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Peachtree Corners Life

Community Leadership in Social and Racial Justice, Part One

Published

5 years ago

on

social and racial justice

City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia residents, and leaders speak out about change and actively becoming a more anti-racist community.

This first episode of this mini-part series includes a candidate for Gwinnett Sherriff, and former police officer Keybo Taylor; Director of Redemptive Unity at Periment Church, Jimmy Kim, and teacher and community leader Julie Morgan. Join them along with Peachtree Corners Life podcast host Rico Figliolini and series co-host Karl Barham in this intensive discussion to try and solve these issues.

Timestamp:

[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:05:54] – Feelings on These Issues
[00:20:13] – Personal Experiences with Injustice 
[00:32:34] – Participating in the Community
[00:42:42] – Leaning on our Leaders
[00:45:36] – Bringing New Voices to the Table
[00:52:25] – Desires for Change
[01:08:28] – Closing

Related Links:

Keybo Taylor: ​https://keyboforsheriff.com
Jimmy Kim and Perimeter Church: ​https://www.perimeter.org

Recorded socially safe online and in the City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia

“We curate our narratives quite a bit right? We think about the stories that we want to live, or the lifestyle that we want to live and then we curate it…. But, one way or another to one degree or another, I really do feel that every individual, they curate their own narrative. And one of the things I’ve been challenging our people here at Perimeter, and just anyone that will have this conversation with me is to stop and take inventory of your narrative. And that’s not some kind of like big psychological or philosophical thing. It’s just simply, take stock of where you are. Where do you live? Who your friends are, who are your closest associates? You know, when do you ever interact with people that are not like you?”

JIMMY KIM

Podcast Transcript

Rico: [00:00:30] Hi, this is Rico Figliolini host of Peachtree Corners Life in the city of Peachtree Corners. We have a special show today. Part of a series of episodes that we’re going to be doing over the next two weeks. And my cohost in this is my cohost from Capitalist Sage, Karl Barham. So, and we have a great panel here to be able to discuss our issues today. So Karl, why don’t you lead it off?

Karl: [00:00:54] Sure. On may 26, 2020. there there’ve been a series of protests that started after an African-American male named George Floyd was killed during police arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Then a couple of weeks later on June 12th a 27 year old African American father was shot and killed by Atlanta police after responding to a complaint that he was asleep in his car. If you look at today, June 25th, March, about a month that there have been protests around the country, involving, Social and racial justice, in the communities. Today on Peachtree Corners Life, we wanted to invite some local residents and leaders to start a discussion on community leadership in social and racial justice so that people could find ways at the local level right here in Peachtree Corners and others to impact, change as, as necessary to keep their communities safe for all citizens during encounters with law enforcement, but also find ways that individuals and community leaders can improve and address social injustice in its many forms. What can a citizen do? Let’s have that discussion. I’d like to start off by introducing our guests today and I’m going to go around and have each one of them introduce themselves, starting with, Julie Morgan, a resident here in Peachtree Corners. Why don’t you introduce yourself?

Julie: [00:02:19] Sure. My name is Julie, my husband and I have lived in Peachtree Corners for eight years now. He works in the film industry in, you know, all over Atlanta. We have three small children. When I moved to Peachtree Corners, I was a teacher in a charter school in DeKalb County. Once we had our daughter, our eldest daughter, I quit my job in order to stay home. We attend victory church in Norcross, which is one of the most diverse churches in the area. We live in the Greenleaf neighborhood, which is fairly diverse. And we love living here. I’ve been, I don’t know, Karl pegged me as a community leader. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not, but we host a lot of community events at our home. We just love being involved with people in Peachtree Corners.

Karl: [00:03:14] Thank you very much. Jimmy, why don’t you introduce yourself?

Jimmy: [00:03:16] Sure. Good afternoon, my name is Jimmy Kim. I am a Peachtree Corners resident, myself. We’ve been in, my wife and I and our family have been in Peachtree corners since wow, 2011. So a good amount of time. Actually it goes further back than that, but a long time in Peachtree Corners. We live, I guess, in the North Manner, subdivision or area. And my wife works as a scientist, a public health scientist. We have two kids that go to Simpson elementary. And for me, my job, I work at Perimeter Church as the director of redemptive unity perimeters, just up the street, 141, in Fulton County in Johns Creek, but a director of redemptive unity previous to that, or prior to that, I was working with high school students. So, and we had a pretty big reach with our high school ministry, including Norcross, Paul Duke, which is of course
a very, I have a vested interest in doing ministry and doing work in our community, both as a resident, but then also as a minister.

Karl: [00:04:16] Oh, excellent. Thank you. Keybo, love for you to introduce yourself. Many people might already know you. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you’re up to.

Keybo: [00:04:27] Thank you very much. My name is Keybo Taylor. I am originally from Lawrenceville, Georgia. Born and raised here in Gwinnett County. I think I’m one of the few original people that we meet from time to time. I have lived here practically my whole life. I’ve raised my family here, my kids, and now we’re currently raising our grandkids here. I’m a retired law enforcement professional. I spent 26 years with the Gwinnett County police department, where I retired at the rank of major. My connections to Peachtree Corners circle is, when I first got out of the Academy, I was assigned to the West side precinct and I spent a great deal of time during that time, working in the Peachtree Corners circle area. Came back to the West side precinct as a Lieutenant, as the daywatch commander, spent some more time there. And then a majority of my time in the police department was spent working in the criminal investigation division. So, you know, I’m fairly full manual with a lot of things that was going on in the Peachtree Corners circle area. As I said before, I am retired. I spent some time working in the school system, some time working in mental health, in the mental health field. And currently I’m a, a candidate democratic candidate for, the sheriff, the Sheriff’s position, here in the Sheriff’s office here in Gwinnett County.

Karl: [00:05:54] Fabulous. I’ll introduce myself for folks that may not have heard of, or heard from me before. I’m a local resident here at Peachtree Corner as well. I own and operate a business here. My family lives here and we’ve had the pleasure of living here for the past five plus years, in Peachtree Corners. And, I just really love the community and find different ways to be involved in the community in different ways. And, I met Rico, just reaching out, one day and, we met for coffee and started talking about, you know, we would have coffees every week. and just talk about things that are impacting the community. I love the work that Rico does in helping with communication and the publication within the community. And, and we’ve started to continue these dialogues and invite some guests along with us to talk about things that are happening in the community that are impacting the community. So, I’m just looking forward to, to this discussion on, community leadership, in, in the community. The community leadership, when it comes to topics of social and racial justice, I want to start off with, if I could throw out a question for discussion with the group, just, you know, as things have been happening, over the past month, how are, how have you been feeling about the protests and some of the issues around racial injustice that’s been happening in the country as a whole? And just curious how, how that’s been, that’s been received, your thoughts about that to begin with. Jimmy, do you mind if I start with you?

Jimmy: [00:07:29] Sure. I don’t mind at all. Yeah, as a minister and myself as a Korean American, my parents immigrated to the States in 1971. And so I’ve, I’ve only known America. A
US citizen and my parents were always very proud to talk about their experience as, as immigrants coming to the United States, being able to start small businesses and it’s a varying degrees of success. And, you know, they did their best to teach me about, you know, knowing my Korean heritage and culture and history. Ingraining those things in me, but then also pushing and challenging me to, to really, to become American. And that really has been a quest of mine, ever since young childhood, even into, into my forties. You know, for someone that’s an Asian American, who is often, for my Korean family and friends, hardly Korean enough. And then for my American friends, just because of the way that I look in my, my ethnic heritage, never American enough. You know, and that’s depends and varies between the different groups of people that I hang out with. But that can put you in a very interesting spot in terms of your own identity. And, so I say all that, because I do think that’s a, at the heart of it, a big part of where we find our country today, is this. An identity issue, right? It’s an identity issue. If you want to go all the way to the top, just about well, where is America now? What does America look like now? And, and then ultimately asking the question, should these things be happening? And for again, for me as a minister and as an Asian American, no, I don’t believe these things should be happening. I don’t think anyone’s intent in all of this was for things to unravel. That may be the intent of a very, very, very small select few, anarchists, if you will. But I think that is more the rarity than the norm. I think there is a lot of frustration. I think there is a lot of, of anger even, and a lot of misguided information that’s coming out and, really you see it out in the public sphere, the dialogue or the rhetoric is if you’re not for me, then you’re against me. And I think that can be very, very problematic when it comes to just having a civil discourse. I think we have lost our way in a lot of senses in having the, or having the ability to listen to someone, empathize with someone, and even with people that we may disagree with. And so, I feel uneasy for sure. I’m, I’m worried or concerned for my family and for my kids and for their safety. And I’ll end with this or this little part with this, you know, We, I participated in a march not too long ago, and a protest. And my son who is six years old, who had learned about Martin Luther King Jr. In school, was telling me, dad, I don’t want you to go on this protest or to this march. And I was telling him, you know what, this is what dad does. And this is why I believe I need to go. And he said, well, Martin Luther King Jr., he was fighting against those types of things about people being treated unfairly or unjustly because of their skin color and their heritage. And he died for that. Daddy, I don’t want you to go and be a part of something where you might put your life at risk. And we had a sobering conversation as sobering, as you can have with a six year old, right. About the realities of the world that we live in. But then also know we’ve got a lot of work to do, and that means we’ve got to listen. We have to build relationships with people. I really believe that.

Karl: [00:11:04] Thank you. Julie, maybe, maybe you could, you know, build on, I know you have young children and so you probably are having similar discussions.

Julie: [00:11:15] Yeah. You know, just kind of echoing what Jimmy said. We’re very people in America are just, there’s no in between, right? You’re, you’re either this side or that side. One thing that we talk a lot with our kids about is that, you know, you treat people the way you want to be treated regardless of what they look like. We have, I think we probably participated in the
same march, the one race march on Atlanta, last week. And, you know, we told our kids why we were going and what we were doing. And my seven year old said, cause she, there was one race march on stone mountain a couple of years ago, she said, well, mommy, didn’t, didn’t we solve that already? Like didn’t we solve racism? And you know, to her, when you, when you explain racism to a kid that somebody would treat somebody differently because their skin color is different. That actually makes no sense. Right? Like they just, they see it for how silly it is. And so in her mind, she was like, Oh, we already, we solved that problem right? Like now we’re all back to being kind to each other. And you know, that was heartbreaking because we had to say, no honey, there’s, you know, this keeps happening. People keep getting killed simply because they don’t look like someone else. And so we, you know, we have a lot of honest conversations with our kids. I feel like as, as white parents, we have to be having those conversations with our kids. I think a lot of white culture has not had those conversations, which is why we’re still dealing with this today.

Karl: [00:12:56] It’s interesting as, as, as you’re describing, what the conversation with your kids are dealing with. I’m curious, Keybo, when you look at this from your experience with law enforcement and what you’re hearing in the community, how do these protests strike you?

