TODAY'S ISSUE
Suburban opponents have unhealthy fixation on sprawl
By Benita M. Dodd
Vice president, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Special to GwinnettForum.com

NOV. 12, 2004 -- Just when you thought it was safe to go back into your cul-de-sac and mind your own business, along comes another onslaught on suburbia.

Rand Corporation researchers report they have analyzed data from 8,600 respondents in 38 communities, and found that "suburban sprawl is linked to the incidence of many chronic health ailments."

The Atlanta metropolitan area, as usual, is listed near the top of the sprawl list: third out of the 38, behind Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., and Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, N.C. The "least sprawling" sites were Miami, Portland-Salem, Ore., Boston, San Francisco and New York. A sprawling area, as defined by the researchers, "has streets that are not well connected (cul-de-sacs are not as well connected as a grid), more separated land use mix (shopping, schools, work, and residential areas are far from each other) and a lower population density."

In Atlanta, the mean number of self-reported chronic medical conditions was 1,000 per thousand residents, according to the Rand researchers. According to Rand's analysis, 13 of the 15 "least sprawling" regions had a higher average number of chronic medical conditions than Atlanta (Baltimore and Chicago were the high-density exceptions); overall, 34 cities had a higher average than Atlanta.

The researchers also reiterate the questionable view that "Sprawl also leads to more air pollution, which may explain our finding of significantly higher rates of trouble breathing from emphysema and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and may in part, explain the higher rate of headaches in more sprawling cities."

Additionally, "Sprawl appears to have a disproportionate impact on the physical health of the elderly and possibly the poor. This may be because the poor and the elderly have fewer resources to mitigate the limitations imposed by their environment, such as having less access to individual motorized transportation," the researchers suggest.

The question becomes: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Could it be because they're elderly and poor that they have more difficulty getting around, or is it because they choose suburban housing that their health is impacted?

If, as Rand reports, suburbanites report a higher incidence of self-reported chronic ailments such as high blood pressure, arthritis, headaches and breathing difficulties, could it be that more people actually schedule physician's visits and are aware of a diagnosis? Could it be that suburban residents are aging or with families and therefore more concerned about health problems? Could it be that the intown or higher-density area resident is younger, with less familial obligation to maintain good health, less time or money, less of an inclination to visit the doctor and therefore less aware of a diagnosis?

And could that, in turn, be why the Rand researchers found respondents in high-density areas reported higher prevalence of back pain and "other unspecified pain conditions"? As the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke notes, "Back pain is a symptom that can arise from many causes."

Worth pointing out is that in the survey from which Rand researchers derived their data, (Healthcare for Communities), nearly 96 percent of respondents rated their health as fair to excellent and just 4.4 percent rated their health as poor. Nearly 72 percent said that their physical health hadn't resulting in them accomplishing less than they would like to.

None of this is to say that choosing the intown, high-density lifestyle is bad for one's health. In fact, given the dearth of data on intown poison ivy reactions and children's bicycle accidents, the suburban life clearly has its disadvantages. Not, of course, that anyone would let their child ride a bicycle in a high-density area.
© Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Democrats only need to follow previous Republican action
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

NOV. 12, 2004 -- Just 12 years ago, 1992, recognize what had happened.

The Democrats swept into office after four years of George Bush. They had won the presidency, and captured both houses of Congress, giving the Clinton Administration a clear path to set the world straight in the manner they wanted.

What would you have done if you were a Republican back then? It was a Georgian who stepped forward, Congressman Newt Gingrich, realizing that something drastic was needed in order for the Grand Old Party to survive. He understood that Republicans could not do business as usual, and that being the mere Loyal Opposition was not enough. He needed a hook to get attention, re-focus direction and to energize the party sympathizers. His idea was called the "Contract with America."

Gingrich

Say what you want of the plan but the overall direction of the party was changed afterward. And today you see some of the results of the re-focusing in the sweep of the Republicans not only in re-electing the president, but also in getting bigger majorities in the Congress.

That's history.

Yet today we find another party in similar straits, as the Democrats face the same uphill battle that the Republicans did in 1992.

The question: who will step forward within the Democratic Party to capture the imagination of the people? What will it take?

It's not as if all was lost. President Bush didn't blow John Kerry to smithereens like Richard Nixon did to George McGovern in 1972, when Nixon captured 49 states.

