Will Gwinnett become its own entity? (Atlanta, Marietta: university, living, mall)

[workaholics]

Gwinnett first grew as a suburb of Atlanta, but it appears to be becoming more self sustaining and distinct from the city of Atlanta. Will it develop into an urban area in its own right instead of just another suburban county?

[atltechdude]

No. People in Gwinnett do not generally care for urban living, that's why they live there.

[Lady's Man]

that's left wing propoganda

[cwkimbro]

well it depends what you call urban.

Areas of Gwinnett have the population density, but you're not likely to find office towers and the lifestyle will remain autocentric.

As far as other aspects of the social realm Gwinnett has tried to be semi-independent for a long time.

It had its own newspaper originally, which was bought out by the AJC. Another one started up. For a long time the Gwinnett section was the only one published daily.

Gwinnett also has been more proactive on building and securing their own sports teams/venues, concert venues, etc... It also has more retail (too high actually... part of the problem with Gwinnett Place).

The road system within the county (the county built part of it) is pretty good. It isn't the typical suburban built system with one way in and out. Most problems occur getting across I-85 or across county lines and dealing with some neighboring counties that didn't completely develop theirs out.

Now where I will criticize Gwinnett... lack of public space. We don't have central gathering points, like public plazas. We aren't going to attract lively events into areas that Atlantic Station does. Map props to Suwannee's town center though! But we need something like that in the Middle of the Gwinnett Place Mall area as it redevelops.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by workaholics

Gwinnett first grew as a suburb of Atlanta, but it appears to be becoming more self sustaining and distinct from the city of Atlanta. Will it develop into an urban area in its own right instead of just another suburban county?

Just another suburban county.

Cobb has more of an argument here with a large office subdistrict (Cumberland), an up and coming university (KSU), and one of the nicest traditional downtowns in the metro (Marietta).

[berkeleylake]

Probably not, but I think more of the unincorporated areas within Gwinnett will eventually become part of the surrounding cities.

[aries4118]

I think it would be wise for the Parkview-Brookwood-North/West Shiloh Corridor to incorporate into a city.

Possible name? Mountain Green

[Iconographer]

I liken Gwinnett to Atlanta's version of LA's 'Valley'. Decidedly suburban, demographically diverse, and very much with its own identity in the minds of most Atlantans.

[cittic10]

I'd say no simply because there's no one main urban center.
There's lawrenceville and Norcross but some the bulk of the investment is in neither of those and both have some apparent decline.

If there was, then I'd say yes.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Now where I will criticize Gwinnett... lack of public space. We don't have central gathering points, like public plazas. We aren't going to attract lively events into areas that Atlantic Station does. Map props to Suwannee's town center though! But we need something like that in the Middle of the Gwinnett Place Mall area as it redevelops.

Nevermind that gwinnett has one of the top park systems in the country and has more parks than any other county in the metro.

[cqholt]

Needs to get some form of rail based transit to deal with the traffic. For gwinnett to become more urban, build commuter rail and/or extend MARTA to Buford. Build streetcar system to move people between the city and commercial centers. The car is not the future, too inefficient at moving mass amounts of people.