In deeply diverse Gwinnett, white residents confront minority status (Atlanta: hair salon, real estate)

[Airforceguy]

For many longtime Gwinnett residents, the majority of whom are white, the county’s almost simultaneous explosion in size and diversity can be a difficult thing to reckon with. In some, that reckoning can manifest itself as racism, but it can also be a different sort of thing — a longing for the South, the home, that they grew up with.

Today, the Davenport Road of Franklin’s childhood is not gravel and garden rows but asphalt and apartments that stretch the full length between Buford Highway and Old Norcross Road. It’s punctuated on one end by auto body shops with signs in Korean, and on the other by a strip mall that’s home to “Waba Karaoke” and a hair salon promising “Japanese magic.”

“It’s just not anywhere like what it was when I was growing up,” Franklin said.

In deeply diverse Gwinnett, white folks confront being a minority

[Born 2 Roll]

Good thread with a link to an interesting article that touched on some key points like:

> How Gwinnett's population boom (though it started about at least 20 years later than other core metro Atlanta counties like Cobb and DeKalb) was started in earnest by the opening of the old Western Electric plant at I-85 and what is now Jimmy Carter Boulevard (then Norcross-Tucker Road) in the Norcross area...

> How non-Hispanic/Latino whites now make up only about 39% of the population in a county where non-Hispanic whites made up 96% of the population as recently as 1980...

> How Atlanta's berth as host of the 1996 Summer Olympics triggered an even larger population boom that attracted minorities in very large numbers to a Gwinnett County that already had a reputation for having some of the best public schools in the Southeastern U.S....

> How much of the boom in the minority population in Gwinnett County was also as a result of growing minority populations spilling over into the county from neighboring DeKalb County...

> How Gwinnett County's population has gone from 72,000 in 1970 to about 910,000 today, a growth rate of more than 1100%! in 47 years...

> How Gwinnett County notable (even notorious) real estate construction boom of the 1980's, '90's and 2000's appeared to contribute directly to the boom in the county's Hispanic population because of the use of undocumented migrant workers from Mexico and Central America on construction projects in the county during that boom period.

[coolieandre]

LOL!!!! This article sounds like what every suburban city in this country is facing. "The area used to be majority white and we raised chickens and lived on farms. Now its not blah, blah, blah"... The same people complaining are the same people holding the county back because of pastime....Gwinnett needs to start getting their act together and think PROGRESSIVELY and PRO BUSINESS or it will be a failed bedroom county (What are they doing with the NCR site, Gwinnett Place Mall, the failed Gwinnett Braves stadium near MOG?!?!, struggling Sugarloaf Mills near the Arena and Gwinnett Hotel district a heavily Korean area).... Plug up the Marta NOW and begin planning more mixed use communities around these stations! Market the county correctly and sell the image of a professional, educated workforce community that's diverse in an area with homes 300K+. County officials are not thinking FORWARD. They are stuck on what Gwinnett has become instead of what it is, where we are at and how to look forward. These changes are national so adapt!

At the end they mentioned white flight. You can't keep escaping town. You can keep going more north all you want, then you'll hit Gainesville. And what's there. Poultry slaughterhouses. And whose the majority there, Hispanics. Go more into 285 and whose there, Blacks.... So either diversify or keep running.....

[Tarzanman]

Originally Posted by coolieandre

LOL!!!! This article sounds like what every suburban city is this country is facing. "The area used to be majority white and we raised chickens and lived on farms. Now its not blah, blah, blah... The same people complaining are the same people holding the county back because of pastime....Gwinnett needs to start getting their act together and think progressively and pro business OR it will be a failed bedroom county. Plug up the Marta NOW and begin planning more mixed use communities around these stations! Market the county correctly and sell the image of a professional, educated workforce community that's diverse in an area with homes 300K+. County officials are not thinking FORWARD. They are stuck on what Gwinnett has become instead of what it has become, where we are at and how to look forward. These changes are national so adapt!

I'm confused. How is Gwinnett failing? There are quite a few cities in the county that are doing quite well?
Suwannee, Duluth, Buford, and Lawrenceville

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by coolieandre

LOL!!!! This article sounds like what every suburban city is this country is facing. "The area used to be majority white and we raised chickens and lived on farms. Now its not blah, blah, blah... The same people complaining are the same people holding the county back because of pastime....Gwinnett needs to start getting their act together and think progressively and pro business OR it will be a failed bedroom county. Plug up the Marta NOW and begin planning more mixed use communities around these stations! Market the county correctly and sell the image of a professional, educated workforce community that's diverse in an area with homes 300K+. County officials are not thinking FORWARD. They are stuck on what Gwinnett has become instead of what it has become, where we are at and how to look forward. These changes are national so adapt!

