Observations from the Peachtree Corners Town Hall ....

Greetings,

I hope everyone had an opportunity to attend the Peachtree Corners Town Hall last night at Peachtree Corners Baptist Church.  If the attendance last night was any indication of the interest level in this issue then we should expect a strong turnout on November 8th.  Granted this is an off year election so "strong" is a relative term but I would expect this won't be your normal off year election where you get turnout sometimes as low as 5-10 percent.

I wanted to share some general observations I had ....

The meeting was held in the church fellowship hall and it was standing room only.  Initial plans for the meeting were estimating attendance at 100.  Based on feedback from interested parties estimates were increased to potentially 300 (seating capacity for the fellowship hall).  By 7:20 (the meeting was scheduled to start at 7:30) every seat was taken.  I would estimate that there were between 350 and 450 people in attendance when all was said and done.  The crowd was definitely older than the average PC resident which was not surprising since it was a school night. 

Mike Mason, president of the UPCCA, spoke for about 45 minutes basically laying out the rationales for incorporating.  The presentation was in a power point format and I thought it was very well done.  It was concise yet informative and the tech staff at PCBC did a really good job having multiple screens going and a sound system that did not have the usual breakdowns that you sometimes find at such events. 

He was followed by Tom Rice, our local Georgia House representative, who provided some additional rational for incorporating and also gave some big picture context to why we should incorporate and how we had a limited window of time in which to do this.  For those who follow my blogs I touched on some similar topics a few weeks ago (Political planets aligned ....).

After about an hour of presentations the floor was opened up for questions.  I would estimate about 10-15 people got an opportunity to ask questions, and I have to say that in general I was very impressed with the caliber of questioning.  Almost all the questions were about issues relevant to the vast majority of attendees and some brought up issues that I had not really given much thought to. 

A few people used their time at the microphone to make mini-speeches instead of ask questions but even these instances added a lot to the discussion as these individuals brought up issues and had viewpoints that brought a lot of value to the overall discussion.   

One of the more interesting concepts brought up by an individual in the commercial real estate business was that of branding. Most of us know what branding is but when we think of branding we think of it in terms of a product we buy instead of an area but if you think about the concept is the same. 

We want people and businesses to "buy" Peachtree Corners by either moving here or investing in our area with new businesses.  This individual gave some interesting insights into how branding can make a big difference not only in attracting businesses but also in increasing home values.  I think most of us inherently already knew this but it was very enlightening to hear it from someone who has been working in this field for over 20 years. 

One of the things I was very interested in seeing was how the crowd would break down in terms of pro-city and anti-city.  Obviously no poll was taken but based on the amount of clapping for pro-city and anti-city speakers at the microphone and the number of pro-city and anti-city speakers at the microphone I would say the split was roughly 75-25 in favor of the city, maybe even more.  Clearly there were undecided residents in the crowd so no one knows how they will eventually vote so this unscientific analysis is based solely on people who choose to clap, speak, etc. 

To be honest I was expecting that there could potentially be some fireworks as this issue is quite emotional for many people.  I counted about three instances where either Mike Mason or Tom Rice were interrupted but in general I thought the crowd was fairly civil. 

I did find it disappointing in a few instances where an issue was addressed pretty clearly, particularly the issue regarding changing your address (you do NOT have to change your address, you can keep using Norcross if you want), and people kept bringing it up over and over and over.  I realize that to some people this is very important but to me, in the big scheme of things, it seems very secondary to concerns such as taxes, improving property values, improving service delivery, amount of government in our lives,etc.  But, that is just one person's opinion.  Everyone's priorities are different. 

OK, enough of my observations of last night.  If you were there last night please share your observations...... the good, the bad and the ugly.