GwinnettForum | Number 21.12 | Feb. 11, 2022
MANY GWINNETT COMMUNITIES are sporting Little Free Libraries, where you can pick out a book to read (and keep) if you like. Here’s the Little Free Library in Auburn, right in the middle of town. You’re doing your neighborhood service when you contribute books to these libraries for your neighbors to enjoy.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Gateway85 CID will move office to OFS site along I-85
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Anticipating more diversity on new Supreme Court appointment
ANOTHER VIEW: We must combat superstitions about the pandemic
SPOTLIGHT: Heaven and Alvarez, LLC
FEEDBACK: Current item stirred up a lot of memories for him
UPCOMING: Lilburn’s Naya Patel wins recognition from Georgia Regents
NOTABLE: Hernandez wins first Character Award from SW Chamber
RECOMMENDED: Good Without God by Greg M. Epstein
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Scripto factory site of employee organizing effort
MYSTERY PHOTO: Just where is this routine old-time house with porch located?
CALENDAR: Recycle hazardous waste Saturday at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Gateway85 CID will move office to OFS site along I-85
Here’s what the new entrance to Gateway85 will look like at the OSF site | Photo provided.
By Sharon Goldmacher
NORCROSS, Ga. | As one of the state’s largest Community Improvement Districts, Gateway85 CID announced Thursday that it will relocate its headquarters to a portion of the Optical Fiber Solutions (OFS) facility along the I-85 Corridor that is owned by the Gwinnett Redevelopment Authority. The move will allow the CID to concentrate its efforts on redeveloping this portion of the site in partnership with the County and other entities.
Morseberger
At the end of 2021, Gateway85 issued the results of an economic impact study that showed the CID had a massive annual economic impact of $16.6 billion on the county and the state of Georgia in 2020. In addition, the report outlined the CID’s future economic development strategy, including plans to work with the county and other partners to redevelop the 104 acres of the OFS site that the County purchased in 2018 along I-85 and Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
Gateway85 CID Executive Director Emory Morsberger says: “I wanted to put our money where our mouth is. If we are truly going to move this redevelopment project forward, the CID board of directors and I wanted to show our commitment by moving our office headquarters to the OFS site.”
Currently, Gateway85 CID has within its borders 3,000 businesses with 47,417 jobs that produce $5.6 billion in payroll and earnings annually, representing 16 percent of all jobs in Gwinnett County. The area of influence that extends just beyond Gateway85’s boundaries, has 63,385 jobs and 4,903 businesses. Redevelopment of the OFS site would mean an even greater impact on payroll and annual earnings.
The goal of redevelopment for the site is to create a transit-oriented mixed-use development where housing, retail, office and green space would be accessible to the community and provide a variety of transit and mobility options. A redevelopment of the County-owned acres would also likely create over 6,000 additional jobs, over $500 million in new property value and millions in property tax, sales taxes and public revenue.
Morsberger adds: “Gateway85 CID has never been busier than we have been over the past two years with infrastructure updates, new studies to improve mobility and access, beautification and more. We believe we are well positioned to work with the County and other partners at the state and federal level to move the OFS redevelopment forward.”
Gateway85 CID plans to hold a ribbon-cutting for its new office in mid-March. Throughout 2022, the CID’s continued focus will be to promote redevelopment, improve transportation options, improve the quality of jobs, and continue improvements to the physical environment.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Anticipating more diversity on Supreme Court appointment
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
FEB. 11, 2022 | The new catch phrase you hear almost daily is “diversity.” Gwinnett knows lots about diversity, as people from all around the world are moving here, dramatically changing our everyday lives.
With our entire nation now understanding more about diversity, we can point to one place where diversity is almost never seen: the judges who make up the Supreme Court. It’s to the point that President Joe Biden has recognized this lack of diversity, vowing to appoint to the court a Black female as its next justice to replace Justice Stephen Breyer.
Let’s examine how far from diverse the court is. First, it has only one Black member, Georgia’s own Clarence Thomas. These days it at least has three female members.
The most obvious way that the Supreme Court is not diverse is in the educational background of its members. It’s almost 100 per cent made up of people who have graduated from prestigious colleges and law schools in the northeastern part of the United States, the Ivys.