Just as the polls predicted, the election was pretty close, with the final Electoral College tally being 286 electoral votes for Bush, 252 for Kerry. And again, changes in any one of several states, such as Ohio or Florida, would have meant the election of a Democratic president, though probably would not have affected the two houses of Congress to a great degree.

So while the Democrats must re-group, they can do so by capturing a relatively small number of voters in the center of the electorate. Added to their totals in the past election, these few people in the middle could swing the balance of power.

Yet it will take both a concentrated effort, a certain romancing of the electorate, and probably new faces with new programs, to dis-lodge the Republicans from the top of the roost.

Some say it won't be easy. We agree. Yet Newt Gingrich must have thought that same thing when he was putting together his Contract with America. The question: who, when, what will the Democrats come up with?

The American government has been blessed with the two-party system for these many years, with only one or two exceptions of a major third party emergence.

And all during these years of two party politics, one central theme has always prevailed: when a party in power leans too far to one way of thinking, eventually the pendulum swings, and the other party is in power.

Republicans found after 1992 that the pendulum had swung too far, and came up with a way out of their doldrums. We suspect that eventually, the party in power will again start to act pompous, take on airs, and forget their wider base, and play to the wing. That's when the opposition party can seize the day.

In other words, watch out: the pendulum is always swinging. The question: which way is it going?

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McLEMORE'S WORLD
11/12: What extreme wingers do in heaven

The latest from cartoonist Bill McLemore:

FEEDBACK
11/12: Sheriff has recommendation for appeals court job

Editor, the Forum:

I wanted to take this opportunity to ask the citizens of Gwinnett County to support Debra Bernes for Court of Appeals. I am supporting Debra Bernes because of her qualifications and the experience she would bring to the bench.

Debra Bernes has the experience as a former Cobb County prosecutor and an attorney in the private sector. She also has the work ethic to excel as an appellate court judge. This particular court is very important to our judicial system because they review decisions from the local courts. I believe she will be fair and impartial, and she is the type of person we need on the bench.

Sheriffs from across the state, the Gwinnett legislative delegation and other prominent members of the business community will be supporting Ms. Bernes at a fundraiser at the 1818 Club on Friday, November 12, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. We ask for your support for Ms. Bernes at the polls on November 23 because experience does matter.

-- R. L. "Butch" Conway, sheriff, Gwinnett County

11/12: Reader suggests way to eliminate seeing red X's

Editor, the Forum:

Don't know how many readers are experiencing red "Xs" in place of photos and graphics in your Gwinnett Forum emails, but I suspect some are. This most likely occurs if you are using Windows XP along with some other Microsoft program for your email and have accepted updates to the XP system and Internet Explorer/Outlook Express.

These same red "Xs" may also appear if you are using some other company's firewall software and have your "receiving settings" set to a certain level.

Let me try to explain briefly how this works. The Gwinnett Forum does not include the photos and all the re-appearing graphics when it sends out the twice-weekly Forums. Photo and graphic items remain on the server. This procedure enables your email to load much faster and ensures no build up of large files if you retain the issue in your inbox. To see the photos and other graphics, you must be online and connected to the Forum server. This happens automatically if you are seeing the photos and graphics.

Recently, Microsoft made available an update to XP systems called Service Pack 2. They released this new Pack to address security issues. This update blocks certain items from appearing on your computer, especially those items that some websites use to track the computers habits of it readers. In blocking these type items, they also tend to block the items that are non-threatening.

If these red "Xs" appear on your computer, you should be able to click an "alert bar" that should appear on your screen or a menu item under Tools to "unblock" and allow the downloads.

Note: if you see an occasional red "X" when all the other photos and graphics are present that usually indicates an error on the sending end to include the automatic link for that particular photo or graphic.

-- Jerry Queen, LaFayette, La.

NEWS
Vega string quartet produces a "Magic Blend" of sound

If you've ever been in the audience at a Gwinnett Philharmonic concert, you already know that there's nothing like live music. Experiencing the sound of 60 instruments playing together is quite a rush! However, there are other musical experiences with riches of their own, such as the Vega String Quartet and their "Magic Blend" of sound.

The Vega String Quartet is the first of the Gwinnett Philharmonic Presents Series, to be held Tuesday, November 16 at 8 p.m. in the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. This series was developed so that Gwinnett audiences could hear great music performed by smaller groupings and solo instruments. In this case, we will be treated to an internationally renowned foursome of Chinese-born artists.

