What Happened to Gwinnett County? (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: movers, hotels, neighborhood)

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by J2rescue

For once I have to (somewhat) agree with Blondie . The problem in some areas of Gwinnett is really bad sprawl. It is the worst kind of sprawl before they even had tree and sign ordinances (lipstick on a pig).

And this is not unique to Gwinnett. There are areas in Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb that sprawled in the 70's and 80's that have similarly declined. Some have since attracted new investment but this is absolutely nothing new and it won't be the last place this happens.

I have to agree with a lot of what she said too.LOL.(Begrudgingly)There has been very little planning until the last 3 or 4 years.They have nice areas but its just sprawl to me.The traffic is just horrendous.

[US-Traveller]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Exactly. The problem with Metro Atlanta is that we don't have many incorporated areas...so people lump Gwinnett all together...unfortunately.

For those of you who know Massachusetts...

it's like saying what's wrong with/what happened to Middlesex County? ...If one examines Lowell, Framingham, Waltham, etc...!

But Middlesex County includes Weston (the richest city in Mass), Cambridge (Harvard, MIT), Newton (very rich), Wellesley, etc.


Nothing happened/went wrong with Gwinnett...it is a very large area. Another problem is that people have always just said "Gwinnett" instead of East Gwinnett, North Gwinnett, etc. Gwinnett has so many nice parts: Peachtree Corners, Duluth, Sugarloaf, Suwanee, Buford, North Gwinnett, Mill Creek, Hamilton Mill, Dacula, Mountain Park, Five Forks, Brookwood, etc..

The only "questionable" parts of Gwinnett stretch from the Meadowcreek district inortheast in a line through the Berkmar area and then on to the Central Gwinnett district area.
Some might even try to throw the South Gwinnett and Shiloh areas in there, but these areas actually nice (especially the Shiloh area!)...the areas just have large black populations (and you know how many, many people view that...gasp!).

So, if Metro Atlanta was largely incorporated like it should be, we wouldn't be talking about Gwinnett as a whole...we'd say

"Wow, the towns of Lilburn and Lawrenceville have changed a lot and they are having some problems. But they border some really nice towns--Webb Gin Corners, North Stone Mountain, Five Forks, Collins Hill, etc..."

Sigh.

Actually Wellesley is in Norfolk County not Middlesex County.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by PotterGeek

Well it is, to me. Why can't people just say what city they live in? I don't get it. My husband doesn't get it, either. I could not tell you one city that is in east Cobb. Or north Fulton.

East Cobb is a common label for an unincorporated part of Cobb County.

There *is* no incorporated city in that area.

Maybe this map will help. It contains some of the common region names in Cobb County. Note that only the yellow areas with red labels are actual incorporated cities ... the vast majority of the county is shown with a white background, which means it is developed and suburban but is not incorporated, a situation which is unique to Georgia as far as I know

Some of the common area names are in green or light blue. Vinings and Mableton are two areas which are fairly well defined, but neither is an organized city (though Mableton was for a brief period 90+ years ago). The Cumberland area has a lot of businesses and such but no city government. Etc.

http://www.prootwadl.org/CobbCounty9.GIF

Note that neither East Cobb nor West Cobb refer to the east and west halves of the county. There are many areas of Cobb County which aren't in either one.

[Saintmarks]

Back to the original post.

I always thought that Gwinnett was developing as a step under Cobb and North Fulton, even back in the 80s and 90s. Perhaps Cobb had more of a diverse feel as Marietta and Smyrna were always much larger incoporated cities with unique identities than any of the Gwinnett cities. Before suburban growth came to Gwinnett, Lawrenceville was the only decent sized town, but still a town. Snellville, Duluth, Lilburn, Norcross, Dacula, etc were never large towns, just small rural towns like you find scattered all over Georgia. Would have to look up some census numbers from like 1950 and 1960, I don't think any town in Gwinnett had a population of much more than 3,000 before suburban growth came that way beginning in the 70s.

That lack of identity in any one community and those communities not annexing areas around them as they grew led to the large homogenous suburban glob that gets referred to as Gwinnett. Lack of planning and community identity has hurt the county as a whole. Not saying there aren't nice areas of Gwinnett, but this historical lack of any one town or community giving an individual character to any part of the county has led to the reason Gwinnett is referred to as one large whole whereas other counties in the metro area are refferred to more in individual areas.