Looking at the law schools the justices have attended:
Harvard: four justices: outgoing Stephen Breyer, Neil Gorsuch, Elena Kagan and John Roberts.
Yale: Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas.
Did you do the counting? That’s right, eight of the nine justices went to either Harvard or Yale for their law degree. The only one not attending one of these schools is the most recently appointed justice, Amy Coney Barrett, who attended Notre Dame’s law school.
How about their undergraduate education? Three justices graduated from Princeton (Kagan, Alito and Sotomayor). Three others graduated from the Ivy League colleges of Columbia (Gorsuch); Harvard (Roberts); and Yale (Kavanaugh). That makes six of nine who went to the Ivy League for a bachelor’s degree.
The three remaining justices got their undergraduate education at these schools: Stephen Breyer (Stanford); Clarence Thomas (Holy Cross); and Amy Coney Barrett (Rhodes College.)
In a nutshell, our Supreme Court has little diversity in the educational background of its members.
As President Biden mulls over who he will pick for the court, you can understand the need for bringing to this high seat someone with a non-northeastern influence. His idea of a Black female attorney sets the stage.
Childs
One of the president’s key advisers, South Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, has a suggested nominee that easily fills the qualification that the president wants. The influential Clyburn suggests a 55-year-old federal judge Michelle Childs, currently on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, named to the court in 2010. Even the Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has said that she is “a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist.” She was nominated in January, 2022 to be a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Judge Childs is a native of Detroit whose father, a police officer, died when she was a teen, and her mother moved her to Columbia, S.C. She graduated in 1988 cum laude from the University of South Florida. She obtained her law degree from the University of South Carolina, where she also got a master’s in business. Later she received a master’s from Duke University School of Law.
Talk about qualified and diversified! And not trained in the northeast!
While there are many other highly-qualified Black women for President Biden to choose from for this high court seat, the two legislators from South Carolina, Clyburn and Graham, are dead-on right: Michelle Childs has the qualifications for the Supreme Court seat. It needs her diversity!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
We must combat superstitions about the pandemic
“When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.” — Stevie Wonder.
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | To get the Covid pandemic under control, we must achieve herd immunity, defined as 75 percent-plus of a state’s total population being fully vaccinated (currently two shots minimum). We have been able to achieve this goal with only one age group, seniors. Areas of the nation with lower vaccination rates have more Covid deaths.
A poll asked, “If a vaccine for the Coronavirus is made available to you, will you choose to be vaccinated or not?” Only five percent of Democrats said no. But 37 percent of Republicans stated they would not, with 39 percent of evangelicals who voted for Trump saying no (the subgroup the most against inoculations). And, proportionally twice as many people in the conservative South said no versus the more liberal West.
Here are the facts versus pre-conceived notions:
- Notion 1 – “I think I already had Covid-19.” Get tested and know for sure. If you had Covid-19, your doctor will tell you to get vaccinations after a period of time.
- Notion 2 – “I’m young so I don’t need vaccinations.” What about seniors and those with medical conditions you might infect? And even younger people get ill with Covid-19. Why take the chance of hurting your friends and family?
- Notion 3 –“Healthy people like me get it and it’s just like a cold.”
One out of ten people who get Covid-19 are “long-haulers.” They can be young and otherwise healthy. “Long-haulers” get long-term symptoms like difficulty breathing, pain, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of memory, taste and smell.
- Notion 4 – “The Lord has protected me so far and will take care of me.” God gave us a brain to analyze right from wrong. Infecting others is against God’s wishes; that’s why He gave us the vaccine. Many religious people refused the vaccinations and died.
- Notion 5 – “Vaccinated people get Covid-19 anyway, especially now with the Omicron variant, so there’s no reason to be vaccinated.” If you are vaccinated, the chances of getting Covid-19 are less and the health impact is minimal. Science says get the shot.
- Notion 6 – “I heard the vaccine side effects are really bad.” There are minor side effects that show up in some people who are vaccinated (i.e. arm ache). But these side effects are almost always transient. Covid-19 kills and can have a multitude of horrible long-term side effects.
- Notion 7 – “The vaccines were developed too quickly. There are just as many doctors who say don’t get the shot as there are telling us to get it.” There’s no disagreement in the medical community about the efficacy of the vaccination. Almost all doctors are vaccinated. Your MD will tell you to get vaccinated.
