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Health & Fitness

Will Development in Alpharetta Erase Our History?

Do you enjoy visiting historic places?  Have you been to Washington, D.C., or an Indian mound, or Savannah?  Someone, or group of someone’s, made stalwart, sometimes sacrificial decisions to preserve those places.  Your experience and enjoyment of those places is the fruit of their labor. 

Historic places explain things by letting us be there.  We see, smell, hear, touch things that help us to understand another time, place and compilation of events.  

I am worried that Alpharetta will not have many historic places in another 10 or so years.  I am worried because, although Alpharetta is not a young city, it did develop quickly from the 1980’s to the present day where it continues to develop rapidly.  There is a danger in this quick springing up – history can be lost, things can be built with shabby materials, and the quick turning of a dollar in real estate development favors carpetbaggers and scalawags.  And carpetbaggers and scalawags present a danger to local elected officials who may be tempted, as George Washington Plunkitt was, to rationalize some things as honest graft…..”I seen my opportunities and I took em”. 

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As a plant-person, I am wary of quick growth.  You can cause a plant to green up very quickly if you add extra nitrogen fertilizer.  You will have amazing, supple stems and leaves.  You will be so proud of your lush, green garden for about a minute, because you will soon realize that the plant is delaying fruiting or flowering, or perhaps not flowering at all.  And then the insects will set in because chewing insects love tender, new, green plant growth. And then you’ll be sorry you wanted to rush things along.  In nature, time is the step that can’t be eliminated.  I believe this translates to cities, as well.

A casualty of our quick growth in Alpharetta has been the loss of local historic structures and places – mainly houses, barns and old building which have been rationalized into destruction by the phrase, “What’s so special about that old shack?” just as the developer was handing over checks to voting landowners, attorneys and construction companies.  Lost in the dazzle of the potential for 6 and 7 figure capital gains was the mere suggestion to move something 50 feet to the right or left in order to save a building or a site. 

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I’m happy to say that our current Alpharetta City Council did turn the future parking garage  at City Center in order to save an old Oak tree.  So, maybe there is hope that our local politicians understand the need to preserve – trees anyway.  And I also heard that Milton is attempting to make a historic district in Crabapple – no small feat.  I wish them well. 

Wise people, serendipity and time preserve history for future generations
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