What would truly help to improve Gwinnett (Atlanta, Decatur: low income, apartment complexes)

[ericsonga]

I'm a recent transplant to Gwinnett from North Ga (1.5 years). I was skeptical at first, but I have really taken to the county. It's much different than I remember growing up. However, I don't think it's all bad. I think that mass transit and rental codes are huge factors for the county. I would love to see the two proposed trains stretch through the county. There is a lot of talk about what is wrong, and how awful it is, but not a lot on what it takes to make it better. What else do you think could truly improve the area?

[gtdesigner]

More strip malls would be good..........just kidding!
1. Some kind of city planning. Someone in the zoning/planning department needs to ask the question "Do we really need another new strip mall?" before they approve another development. Maybe if we waited for the existing ones to fill up before we built more. Possibly even rehab to derelict ones instead of mowing down more green space.
2. No more developments on 124 - the traffic is already a nightmare.
3. More sidewalk projects like the one on Pharrs Rd.

[Iconographer]

I think extending the MARTA lines into Gwinnett would be a good idea. Developing town centers like they have in Suwanee and Norcross is a great idea as well.

[mrdkb]

The new Harbins Park in Dacula will be awesome

[rackensack]

Gwinnett is what it is today because for the last three decades it has had a county commission that is almost entirely beholden to developers, and has had an "any development is good development" mentality. This, together with its proximity to Atlanta proper, made it an attractive location for retail, commercial, and residential development at a time when the metro region was booming. A disproportionate share of that development came Gwinnett's way and was welcomed by local leaders. No one cared at the time that most of the housing stock was either rental housing (mostly dense apartment complexes) or entry-level houses, or that those sorts of housing put particular strains on the social and educational infrastructure -- in fact, the county attorney's interpretation of the county's charter from the state of Georgia was that because impact on schools was not explicitly mentioned as a rationale for making zoning decisions, the county was not authorized to do so, and would likely be sued by developers if the commission considered school impact in zoning.

About 15 years ago, as the metro area boomed, mortgage interest rates reached historically low levels, opening up home ownership to a wide band of people with relatively low incomes who would not, at higher rates, have been able to afford to buy a home. Likewise, the folks who bought all those entry-level houses in Gwinnett could now afford to move up to bigger, nicer, fancier houses elsewhere (often farther out in Gwinnett or points north or east). The net effect was to replace a cadre of solidly middle-middle class homeowners with an influx of lower-middle class newcomers. Many were immigrants, as were many of those who flocked to the apartment complexes that continued to be built on every scrap of available land. Most, whether immigrants or not, were more transient (even the homeowners) than those they replaced. A transient population, particularly one made of a wide range of ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups, strains the social fabric and imposes new challenges on institutions, like schools, that must deal with the entire population.

A certain amount of deterioration and blight is inevitable under those circumstances, and you've definitely seen that in the most transient parts of the county, particularly on the south and west edges. With the economy in free-fall, that can only get worse for a while.

What would give Gwinnett a chance to recover and improve would be leadership committed to rethinking the entire pattern of growth and development, and to find ways to channel growth into redevelopment of existing areas and reuptake of surplus housing stock. Of course, this is nearly impossible to do with commissioners who are largely still in the back pocket of developers and given the quite legitimate argument of landowners that they are entitled make the optimum use possible of their property.

In some ways, a complete collapse might be the best thing that could happen, as it might lead to developers losing interest in the county in general and abandoning their stranglehold on the county commission, leaving the field open for a set of leaders with more of a focus on the overall health of the community.

[BringBackCobain]

They built too much cheap housing in Gwinnett because the land was cheap. It will be decades before Gwinnett recovers.

[cityrover]

They need to do some crime and immigration control before they even consider improving the rest of it. I watched that county dig itself into the ground. Not to mention their level of corruption when it comes to building permits.

[cityrover]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

I think extending the MARTA lines into Gwinnett would be a good idea. Developing town centers like they have in Suwanee and Norcross is a great idea as well.

Marta will never be extended and in fact likely to be dismantled in the near future. Cobb and gwinnett might build their own transit if they ever have the money, however the opposition from their good tax base will put any such project into a backwards grind.