- Notion 8 – “The Omicron variant is not as harmful as other variants.” The Omicron variant spreads quickly; some people get very sick and die. Get the shot before it’s too late.
People on the right have been uniformly against mandating vaccinations while offering no alternatives other than harmful “old wives’ tales.” Chloroquine, silver, chlorine dioxide, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and ivermectin cannot immunize or cure you.
Obviously, the vaccine issue has been politicized by both parties to the detriment of the public. But that is not an acceptable excuse for why right-wing pundits, preachers and politicians are not pushing harder for their people to take the shots. Simply sending our thoughts and prayers to people stricken with Covid is not enough.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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Current item stirred up a lot of memories for him
Editor, the Forum:
When reading the Medical Reserve Corps-Georgia East Metro article, I experienced a LOT of ‘déjà vu’. Except for a few sentences, it was almost word-for-word like articles written about the Gwinnett Red Cross Disaster Action Team in days gone by. It still could be about the modern version that operates Metro Atlanta-wide.
Thanks for stirring up some good memories, again.
– Tom Fort, Snellville
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
Lilburn’s Patel wins recognition from Georgia Regents
Patel
Georgia Gwinnett College student Naiya Patel, 21, of Lilburn was recognized by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents at its Academic Recognition Day event recently. During the annual event, students are recognized from each of the system’s 26 public colleges and universities. Students selected for this honor retain a high GPA, strive for academic excellence and demonstrate the ability to share expert knowledge in various areas.
Patel is a senior biology major set to graduate in May of 2022, just three short years after she enrolled at GGC. She says: “I took the maximum credits I could each semester and took a full summer load.”
Patel seeks to enter medical school with a dream of becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon, focusing on the heart.
Her interest in medicine stems from her childhood, when she lived with her family in their native India. When Patel was in grade school, her family moved briefly to the U.S. and then back to the Indian city of Vadodara. There, she watched as her maternal grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, and her paternal grandfather would suffer from collapsing spells.
At the time, doctors in that region were a scarce resource. Her paternal grandfather’s condition was only diagnosed thanks to a chance meeting with one of those doctors, who, after watching her grandfather collapse, recognized the signs of a malfunctioning pacemaker and helped remedy the situation.
Patel’s family moved back to the U.S. as she was researching colleges. She selected GGC because of its small class sizes and the school’s strong sense of community.
Patel joined the school’s Honors Program and became active in GGC’s local chapter of the American Chemical Society. Consistent with GGC’s pillar of service, Patel served in the Student Government Association and moved up the ranks as president for 2021-22.
Although Patel is a high achiever, she’s also humble. “It was a surprise when I got the email about the award,” she says of being selected for Academic Recognition Day. “But I was really proud that I got the opportunity to represent GGC.”
Ragazino, Lee win STAR designation, advance to state finals
The winners of the Gwinnett Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) competition for 2022 have been announced. There are two system winners in Gwinnett who will move on to compete for the state title. They are James “Jimmy” Ragazino and teacher Lisa Cole from Buford High School, and Chungin “Roy” Lee and teacher Adam Sherman from Peachtree Ridge High School.
Partnership Gwinnett, in collaboration with the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) Foundation, honored the recipients of the STAR awards. This event, presented by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, was held at the John C. Maxwell Leadership Center at 12Stone Church. In 2022, 44 students from 31 Gwinnett schools, both public and private, were awarded the STAR designation. For a list of this year’s STAR student and teacher recipients in each school, click here.
Live Healthy Gwinnett plans series of free health fairs
Live Healthy Gwinnett announced the lineup for a series of free community health fairs throughout 2022. The family-friendly events will include health screenings, expert speakers, activities and giveaways.
Themed health fairs will take place on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. as follows:
- Feb. 12: Heart Month at Lenora Park, 4515 Lenora Church Road, Snellville;
- May 21: Mental Health Month at Lucky Shoals Park, 4651 Britt Road, Norcross;
- July 30: Back to School Bash at Bogan Park, 2723 North Bogan Road, Buford; and
- Nov. 12: Diabetes Month at Rhodes Jordan Park, 100 East Crogan Street, Lawrenceville.