Nothing scientific here, just my observation.

[Saintmarks]

Just found some population statistics for 1950 and 1960. Lawrenceville wasn't even a town of any size then, Buford was the largest town in the county. Here is what I found, first population is 1950 census, second is 1960.

Buford ..............3,812.......4,151
Duluth..................842......1,484
Lawrenceville......2,832.......3,742
Norcross............1,340.......1,601
Sugar Hill..............783.......1,170

The source where I found this info only listed towns in Georgia with a population over 1,000 as of the 1960 census, so Lilburn, Dacula, Snellville and Suwanee were less than 1,000 as of the 1960 census.

Growth at this time was in the inner ring suburbs:

College Park..........14,535.......23,290
Decatur................21,635.......21,953
East Point.............21,080.......35,425
Forest Park.............2,653.......14,122
Hapeville.................8,560.......10,146
Marietta................20,687.......25,287
North Atlanta...........5,930.......12,257
Smyrna...................2,005.......11,991

These are the only suburbs over 10,000 in the 5 county metro area of the time. Interesting to note that North Atlanta was an incorporated town as the info I gathered only listed incorporated cities. I remember seeing it on older maps, I believe it was in the area most now consider as Brookhaven. Anyone have any info on why this incorporated town ceased to be?

[FromCLTtoATL]

Boy, I have so much to learn about the general metro area! I've been here a year now, and I'm barely soaking in my 10 miles between Scottdale and downtown Atlanta.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

The mail is addressed to Marietta, GA, but East Cobb is not within the city limits of Marietta.

East Cobb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keep in mind, most of East Cobb has a Marietta address, but a lot of it has a Roswell address. Small parts have Kennesaw and Atlanta addresses (and a very, very small part has a Woodstock address).

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by US-Traveller

Actually Wellesley is in Norfolk County not Middlesex County.

True. My mistake.

Well then, replace Wellesley in my post with Lexington, Belmont, etc.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Just found some population statistics for 1950 and 1960. Lawrenceville wasn't even a town of any size then, Buford was the largest town in the county. Here is what I found, first population is 1950 census, second is 1960.

Buford ..............3,812.......4,151
Duluth..................842......1,484
Lawrenceville......2,832.......3,742
Norcross............1,340.......1,601
Sugar Hill..............783.......1,170

The source where I found this info only listed towns in Georgia with a population over 1,000 as of the 1960 census, so Lilburn, Dacula, Snellville and Suwanee were less than 1,000 as of the 1960 census.

Growth at this time was in the inner ring suburbs:

College Park..........14,535.......23,290
Decatur................21,635.......21,953
East Point.............21,080.......35,425
Forest Park.............2,653.......14,122
Hapeville.................8,560.......10,146
Marietta................20,687.......25,287
North Atlanta...........5,930.......12,257
Smyrna...................2,005.......11,991

These are the only suburbs over 10,000 in the 5 county metro area of the time. Interesting to note that North Atlanta was an incorporated town as the info I gathered only listed incorporated cities. I remember seeing it on older maps, I believe it was in the area most now consider as Brookhaven. Anyone have any info on why this incorporated town ceased to be?

Here is a little information that might help (but it still doesn't explain why). If I had to guess, it was cost.

North Atlanta, Georgia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[LovinDecatur]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Interesting to note that North Atlanta was an incorporated town as the info I gathered only listed incorporated cities. I remember seeing it on older maps, I believe it was in the area most now consider as Brookhaven. Anyone have any info on why this incorporated town ceased to be?

Not a clue, SM. Wikipedia does refer to its' incorporated status ending in the 60's, but offers no reasons why; nor does the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
So, I'll offer my own hypothesis: Its' breakup would have occurred at a time when DeKalb County was consolidating its' own power and services, notably the school system (DeKalb did not have a unified school district until the 50's). It may have been determined that better efficiencies could be had by turning governmental authority over to the county.
Darn, I'm curious, too, and I just hung up from talking to my Dad, a 79 year resident of DeKalb. Might have to call him back...he's a walking dictionary of the county's history.