Keybo: [00:13:16] Well, being old enough to remember, I grew up in the sixties, I can remember the protests. I remember, Dr. King and a lot of his work. You see some stark similarities, but then again, there’s some strong, differences now than what we saw back then. And then also, you know, looking at it from a law enforcement perspective as something that I did. And it just gives me a little bit more insight, I would say to have more things to think about. Back in the sixties, protesting was really, one of the only remedies that we actually had, as African Americans to to bring the light on to, you know, the racial injustice, social injustice, and all the things that was going on at that time. Today, what you see is that we have so many other more platforms that we can use to get our, get the message out. Protesting is just one of it, one thing that we could do, but we have others. Also, another difference that you see now is, from then. Even though there were white people that was out there on the lines that was marching with King and doing things, on the scenes and behind the scenes to help advance, you know, social and racial justice for, the people here in America. What I see now is, is, is I’m so glad to see the number of diversity out there. I look at some of the marches and, you know, whites and others are just, they’re highly represented out there. So that brings a different set of awareness to what we’re dealing with. From a law enforcement perspective, you know, it’s, it’s unfortunate that you know, a lot of these things that is going on that we’re actually talking about and we’re addressing now has only come to light because you’ve seen the systematic racism that’s in law enforcement, along with the unchecked, excessive violence that you see, you know, coming from law enforcement. And I think when you see the, the assessive use of force, the violence toward people, and you marry that with the racism that you see this happening toward, African Americans, you know, it’s just, it’s, it’s so much more profound. You know, this, it’s what we used to say. It’s something that actually shocks the conscious that, you know, and it’s called, more people outside of African Americans, to take a look and say, Hey, wait a minute, hold on. This is not right. This is something that needs to change. And we need to go ahead and start
addressing these issues. And so when you see that and you see that they get started addressing these issues, then it brings to light other issues. You know, there’s so many other different social injustices that’s going on out here. Things that are, you know, that has been symbolic of racism that has gone on, in this country, practically throughout the history of this country, even, you know, back after the civil war. So we recognize, or I recognize that, you know, there’s some needs for some serious reform. Some serious change out here and not just on criminal justice, but on so many. I mean, there’s a lot of different other areas that we need to start looking at and taking steps toward reforming.

Karl: [00:16:57] I’m curious to get your perspective, you know, you know, over a year from, you know, your background in politics to today in the community, how did the protest and, and, and a lot of the discussion, appears to you.

Rico: [00:17:13] You know, it’s interesting. The, Jimmy brought this up, Keybo, and even Julie, the breadth of the diversity within the people that are protesting was something that, was, it was really apparent. I mean, then over, I’m 61 years old. And I don’t know how old Keybo is, but we’re, I go back a while. You know, when you see protests, you know, it’s, it’s almost tribal in a way, right. When I go back to my days in college, Italians hung out with Italians. We had the Italian American student union, you know, and they, you know, there were a couple of, African-American clubs. There were several, Jewish American clubs and stuff, a variety of clubs, but everyone had their own places it seemed. And, when I got to city college, it was, you know, my background from there was like, why are we all separated a little bit? And, you know, it mirrors society because even the government, the student government within a college system, whoever was in power was giving money to those that were their friends that shared the same maybe look or culture. You know, so, you know, when I got there, it was like, well, how come the Italian American student union is getting like $5 compared to these other clubs, getting thousands of dollars. An exaggeration, but you know, I’m a white guy, but still Italian Americans were, looked the same way it seemed. And that’s just a cultural thing. So imagine when it’s on your face, if you will. So I can’t be where you are like that. But I do see, you know, I’ve had friends in law enforcement that I wonder why they’re in law enforcement. You know, the, the way they would look at things and, you know, hearing them code words and stuff like that, that they would use in like, what are you guys talking about? And it’s just like the ridiculousness of it, because like Julie said, when you’re young and you have kids, kids don’t know anything, kids know whats there and it’s so innocent of, they’re not, they don’t have any parameters. Unfortunately they grow up through the school system and through their neighborhoods and where they are, and they don’t know any different and they learn from the people around them. So it really is a cultural change that has to happen. I forget which judge on the Supreme court said it best. I think where she said, you know, you can’t change just the laws. That won’t do it. We’ve done that. Right? The, the, the, civil war was fought, but there were slaves that until two years later still didn’t know they were free. So, I mean, if we don’t culturally change and accept and absorb other cultures and be tolerant, I think, I think this will just keep coming on.

Karl: [00:20:13] I think as you mentioned that, as you say that Rico, I think about, here locally in Gwinnett County or Metro Atlanta and the diversity that’s represented here in our community of Peachtree Corners. If you get down to the micro level, I see there’s an opportunity as we get closer to learn more about the different types of injustices that might be present, but not obvious to everyone. So I’m curious, you know, have you seen or experienced, injustices in whatever form, whether larger or smaller in, in your day to day life here in our community? I’d just be curious if anyone could share any experiences they might have had in this safe environment that we’re, we’re having, with our discussion. Maybe Keybo, I’ll start off with you.

Keybo: [00:21:06] Yes, when you look at it, the biggest thing, one of the, one of the, the issues that comes to mind with me right now is education. You know, and that is definitely a form of social injustice. I have a godson, he goes to, and I’m not going to call out the school’s name right now, but I can remember sitting in on some of the meetings with him, some of his IEP meetings and just watching how the stance that the school system took, toward not wanting to give this kid services that he needed and services that he deserved. And it took the parents having to have to go in and file complaints with the federal government and the state government to force the school system to come in and actually provide services under the law that this kid was entitled to. You know, that’s just one form of it. And then when you see, you know, if we talk about racial injustice, you know, there’s social, excuse me, sexual discrimination, you know, right now, based upon gender, you know, gender identity. You know, there’s, you know, a lot of people, you know, you see it and you see it almost every day, you know, as to what it looked like. But one of the biggest issues that I see is in healthcare. You know, and if we didn’t believe that there’s social injustice as far as health care goes, if we didn’t see that before this VOCID virus is really bringing it out to light now. When you see the racial breakup of people who are effected by it and what type of care that they’re getting. The lack of insurance, lack of coverage. You know, these are the things man that, you know, they just, you know, it’s right here in our face as we go along. So, that’s just a few things, man, and then from a police perspective, you know, when you look at it, if you look at the numbers, you know, when we’re talking about domestic violence, domestic violence toward women, you know, black, black women, you know, or, you know, they’re more or less, more so to be a victim of social, excuse me, domestic violence than any other, any other race or class or gender out here. So those are just a few things, man, that comes to mind for me.

Karl: [00:23:37] How about you, Julie? Have you, you know, as you’ve lived, have you seen, or what have you observed or experienced?

Julie: [00:23:46] So I crowdsourced this question a little bit with some of my friends last night. I have not personally felt discriminated against, or, you know, any injustices against me personally, but I was curious as to what some of my friends would say. And so the thing that kept, several people mentioned was just the wealth distribution in Peachtree Corners, you know, and then the representation on our city council and our other layers of government. It’s very much the wealthy white as the representation. You know, the money is in the Northern side of the County, whether you look at Simpson elementary versus Peachtree elementary, things like
sidewalks, you know, so that’s, that’s what people kept pointing to. This is a fairly controversial topic, so I’m a little bit hesitant to bring it up, but even the pedestrian bridge that’s going across Peachtree Parkway. Several years ago, the mayor asked for a pedestrian safety commission to be formed. And I was on that task force and we spent nine months studying pedestrian safety. Studying our area, looking at data from the Gwinnett County police as to where, you know, incidents were with traffic and pedestrians and things like that. And what we found was that the people in the Southern part of the city, they have to walk. It’s often a one-car family. They often walk to the grocery store to the bus stops, things like that to get to work. And so people who need to walk need a safe way to cross Peachtree Parkway, right? So we presented this information to the city council and to the Mayor and where does the bridge go? It goes on the Northern part of the city, you know, where people want to walk. They want to go from the forum to the town center and things like that. I know that there were other issues involved with the bridge and with development and things like that. But I feel like it’s a perfect example of we’re putting resources and money where it’s nice instead of where it’s needed, you know? And so I would love to see Peachtree Corners just as a community, we come together and we say, Hey, how can we help? You know, are you guys safely crossing the road? The data is showing that that’s not true. Would a bridge help? You know, would this money be better spent on better bus systems? Things like that.

Karl: [00:26:23] Jimmy, I wonder if, if you could comment as you see it, through the church at perimeter and others in the community. Have you seen it manifest itself in that, or, or even as you’re saying, just living in, in the community?

Jimmy: [00:26:39] Yeah, sure. I can, I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head and, I’ll start with this. There was a lunch that I had at the Jason’s deli in the Forum with my daughter who at the time, I think was maybe only three or four years old. It was just her and I. And we’re enjoying a, you know, a daddy daughter date during lunch. And, there was another family behind us in the booth and they had a couple of young kids, a little older than my daughter, you know, perceivably. And, every Asian knows this, but, and is never, it doesn’t ever cease to amaze me, but we’ve all had this, the shared experience of someone making the slanty eye gesture toward you. I grew up with that. You know, you let it roll off your back, but it was geared toward my daughter. And this was the first time I’ve ever seen that and experienced that as a father, I should say. And, like any father would, I got pretty upset. And I had to internally calm myself down and I turned to these young kids and I said, Hey, I don’t know where you learned that from, but we don’t do that. That is, You know, what you, what you are doing. I didn’t say it quite like this, and you can kind of relive those moments whenever you live through something like this. You’re like, Oh, I should’ve said this instead. But to the effect of, Hey, we don’t devalue someone’s existence and minimize their existence to a gesture or to a facial feature or to a skin tone. I hope that you will stop using that and know that that is a very disrespectful thing that you just did. We finished our lunch and we went along our way. And, but that has just, it stung, it stung. And, and I say that to kind of get to a point about how we live in our own narratives, right? We, and in fact, we probably curate our narratives quite a bit right? We think about the stories that we want to live, or the lifestyle that we want to live and then we curate it. And
whether it’s out of comfort, maybe it’s out of control. Maybe it’s out of, I want to earn someone’s approval. So I’m going to live this way. I’m going to have this kind of lifestyle. For some it’s, you know, it’s out of fear there you have no other options. And so this is just the life that you have. But, one way or another to one degree or another, I really do feel that every individual, they curate their own narrative. And one of the things I’ve been challenging our people here at perimeter, and just anyone that will have this conversation with me is to stop and take inventory of your narrative. And that’s not some kind of like big psychological or philosophical thing. It’s just simply, take stock of where you are. Where do you live? Who your friends are, who are your closest associates? You know, when do you ever interact with people that are not like you, you know, and for, for minority people, that’s easy, right? I’m often around people who aren’t like me. But, and so for me, kind of going in and out of minority, majority culture, I’m pretty fluid at it. But if, if you’ve never had that experience or you don’t have those opportunities, and you’ve curated such a neat narrative for yourself where everything’s comfortable and I’m not saying comfort’s a bad thing, don’t you know, don’t hear me wrong. But when everything is curated to your liking, of course, when you see something like this happen, there’s a temptation to say, well, I’m going to turn off the TV. I’m going to turn off social media. I’m going to get away from it. I’m going to opt out of the conversation. And because of COVID, because of just the, the, the, the weightiness of the current situation it’s harder and harder to opt out. It’s harder and harder to tune off or turn off the narrative that’s coming to us and making us aware of the narrative that we’re in. And so the ways that I see injustices or, just racial disparity, is, is, in a lot of ways it’s implicit, we’ve put ourselves in these situations, not even realizing where we are, because we’re, we’re looking for personal comfort and we’re looking for other things besides, what ultimately, I believe where we were going to find our true value in life and our true purpose in life, which I believe is in, in Christness and God. And I believe that all human beings, regardless of your ethnicity or your race, regardless of your, you know, your paycheck size or where you live or what kind of car you drive or don’t drive that you are still made in his image in God’s image. And because of that, every human being has got inherent dignity. But it’s just so easy to ignore that. And then we say, well, you’re less dignified than me because of, and you come up with the reasons, right. Because we’ve curated our own narratives. And, and Julia, you mentioned this, I think one of the biggest ways that we see that in Peachtree Corners is just in the three schools that service or three elementary schools that service our city, right? You go from Stripling to Peachtree, to Simpson. You could not have a more vast difference in terms of our schools. Now, granted, I know like the, the neighborhoods that these schools are in are vastly different. But with my kids at Simpson, I mentor over at Peachtree. Kids are kids, you know? And, but you notice that, even attitude, you know, my attitude is different when I walk into my kid’s school versus the attitude that I have when I go over and mentor at Peachtree. And in the past, when I’ve mentored and had relationship with administration of Stripling, it’s very, very eyeopening. And I don’t exclude myself from that introspection. And I want, I would love to see more people introspect before accusing other people. Now that’s assuming a lot, and assuming the best out of my neighbors, but I will, I will venture to do that for the sake of our, you know, for the sake of the health of our community and our church overall.