Exactly. Nostalgia and NIMBY-ism and anti-transit and all that related crap, is all total nonsense. People who seem to have literally no clue that human population constantly increases, and quiet areas near cities will inevitably become busy areas, and that is just a natural fact of human society. Growth is what drives the economy that allows your standard of living in the first place.

If you moved to Gwinnett for what it no longer is, and you want that lifestyle, just move further out. Let people locate in areas with a character right now, that fits where they are at right now, in their current stage of life. Accept that things change. Adapt to said changes, when and as needed. Pretty simple.

(Of course, there is a flipside extreme position to this, too, where people seem to want to over-urbanize OTP suburbs, but that's for the other thread.)

[ATLTJL]

If I could go back in time and warn Gwinnett county ONE SINGLE THING, it would be this:

Build better quality housing stock!!!!

I think the biggest thing that's help the county back, especially around Gwinnett Place, is the houses are for the most part complete pieces of crap that haven't aged well at all. The apartment complexes are, too. The problem is the land isn't valuable enough to demo and build infill, and probably won't be in any of our lifetimes. They really shot themselves in the foot by building houses that just aged terribly.

Now, a question:

Driving around parts of Gwinnett as the article mentioned, it would be easy to assume the population is 50% Asian. You see Korean signs EVERYWHERE. But it's only 12% Asian...it's more than double that black. So how come you see so many more Asian owned businesses than African American owned businesses? Is it because Asians are more entrepreneurial? Or is it that there are twice as many black owned businesses and you just can't tell because they don't self-identify by catering only to their own communities?

[coolieandre]

Originally Posted by Tarzanman

I'm confused. How is Gwinnett failing? There are quite a few cities in the county that are doing quite well?
Suwannee, Duluth, Buford, and Lawrenceville

The specific project(s) I mentioned are. The MOG Gwinnett Braves stadium will now begin arena soccer for Atlanta United... It never reached the potential It was advertised to reach. A lot of the development on that portion of Buford Drive heading down to Rock Springs etc was intended for the arena but just never happened....We'll see how that turns out in the end. MOG has a new project called Ariston but IMO I have a pessimistic view on that. MOG is using gyms to fill vacancy but then again, that is more of an issues with SIMON. Still, it's the prime mall for the area which reflects the community. NCR is moving out and own a great deal of Real Estate on Satellite blvd, and of course we all know about Gwinnett Place Mall area, now called "Gwinnett Village". There are many commercial portions and districts within the county and cities that have signs of decay. The residential sector is strong but the city needs some strong commercial. Oh, and the Arean at gwinnett is thriving but what about the offices. I thought the area would have blossomed more than what it has. It needs to be plugged into the city. They keep building hotels and restaurants but what about the work element.

[coolieandre]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If I could go back in time and warn Gwinnett county ONE SINGLE THING, it would be this:

Build better quality housing stock!!!!

I think the biggest thing that's help the county back, especially around Gwinnett Place, is the houses are for the most part complete pieces of crap that haven't aged well at all. The apartment complexes are, too. The problem is the land isn't valuable enough to demo and build infill, and probably won't be in any of our lifetimes. They really shot themselves in the foot by building houses that just aged terribly.

Now, a question:

Driving around parts of Gwinnett as the article mentioned, it would be easy to assume the population is 50% Asian. You see Korean signs EVERYWHERE. But it's only 12% Asian...it's more than double that black. So how come you see so many more Asian owned businesses than African American owned businesses? Is it because Asians are more entrepreneurial? Or is it that there are twice as many black owned businesses and you just can't tell because they don't self-identify by catering only to their own communities?

I think the Asians perhaps are more entrepreneurial. Hence 12% but many many business signs. Personally, you can have the Korean language posted, but I'd like to see English right next to it. Kinda how they do French/English in Ontario. Regarding the homes... Gwinnett Place has quality homes around it. Go around the mall and exit on Satellite. You're basically at Sugarloaf/Boggs/ Old Ptree near Parsons and Mc Daniel Park etc.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If I could go back in time and warn Gwinnett county ONE SINGLE THING, it would be this:

Build better quality housing stock!!!!

I think the biggest thing that's help the county back, especially around Gwinnett Place, is the houses are for the most part complete pieces of crap that haven't aged well at all. The apartment complexes are, too. The problem is the land isn't valuable enough to demo and build infill, and probably won't be in any of our lifetimes. They really shot themselves in the foot by building houses that just aged terribly.

Clayton County could have used that warning too.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Clayton County could have used that warning too.

Heck, South Cobb, South Fulton, and Central DeKalb have some crappy subdivision housing from the 90s to early 2000s. It doesn't mean the people living there are bad but a lot of the suburban housing in Atlanta looks like it's falling apart.