NEW for 10/21: Mall plans; 2022 amendments; Fox

GwinnettForum  |  Number 21.79  |  Oct. 21, 2022

MALL REVITALIZATION: This color-coded sketch of what the former Gwinnett Place Mall site could look like has been given to the Gwinnett County Commission by a team working on its transformation. For more details on the presentation, see Today’s Focus below. 

 IN THIS EDITION

TODAY’S FOCUS: Strategy team presents Gwinnett Mall revitalization plan
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Vote “No!” on three of four proposed amendments
ANOTHER VIEW: Fox News still sending out right wing propaganda 
SPOTLIGHT: MTI Baths Inc.
UPCOMING: GGC’s $3.7 million grant helps address teacher shortages
NOTABLE: Lawrenceville agency is top state health provider for 2022
RECOMMENDED: It’s Trevor Noah, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Publication of Atlanta Business Chronicle dates to late 1970s
MYSTERY PHOTO: Can you pinpoint where this modern building is located?
LAGNIAPPE: Jackson EMC linemen win at international competition
CALENDAR: Duluth to mark Oktoberfest Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

TODAY’S FOCUS

Strategy team presents Gwinnett Mall revitalization plan

By Lillian Boff

DULUTH, Ga.  |  The Gwinnett Place Mall Site Revitalization Strategy Team has presented the implementation strategy for transforming the Gwinnett Place Mall site to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners. The team consists of a partnership effort of Gwinnett County, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID), and consultant VHB. 

The strategy, which is based on a data-driven, market-supportable and economically feasible analysis, as well as extensive community dialogue, is an action plan to create a vibrant community rooted in international culture, inclusivity and opportunity called Global Villages. Details about the Global Villages concept can be found here.

There are six steps in the process, which is explained in link to the concept above. They are 1) Starter Vision; 2) Community Engagement; 3) Market Analysis; 4) Draft Concepts; 5) Final Concept; and 6) Action Plan.

The proposed Final Concept development by the numbers:

  • Residential: 2,700 – 3,800 new units;
  • Retail (new): 55,000 square feet;
  • Commercial (office): 50,000 square feet;
  • Cultural center: 50,000 square feet; and 
  • Parks: 12.7 acres.

The plan leverages the County’s initial investment of $23 million in purchasing part of the mall site into an economic impact of $6.98 of private investment per every $1 of public investment. The implementation plan is discussed in greater detail in “An Action Plan for Gwinnett Place to Be: The Global Villages” on the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement website which those interested can see here. This document is designed for community members and general inquiries. There is also a 1:11 minute video available to watch here.

Joe Allen, executive director of the Gwinnett Place CID, says: “In total, more than 3,000 people engaged in the conversation about the site’s future, and that number does not include the 3,624 who offered online feedback. The proposed Global Villages concept is predominantly residential with modest amounts of new retail and office. A new international culture and community center and central park space are the focal points.”

EEB PERSPECTIVE

Vote “No!” on three of four proposed amendments

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

OCT. 21, 2022  |  While the Georgia Constitution gives wide leeway to the state Legislature, it also restricts these politicians from changing any Constitutional provisions without the public input.

The result is that often in statewide elections, the Legislature must get approval from the voters for any attempt to change our Constitution. That gives the average person and voter some limited protection from the Legislature ramming bad legislation down the voter’s throat. 

Therefore, routinely in General Elections voters are faced with changes to the Constitution. And in most cases, if you look closely, such changes would give some element of Georgia benefits that most people don’t get.  In effect, such a change always throws our state’s tax system out of whack again.  

The good old boys (and these days good old girls) are simply trying to give an important constituent a political plum in the form of tax break, which is not available to ordinary citizens.  And that means  the tax system of Georgia is more out of line every time someone gets an exemption. 

So again in 2022, we have proposed changes to the Georgia Constitution that are facing voters. In past years, the proposals have sometimes been written so as make them confusing as to what the citizen is asked to vote for. 

In 2022, there are four measures up for grabs this time.

Amendment One: Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to suspend the compensation of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State School Superintendent, Commissioner of Insurance, Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner of Labor, or any member of the General Assembly while such individual is suspended from office following indictment for a felony?”