Karl: [00:32:34] I can remember, years ago I had a mentor who, did an interesting thing. At the time I didn’t understand why, he did it, but he would volunteer his time. At an inner city school, although his kids didn’t go to that school or didn’t do it. And he was teaching everyone that was on his staff about leadership, and he said it was convenient to serve where it’s comfortable, your neighborhood, your church, your school, it’s the easiest. It’s the closest, your friends, family, the country clubs that you might participate in. What’s more uncomfortable is going out of that comfort zone and serving where there might be a greater need. And he found more fulfillment over his life, serving people that might’ve been different than him in communities that were different than him and helping put his talents, his resources, his connections to work. Whether it’s helping people find jobs, preparing resumes, learning leadership skills, communication skills. And he challenged everyone on his staff to do something similar. It was literally required of us to do it. That’s how we evaluate it. And what he was doing was he was trying to stretch us to learn. And build a habit into seeking out those things. So you don’t get comfortable with what’s easy and you find ways. And he was, he was being very selfish in, in a manner that he was trying to teach us to be better leaders. Because one day he might need us to lead a business somewhere. That, in, in China or in India or in different parts of the country, and we are going to have to learn how to work and relate with people. So it was part of his development plan. I see today in our community, plenty of opportunity for people to put their talents at work, in different places that are needed. It’s just, I wonder, I’m always curious as to how to make that easier for people. How do, how do we encourage people. And I see a couple different lanes from, in the business community, if you’re a CEO or a leader, you can, you can help develop your people in that way, by encourage them to get involved in causes that might help drive social and racial justice. If you’re an individual in your family, you can do family things together where you participate in communities helping bring talents and resources available to them. I’m curious, you know, in your discussions with your, your, your networks and community, have you seen examples of people doing that well? Rico, why don’t I start with you?

Rico: [00:35:30] Sure. I mean, with the podcasts I’ve been doing over the last three years with Peachtree Corners magazine. And, and, you know, quite frankly, I try to dig these things out if you will, because it’s not always apparent and it’s not always out there, right? I come from New York from Brooklyn and I was, I grew up first generation American. Also, my parents were immigrants. And so when I moved South from, from New York where I was working, doing constituent work for Chuck Schumer’s office, Congressmen, did that for a year. So I got to really learn a lot along those lines. So I moved down here to the South South of the Mason Dixon line, kind of funny, very different. You know, I would see people waving their hands at me as we drove down the street and I’d say to my wife, do we know them? And it’d be like no it’s just people being nice. Not that they’re not nice in New York, but it’s a little different, you know, so what I, what I made my mission to, to do is find out a bit more. I mean, I, I became, went from being a Brooklyn Catholic boy to a baptist. I realized a lot of the churches in the areas give back a lot. That they create these programs that, you can be involved in as a resident. So you don’t have to be stuck in what you’re doing and they’re not just doing it for, you know, Thanksgiving, you know, let’s go do the soup kitchen. They’re doing it 365 days a year. The kids are going on mission trips. I don’t think you can find, at least in certain places, you know, not every family’s
the same way, but I don’t think you can find families where they’re not doing, especially if the middle class let’s call it right? Because they’re on a mission to try to get the kids maybe to be involved in the community because it’s a different level, I think. And maybe I’m not putting this the right way in the sense that there’s time and money. And time and money gives you certain things, right? We all try to work hard. My dad was, worked 18 hour shifts to make sure that we were educated. So he didn’t have the time to make sure that we were involved in the community it was different. I have that time. My wife has that time. We’ve all been involved. So I do see that, I see a lot of organizations like Joe Sawyer’s bridges that helps the Peachtree Corners community. I see Peachtree Corners Baptist church, Mary Our Queen, a variety of denominations and they, all within them, do things in the community. Food drives, blood drives, any kind of drives you can think they’re doing, they’re involving their kids in it. So there’s a lot of stories like that to be able to be told. And we’ve done that in the magazine, not just organizations or individuals going out of their way, doing things. But you go back home after that. And it’s what you’re doing in your home really that counts. I like what Jimmy did turning to the kids at that diner because, were their parents embarrassed by the way? Cause I would have been embarrassed if my kids did that.

Jimmy: [00:38:37] Well, the mom happened to be not at the table at the time. Maybe she had gotten up to the salad bar, to the restroom. And then I don’t know if it was all tied in. Maybe they were waiting for their opportunity. I don’t like to think that that was what they were doing. It just all happened that way. And the kids turned around and they didn’t say anything after that. And I didn’t say anything to the mom afterwards, so.

Rico: [00:38:58] And that’s fine, depending on how the kid, how old the kids were, kids are kids and they do stupid things sometimes, you know, they innocently think maybe it’s funny and they just don’t know better. But there’s a lot about, there’s a lot about, a lot of stories out there to be helped. I’m still trying, I’m still finding more and more. I will never run out of stories to tell in this magazine or on the podcast. And you know that Karl, I mean, we go through a lot of interviews. I’d like to hear what these guys have to say though in their lives. Where are they pulling things from?

Julie: [00:39:34] You’re right. There’s tons of opportunities to serve. I think, I think there’s a danger in saying, okay, you know, I’ve done my service. Check. Now I’m going to go back to my comfortable circle. Like Jimmy was saying with everyone who is my friend looks exactly like me and we all do the same things and, you know, whatever. So what my husband and I have been intentional about the last couple of years is yes, do the community service things for sure. But also diversify your circle, whether that’s. You know, you have people over for dinner who don’t look like you, or you listen to authors and, you know, podcasters and voices who don’t look like you, or don’t think the same things that you think. Because once you are connected with people in a real and meaningful way then stuff like George Floyd hits home way harder. You know, like when you are friends with black men and you are, you know, your kids play with black boys, then that kind of situation is, is much more heartbreaking right? Whereas if you’re only surrounded by white people, if you are only. You only go to church with white people, you only
work with white people. Then you could look at a situation like George Floyd or Shard Brooks or any of the, any of that. And just kind of say, Oh, that, that’s sad and move on. And so, you know, I think yes, service is important, but I think we also need to all start with getting out of our comfort zones and reaching across the street, you know, the city, wherever and inviting people into our lives who aren’t like us. Because, I don’t know if you look at the systemic nature of racial injustice, it can be really overwhelming, right? And it’s overwhelming for me and for my husband to think, okay, well, what can we do about this, right? And so that’s why we’re determined to never go back to living in a white bubble, because that’s what, that’s what I can do to change, right? I can make sure my kids know not to make slanty eyes at people, you know, and they know why. And if they see somebody doing that, then they will say, Hey, that’s not nice or, or that’s wrong. And I, you know, Jimmy, I applaud you so much for standing up for your daughter and having her hear you stand up for her, right? Because that’s, that’s how we’re going to change this country is, you know, I don’t think myself personally is going to be able to dismantle the system, but I can start by building a new system with my children and my community, that will hopefully create some change.

Karl: [00:42:42] Wondering Keybo. Yeah, I was going to ask you to comment on, if you think about it from a community leadership level, whether it’s in local government, it’s in law enforcement, what would you like to see? What can leaders in that to help lift up the community since they have a role in leading the community?

Keybo: [00:43:06] Well, first of all, just to piggyback a little bit off of what we’re talking about here, the key to we all want change. And what does that change look like? What is that change? And so, you know, if we want transformative change, you know, two things we have to have is. The understanding of diversity. And we have to understand that the inclusion of that diversity, you know, it’s one thing to have, have an organization, an agency or whatever it is, and you can come out and say, well, look and see, you know, I have a diverse, my, my, my agency is diverse. I got people in position, A, B, C, D, but you know, when you look at it and you still see problems in those agencies, you go back and you say, well, you might have the diversity, but do you really have the inclusion? Okay. Are you actually listening to, and allowing that diversity to have a voice in how you craft your policies? You know what you do, what you don’t do, how you serve. And I hear everybody talking about service. I look at service in just a little bit different way. I believe service comes natural. I believe we serve every day. Every day you get up, you walk out here. You know, when you encounter, you know, you, you encounter people, you know, how you help folks if you help make the decision to help anybody, but anything that comes out of your mouth that could be influential is a service. You know, what you do, how you conduct yourself, you know, if you’re the head of an agency, you know, what are you doing to make sure that you know, everybody has a voice at the table and you’re doing the right thing for everybody in that organization or everybody in the community. So, you know, from an agency standpoint, I think that, you know, we have to start looking at, you know, putting leaders in places that, you know, have the Bishop, not just looking at, you know, Hey, I’m going to have this level of diversity, but you know, you have to be willing to, to set up, you know, being so that these people can have a voice in what .they’re doing and what you’re doing. So I just see it just,
you know, I mean, we’re all, I think we’re all on the same, we’re all seeing the same thing, you know, just from different aspects of it is what does that actually look like?

Karl: [00:45:36] I’m also wondering if you look at how to bring new voices to the table when decisions are being made. I see it, whether it’s in, a church, you could look at the elder community and the leaders of the church. You could look at the schools, the school boards, the people that support school board, you can look at it at, at the agencies that might support local government, whether it’s police. I don’t know if in Gwinnett County we have a community, a community board that communicates or liaisons with the police. And, and in cities like Gwinnett or Counties like Gwinette and others. But bringing these very voices to the table where one policies are made, two holding people accountable for, for the change we’re trying to see, at, at, at local levels. How do we, how do we as citizens or in parts of communities start impacting what our leaders do?

