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TODAY'S ISSUE
Move over Big Chicken! Gwinnett has the tallest toy in town!
By Holley Calmes
Special to GwinnettForum.com

DULUTH, April 16, 2004 -- Gwinnett County's bragging rights in the Metro Atlanta area are considerable, but Cobb County has always had an edge when it comes to a visual symbol. There is never a question about where the Big Chicken belongs. Gwinnett's slogan-studded water towers notwithstanding, our county has lacked a representative icon.

No longer! Travelers on Gwinnett's I-85 corridor can now say hello to our own local celebrity. He's 41 feet tall, weighs 10,000 pounds, and his handsome visage beats the stuffing out of that piece of poultry up I-75. He's the robot who once stood guard over the FAO Schwartz store at Mall of Georgia. He now winks at cars on the expressway from his new home at the Children's Arts Museum.

Since opening in January 2000, the Children's Arts Museum at the Hudgens Center for the Arts, Gwinnett Center, has been host to tens of thousands of children. The Museum is a beautiful building, but until recently it lacked an identifiable "fun" architectural element.

Executive Director Nancy Gullickson and her staff were aware of this need and contemplated the perfect solution. One day, while parked at the Mall of Georgia, Nancy was struck by the large robot standing tall at the Marketplace Entrance. "That's exactly what we need," she later reported to her staff. "Something like the robot. That would really put us on the map!"

Fate works in strange ways. FAO Schwartz left the market, and the Mall, a part of Simon Properties Group, Inc., was stuck with a dilemma. What to do with the metal giant?

The robot was too valuable to end its days on the scrap heap. Its brushed aluminum surfaces, tight-fitting joints, and overall balanced design revealed an admirable pedigree. It was designed by Atlanta Architects Lyman, Dooley and Davidson, and it was constructed by the Nassal Corporation of Orlando, Fla., whose gigantic creations and fantastic fixtures grace Sea World and Disney Orlando.

Mall of Georgia Manager Joe Piccolo previously managed Caesar's Palace Mall in Las Vegas where other similar figures stood. He knew the robot's value and refused to let it be torn down. But where could this enormous orphan go? Then he recalled the Children's Arts Museum, and soon he was on the phone. Unaware of Nancy Gullickson's previous yearnings for the big toy, he asked, "Would the Museum like a giant robot?" The resounding "YES!" echoed from Duluth to Buford!

It would take a few months, but by March of 2004 the robot was prone on a flatbed truck with its own police escort, traveling the few miles south to Sugarloaf Parkway. Within hours, he was installed. All expenses had been covered by Simon Properties Group, Inc.

"We are more than thrilled with him," says Ms. Gullickson. "Children and their parents are drawn to him. And he's beautiful-a work of art. He is definitely the largest addition to our Permanent Collection. We are so grateful to Joe and to Simon for this wonderful gift."

Now a contest to name the robot is in progress. The winner will be announced at the Robot Ball on April 23rd. Entrees from "Button" to "Nutzan Boltz" keep the Mall and the Museum staff laughing. The entire Robot story has been a happy one, and happy endings are always nice, especially when they include bragging rights.

ELLIOTT BRACK
New redistricting maps bring credibility to government
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

APRIL 16, 2004 -- Give a job to a politician, and does it surprise you that a solution ringed with politics and partisanship will appear?

Yet in our form of government, where strength is usually determined often by numbers, time and again you find pure politics is the result. There is no better example than the Georgia legislative re-districting that took place after the 2000 census.

The map that passed the Legislature heavily favored Democrats, since both the House, Senate and governor's office at the time were in the hands of the Democrats. The maps gave new meaning in Georgia to the word "gerrymander," creating districts that were often only a precinct wide, and ran for miles and miles. The resulting districts often had little commonalities, with leaders in one end of some districts not even ever having met leaders in the other end.