What this seeks to remedy is what happened when the recent Insurance Commission was indicted and eventually sent to prison for theft. But before conviction, he still drew his salary from the state. 

While it sounds good, did you note that the records would be in secret?  What? That’s right. The extended wording reads in part: “(f) The report and records of the commission and the fact that the public official has or has not been suspended shall not be admissible in evidence in any court for any purpose. The report and record of the commission shall not be open to the public.” 

That’s reason enough to vote against this measure. The peoples’ proceedings should always be in open records. Vote No.

Amendment Two: Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that the governing authority of each county, municipality, and consolidated government and the board of education of each independent and county school system in this state shall be authorized to grant temporary tax relief to properties within its jurisdiction which are severely damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster and located within a nationally declared disaster area?

This would provide temporary humanitarian tax relief, and we emphasize temporary, to victims of natural disasters, as determined by local government.

However, we would want local governments to provide the exemption for only one year at a time, to be renewed if needed. Often measures supposed to be temporary seem to last forever. By limiting the relief to one year, having to be reapproved by the local government each year, would be an improvement on the current wording. Vote “Yes” on humanitarian terms. 

Amendment Three: “Shall the Act be approved which grants a state-wide exemption from all ad valorem taxes for certain equipment used by timber producers in the production or harvest of timber?”

Amendment Four: Shall the Act be approved which expands a state-wide exemption from ad valorem taxes for agricultural equipment and certain farm products held by certain entities to include entities comprising two or more family owned farm entities, and which adds dairy products and unfertilized eggs of poultry as qualified farm products with respect to such exemption?”

Let’s discuss the last two together, since both are aimed at agriculture, one for timber production and the other for agriculture in general.  Both these changes would really, really harm our state, in that heavy equipment, which cost thousands of dollars, would be exempt from taxes. 

This exemption is not just aimed at the family farm.  Many timber and agricultural units are big…. large….massive multi-million dollar corporations. They seek this exemption with language that could confuse some voters that it’s aimed at the 40 acre farmer.  Not so. 

Agricultural operations are of great benefit to our state, and our largest industry. But giving a tax benefit to this industry differently from other individual family farms, or even other industries, is a dis-service to us taxpayers and the state of Georgia, and further throws equalized taxes out of kilter. 

What were these legislators thinking?

Treat everyone alike should be the mantra of the Legislature. Vote “No” on No. 3-4.

So, we conclude: 

VOTE AGAINST Amendments 1, 3, and 4.

VOTE FOR Amendment 2.

But mainly, if you have not, get out and vote!

Topic for October 25 issue: consideration of 2022 SPLOST proposal on the ballot.

ANOTHER VIEW

Fox News still sending out right-wing propaganda as ever

By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.  |  It startled me when I read several recent columns about an editorial in the New York Post, which is owned by conservative Rupert Murdoch. The Post editorial stated that ex-President Trump is not the best GOP presidential candidate. 

The responding columns in other media organizations seemed to state that Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, was deserting Trump. I decided to determine if that were true and if, by some miracle, Fox was becoming more objective in its reporting.  

On a recent day, I went online and reviewed the Fox website. I found that Fox is clearly not anymore “fair and balanced” than it has ever been. It remains a right-wing propaganda organization rather than an objective source of news. 

On that random day, here are a few of their major story headlines about Democrats that I found: 

  • “Top Democratic candidates mum on basic question about pregnancy” (an inane story about who is considered a woman);
  • “Mayor (Lori) Leadfoot- Democrat mayor pushing speed cameras refusing to pay one speeding tickets” (a hit piece about Chicago’s mayor); 
  • “Protesters disrupt America First Agenda Summit ahead of Trump speech” (implying that it’s the left that is causing political disturbances versus the right); and
  • “Heartbreaking, Mother and child dead after Dem allegedly hits car, spins them across highway” (what should have been a local story versus a national one about the Wisconsin Senate.) 

On the website, I also found stories about rappers, China, the internal Pence/Trump battle, Ukraine, television shows, sports and so on. Finally, buried in the midst of that garbage, I found one item entitled “Department of Justice reportedly reviewing Trump’s conduct, conversations as part of 2020 election investigation.” But even that weakly written column begins by saying that Senator Blackburn wants the DOJ to act against liberal activists targeting SCOTUS members.  