Keybo: [00:46:41] I think from that perspective, when you look at, and I’m talking about from law enforcement standpoint. You know, law enforcement, how you know, we’ve conducted business in the past, it will fundamentally change. You know, society is going to make sure. You know that it changed, you know, especially when you go back and you look, and when I say, look at the passion that people have out here now, what are we seeing? The more inclusive folks out here that is pushing for these changes. you have to have, you know, some internal things is going to have to change. You’re going to have to have some external things it’s going to have to change. And, you know, you can’t, you know, good leaders are not going to be, you know, resistant to having, you know, like citizens review panels out here that, you know, they can come in and help review some of the things that’s going on in your agency. I think that that’s going to be something that’s going to be necessary going forward. And I think that that’s something that all of the law enforcement agencies here in Gwinnett County should be, you know, taking a look at to see what that actually looks like.

Karl: [00:47:57] No, it’s, should people keep asking, asking that, you know, there’s the eight, campaign zero, the eight can’t wait, which has eight different policies that, at least some of their data approves that has been able to reduce excessive use of force on people of color includes citizen review board. It includes, holding leaders accountable and having to speak up. There’s a whole bunch of different policies in there. How do we get that on the table for the leaders to discuss, make decisions that includes in the example, Julie gave with the bridge earlier on, how do you make sure that the people at the table making decision include all the stakeholders, all the people that are impacted by the decision. So at least wherever decision comes the debate has had, is had. And everyone has to agree to a course of action that serves everyone, not just a smaller group.

Keybo: [00:48:55] Well, you know, first of all, you know, the and I agree with the fact that those external panels do help to show a reduction in, certain areas, such as use of force and, and things such as that. But what I say is this, it starts with leadership at the top. You know, I go back and I say, you know, going in, you have to have a leader that has the vision. To know and
understand what diversity is and not just saying that I have that diversity, but you have inclusion also. So that means that your diversity is actually, they’re interacting with the citizens. Okay. In their cultures, whatever that culture may be, and that they’re bringing that information back in, and then you’re able to sit down and come up and communicate and organize plans to where, you know, you’re understanding the different cultures, the different races and everything else that makes up Gwinnett county. And I say Gwinnett county, because I’m in Gwinnett County, that’s where it actually starts. So then the second part of it is, is that, you know, you have your staff and you have the same mindset is, is that everything that we’re doing at the top, we’re going to make sure that, that trickles down to the remaining staff. Okay, we’re going to go in and we’re going to change policies. We’re going to look at use of force. We’re going to look at officer’s complaints. You know, we’re gonna look at, you know, all we doing the right thing when we’re applying force? You know, what was good yesterday obviously it’s not good today. So you have to have, you know, someone in leadership that has the visionary to see and project, Hey, this is what we’re moving to. And you, you know, you gotta be willing to adapt to what, you know, what we’re seeing now and, and make changes. This, everything that we talk about can happen. Okay. It’s not just the external things. Where it starts at is internally inside of those agencies or you bring it in, you know, what policies are you changing? What are you willing to do? You know, and, you know, and, and again too, you know, and to make a long story short, we have to be willing to listen to the public. You know, you have to be willing to listen to you know, diverse groups outside. And I say, you know, one thing that I look at is that, you know, and, Jimmy has alluded to, you know, the faith based community. That’s very important, but see, one thing that we’re not talking about is that we’ve gotten, you know, it’s almost like one of those Godzilla movies where we’re waking Godzilla up. We’re waking these youth up, out here. These youth are passionate. You know, we just have to make sure that we channel that passion in the right way so that they have a voice that is heard. And we have to listen to what they’re saying. We have to make sure that we’re including these people in, at the table, hearing what they have to say and coming up with plans to where, you know, they can feel safe in the future. And if they don’t feel safe, then we’re not doing our job out here, whether that’s law enforcement, whether that’s community leaders, whether that’s church leaders, you know, whether that’s parents, you know, whatever it is, we need to do more to make sure that everybody is being heard and everybody’s doing their part.

Karl: [00:52:25] Thank you and well said on that. I know we’re coming up to the top of the hour and I wanted to ask a last question to everybody. So to consider, you know, if, if there was a wish that you could have on, on something to impact change all around social and racial justice in our community here in Peachtree Corners, I’d be curious what your thoughts would be around that for, for people. So, Jimmy, maybe, maybe I could start with you.

Jimmy: [00:52:55] Sure. Yeah. Well, one, I do think, active engagement goes a long way. So whether that’s, at the school level, engaging with, your children’s classroom, getting to know your teachers, getting to know administration, you know, and actively seeking opportunities to serve and not just, you know, not only your specific school, but thinking about your cluster as well. So, you know, with a fifth grader, next year. And I’m already thinking about Pinckneyville
and thinking about what are some ways that I can get involved there and who are the people that, maybe I need to get in touch with about carrying on conversations, you know, teenage years, or just a difficult time to begin with. And so how can we support other parents? Because at that point it becomes less about what are the external issues. People are thinking about internal issues of my, my child is behaving in this manner and I need support and I need help. And so thinking about that, also, just being intentional with, when we go out. I’ve tried really hard, lately not to, not to judge my city. It sometimes it’s very hard to do that. And when I say judge my city, I mean, like as a Korean American, there are no Korean American restaurants in Peachtree Corners. Let’s just be honest, loosely Asian and hard pressed. and that’s just me. So I will go down to Buford highway and I’ll go to over to Duluth for those things. But, when I do dine in my city and I do want to support local businesses, I want to support the local economy. When I do I’m often just looking around if I’m there with my kids and my wife, I’ll ask my kids, Hey, do you recognize anyone from your school? Do you okay? I’m going to, as an introvert, this is really hard. I’m going to muster up the courage. I’m going to go over and say, Hey, I don’t know you, but my kids recognize your kids, you know, they go to the same school. Just wanted to introduce myself. And, and hopefully let that be kind of a, a conversation starter and perhaps I’ll see them at the school again for some events or maybe I’ll see them somewhere else in the community. This summer we didn’t have this, but you know, Gwinnett County, summer swim is a great, great opportunity. Get to know some of my own neighbors within my own swim team, but then also as I mingle with other parents and families, and for me again, as a minority person, I do think that there is a responsibility for me to reach out because I don’t know. And I don’t want to assume that people are going to reach out to me. Oh, there’s an Asian guy. Let’s go make him my friend. I know that, how that might feel. And I know how that might sound. It just sounds too tokenistic. It just feels like what’s, I think Keybo you’re getting at, it’s just more of the diversity for diversity’s sake, counting the noses in the crowd so to say. So knowing this myself, I have to take it upon myself to introduce myself to other people and get to know people within my community. I don’t know if I can speak as eloquently as Keybo did just in regards to like on the top down. But I’m thinking oftentimes bottom up. So for me, that’s my immediate neighborhood, my street, thinking about the kid, the other kids that are in my kids’ classrooms and their teachers thinking also obviously about my church and the faith community and what I can do to help foster some of those conversations, because let’s be honest, the indictment against the church is often that we have set up this enclave. and it’s not as missional and as now as outwardly focused, as I believe the gospel demands that Christians be. Because it’s comfortable, it’s easy to be around people like you. I’m guilty of this myself. And I want to challenge myself as well as my neighbors in Peachtree Corners more broadly, Hey, let’s get to know some other people. And when we disagree, can we stop and listen and try to learn a little bit about why they made us agree from our viewpoint and maybe just maybe that empathy and that amount of pateince can possibly lead to deeper friendships, deeper relationships, and to deeper lasting community change.

Karl: [00:56:59] I love that Jimmy, and sign me up. You and I, we’ll get together with the families and let’s lead by example and get that started. Julie, what would your wish be? If, if, if there could be a change implemented.

Julie: [00:57:16] I’m, I echo what Jimmy said, as you were thinking, as you were talking, I was thinking about something that Decatur did. I don’t know, maybe a year ago they had, they just signed people up to have dinners at different people’s houses, you know, and I would love if we could figure out a social distancing way to bring people together and, you know, maybe have a picnic in the yard or something, just to seek to understand each other, I think that would be, you know, I’m all about that. I’m all about gathering people over food. But secondly, you know, going back to what Keybo was saying, I would love to have confidence in our system top down, you know, and I would love to have some transparency from Gwinnett County police and from, you know, our local law officials and elected officials, like what, what is happening? You know, and, and how can we support, both support the police and law enforcement so that they can do their jobs well. But also, how can we trust that they are doing their job to protect and serve all of the people? So I, you know, I would just love some transparency. I would love to be on a citizen board or, you know, have that be organized. I think that sounds fantastic. And yeah, I’m all about it.

Karl: [00:58:39] I’m going to throw it to you Rico. What change would you like to see?

Rico: [00:58:47] Keybo hit it right though, right? If you don’t have, I don’t want to distill it down to a Chick-fil-A, but if you go to Chick-fil-A, right? The leadership down, everyone knows what is expected. What’s coming out of that window. It’s service. There’s a certain attitude of service. I think government needs to be that way. It needs to not just trickle down that needs that waterfall coming down from the top. If you don’t have the leadership, that’s going to provide that. It’s difficult for the rest of it to sort of fall in place. So I, I agree with Keybo that it needs to start there. Certain things I, listen, I think it was, Andrew Cuomo, that just accepted the, just with executive order put in the, eight, rules that we were just talking about.

Karl: [00:59:35] Eight Can’t Wait.

Rico: [00:59:36] Yeah, eight can’t wait. So he just did, he just put that in through executive order. Leadership like that can, can help right? So I, you know, there’s that, there’s also involvement. I mean, you’re right. You can’t stop at a you know, just an organizational department involvement. You need it to do it in a personal involvement. And it shouldn’t stop at your door, but you know, it’s difficult, people are paying the bills, they’re working, life goes on. So it’s a difficult proposition, I think, for people to do that. You know, I mean, but it needs to start with the boss, with the leader within the head going down, but people have to have that buy-in also right. They have to realize it’s good for them too, because if it’s not, it’s not going to go anywhere. And if it’s good for them, listen, Jimmy, we talk about Korean restaurants in Peachtree Corners all right. You can do soul train, which is something that Gwinnett County does, right. I love Korean food. I love Italian food. I love food, Julia right? Food will bring people together, you know, but all of us, there’s always something that’s gonna affect us. I mean, I won’t tell you what company it was, what organization, but someone when it first came down, decided they needed to put my picture on the mugshots of most wanted. And I don’t know, it
was done for funny or not, but I’m Italian and I guess they thought it was funny, like a mobster type thing. I didn’t think it was funny, but things happen. Sometimes you do have to let it roll off you. And sometimes you just, just set them straight, you know, just talk about it and, and people get to understand you. So you do have to be open and sometimes it’s past your comfort zone. So we all have to work on this. It doesn’t, you can’t just let one, expect that one group is going to do it. We all have to do it. Otherwise it’s just not going anywhere.

