Elliott Brack’s Perspective
BRACK: Enjoying a return to New Orleans and its parades
By Elliott Brack | New Orleans was our recent destination, one of our favorite cities in the USA, for after all, we had not been in several years. While you still see problems left from Katrina, the city seems to be enjoying a new vibrancy, moving forth as always, happily.
Boosted by continual tourism, which seems to have bounced back nicely, its prices for hotels, foods and trinkets remain high. Includes lots of Mardi Gras parade photos.
BRACK: Better tasting pork from happier pigs on this farm
By Elliott Brack | The premise is simple: pigs raised on the ground instead of concrete pens are happier pigs and produce better and tastier meat. That’s the theory at Thompson Farms here in Dixie, Ga., where Andrew Thompson produces pork, selling almost all his production to Whole Foods stores throughout most of the South. There’s a local connection: he is the brother of Mike Thompson, an attorney in Technology Park/Atlanta at Peachtree Corners.
BRACK: More reasons for state legislature to meet less often
By Elliott Brack | Some readers have wondered if we were serious about one of GwinnettForum’s Continuing Objectives, to require that the Georgia General Assembly meet only once in every two years.
In short, you betcha! Why? Because most Georgians will tell you that nothing is safe when the Georgia Legislature meets, as members introduce all sorts of measures that negatively impacts its citizens, most bills only benefiting some local constituent.
BRACK: Luxury apartment complex rising next to Coolray Field
By Elliott Brack | With the opening of the Gwinnett Braves baseball season at Coolray Field on April 9, there will be a different view from home plate. Looking toward the outfield, fans will see a new apartment complex just past the outfield wall, which is anticipated to be ready-for-occupancy by opening day. Some 40 percent of the units will have an unobstructed view of the field.
BRACK: Chairman Nash challenges Gwinnett to keep moving forward
By Elliott Brack | Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash was something of an evangelist when she gave her fifth annual “state of the county” address to the Gwinnett Chamber recently. In effect, she offered an “altar call” for the people of Gwinnett County to step up and join with her and the county commission to make sure the county reaches its potential.
BRACK: Area will benefit from College Football Hall of Fame
By Elliott Brack | Call the building “The Helmet,” for that’s what it looks like, a three-story football helmet, painted orange. It’s located on Marietta Street across from the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center.
Its official name is the College Football Hall of Fame, and Atlanta landed a gem of a tourist attraction with this facility.
BRACK: Will Hudgens Prize continue to award avant garde artists?
By Elliott Brack | This year’s Academy Awards winners and the reception of moviegoers of nominated movies gives pause to think. It sent me to one of Gwinnett’s premier events, the bi-annual awarding of the $50,000 Hudgens Art Prize for Georgia artists.The Hudgens Awards program has recently announced the finalists in its third competition. The winner will be announced on June 13.
Gwinnett Forum | Jan. 3, 2025
“I have learned that our greatest blessings come when we are able to improve the lives of others, and this is especially true when those others are desperately poor or in need.”
–The 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), via Cindy Evans, Duluth.
Continuing objectives
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His 2025 list:
- Move statewide non-partisan judicial and school board elections to the date of the General Election.
- More creative efforts to support the arts in Gwinnett.
- Advancement and expansion of city historical societies.
- Require establishments that serve alcoholic beverages to halt sales of such products at 1 a.m., and close by 2 a.m.
- Require the Georgia Legislature to meet only once every two years.
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging and straws in Gwinnett and require instead the use of paper products.
- Gwinnett planners to encourage condos and townhouses instead of apartments.
Interested in Gwinnett history?
Now re-printed in its third edition, Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta, the award-winning history of Gwinnett County, is once again available for purchase. It sold out of its first two printings. The book won the 2010 Award of Excellence in Documenting Georgia History from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. The book is available at Old Town Antiques at 93 Main Street in Lilburn.
- The history of Gwinnett is also available as an e-book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $9.95.
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