The upshot, we maintain, was that this led to the defeat of Gov. Roy Barnes, even though loaded down with a $20 million war chest. (That similar big war chest that President Bush has might give Democrats some hope about all the big money the Republicans have raised, for the Democrats showed in Georgia that having far more money, $20 million to $3 million for the GOP's Dr. Sonny Perdue, did not ensure victory.)

Now that there has been a challenge to the ill-conceived re-districting maps under the current Legislature, and a court-ruling requiring new maps, we see a lesson here. For the three-member federal judicial panel that required the new maps came up with what seems to us a reasonable and workable way to carve up the states in the various House and Senate districts.

The three member panel that ordered the re-districting was composed of U.S. Judges Charles Pannell, the originating judge; William O'Kelley and Stanley Marcus. (O'Kelley, by the way, is a Norcross resident.)

In turn, they appointed a former chief judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals, Joseph Hatchett of Tallahassee, to draw the maps. He called upon University of Pennsylvania professor and a respected attorney specializing in election law, Nathaniel Persily, to assist him in the preparations.

Just looking at the current maps (click here) will give you an immediate understanding of what was the outcome of the court-ordered re-districting: sanity and common sense.

Note the Senate map, for instance, that few counties are divided into several districts. If a county is divided at all, it usually is in only two districts. And note how most of the Senate districts are relatively compact, and often drawn with a commonality of interest, sometimes around a central city, or land feature. For instance, all the districts in the central border of North Georgia are in the same district, with only one county spreading to an adjacent district. And that simplicity and sameness can be seen all throughout Georgia.

These reasonably-drawn districts, we feel, bring credibility, homogeneity and freshness to government. It even encourages people to run for office. After all, who wants to tackle seeking office in many far-flung districts that we had before?

What it also does is ensure that the next election will bring vast changes to the governing structure of the Legislature. And with our governor, Dr. Perdue, all of a sudden making overtures to Democratic legislators to switch parties, it must mean that the anticipated continuing shift of the two Houses toward Republicanism is at least a little in doubt, with the newly-mandated maps. Why else would the governor be making this effort to get the Democrats to switch parties now?

We commend Judges Charlie Pannell, Bill O'Kelley and Stanley Marcus in their legal opinion on the court ordering a re-districting. And we also take our hats off to Judge Joseph Hatchett, and to what he and Nathanial Persily did in drawing the new district lines. They have set a high standard for re-districting. It was a fine job. Attaboys all around!

For mainly, it ensures fairness in our legislative process, which helps keep faith in our government.

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Just thought I might inform you and your readers that the Log Cabin in Norcross is listed as an "Intrusion" on the National Register of Historic Places.

Page 4, third paragraph reads as follows." Intrusions in the Norcross Historic District consist of residential and commercial properties that are generally less than 50 years old and that are incompatible in terms of overall arrangement, materials, details, and setting with the architecturally and historically significant properties in the district. A relocated and rebuilt log cabin northwest of the downtown athletic fields is also classified as an intrusion."

This is becoming an issue and the people need to know the facts. I would love to move the log cabin if possible and affordable but the truth is that it was built as a short term project and the timbers were not treated. It's over 70 years old and almost beyond repair.

I would ask all interested in saving the log cabin to please look at it and forward you ideas to me. Thanks.

With your arithmetic, I can't argue. But I can argue with your data source. The attached workbook shows ARC's population estimates for April 1 (not July 1 as are the Census estimates), 2003 and historical data. You will note that the ARC estimates for Fulton and DeKalb are higher than the Census estimates while estimates for Gwinnett, and other counties are lower.

The Census estimates are based on federal income tax returns. Returns, and the people filing them, are assigned to counties based on Zip Codes. This is an easy, but somewhat inaccurate technique since Zip Codes can straddle county lines, but the Census process associates a whole Zip Code with a single county. This technique produces fine estimates for MSA's, but has some biases at the county and city level.

I don't fully understand how Census decides in which county to count the people when a Zip straddles a county line, but it appears that their process favors outlying counties at the expense of central counties. This pattern of their estimates being lower for the two central counties and higher for the rest of the Region's counties was evident throughout the 1990s.