Keybo: [01:01:34] I was just gonna say, you know, Jimmy, I just learned a Korean barbecue and part of my, you know, if you ever see me, you know, I love to eat. Okay. So I’m searching. But, one thing that Julie had brought up and we started laughing because Karl and I when we spoke yesterday, we talked about the dinners that you’re talking about and they’re called Chicago dinners, and that’s exactly what it’s called. And I was telling Karl yesterday that I think it would be good for him to reach out to those, to the people that actually set those up. And maybe look at hosting one. Julie, I’m also putting that challenge, I’m going to put that to you also. I think that that’s great. You know, when we look at and what we talk about changes and what that looks like, what it should look like. You know, we also got to look at including an advocacies in there too, because that’s a very important part that is actually missing. You know, so that participation has to be, you know, they have to be, you know, we have to talk about being culturally competent and, and, and then close up in our policy changes. So learning the different cultures and making sure that we include them in on. What, what is going on and what’s being said. And, you know, just the last thing is, is when, you know, you gotta have, you know, this is something else to call them. I talked about, you know, when do you have the courage to step up and say, or intervene when you see things that are not, you know, that it’s being done that’s not right. It was, it was good to hear you, Julie, say that you wanted transparency. You know, and one thing that I talk about all the time is, is trust and transparency. And, you know, you recognize it. But if you go into, you know, communities, especially communities of color, Asian communities there, you know, Hispanic communities, Latino Hispanic communities, the first thing you hear about is the lack of trust. And when you’re not transparent that doesn’t break the trust. And somewhere along the line, You know, we have to, again, break those cycles so that, you know, we go into these communities. Especially, especially from a law enforcement standpoint, you know, everybody has to, you know, trust what is going on and that’s 90% of what you see. Let me rephrase that 99% of what you see right now is the lack of trust and, you know, from the law enforcement community, you know, we have fostered that system to where there is no trust. Nobody trusts whether you’re right or wrong. It’s just the lack of trust there. So, you know, we’re going to have to go back in and figure out, you know, what do we do? How do we reestablish trust? And Julie, you know, more people like you are going to have to be the ones that are stepping up to saying that, Hey, you know, issuing that challenge, not just for people of color, but you know, we have to have that voice from you also saying, Hey, you know what? We have to have a department, you know, or an agency here that, you know, that is transparent and that we can trust is going to do the right thing.

Karl: [01:04:54] Oh, I love, I love, I love that, that you highlight that, that issue of trust. And if I could wrap up with, with what my wish would be. I pray for a day when leaders emerge that
bring both their heart and their minds together to lead the people in the community from whether you’re leading in your house, whether you’re leading in your business or your church or your school, or you’re leading in government, look at the information that’s out there. Understand different points of view, formulate policies and communicate them to drive. But also listen with your heart and, and understand a different point of a, step out and there’s a couple of ways to do that. I’d love to see people in the community that have these traits step up and lead. Run for elected office. Get involved in, in, in community, take your talents that you have that made you successful in life and work and business and bring it to address some of these social justice, whether it’s around ageism, whether it’s around sexism, whether it’s around racism, take the talents that you have. And bring it to a higher cause where the whole community benefits. There are some leaders that might already be in place and they can go through that transition themselves and challenge themselves to learn and grow. I know that sounds broad and wide, but I think if individuals, look in themselves and make a choice to do this, it can transform communities where the things that are happening in Minneapolis. The thing that happened in Atlanta, it’s harder. It insulates us from that here because we are working together to arm the police with the right training tools, information so they can make good choices. And the residents to work with the police so that, they’re able to do their job effectively, yet people in the community can do something as simple as Jimmy did and just say, you know, kids, that’s not the right way to behave. That’s not acceptable. And maybe we should bring your parents into this conversation about how you’ve chosen to treat other people that are different and maybe bring them, bring them to some calming understanding or holding their own kids accountable. But I think it takes, I think leadership starts with building trust and the more we could do that in this community, the more we could avoid some of the challenges that other cities have been facing. So I want to thank you all. This was, this was brave for folks to step out and have this conversation. We would be having over dinner or over lunch or over coffee, and we’re doing it in a public way. And we encourage other people in their small groups, in church, in their, in their work groups, in their families, sit down, have these discussions, explore their hearts and their minds. And get involved, whether it’s challenging the leader for accountability. Whether it’s getting involved in the local school, your school or other schools that might need your talent. But I think we could all pull together and do something. I like that idea of this grassroot and let’s not wait for top down. Start at the grassroots. And folks like Keybo and others may start at the top down. Let’s meet in the middle somewhere. Thank you guys. Rico wrap up Peachtree Corners?

Rico: [01:08:28] I’d like to say that we had a lot of commentary by the way in the comments. So I want to say thank you to, to the people that showed up that put some great comments online during the discussion. TeKesha Wideman-Smith, if I’m pronouncing that right. Josiah Morgan, a bunch of people on here that, Mo Reilley that participated in commentary. So there was good stuff going on online while we were also discussing here. So I, I, I appreciate you guys coming out. This is a tough discussion to have, and, I’m glad that we had you on the first show. And having Keybo, you know, who I’ve interviewed before. I love Keybo. I hope you win your runoff that you’re in, right? Jimmy it’s good having you and Julie, thank you for coming on too. Karl it’s always a pleasure working with you on these podcasts.

Karl: [01:09:18] My pleasure. You taught me so much. So, you make me, got me out of my comfort. I am an introvert as well Jimmy. And, sometimes you got to step out of your comfort and do what your heart tells you is right. So look forward for more. We have more guests that are coming on and we invite citizens. If you’re, if you’re interested in being part of a discussion, please feel free to reach out to me, Karl Barham. You could find me on Facebook. You could post on Peachtree Corners Life, and, or, you can reach me at, KBarham@tworld.com and love to have a discussion and continue this and just show lead by example, we could have these discussions and try to make a change. Thanks.

Keybo: [01:10:00] Hey Karl, can I say one last thing? I don’t want to turn this into a political pitch, but I just want the people out there to know. I am running to be your next Sheriff of Gwinnett County. And if you believe in what I’m saying, please go out and vote for me and give me this opportunity to try to affect this change.

Karl: [01:10:20] Thank you. Good luck.

Keybo: [01:10:23] Thank you.

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Arts & Literature

From Food Creations to Handmade Jewelry: Wesleyan Kids Prep for Artist Market 2025 [Podcast]

Published

2 months ago

on

April 7, 2025

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In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini spotlights three remarkable student artists featured in this year’s Wesleyan Artist Market. Eighth graders Kimberly Wang and Nika Jensen, along with sixth grader Carter Jensen, share their creative journeys—ranging from edible art like fruit jellies and peppermint bark to handmade jewelry and custom-designed bags.

Kimberly talks about her love for food art and balancing sweetness with fruity freshness, while Nika and Carter discuss building a jewelry business that also gives back—donating proceeds to families in the Philippines. This isn’t just an artist market; it’s a showcase of purpose-driven, globally inspired young talent. The event runs April 25–26 at Wesleyan School and is open to the public.

Podcast Takeaways:

  • Kimberly Wang creates handmade edible treats, balancing flavor and freshness for the show.
  • Nika and Carter Jensen co-run a jewelry and fashion accessory business, inspired by global travel and cultural experiences.
  • Nika donates part of her proceeds to support families in the Philippines.
  • All three students are deeply involved in extracurriculars—from musicals, marching band, math club, and academic bowl.
  • The Wesleyan Artist Market features 24 student artists and over 70 professionals—open to the public April 25–26.

Timestamp: 

00:02:19 – Student intros and extracurriculars 
00:03:06 – First-time participants and motivations for joining 
00:04:13 – Kimberly’s edible art and recipe testing process 
00:05:16 – Nika and Carter’s jewelry and bag design business 
00:07:06 – The reward of watching people enjoy your creations 
00:08:20 – Donating art profits to support families in the Philippines 
00:10:39 – Future aspirations in medicine and law, with art as a passion 
00:12:06 – Behind-the-scenes logistics of preparing for the market 
00:13:25 – Global travel inspiration: 73 countries and counting
00:17:19 – Where the students draw artistic inspiration 
00:20:04 – Custom requests: From peppermint bark to Lego earrings 
00:21:16 – Anticipation and excitement for this year’s market 

00:22:29 – Reflections on Wesleyan and the artist experience 

Transcript: 

00:00:01 – Rico Figliolini 

Hey, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. We have a great set of guests today. Because of the upcoming Wesleyan Artist Market, we thought we’d do some interviews with student artists. Three of the 24 that are going to be at Wesleyan Artist Market. So they’re with me here today. So we’re going to get right into that shortly. I just want to say thank you to our corporate sponsors. So I want to say thank you to EV Remodeling, Inc., based here in Peachtree Corners. The owner is Eli. Him and his family live here. They’re great. They do a lot of design work, design your space. Essentially, any home remodeling you need from whether it’s your kitchen, your bathroom, or a whole house remodel, or even an addition to your home, think about it, whatever you need, Eli can handle. So check them out. Go to evremodelinginc.com and find out how they can design your space and your life. Our next sponsor just came on, and they’re Vox Pop Uli. I want to thank them for joining us as well. They deal with all sorts of things you can imagine putting your logo on, similar to a little bit about what these kids do, right? They’re creating artwork. They’re creating a brand for themselves. And so this is what Vox Pop Uli does, right? They’ll take your brand and bring it to life. Essentially, anything that you can think of that would go on apparel, whether it’s sweaters or T-shirts or wherever you want to put your brand engraving, your logo, what object you want to put it on, even vehicle wraps. So if you’ve got a truck, you want to put a whole wrap around it, check them out because they can do that. They’re here in Peachtree Corners and they’re called Vox Pop Uli. So visit their website. I’ll have the links in the show notes as well. So thank you guys. I appreciate your support. So now let’s get right into it. Let me introduce our three artists, great Wesleyan students. Can’t wait to start talking to them. We have Kimberly Wang first on your left, on my left, and Nika and her brother Carter Jensen, who work together creating the artwork they do. So I’m going to ask you guys just to, you know, give me a little background. Tell me who you are, your grade, what you do, extracurricular, stuff like that. This way our audience can get to know a little bit more about you. So let’s start with Kimberly Wang. Hey, Kimberly. 

00:02:19 – Kimberly Wang 

My name is Kimberly Wang. I’m in eighth grade this year, and outside of Artist Market, I do marching band, and I also do the musical production this year, which is Matilda. 

00:02:31 – Rico Figliolini 

Excellent. What about Nika? How about you? 

00:02:34 – Nika Jensen 

I’m also in eighth grade. My name is Nika Jensen, and apart from doing the Artist Market, I do cross country. I’m also in Matilda this year, and I also do math counts, which is a math club.

00:02:47 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay, cool. And Carter? 

00:02:49 – Carter Jensen 

Hello, my name is Carter Jensen. I’m in the sixth grade. And outside of the artist market, I do academic pool and I also do basketball. 

00:03:00 – Rico Figliolini 

Excellent. Alright, cool. So have you guys ever done the artist market before? Is this the first time? 

00:03:06 – Kimberly Wang 

This is my second year doing it this year. 

00:03:08 – Rico Figliolini 

Second? 

00:03:10 – Nika Jensen 

Yeah, this is our first year because we’re new students this year. 

00:03:13 – Rico Figliolini 

Alright, cool. What inspired you to get into it, Nika? 