Perhaps most importantly, I did not find one word on the Fox news site that day about the bi-partisan House Committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection or its startling findings. 

Their findings have shown, usually based on testimony by staunch conservative Republicans who were actually there, that the insurrection was not a random act. It was part of a well-planned coup (detailed in a written plan by Trump’s strategist John Eastman) to overturn a free and fair election. And that Trump was the ringleader in that organized attempt to install him anyway, although he had clearly lost the election.  If successful, he would have been an authoritarian dictator, holding his office contrary to the Constitution and the will of the American people. And, if not for Mike Pence, Bill Barr and a few other honest and patriotic Republicans, he would have succeeded. 

But the failure of Fox and related right-wing propaganda channels to objectively cover the House hearings is why few GOP voters believe the startling facts that the Committee is uncovering. Two thirds of GOP voters still believe the “big lie” that the election was stolen. (Even Republican judges and other GOP authorities stated it was not).  

Over 840 right wing zealots have been indicted, and many convicted, of offenses related to the January 6 insurrection. However, from one recent poll, most GOP voters still incorrectly believe the riot was caused by leftist Antifa types. 

Frankly, I am more disheartened about the state of our union than at any time in my life. And Fox and the other propaganda organs are contributing to my concern that we are rapidly losing our democracy. 

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

MTI Baths Inc.

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s featured sponsor is MTI Baths Inc. of Sugar Hill. MTI Baths is a manufacturer of high-quality acrylic and engineered solid surface bath products, including whirlpools, air and soaking baths; lavatories; shower bases; and kitchen sinks. MTI’s patented Fill-Flush® and Simple Touch® whirlpool cleaning systems are the best on the market. MTI now offers engineered solid surface–counter tops and sinks. Every product is custom-made to order. We are now operating in an additional manufacturing plant of 38,000 square foot. Russell Adams is president. 

FEEDBACK

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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.

UPCOMING

GGC’s $3.7 million grant helps address teacher shortages

The School of Education at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) has been awarded a Teacher Quality Grant (TQG) from the U.S. Department of Education of more than $3.7 million, disbursed over five years. GGC is the only Georgia institution among 22 schools nationwide selected to receive this funding.

The grant will provide funding for 40 GGC students to complete a year of residency in addition to induction support during their first two years of teaching in the Gwinnett County Public School system. 

The teacher grant program funds teacher preparation programs in high-need communities at colleges and universities for undergraduate students and for teaching residency programs for individuals new to teaching with strong academic and professional backgrounds. The central feature of all TQP grantees is a strong partnership between the teacher preparation programs and the school districts they serve, which are often facilitated by mentor teachers who coach and prepare incoming educators.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona explained the motivation behind the TQP program and why it’s important to provide support to institutions like GGC.”At the U.S. Department of Education, we recognize the value of supporting our nation’s educators, and we have a responsibility to provide resources and opportunities that promote a diverse educator workforce,” says Cardona. “These programs help prepare, place, develop and retain effective teachers and leaders in our schools and classrooms. Our students need quality educators now more than ever to address their academic and mental health needs.”

Dr. Anita Anderson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction for GGC’s School of Education, helped lead the successful submission process for the grant with colleague Dr. Amber Ebert, assistant professor of science education, and Melinda Mollette of GCPS.

Anderson says: “We are very excited to have this award.  This grant is important to our students as it provides a living wage stipend for them while they complete a student teacher residency.  The residency model pairs a student with a highly effective mentor teacher who co-teaches with the resident through second semester until the student teacher gradually assumes more responsibility in the classroom. Professional development is also funded for both the mentor teachers and residents.”

Anderson said the plan is to increase the diversity of the educator pipeline leading from GGC to the school system in critical shortage areas, including secondary math and science (6-12), special education (K-12) and elementary English learners’ (ESOL-endorsed) teachers.

Anderson said the grant funds will enhance GGC’s comprehensive efforts by designing and delivering three key activities: 

  • Recruitment and preparation of a more diverse pool of teachers to serve in critical shortage areas; 
  • An intensive, year-long fellowship designed to support 40 new teachers across two cohorts in their transition from coursework to classroom; and 
  • A two-year induction support model piloted with graduates of GGC’s School of Education employed in GCPS.

