Well,
it’s nearly that time of year again! My favorite
time of year….fall! Yes, we are already
feeling the temperatures change and soon the trees will begin to signal the
onset of cooler months by exposing their true colors. With fall will come leaf peepers from all
over and the scads of tourists filling our streets during the apple festival
and padding the pockets of our local merchants.
Scarecrows will begin to emerge from their annual slumber and corn mazes
and apple houses will be in full swing.
Ah, fall. You have to love
it. And, as quickly as the frenzy
begins, it will wane and we will settle into the quiet months of winter. Yes, we are close to hitting the peak of our
tourist season……but what would it be like if the tourists didn’t leave……….
(enter dream sequence)
Now,
don’t get me wrong. I have nothing
against tourism, tourists and certainly not the money they bring in to the
local economy. Let’s face it; our small
downtown would wither and perish without a steady injection of tourism
cash. And, quite frankly, we have a
great downtown area. But, what makes it
great? Charm? Appeal?
Is it because it’s small? I would
say it’s all of the above.
Now,
I ask the question – What happens to small, charming and appealing towns when
you push to commercialize them, add big box stores, chain restaurants, mass
housing developments and other conveniences desired by ‘city people’? Well, they become Blue Ridge.
Now,
before the torch brandishing mobs appear on my doorstep because I used the term
‘city people’ or because they moved here from a city – just think about
it. Why did you move here? Was it your desire to escape the urban
disaster you called home just to create another urban disaster? Or, did you prefer the small town charm, lack
of traffic, low crime and nice people? The
hard truth is that you can’t have conveniences of cities and maintain a small
town way of life. It.will.never.happen.
Now,
back to Blue Ridge. Have you been there
lately? Have you talked to locals that
have lived there a long time? Well,
guess what. They aren’t happy. Blue Ridge has really grown over the last few
years and quite frankly - it is over populated.
Traffic is terrible, big box blight lines the highway and nary a Georgia
license plate to be seen. During my last
trip through I could have sworn I was in upstate New York! The locals have developed a rather strong
attitude toward anyone coming to the area and for good reason. Their small, quaint town has been sold out
and overrun. All in the name of
progress! “Let’s bulldoze the forest and put a housing development over
here. Well, now we need a grocery store
and a gas station, maybe another chain restaurant with sub-par food. Now we need another hotel and a movie theatre
for guests of all the new families we are going to cram into a small
space. We are progressing! Yay!”
The sad
reality is that I’m not talking about Blue Ridge - statements like the one
above are being made right here in Ellijay. Blue Ridge is lost and Ellijay is hanging on
the development fringe of Blue Ridge and Jasper. If we aren’t smart and stop blocking
development, we too will be lost.
It’s
already happening around us in CRR. Sell
more lots, build more houses, bulldoze more trees. How many people a day are moving in to
CRR? Development is not a sign of
success….it is a sign of lost opportunity to preserve what makes this area
special.
Every
day I hear complaints about renters, garbage along our roads, loud music,
speeding cars, messy neighbors, people who can’t keep their pets on their
property and let them roam freely.
Bothered by those issues now?
Just wait until more ‘progress’ is made and we sell more lots and build
more houses. CRR Management presented a
golden opportunity to residents during the $1000.00 lot sale. Sadly, not nearly enough took advantage of
it. In a year from now, those that didn’t
will be complaining about the noise from the new rental property that was built
right next to them because a developer cashed in on the deal.
Now,
don’t get me wrong. We live in a
beautiful area of the country with a lot of great people and I would personally
like to see it stay that way. I’m sure
this post will generate a wide variety of reactions – and it is meant to. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions. Where do you see Ellijay going in the next 10
years? Please feel free to comment or
e-mail me directly. My e-mail address is
shown to the left of this post.
In
the meantime, I’m going to take a quiet stroll along the Coosawattee River.
Food
for thought…..
Chris