00:03:17 – Kimberly Wang 

Well, I had my own business before we came to Wesleyan and so I thought that the artist market is a good way to like show my business to other people in our community. So yeah. 

00:03:30 – Rico Figliolini 

And you brought in your brother Carter to help you with? 

00:03:35 – Nika Jensen 

Yes, sir. He’s also part of the business. 

00:03:39 – Rico Figliolini 

Alright cool. Okay so, Kimberly. Food. Food is art, right? I’m sure your mom would probably say, it’s food, just eat it. But you’re playing with your food, essentially. What they used to tell you not to do, right? So when you create your food art, what do you think about? How do you go through this? How do you choose what you do and what do you exactly do? 

00:04:13 – Kimberly Wang 

So this year, I am making fruit jellies and peppermint bark. And when I think about what creations I want to make for the artist market, I go online and I look through like, what are some popular desserts that a lot of people like? And once I like choose my items, then I go through

the recipe and then I do a lot of trial and errors to make sure that like the products are like healthy and they taste well. 

00:04:42 – Rico Figliolini 

So they have to be edible, right? Because this is edible art? 

00:04:45 – Kimberly Wang 

Definitely, yes. 

00:04:46 – Rico Figliolini 

So are you eating a lot of the edible art before you get to what you need? 

00:04:50 – Kimberly Wang 

Not really. I don’t usually taste a lot of the food. I let my family taste it. 

00:04:56 – Rico Figliolini 

Ah, good. I like that. Yes. Get them to participate. Cool. So edible art, that’s one way of doing it. Jewelry, that’s something else, right? Wearable. How do you guys, Nika, Carter, how do you get to the place of what you do? 

00:05:16 – Nika Jensen 

So I started my business when I was 11 years old and it started like I got my first jewelry making kit and I kind of just expanded from there. So like I usually use Amazon to search and find like the prettiest designs like of earrings and pendants and get opinions from other people like my mom and my family to see like if they think it’s like wearable and if they like it. So I browse on Amazon for a while and I find like the best and high quality products and then I hand make them at home usually like every day after I come home from school so and my brother he does something else and he can tell you about that. 

00:06:01 – Carter Jensen 

I, my sister, she got a Cricut machine for, like, her 12th birthday, I think. And started making these, like, iron-on bags with the Cricut machine and, like, making them based on, like, Georgia and, like, Wesleyan and designing it based on fashion. 

00:06:19 – Rico Figliolini 

Alright. Cool. So let’s get back to Kimberly. The food that you do. Do you have particular flavors you like? Do you have particular areas that you stay in? 

00:06:33 – Kimberly Wang 

So this year I’m trying out like something more sweet with chocolate. But last year I definitely went for more of like the fruity side. And I think I like to keep it like a balance. So that way one is not overpowering the other. My personal favorite will probably be fruit because it’s healthy. And I mean, it just tastes good in general.

00:06:56 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. Alright cool. What’s the most rewarding part that you can think of, of making edible art? 

00:07:06 – Kimberly Wang 

Well, I mean definitely like you said before you get to eat a lot of food. I mean, I did say before that I don’t eat a lot of the creations I make, but sometimes I still do eat it. And so I think it’s also really rewarding to see like people try out your creations and see like their reactions to what they think of it. 

00:07:27 – Rico Figliolini 

So when, I know I’ve spoken to other artists when they sell their artwork like paintings or stuff like that they get a chance to see it sometimes when the fan that bought it if you will, would send them a picture of where they hung it right? Yours disappears right? 

00:07:45 – Kimberly Wang 

Yeah, exactly. 

00:07:47 – Rico Figliolini 

Yeah I guess, there’s no way to, short of doing a selfie with it or taking pictures of it, there’s no there’s no permanency to it so how does that feel? 

00:07:57 – Kimberly Wang 

I mean well as long as the people enjoy it that’s good. And I mean I think mainly it’s about like the memory that you have of having the food and if you like it then it stays as a good memory for you and if you don’t then I mean you can always try out different things. 

00:08:20 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. Nika, Carter, as far as the jewelry goes the, you’ve used it to raise money to support children in the philippines? yes 

00:08:29 – Nika Jensen 

Yes sir. 

00:08:31 – Rico Figliolini 

Is that, is that how you started this when you were 11? Is that the reason? 

00:08:35 – Kimberly Wang 

No, so I was like 11 during the pandemic. So I was always looking for a way to express my creativity. And so that’s how I started my own business. And so I was selling at my uncle’s pharmacy and I was saving up the money to use for like college or for like other events later on in my life. But this last year and a half before this school year, we were living in the Philippines. And so I was really touched by all of the families there. And we even did something similar where we gave out food and canned goods over Christmas to poor families there. So that just

really touched me. And so ever since we got back to America, I’ve been donating part of my profits to other families in the Philippines. 

00:09:24 – Rico Figliolini 

Carter, did you end up going on that trip as well? 

00:09:28 – Carter Jensen 

Yeah, I was with her. We stayed there for about a year and a half. We also did schooling there. 

00:09:36 – Rico Figliolini 

It’s interesting brothers and sisters, I have three kids and you know growing up brothers and sisters always there could be dynamics there. So how do you get along? Do you ever say to your sister, I don’t know about that. You know that might not look as good, that might not sell. Do you give good feedback? I mean how do you praise her or how do you work together? 

00:09:58 – Carter Jensen 

She’s more of the leader of the business so like I usually just like try to like agree with her and like yeah. 

00:10:12 – Rico Figliolini 

Alright that’s cool well you need a leader of the pack sometimes right? So Nika the artwork that you do, you know this is part of what you do you’ve mentioned other things you do right? I know you’re young, you all are, you know you’re not old enough to really think well maybe you are to really think what you want to do with your life right? Is art something that you want to keep as part of what you’re doing in your life? 

00:10:39 – Nika Jensen 

It’s definitely something that’s of great value to me, but I kind of want to pursue the medical field, but art is also really important to me. 

00:10:49 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. Sounds good. Same question to Kimberly. What about you? How do you feel about the work you do? 

00:10:57 – Kimberly Wang 

I definitely enjoy making food, but like Nika said, I was also really interested in the medical field. And so like I’m not really sure if I’m going to continue pursuing this. But I mean it’s definitely brought me a lot of joy while doing food art. 

00:11:15 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. Medical field both of you, that’s cool. What about Carter? How about you? 00:11:19 – Carter Jensen

I kind of like, I like doing art it’s one way to like express your creativity as my sister said. But I also kind of, I’m not really sure what I want to do when I grow up, maybe be a lawyer. 

00:11:33 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. Well, artwork gives you a chance, right, to play a little bit, to be able to also see how people, like Kimberly, like you said about how when people see your food or taste your food and your food art, if you will, and it gives you a chance to see how people appreciate what you’re doing, I think, right? The challenges of making food art and keeping it fresh and making sure you’re going to deliver it on the right way I guess at the Wesleyan artist market, how do you how do you handle that part of it? 

00:12:06 – Kimberly Wang 

So for me the night before each day of the selling I would stay up really late and I make all my products so they’re all fresh and they’re all new. Because I want the best for the people that are eating the food because I don’t want anything to go bad overnight and so I make sure that it’s always new products and I make it, yeah. 

00:12:32 – Rico Figliolini 

We don’t have the same issue with the jewelry that you do, Nika. So that could last forever, right? But putting it together, sourcing the supplies, right, of what you do, the logistics of it, I guess. How do you handle that? Like getting all the materials together? Do you order it all on Amazon? 

00:12:52 – Nika Jensen 

Yeah, I order like 99% of all of my things from Amazon. And then since I already have the materials shipped to me, then all I have to do is just create them from my house. So it’s easier for me than having to go out and buy supplies at stores. 

00:13:11 – Rico Figliolini 

Sounds good. What inspires you as far as jewelry goes? I know that you said you look online to see other things and what the trend is. So where do you find most of your trends? Is it just on Amazon or is it social media, other places? 

00:13:25 – Nika Jensen 

I kind of observe other people and like what they wear and also social media. And I get a lot of inspiration also from like nature and from like my travels. We’ve been to a lot of countries in the past five years, 173 countries. 

00:13:44 – Rico Figliolini 

How many? 

00:13:45 – Nika Jensen 

I’m sorry, not 173, 73 countries.

00:13:49 – Rico Figliolini 

73 countries? 

00:13:50 – Nika Jensen 

Yes, sir. 

00:13:51 – Rico Figliolini 

That you’ve been to in how many years? I can’t even wrap my head around that. How did you even do that? Teleport? I mean, how did you do that? Wow. What is your heritage, if you don’t mind me asking? 

00:14:12 – Nika Jensen 

I’m half Filipino. My brother and I are half Filipino. And then my father is part Danish and then also American. 

00:14:21 – Rico Figliolini 

Do you speak any languages? 

00:14:23 – Nika Jensen 

I speak the language of the Philippines called Tagalog and then English. And I’m learning Spanish. 

00:14:30 – Rico Figliolini 

Really? Okay. Kimberly, how about you? 

00:14:33 – Kimberly Wang 

So my mom is Taiwanese and my dad is Chinese. So I speak Chinese, English. I’m learning French and I’m learning Korean. 

00:14:43 – Rico Figliolini 

Really? Wow. Okay. Speak Mandarin, is it? Okay. My son was learning that for a year and he was, it’s a tough language to learn. But I’m sure being able to travel for example Nika, to be able to see other other countries and inspiration from those countries. What of the 73, 75 countries you visited what would you say the top five would be for that type of inspiration? Can you pick that up? 

00:15:16 – Nika Jensen 

I think so. I really like Argentina just because it’s so unique and the culture is just so strong there. Like you really feel so immersed just when you like step into the country. I like Italy, not only because of the food, but that’s also where I got a lot of inspiration for my jewelry. Just like the glass in Venice, like the Murano glass, like that’s also a really big inspiration. In Turkey, that’s when I first like found my interest in jewelry because there was, we went to this bead store and there was like thousands of different beads and I got to like choose different charms and like experiment with creating jewelry. So Turkey, Argentina, Italy, and then I have to give it to the

Philippines, obviously, because we lived there for so long. And then that’s hard. What do you think, Carter? 

00:16:12 – Carter Jensen 

I like India because I really like butter chicken. Also like Italy because I like pizza and pasta. 

00:16:27 – Rico Figliolini 

Yes, can’t get any better pizza than Italy, that’s for sure. 

00:16:30 – Carter Jensen 

Yeah, it’s really good there. And I also like Japan because it’s very futuristic and it’s like… 

00:16:38 – Rico Figliolini 

Is it? 

00:16:39 – Carter Jensen 

Yeah, it’s like a new environment and it’s like… 

00:16:45 – Rico Figliolini 

Yeah, cool. I can’t wait I think where, I think we may be heading there in July so that would be fun. I’ve never been so that would be interesting. Cool so with the artwork, with the inspiration, with the journey that you guys have been on, do you think that, are there any artists it’s hard and food maybe unless it’s Gordon Ramsay or something, but do you draw any inspiration? Who do you draw inspiration from for the work for what you do? Let’s start with Kimberly. 

