By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher
NOV. 27, 2018 | Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one! Today let’s throw out a few random thoughts of the last few days.
SOMETIMES WHAT YOU DON’T HEAR is an important as what you might have heard.
We didn’t hear much anguish from Gwinnett promoters over Atlanta and Gwinnett County not being chosen as the location of the second Amazon headquarters. While we had heard that Metro Washington was possibly a favorite for the new headquarters, there was little scuttlebutt that part of New York City would be an Amazon choice.
Had Amazon chosen the suggested Gwinnett location, the center of the county near the Infinite Energy Center, Gwinnett would have seen monumental growth on top of already healthy growth. The addition of bringing 50,000 people to this county would, in my opinion, been too much of a good thing.
Gwinnett continues to add a robust growth each year…at least 15,000 people most years, and the county has amazingly absorbed this growth much of the time. But think of the frenzy the county would have been in as new commercial buildings would be arising, new homes would be built, the job market would tighten…..all at a much more rapid pace than we have felt recently.
Gwinnett being chosen as the Amazon site would be a case of too much of a good thing.
So, congratulations, Arlington, Va. and the Queens, N.Y. on being chosen as the site of the eastern headquarters for Amazon. And good luck to you. We suspect you’ll need it.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S second season is about to begin, with playoff leading toward bowl games.
For three major football teams in Georgia, it’s been a good year. Georgia plays for the SEC crown this weekend (and possibly much more); Georgia Tech, though humbled by the Bulldogs, had a successful year; and Georgia Southern awaits a bowl bid. Not too bad. But tough luck, Georgia State.
We have particularly enjoyed watching our favorite college team, Georgia Tech, run their option offense, which can at any time spring a player for long gains if the defense misses only one block. It’s great fun to watch.
Though the Tech team sputtered several times this season and seemed inept at times, they have an overall winning season (7-5), despite being 1-3 at one time. And they had the most potent ground game in the nation, ranking number one.
Auburn’s Little Free Library
That option offense, if you have the personnel to run it, can explode at any time. But it takes an exceptional quarterback to pull it off, and Tech had two of these players this year. Compare that to the Navy football team (which we watched against Tulane last week), who run the same offense. The Navy quarterback seldom pitched to the trailing back, but kept it himself over and over, for not much gain. Navy had to even resort to passing to stay in the game.
So Saturday Georgia and Alabama clash in Atlanta. It should be a classic game, and lead to greater heights for the winner.
WE MOURN THE PASSING of Todd Bol, 62, of Oakdale, Minn. who most of you have never heard of. He was the person who thought up the idea of the Little Free Libraries in 2009, which you see around Gwinnett…and the world. There are 75,000 such libraries in 88 countries. He showed what a difference a single person can make for the world!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net]
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