A central goal of the program is to support new education graduates’ transition into teaching, increasing the likelihood they will be retained in high-need schools.

NOTABLE

Lawrenceville agency is top state health provider for 2022

View Point Health of Lawrenceville has been named Georgia’s Behavioral Health Provider of the Year at the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) 2022 Behavioral Health Symposium awards ceremony last weekend. 

Monica Johnson, DBHDD’s director of the Division of Behavioral Health to View Point Health, said:  “Georgia’s individuals, families and the communities you serve are all benefitting from your dedication to your work. Your high level of performance and achievement is exemplary.” 

The Provider of The Year Award recognizes the DBHDD behavioral health provider that has demonstrated outstanding performance, innovative practices, and significant community impact. 

Jennifer Hibbard, View Point Health CEO, responds: “As a team, we are committed to delivering innovative and effective treatment to populations that may otherwise go without care and suffer consequences such as homelessness and incarceration. We believe in early intervention and comprehensive care. And together we know recovery is possible! This award is a tribute to the amazing team and partners we have at View Point Health.” 

View Point Health, one of 22 Community Service Boards in Georgia, is a comprehensive behavioral health provider in Gwinnett, Rockdale and Newton counties providing recovery-focused care to the most in need population since 1994. View Point Health is part of a statewide behavioral health safety-net that ensures everyone in Georgia can get the help they need, in their community, regardless of their ability to pay. 

RECOMMENDED

It’s Trevor Noah, Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah

From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: This book describes his life growing up in South Africa during Apartheid.  Being born from an African mother and a White European father resulted in him being designated as “colored.” He describes the landscape of how groups were forced to live in specific areas of the country designed to prevent affiliation beyond their group. He demonstrates business acumen in a culture rife with danger and marginally legal ways to make money in order to stand on his own. His relationship with his father is fragile, largely because of the laws forbidding Whites affiliating with any group but their own. His mother, the compass of his life, provided an undergirding of spiritual strength and survival instincts.  His success as a performer in Comedy Central and his other performances along with his controversies are part and parcel of his understanding of the complexities of the world he grew up in and survived.

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 

GEORGIA TIDBIT

Publication of Atlanta Business Chronicle dates to late 1970s

The  Atlanta Business Chronicle, a weekly journal, has covered economic trends, events, and multimillion-dollar developments in Atlanta’s business community since the late 1970s. The Atlanta Business Chronicle has a paid circulation of 23,275.

The emergence of the Atlanta Business Chronicle and similar newspapers across the country occurred at the end of the 1970s, as publishers attempted to reach the untapped readers and advertising dollars of the business community, which was largely underserved by the mainstream media. The challenge for such publications lay in changing the dynamic between the press and corporate America, which had historically viewed each other with suspicion.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle was launched in 1978 by Bob Gray, a publisher, and Mike Weingart, the paper’s first editor. Weingart commuted to Atlanta from his home in Houston, Texas, where the two men earlier had started the Houston Business Journal. At the time of the paper’s inception, the suburbs of Atlanta were flourishing, while downtown development and the real estate community struggled. According to Carol Carter, who served as the paper’s editor from 1980 to 1983, “In 1978, local business news barely existed. Business was buried behind the sports section [in the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution ]. . . . We spent more time on the phone explaining who we were than reporting a story.”

In 1980 the Scripps Howard Corporation bought the Houston-based Cordovan Corporation, which at that time owned the Atlanta Business Chronicle as well as several other business journals. In 1986 the publication was sold to American City Business Journals, today the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers, with publications in 41 markets as of 2007.

Despite the disadvantage of competing as a weekly paper against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the city’s major daily, the Business Chronicle has broken several major stories during its history. In 1988 the Chronicle published one of its most important stories when it was the first to reveal, under editor Anita Sharpe, that the Japanese firm Sumitomo Life Insurance Company was purchasing the IBM Tower in Atlanta for $300 million. During her tenure, Sharpe led the Atlanta Business Chronicle to two Loeb Awards for investigative reporting.

During the 1990s the publication was ahead of the curve on several other stories, particularly the prospects of the Atlanta-based Internet service provider MindSpring (later EarthLink) and its founder Charles Brewer, as well as Scientific Atlanta, a communications and entertainment technology company.