00:17:19 – Kimberly Wang 

I don’t really have a specific artist that I look up to but I do watch some cooking shows and some like dessert making shows and they always really inspire me so I feel like that’s what really led me into like starting food art. And so I was like, whoa, this is really cool. And so I was like, okay, let me try this. And so now I’m here and then I’m like, this is pretty fun. 

00:17:49 – Rico Figliolini 

Oh, okay. Carter, I know you’re not the main person doing the artwork, but what do you see when you’re working with your sister? How does that feel working with her, doing the stuff with her, the artwork? Whatever you’re doing with her, how you know what’s that journey feel like for a brother and his sister? 

00:18:13 – Carter Jensen 

It’s kind of relaxing doing artwork and like peeling off like the stickers on the bags 

00:18:26 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay, alright, that’s cool. Sister, how do you feel? 

00:18:30 – Nika Jensen

Yeah I just enjoy anytime I’m like I get to make jewelry because I feel like it’s such like an important thing to me. And it also like my brother said it’s really relaxing and just like sitting in our home and just like making jewelry it’s like, it’s really fun for me. 

00:18:48 – Rico Figliolini 

Do you wear? I’m assuming you wear some of the stuff you make? 

00:18:51 – Nika Jensen 

No actually I don’t have my ears pierced. And so I just like making it and seeing my creations on other people. 

00:19:00 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay, cool. Kimberly, do you ever decide, I’ve got to make something, I want to eat something, do you ever decide to do that, or is it always just for the art? 

00:19:10 – Kimberly Wang 

I think mainly just for the art. Because, I mean, I do piano outside of school, and so most of my time is sucked into that. But, I mean, sometimes if I do want to make something, yeah, I’ll go for it. And I’ll try my best, but it might not be successful. 

00:19:31 – Rico Figliolini 

Have you ever been, have you ever designed anything custom design? Because someone requested it from you? Like has anyone ever asked Kimberly, has any anyone ever asked yeah can you make that for me? Like aside from the artwork you sell. 

00:19:50 – Kimberly Wang 

I don’t think so. I did get one request by a high schooler to make peppermint bark for him for his art and science class. But like other than that, no. 

00:20:00 – Rico Figliolini 

Okay. How about Nika? Have you ever had a request for jewelry? 

00:20:04 – Nika Jensen 

Yes, I have. So my mom was posting some of my creations on social media and someone reached out to me and she wanted lego earrings like so little like lego figurines as earrings. So I used some of my own legos and then we also bought some but I drilled a hole on top of their head and I had to stick a screw inside. I had to mail it to them. And then they sent me a picture of them wearing it. 

00:20:42 – Rico Figliolini 

It’s just the way you were describing it, drilling the hole in the head. It’s like, all right, well, that’s good. So there’s the art. You do anything for art, I guess. That’s good. Great. We’ve been showcasing and talking a lot about art here and food and stuff. What are you looking forward to this year’s Wesleyan Artist Market? What is it that’s looking forward? I mean, you have there’s

three of you out of 24 other students. Have you seen or talked to other students and what they’re doing for the show, for the market? What are you looking forward to? 

00:21:16 – Nika Jensen 

To me? 

00:21:17 – Rico Figliolini 

Yeah, sure. Let’s go with it. 

00:21:18 – Nika Jensen 

Okay. Yes. Kimberly and I are actually really good friends so we’ve been like talking with our other friends that are doing the artist market and we’re like you know what they’re selling and yeah. I’m just really excited because we’ve never my brother and I have never done something like this before so I think it’ll be a really good opportunity and it’ll be fun so. 

00:21:39 – Rico Figliolini 

Something wholly new. That’s good, a good experience. How about you Kimberly? 

00:21:45 – Kimberly Wang 

Ever since last year, I was really astonished by everything I saw, even if it was like the adult artists, but like the student artists, they were all so talented. I know like a few other people are making food art and people like Nika are making jewelry. And so I’m honestly really inspired and just really blown away by all the effort that everyone puts in. 

00:22:13 – Rico Figliolini 

Cool. Anything that I’ve not touched on, guys, that you want to share about, individually about what it takes to do what you’re doing or your experience at Wesleyan? Why don’t we start with Kimberly? 

00:22:29 – Kimberly Wang 

I don’t really have much. I feel like this was a really nice opportunity to be able to share what Wesleyan Artist Market is about and how students have been able to participate in it. 

00:22:42 – Rico Figliolini 

Cool. Nika? 

00:22:43 – Nika Jensen 

Yeah so my mom printed out pictures of our time in the philippines so this first one it’s all the bags of food that my old school donated to families in the philippines. 

00:23:01 – Rico Figliolini 

Excellent. Glad you printed those out. 

00:23:03 – Nika Jensen

This is my old class. This was this year when I sent my profits back to the Philippines. And those are all the boxes of food and clothes that they get with that money. 

00:23:16 – Rico Figliolini 

Wow, you really did make a lot of money. 

00:23:18 – Nika Jensen 

Yes, sir. 

00:23:19 – Rico Figliolini 

That’s good. That’s great. And maybe at some point I’ll ask Camille on this, getting some pictures from you all of some of the artwork that you’ve done. I’d love to include that when we post the podcast as well. And if you have any social media where you post your artwork on, if it’s public, feel free. We’re going to be sharing this and we’ll be taking you all as well. I think we got everything covered. I mean, you’re all just unbelievable kids. You’re just doing great work. And I’m just like, it’s always great to talk to you, to Wesleyan students, just like, or to students that are motivated, put it that way, to do things. So glad to see that you’re doing all sorts of things and I still can’t wrap my head around 75 countries, I’m just still trying to think that just like in five years, I can’t even see doing that. But I want to thank you all for for joining me so this is Wesleyan Artist Market you all will be at and that’s April Friday the 25th from 10:00 – 7:00 pm and Saturday April 26 from 10:00 to 3:00 pm. We’ve been talking with Kimberly Wang, who does food art, edible food art, and Nika and her brother Carter Jensen, who do jewelry. Appreciate you guys being with me and being so talkative and just being good guests. So thank you all. Hang in there with me for a second. Everyone else, I want to say thank you again for joining us. You can find out more about Wesleyan Artist Market from just going to wesleyanschool.org or just Googling Wesleyan Artist Market it’ll pop up for you. And it’s open to the public, Friday and Saturday in April. So check them out. Visit the 24 students that are displaying their artwork as well, along with the over, I think it’s over 70 professional artists there. And thank you all from, I guess you’re in Wesleyan Wolf TV station too. So appreciate you doing that with me. So thank you everyone. Stay well.

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Peachtree Corners Life

Peachtree Corners Roundabout Plans, Tech Park Housing and Zoning Updates [Podcast]

Published

2 months ago

on

April 7, 2025

By


In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini speaks with City Manager Brian Johnson about several key developments happening around the city. From proposed traffic improvements near the Forum to the shift toward more equity-based residential housing, Brian provides updates on what’s being considered and how the city is approaching growth and redevelopment.

The conversation covers changes in Tech Park, details about the new Curiosity Corner mobility hub, updates on zoning and land use policy and the city’s efforts to manage potential data center projects.

If you live, work, or invest in Peachtree Corners, this episode offers a clear and timely overview of where things stand and what’s on the horizon.

Downloadable Content

🔍 Key Takeaways

  • New Roundabout proposed at Peachtree Corners Circle near the Forum to address traffic safety.
  • Multiple equity-based residential projects replacing outdated office spaces, including at 20-22 Tech Park, the Day Building, and 333 Research Court.
  • Curiosity Corner Mobility Hub coming to Tech Park, featuring EV stations, food trucks and drone test areas.
  • Autonomous vehicles like May Mobility already operating with zero drivers on Peachtree Corners streets.
  • City’s proactive zoning changes include special-use permits for data centers and new infill residential zoning.
  • Merger of Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals to streamline decisions and reduce redundancy.
Peachtree Corners Rounabout at The Forum

Timestamps of Major Topics

  • 00:01 – Introductions & Sponsors
  • 02:00 – New Roundabout Near the Forum: Safety & Traffic Study
  • 09:45 – 20/22 Tech Park Development: Downsized, Equity Apartments
  • 13:30 – Day Building Townhome Settlement & Safety Upgrades
  • 17:00 – 333 Research Court: Office-to-Townhome Conversion
  • 20:00 – Curiosity Corner: Tech Park’s New Mobility Hub
  • 23:45 – May Mobility Driverless Car Stories
  • 26:45 – Why Peachtree Corners is Restricting Data Center Development
  • 31:30 – Merging Zoning Boards: Efficiency & Transparency
  • 34:00 – New Infill Residential Zoning for Smaller Sites

38:00 – Wrap-up and Magazine Plug

Podcast Transcript:

Transcript:

00:00:03 – Rico Figliolini

Right. Hi, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. Appreciate you guys joining us. This is me with Brian Johnson, the city manager. Hey, Brian.

00:00:09 – Brian Johnson

Hey, Rico. How are you? 

00:00:15 – Rico Figliolini

Good. Good to have you. We haven’t done this in a while, but before we get into this, let me just say thank you to two of our sponsors, EV Remodeling Inc. and Eli, the owner, based here in Peachtree Corners. They’re a great company, great family. They do design to build. So from everything from rebuilding your house to adding a deck or an extension or just redoing your kitchen. They’ve done over 260 family homes and stuff. So check them out. They just will do great work for you. Our second sponsor is Vox Pop Uli, also here based in Peachtree Corners. If you have a company and you’re doing either trade shows or you have a company and you’re trying to get your brand name out, they’re the company to do it with because they deal with everything from vehicle wraps, wrapping that whole truck or that car, to trade show booths, to garments for your business, or to if you’re doing a Peachtree Corners Festival and you need the tent and you need branding, they’ll take care of that. So anything you need, your logo imprinted onto almost any object, they’ll figure it out for you. So check them out Vox Pop Uli is the company. Tell them we sent you, so thanks for supporting us. So Brian it’s been a while, I think we got a few things to touch on to talk about. Lots happening this year as one city councilman told me, it’s going to be an exciting year of stuff going on. But things going on right now. So let’s start off with I guess one of the biggest things, we just had an informational meeting about. So we had a lot of comments on our social posts about this. And this is about installing possibly another roundabout. This was an informational meeting, right? And the roundabout, similar to the one that’s on Peachtree Corners Circle and Medlock Bridge Road, right? But this one’s going to be located between the Forum and Creme de la Creme on also Peachtree Corners Circle. So can you give us the, you know the the details on that or eye level?

00:02:20 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, so it boiled down it really comes to this if anybody’s ever left the Forum on the south end by Trader Joe’s and wanted to turn on the Peachtree Corner Circle, really any direction but certainly if you’re trying to make a left out of there, it’s kind of a dangerous you know intersection. It’s unsignalized there, you know Peachtree Corner Circle coming from the west or the right side if you were, you know leaving the Forum is coming over down a hill around a corner. You’re crossing over, I believe what at that point you’re at least five lanes of traffic are at two lanes each way in a middle turning lane. And it’s a dangerous intersection. And as the activity at the Forum increases, the property right across the street, right next to Creme de la Creme is zoned for condos. So that could get developed. And then we’re going to talk here shortly about just up the road, the Day Building properly, which is actually the next property over that just got approved. And so traffic is going to even increase even more. We cannot put a signal, another traffic signal at that intersection because it’s too close to the Peachtree Corner Circle, Peachtree Parkway intersection. So we either have to leave it the way it is or a roundabout allows people, especially the most dangerous turning movement is leaving the Forum turning left.