ARC bases its estimates on a housing inventory derived from the previous census counts and updated based on building and demolition permits. We think we do a better job of maintaining locations within counties than do the Census estimates.

ARC's estimate for 2003 shows Gwinnett having an annual average population increase, 2000-2003 that is 14,773 larger than the average annual increase in DeKalb. DeKalb's 2003 estimate is 33,100 persons higher than Gwinnett which translates in 2.2 years for Gwinnett to catch up. Of course, that assumes that we really are coming out of the recession. If job creation does not accelerate soon, it would take longer.

The 2004 estimate from Census is virtually sure to show Gwinnett larger. Of course, neither one of these estimates is perfect.

In the long run, I cannot argue with your conclusion. Gwinnett is catching up with DeKalb, but, I believe it will be a couple of more years before there is clear evidence that Gwinnett is bigger than DeKalb.

A giant city-wide Yard Sale is to be held in Norcross on May 1 in Thrasher Park. The sale will be from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., and is a fundraiser for the City of Norcross Homeowner's Association.

The Association is holding the sale to raise funds through sale of booth space for two programs:

1. A "Neighbor-to-Neighbor" program, which is an outreach program to help those in need and to develop closer community relations.

2. To continue the work of the Streetscape Committee. This is a landscape beautification program that targets highly-visible areas in the downtown area in need of landscape support.

Jeff Hopper, president of the Association, says that he encourages all citizens of the City to participate in this event. To secure a space for the Yard Sale, please email Susie Schklar at susie@schklar.com or phone 770-840-9664.

Smart business people know that communication is the key to successful relationships with company associates and clients. Now, as Spanish is becoming the second language of business in the Atlanta area and around the world, learning to talk business means learning to speak Spanish!

The Latin American Association and the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce are now
partnering to offer Spanish classes and conversation groups to professionals
in Gwinnett.

Spanish classes for beginners will begin April 19, and meet every Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 to 10:15 a.m. through May 19. Tuition for this five-week course is $335.

Spanish Conversation Groups for intermediate and advanced level students also begin on April 19, and meet every Tuesday from 9-10 a.m. through April 20. The fee for each group meeting is $15, or $55 to attend four consecutive meetings.

Classes will be held at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, located at 6500 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth. Classes range from 10 to 25 students. To register call 404-638-1816 or e-mail hpatrick@latinamericanassoc.org. Call 770-232-8812 with questions.

The public is invited to the 12th Biennial Townsend Prize for Fiction luncheon on April 21 at noon in The Biltmore Georgian Ballrooms, in Atlanta. Guest speakers will be Elizabeth Cox, author of "Bargains in the Real World" and "Night Talk," and Lee Walburn, "Atlanta Magazine" editor emeritus.

The Townsend Prize is presented by The Margaret Mitchell House, Atlanta Magazine and Georgia Perimeter College and its literary magazine, The Chattahoochee Review.

The Townsend Prize is awarded for a work of fiction by a Georgia writer. Books by nominated authors will be sold prior to the luncheon at 11 a.m.. For more information, call 770-551-3019.

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
4/16: Historic markers guide residents along byways of state

Georgia offers residents and visitors alike an interesting and educational opportunity to walk in the footsteps of its earlier inhabitants. The Georgia Historical Commission has erected some 1,800 historical markers across the state since its creation in 1951.

State historical markers in Taylor, Marion, and Chattahoochee counties show the route of the Federal Road, either of two early-nineteenth-century roads that facilitated a surge of westward migration, expanded regional trade and communication, and contributed to the removal of the Creeks and Cherokees to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.

And Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails divides the state into six distinct "trail regions," each representing a geographical area and/or a significant event from the Civil War period. Traveling along these historic routes and taking time to stop and read the markers can bring glimpses of the state's past into the present.

To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Home.jsp.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
From powerless to a sense of accomplishment, with age

"When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better."

-- Pauline R. Kezer, via Roy McCreary, Dacula.

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