Carion Marcelin, project coordinator of Live Healthy Gwinnett, says: “Our health fairs are a wonderful opportunity for residents to come out and have some fun while picking up great tips on how to be more active and eat better. It’s amazing that even the smallest changes to a person’s daily routine and their grocery shopping list can make a big difference in their overall well-being, both physically and mentally.”
- For more details, contact LiveHealthyGwinnett@GwinnettCounty.com or call 770.822.3197.
Hernandez wins first Character Award from SW Chamber
Hernandez
Applause came as Alexander Hernandez approached the stage in Peachtree Corners’ Atlanta Tech Park. The accomplished senior from GIVE Center West High School was presented the Southwest Chamber of Commerce’s first Character Award. It was created to recognize outstanding students whose attitude and actions embody the organization’s mission, passion, and commitment to excellence and community action.
The recognition came during the Chamber’s First Friday breakfast. A record crowd was in attendance for keynote speaker, Dr. Calvin Watts, superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Dr. Donna Bishop, principal of GIVE Center West High School, recommended Alexander Hernandez because of his leadership- consistently displaying a strong work ethic, desire to learn, care and compassion for others, personal accountability and integrity. “Alexander models citizenship, fairness, trustworthiness and an incredibly positive attitude. He goes above and beyond to help his peers and his sense of responsibility guides his actions. He has a bright future ahead of him,” explains Bishop.
Hernandez serves as a peer leader, works after school with his mom and enjoys tweaking his computer and gaming in his free time. He aspires to own his own business that helps those in need. Dr. Charles Hawk, Give West Assistant Principal, praises Alexander for his belief that your upbringing or circumstances are less important than your will and determination to achieve.
Work begins on roundabout in Snellville on Feb. 22
Construction on the roundabout at Clower Street and Wisteria Drive in Snellville will begin February 22 as part of The Grove at Towne Center development project.
Construction is expected to be completed within three months. This is the first phase of several that will comprise roadway improvements on all four streets surrounding The Grove. All work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022.
Silt fencing will be erected along Wisteria Drive, followed by utility relocation, sidewalk replacement and construction of the actual roundabout – the city’s third. Traffic lanes will not be shut down at any point during the construction but there will be periods of minor delays between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Snellville Police Department’s entrance at the corner of Clower Street and Wisteria Drive will remain open throughout the construction.
The city awarded a contract to build the roundabout late last year. The $1.6 million contract to low bidder Ohmshiv of Lawrenceville also includes right in/right out access at North and Oak roads and curb/sidewalk improvements on all roads in the development. The cost of the construction will come from Special Local Option Sales Tax funds.
North Road from Oak Road to Wisteria Drive will be changed from a one-way to two-way street and a new signal will be added at the Wisteria Drive and North Road intersection.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Good Without God by Greg M. Epstein
From Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill: Harvard University made the news last year when the school’s chaplain organization chose an atheist to be its president. It elected Humanist Greg Epstein to lead more than 40 chaplains from 20 faiths and denominations. In this book, Epstein gives a very good introduction to Humanism and its values of tolerance, community, morality and goodness – all without relying on the guidance of a higher being. This book contains a history of humanistic thought and asks the question: Can people really have worthwhile meaning, purpose and community in their lives without religion? Epstein makes a convincing case that they can and insists that being a good person does not depend on belonging to any of the world’s religions. He stresses goodness and values over beliefs. He says religious and non-religious people have more in common than they think, and he encourages those who have different ‘lifestances’ to find common ground. (The full title is Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe.)
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Scripto factory site of employee organizing effort
From 1931 to 1977, Scripto Inc. occupied a factory complex just east of downtown Atlanta. The company employed hundreds of Black Atlantans, primarily women, who manufactured ink pens, mechanical pencils, and cigarette lighters. During the factory’s tenure in the city, those women repeatedly organized to fight for higher wages, better positions, and an end to discrimination based on race and gender. These efforts were a significant precursor to the activism that would come to define the civil rights movement.
Scripto’s roots can be traced back to 1908, when the National Pencil Company opened its doors in downtown Atlanta. Atlanta businessman Sigmund Montag owned a controlling stake in the factory, which gained notoriety in 1913 when its superintendent, Leo Frank, was wrongly convicted of a murder that occurred at the plant. National Pencil went bankrupt shortly thereafter, and Montag sold the firm to his son-in-law, Monie Ferst, who renamed the company Atlantic Pen.
