a few ‘Clyde-isms’ and let them know that God is still in charge and hearing our prayers and healing our land.  If we look to him and believe, then God will bless you and your family.” (The book is available from Amazon.)

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.  Send to:  elliott@brack.net

North Georgia mountain land now valued in tourist dollars

(Continued from previous edition)

The present national forest system was established under the Weeks Act of 1911, which authorized a relatively new agency, the U.S. Forest Service, to acquire land for forest reserves. Such trade groups as the National Hardwood Lumber Association and the National Lumber Manufacturers Association supported the act.

The mission of the forest service grew from a commonly held belief among foresters that the United States would soon confront a “timber famine” caused by the voracious appetite of the timber industry and its irresponsible forestry practices. To create a bulwark against this coming famine, the Forest Service began purchasing seriously overcut or overfarmed land in the hope that these lands could be reforested for future timber needs.

The result of the Weeks Act for north Georgia was the Chattahoochee National Forest, formally designated in 1937 but originally part of the much larger Cherokee National Forest purchase of 1917. The forest service eventually acquired 749,000 acres in north Georgia. The majority was purchased from the timber companies, but land was also bought from local owners, usually at prices comparable to those the timber companies had paid earlier—a few dollars an acre on average. Though mountain residents willingly sold their land, dramatic rises in land values and the removal of so much acreage from local tax bases fostered resentment in the coming years.

The forest service also began to draw criticism from the public over its timbering practices. Originally created to be a model of stewardship, the forest service shifted in the 1950s to many of the timbering practices it had originally opposed, including clear-cutting. It also logged almost all remaining old-growth forest in north Georgia. As much as one-third of the forest land in north Georgia, it has been estimated, was virgin timber when the forest service acquired it. At the beginning of the 21st century virgin stands probably cover less than two percent of the Chattahoochee National Forest.

Private land around the national forest also experienced a high degree of forest removal in the last few decades of the 20th century. North Georgia lost almost 100,000 acres of forest land to development from 1990 to 2000, and the trend is expected to continue as Atlanta sprawls northward. The Chattahoochee National Forest, once considered a primary source of forest products in the mountains, is now valued most highly for the tourism dollars it brings to local communities, its recreational opportunities, and for the clean water it provides to millions of downstream residents.

• To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org

This nighttime scene of a skyscraper is today’s Mystery Photo

This beautiful nighttime photograph is your Mystery Photo of this issue. Identify it, and your name will appear here in the next issue. Send your guess to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.

That classical brick building in the last Mystery Photo, Lou Camiero of Lilburn tells us, is Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. the photo was sent in by Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill.

Mary Anna Bryan of Lawrenceville adds: “The mystery photo is of Buttrick Hall on the campus of Agnes Scott College in Decatur. Named for Dr. Wallace Buttrick, friend of the college and member of the Rockefeller Foundation, Buttrick Hall has served for almost 90 years as the primary academic building on campus. There was a time when I took many a brain-straining class within its walls.”

George Graf of Palmyra, Va. also identified the photo. He said of Agnes Scott College: Wow!  With 914 students, it has a 10 to 1 ratio of students to teachers and 87 percent full time faculty.  The building looks like fabulous architecture and the library was a Carnegie (from my hometown of Pittsburgh) library.  This must be a hidden gem in Georgia.”  Well, people around here don’t think of it as hidden.  And guys from Georgia Tech have always favored that primarily-girls school.

THESE BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS are of a tree right outside the entrance to Medieval Times  at Sugarloaf Mills.  Roving Photographer Frank Sharp visited there recently, and captured the beauty of this blooming dogwood. But blooms are all around this season, as the cherry and pear and other trees have enjoyed the recent warm weather, and burst forth wonderfully.

Grand opening of the Eastside Medical Center’s newest physician specialty practice, Eastside Heart and Vascular, will be February 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Meet the physicians and tour the office, located at 1700 Tree Lane, Suite 190, in Snellville.

(NEW) Ribbon Cutting of renovations at Jones Bridge Park, will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at the park, 4901 East Jones Bridge Road in Peachtree Corners.

(NEW) Abstract workshop: Kudzu Art Zone in Norcross is presenting a workshop in abstract painting with noted artist Wan Marsh. entitled  Intuitive Abstract Painting and Collage. It will be held Wednesday, March 14 to Friday March 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.  Ms Marsh is an abstract expressionist painter and says her “work  is inspired by nature and includes organic forms, cycles, seasons, growth, life and regeneration.” Kudzu Art Zone is located at 116 Carlyle Street in Norcross. For more information call 770-840-9844 or see the website: www.kudzuartzone.org.

(NEW) Paddy’s Day PathFest in Braselton will be held on Saturday, March 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Last year’s event brought out nearly 1,000 people having fun along the Braselton LifePath for the Path Parade and Quest.  The goal is to bring awareness of the stores and services available along the Path to local residents. To find out more information on the LifePath and the PathFest visit the event page at https://www.facebook.com/BraseltonLifePath/.

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• Contributing columnist: George Wilson

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