The paper provides coverage on several major areas, including banking and finance, the hospitality industry, information technology and telecommunications, medicine and health care, real estate, and politics. David Allison is the paper’s editor, and David Rubinger is its publisher.

MYSTERY PHOTO

Can you pinpoint where this modern building is located?

Take a crack at determining where this handsome modern building is located. We’ll give you a hint: it is located within the boundaries of Georgia. Send your entry to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown. 

The last mystery photo stumped the experts, in that none of the regulars came anywhere close in determining the location of the photograph.  In effect, you nearly had to be a regular at the back door of the Hudgens Art Center to recognize the photo.

Three of the Hudgens entourage recognized it immediately. Dale Burns of Duluth wrote: “Totems at the student entrance to the Hudgens art center.  I have attended many classes here!” Also sending  in winning entries were Debra  Barnhart, Suwanee, and Beth Cacchioli of Duluth. The photo came from your editor. 

LAGNIAPPE

Jackson EMC linemen win at international competition

 

Jackson EMC linemen have earned three top awards at the 38th annual International Lineman’s Rodeo, held recently in Bonner Springs, Kan. The competition included more than 1,200 lineworkers, who were judged on speed, agility, technique and safety procedures.

A journeyman lineman team with Jeremy Adams, Kaleb Chapman and Matt Tolar finished first in the insulator replacement event.

Apprentice lineman Carter Kelling finished first in the hurt man rescue. Walt Palmer, an apprentice lineman, finished second in the hurt man rescue, eighth in pole climb and eighth in the insulator replacement event. Apprentice lineman Austin Lewis finished seventh in the hurt man rescue. 

Among those attending the event were Jeremy Adams, Matt Tolar, Kaleb Chapman, Carter Kelling, Walt Palmer, Michael Rodriquez, Austin Lewis and T.J. Witherell.

Meanwhile, Jackson EMC sent 32 crew members, several trucks and equipment to Lee County Electric Cooperative in North Fort Myers, Fla. for 11 days. They helped restore power in the Cape Coral area, Matlacha Island and the road leading to Pine Island.

CALENDAR

OktoberFest will be celebrated in Duluth on Saturday, October 22 from noon until 5 p.m.at Top Job Beverage. There will be music and food vendors, including those with sausage, pretzels, popcon and Italian ice. 

Career Fair at Annandale Village in Suwanee to be on October 26 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m, and from 3-6 p.m. Annandale CNAs, CMAs, LPNs, RNs, nurse managers, a Director of Open positions include nursing position, direct support professionals, including roles in food services, housekeeping and transportation. Annandale offers generous benefits including signing bonuses, flexible scheduling, on-site training and extensive training. For more information, visit annandale.org.

Groundbreaking of the Hooper-Renwick Themed Library will be Wednesday, October 26, at 11 a.m. at 56 Neal Boulevard in Lawrenceville. The project is by Gwinnett County’s board of commissioners in partnership with the Gwinnett County Public Library.  It will be the first themed library in Gwinnett and funded by SPLOST.  Parking is available at the Lawrenceville Lawn, 210 Luckie Street. A shuttle will take guests to the site.

The second annual Deutche Klassic car show will be held in downtown Norcross on October 29, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. It will feature 250 classic German automobiles, including  BMWs, Audis, Porsches, Mercedes Benzes, Volkswagens and Opels. In addition to this lineup of cars, enjoy German food, beer and a musical performance featuring a polka band. 

Groundbreaking will be Wednesday, Nov. 2, of CleanSpark at 5295 Brook Hollow Parkway, Norcross at 9:30 a.m. CleanSpark is a bitcoin mining and diversified energy company. It supports the growth and development of this new digital commodity. CleanSpark announced its $145 million investment in the City of Norcross on Sept. 16, 2021.The event also include a lunch and tour of the company’s facilities.

Independent Author’s Day will be Saturday, November 5 at noon  at the Duluth Public Library. The program will include “How to Get your Passion Into Print.” Local Author Charles Summerour will review , Germany to Georgia : Ten Generations of An American Family, which includes his family’s role in over 270 years of American and local history. 

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