These musicians are no strangers to Atlanta. The Vega String Quartet was in residency at Emory University last year where it produced a series of concerts featuring the music of Beethoven. Members of the ensemble have a fondness for Atlanta and its audiences. Says viola artist Yinzi Kong, "We are always so happy to play in Atlanta. The audiences are good and very knowledgeable about music."

This concert will feature Mozart, Brahms, and Stravinsky. By the way, the "Magic Blend" is the sound made by two violins, a viola and cello - a string quartet. For tickets call 404-249-6400 or visit the Gwinnett Center Box Office.

Artist combines tranquility, technology in Suwanee exhibit

Photo-paintings that combine the tranquility of nature with modern computer technology currently are on exhibit at the City of Suwanee. The 14 photo-paintings by Buford digital artist Ty Michelfelder are displayed in the courtroom/meeting room at the Suwanee Crossroads Center, 323 Buford Highway.

The images represent a variety of locales from around Georgia, including Black Rock Mountain, Callaway Gardens, Lake Lanier, and Helton Creek, and combine the artist's experience in photography, painting, and computer design. Michelfelder used Corel Painter's digital cloning oil brushes and blenders to translate photos she had taken and
downloaded to her computer into painting-like works of art. Using a drawing tablet and touch-sensitive pen that is connected to her computer, she hand-painted these images, which represent the natural beauty of Georgia.

Michelfelder choose these images specifically for Suwanee's courtroom. "I wanted something that was restful, yet dignified," she says. "These images represent the natural beauty of Georgia and specifically the sense of peace and restfulness that can be found just by taking a walk in Georgia's woodlands."

Limited edition prints of the images on display at the City of Suwanee are available for purchase. The Suwanee Crossroads Center is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and during court sessions.

Prospects for free trade headquarters topic of meeting

The possibility of Atlanta getting the headquarters of the Free Trade of the Americas will be the subject of the next Gwinnett's Chamber of Commerce general membership luncheon. The meeting is November 17 at 11:30 p.m. at the 1818 Club in Duluth.

Keynote speaker will be Jose Ignacio Gonzalez, executive director of Hemisphere, Inc., an organization formed by Dr. Sonny Perdue

RSVP's are necessary. If you have any questions or wish to register, contact Meghan Beard at meghan@gwinnettchamber.org or 770-232-8816.

Technology Forum Tuesday to feature Key IBM manager

REMINDER: Gwinnett Technology Forum will have as its guest speaker on November 16 David Samuel of IBM. Mr. Samuel is general manager of the Global Energy and Utilities Industry division of the firm. The meeting is at 7 a.m. on October 16 at the Scientific Atlanta Auditorium at Gwinnett Technical College.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What books have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent book along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what you plan to read next. --eeb
  

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
11/12: Creek Indians significant in early history of Georgia

The history of early Georgia is largely the history of the Creek Indians. For most of Georgia's colonial period, Creeks outnumbered both European colonists and enslaved Africans and occupied more land than these newcomers. Not until the 1760s did the Creeks become a minority population in Georgia. They ceded the balance of their lands to the new state in the 1800s.

Creeks largely avoided the American Revolution, but their lives changed dramatically thereafter. The deerskin trade collapsed due to a shrinking white-tailed deer population. The new state of Georgia consequently viewed Creeks as impediments to the expansion of plantation slavery rather than as partners in trade. Under pressure by Georgia, Creeks ceded their lands east of the Ocmulgee River in the Treaties of New York (1790), Fort Wilkinson (1802), and Washington (1805).

Georgia citizens played a central role in removing the 20,000 Creeks still in Alabama. In 1832 the Creeks signed a treaty agreeing to their relocation to Indian Territory (later known as Oklahoma). Land speculators based in Columbus, Georgia, saw opportunity in the Creeks' misfortune. They illegally purchased Creek lands and then secretly encouraged hostilities between whites and Indians, hoping to spark a war that would clear the Southeast once and for all of its native residents. They found success in a brief conflict between the United States and Creeks in 1836. At its conclusion, U.S. troops, assisted by Georgia and Alabama militia, forcibly rounded up Creeks and sent them to Indian Territory. Some went in chains, under the watch of armed soldiers. Creeks had to begin life anew in lands west of the Mississippi.

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

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Some of these may be members of religious group

"I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult."

-- Rita Rudner

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

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