In 1931 Ferst moved the company to Houston Street (later John Wesley Dobbs Avenue), near Atlanta’s Black business and cultural district along Auburn Avenue. The plant, now called Scripto Inc., then began recruiting low-wage employees from the surrounding community. In the years that followed, Scripto embedded itself into Atlanta’s Black economic life, and company leaders prided themselves on offering what they considered fair wages and safe working conditions.
Black women turned to Scripto as an attractive alternative to domestic work in white households, and by 1940, they made up more than 80 percent of Scripto’s workforce. But accepting work at Scripto did not protect Black women from workplace discrimination. The United Steelworkers of America (USW) first attempted to organize the workers in 1940. Although their efforts failed—with USW organizers blaming the few white workers still on the payroll—Scripto’s workers called another union vote in 1946 to gain bargaining power in their negotiations with the company’s all-white management.
The USW ultimately won the worker’s approval with the help of Black community leaders like Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of the nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church, but Scripto’s management disputed the results and refused to grant the union a contract. On October 7, 1946, the USW called a strike to gain a contract, paid vacations, eight-hour shifts, and increased wages. More than 80 percent of the company’s 600 employees took to the picket line, where they faced intimidation from Scripto’s management and the Atlanta Police Department, which included known members of the Ku Klux Klan. With little to show for months of protest, the USW ended the strike on March 22, 1947. Scripto retaliated by firing all but nineteen of the striking workers, and when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found the company free of wrongdoing, the union suspended its efforts at the factory.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Just where is this old-time house with porch located?
The forsythia were in bloom in the current Mystery Photo of what appears to be an everyday house with its tin roof and front to enjoy. Your job is to tell us where this house is located, and its significance. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
Only three readers recognized a fairly obvious tower as the last Mystery Photo. The three were George Graf of Palmyra, Tex., Lou Camerio of Lilburn and Jim Savadelis of Duluth. The photo came from Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.
Graf wrote: “This is the Tower of the Americas in the background and Alas de México (Wings of Mexico) in the foreground, in San Antonio Texas. The Wings of Mexico bronze sculpture was gifted by Mexico City to San Antonio to celebrate the city’s tricentennial. Located in downtown San Antonio, the 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas provides the most spectacular view of the city. The tower offers a gorgeous panorama from the revolving Chart House Restaurant, terrific scenery from the Observation Deck and a chance to experience the thrilling 4D Theater Ride.”
Your First Book: Start It, Finish It, Sell It. Attend this writer’s workshop on Saturday, February 12 at 1 p.m. at the Norcross Library Branch. 5735 Buford Highway, Norcross. Learn strategies to find time to write, motivate yourself to keep going, and finish your book. George Weinstein, Atlanta Writers Club executive Director and author of six novels, will lead the workshop.
Hazardous waste recycling: Do you have hard-to-dispose-of items like paints, pesticides, and batteries stacking up around your home? Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful is partnering with the Gwinnett Water Resources to host the seventh annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on Saturday, February 12, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville. The event is at no cost to residents. For a complete list of acceptable items and guidelines or to volunteer, visit GwinnettCB.org/Event/HHW.
Live Healthy Gwinnett is sponsoring free health screenings and offering community wellness activities for all ages on Saturday, February 12 from 10 a.m. until 1 p. m, at the Lenora Park Gym. Participants can also enjoy fitness classes, watch cooking demonstrations, and win giveaways and prizes. The Lenora Park Gym is located at 4515 Lenora Church Road in Snellville. For more information and to learn how to become an exhibitor, contact Carion.Marcelin@GwinnettCounty.com.
The Duluth-Norcross Kiwanis Club will hear Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at its February 16 noon meeting. It will be at the Duluth City Hall community room. This special event will be catered by a local Duluth Restaurant. The club extends an invitation to the public to attend, at a cost of $10.
Sundays in Suwanee series: What Lies Beneath: “Exploring African American burial grounds” will be Sunday, February 27 at 3 p.m. at the Suwanee Library Branch, 361 Main Street, Suwanee. Join as Dr. D. L. Henderson discusses the history of Atlanta’s segregated Oakland Cemetery.
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