00:03:54 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, for sure.

00:03:57 – Brian Johnson

And that, there’s no way to resolve that with, I guess unless you did a four-way stop, which I’m not, I mean, that’s, again, not just two lanes of traffic each direction. It can’t put a signal. So a roundabout allows people who want to turn left to actually turn right first into the roundabout and then just stay in the roundabout as you can go around to the left. So it’s almost like making a turning right to ultimately make a left. But you would turn right and enter the roundabout and then just follow the roundabout around until you’re now facing Peachtree Parkway and then you head straight. So we did a big traffic analysis, the city did along with Gwinnett County DOT and Georgia DOT, and a roundabout fits at that location. And so right now where we’re at is council, the city had an open house recently to solicit public comment on it. We’re sharing with you, have some, and we’re sharing the remainder of the information with you, Rico, so people can get on your social media posts and see, you know, but ultimately, you know, a lot of this detail will be hosted on our website, but they can see everything from the traffic analysis, the accident reports, the design concepts. But we’re doing that so that council can ultimately decide if this is you know a good to go project, and so that’s where we’re at with that project.

00:05:37 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. And we’ll have links we have an article being written about it but we’ll have links to the website, to the resources that you talked about, we’ll have that in the show notes. And this video I think a 3D video also that we’ll be sharing.

00:05:52 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, it’s an actual traffic model. So we took real traffic data from that intersection and then applied it at different times of the day on how this new roundabout would address that traffic count, that real traffic count. So that is not like, oh, let’s just throw a number of cars going through it. It is actually from the traffic counts.

00:06:16 – Rico Figliolini

And I remember the consultant telling me that I asked him, I said, it looks like an awful lot of cars. And he says, well, this is based on what the traffic is.

00:06:25 – Brian Johnson

Well, yeah, at the worst time, like, say, at 5:30.

00:06:30 – Rico Figliolini

Right.

00:06:31 – Brian Johnson

You know, how would it handle that? I mean, it’s easy to handle traffic there if it’s, you know, two in the afternoon, you know, nine in the morning, but we want to know what it’s like, you know, especially in the evening and rush hour, because the Forum’s not open in the early morning, so the morning rush hour traffic isn’t so bad. Evening is definitely, afternoon into the evening.

00:06:50 – Rico Figliolini

When you have people leaving the Forum, when you have people coming through wanting to go into the Forum, you have people leaving Creme de la C reme, you have people going left out of the QT station. Which once this is put, if I understand correctly, it’ll be a right in, right out only. Because there’ll be a median across the way. Correct.

00:07:13 – Brian Johnson

Correct. And you won’t be able to make a left out of the J. Alexander’s curb cut that’s closest to Peachtree Parkway.

00:07:21 – Rico Figliolini

You won’t be able to do that.

00:07:22 – Brian Johnson

Because that’s also, that’s actually going across.

00:07:25 – Rico Figliolini

That’s actually worse.

00:07:26 – Brian Johnson

Seven lanes of traffic with the turning lanes included.

00:07:29 – Rico Figliolini

I can’t even see how someone wants to make a left out of there. That’s dangerous right there.

00:07:32 – Brian Johnson

But people do.

00:07:33 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah. It’s crazy. And making a right out of, or coming out of the Forum by the Trader Joe’s, that driveway. I mean, I’ve personally seen anecdotally, if you will, one or two accidents roughly a year every months or so. And that’s what I’ve seen there. And I’ve seen people in the median stacked two, three, four cars. And if the first car doesn’t do their turn. The car behind them wants to play chicken and wants to come through sometimes. It’s like, you know, so I’m looking as I’m coming towards Peachtree Corners Baptist Church with the QT behind me. I’d have to be looking at the right side to see the Forum people, either people coming out to make a right or cutting straight across or wanting to go from that median going into the Forum. And even sometimes the Creme de la Creme people wanting to make a left out of there as well. Cutting across and who’s going to go?

00:08:30 –  Brian Johnson

At the same time, somebody may want to make a left out of the Forum and Creme de la Creme.

00:08:35 – Rico Figliolini

Yes.

00:08:35 – Brian Johnson

And then there, you know. Yeah. So the only two options we have really, again, GDOT won’t let us put a traffic signal there because it’s too close to their signal on Peachtree Parkway.

00:08:49 – Rico Figliolini

Right.

00:08:50 – Brian Johnson

You can’t really put a four way stop where you have that many lanes. So we either leave it alone and just hope. Keep hoping for the best, or we do something that allows anybody who wants to make a left to technically do it by making a right into the traffic circle and then coming back around.

00:09:08 – Rico Figliolini

And I think there’ll be some improvements based on what we learned, what was learned from the roundabout at the other place that there’ll be some, what’s called brambles, I guess, stopping people cutting across from one lane to the other as they’re coming around. So there’ll be areas where they can feed into naturally into the lane. But yeah, so I thought that was good. So if you guys want to check out the links, you’ll be able to see that information and stuff. So that’s cool. So let’s talk about also 2022 Technology Parkway. That was the, that was originally had an old developer that came in. That was actually approved, I think, for just almost 300 units, apartments.

00:09:54 – Brian Johnson

A little more than 300, yeah.

00:09:55 – Rico Figliolini

More than 300, right? So now a new developer came in. And so tell us a bit about that, because now it’s moving towards equity property, I think, or?

00:10:06 – Brian Johnson

Well, no, that one isn’t. So the original application that was approved for rezoning was to combine 20 and 22 Tech Park South, which is at the corner of PIB and Technology Parkway South. And to combine the properties and then put, you know, around 350-ish apartment units on two different, I don’t know if you want to call them towers, but, you know, I would say six-story properties there built on top of where the existing buildings had been demoed. And the original owner, you know, ends up selling it. And so when the new developers come in, we work with them. And the ultimate product that they ask to be developed is reducing it by, I don’t know, somewhere near 100. So there’s like about 100 less units going in as tall. But it is still a multifamily development right there at the corner, all being built on existing parking lot or foundation of existing building. Anybody’s driven there recently that’s an old building that had structured parking there, it’s derelict people are breaking into it and and so it’s a code enforcement you know kind of challenge right now but the developers were approved for this less dense product than was previously approved so in that vein that’s a good thing. And again tech park and the businesses in tech park need, you know, it’s healthy to have a mix of housing units in amongst these buildings because employees like to be able to work close to or live close to where they work. So this is a good node right there, right there at PIB. So, yeah, we’re excited about the project and, you know, have every reason to believe the developer is going to jump right on it.

00:12:08 – Rico Figliolini

It’s amazing how we, how is its transition, Tech Park, 500 acres of office, all office, to slowly being more residential in there as well.

00:12:19 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, the mix.

00:12:20 – Rico Figliolini

The mix of it. Because you know the world has changed there’s still a lot of people working remote still a lot of you know office buildings, just you know going the way of this if you will.

00:12:32 – Brian Johnson

And we did part of that small area plan that council just approved recently was a office inventory in which we graded the quality of the remaining office And we identified the offices that are, you know, and it’s a lesser percentage, but there are some that are almost at a point where you’re not going to ever see somebody fill it with, you know, commercial tenants anymore because the building requires too many upgrades for it to be competitive. So those are ones that council will be, you know, more amenable to consider transitioning it to residential. Some of the office product, if an application came in and they wanted to demo or repurpose an office, council would say no, because we do want to also protect our office product. It’s still a very important part of our, you know, local economy. So we’re being very, you know, selective in which ones we might allow for this to happen, which ones we won’t.

00:13:34 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Talking about another one, also the Day building, which is on Peachtree Corner Circle. People might be familiar with that building. It’s just, it’s before the Creme de la Creme on the right-hand side going up a hill. So they’ve originally came in, wanted to do 225 units or somewhere about there, retail, townhomes, so mixed use. That was denied, I think, at some point. And then they filed suit, trying to figure out, you know, we want to use this land, let us use this land. And then they went into a settlement with you, with the city. So tell us a bit about that. And they resubmitted, I think, right?

00:14:13 – Brian Johnson

Yes. And that is all true. And so they came back as part of settlement discussions and changed it from a mixed use product that had 225-ish or so apartments to an all equity development of around 60, maybe a little bit more than 60 townhomes on that product or on that property. That property has two entrances, one on Peachtree Corner Circle and then the back side also has ingress egress onto what’s Data Drive. Then if you take Data Drive up it goes into Triangle Parkway near Cornerstone Christian. So this development will have two entrances so it won’t have to dump everything out on Peachtree Corner Circle all the time. But it does allow us, as part of this settlement agreement we mandated, if you are on Peachtree Corner Circle, say, heading from Spalding towards Peachtree Parkway, and you start coming around that, you know, down the hill around the corner, getting close to the Forum, Creme de la Creme, the current entrance doesn’t have a deceleration length. So people don’t realize there’s an entrance there and all of a sudden when you’re on this corner where you would think there’s no entrances anywhere we’re at a higher rate of speed people turning into it all of a sudden slow down and people behind are like why are you slowing down. So we required a deceleration lane so now they can get out of the you know normal, you know travel lane and decelerate outside of it that will help. But yeah, this product goes from, again, 200 plus apartment units down to 60-ish equity townhomes, and that’s it. No commercial, no retail, just residential. And it’s an office product that probably would remain vacant if we didn’t allow this because the office is so old, it would require more money than they could make by keeping it office just because office product, like you said, is just not at a premium right now.

00:16:29 – Rico Figliolini

No, no. Changing environment out there and more density, you know, I mean, even multi-use, right? Multi-use is changing also. There’s not, right? There’s not as much, unless you go up to Johns Creek, I guess. They just approved some big multi-use retail density apartment.

00:16:50 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, but that’s part of their new town center, though.

00:16:52 – Rico Figliolini

Right. so that’s a whole different thing. So to, okay so there’s quite a few you know things going on there as far as residential development and stuff the other thing that I noticed.

00:17:04 – Brian Johnson

Real quick, we have one more at our last council meeting we’re talking about that’s 333 Research Court.

00:17:11 – Rico Figliolini

Right, okay I was going to save that for later but let’s go into that.

00:17:13 – Brian Johnson

Oh, okay. Well I mean it was all kind of in the whole genre of having selected office buildings that were of poor enough quality that the occupancy or call it the vacancy was so high. And the property owners had come in and said, we’re not, we can’t keep it as an office. We’re never going to be able to get tenants without pouring a lot of money. And right now the demand isn’t high. So it was another one. It’s at the end of Research Court. Probably the best way to know is if you’re looking at Norcross High School, right of their main building is a bunch of classroom trailers, then into the woods, there’s a buffer there. You would come into the back parking lot of somewhere that the only way to drive through it is you got to go into Tech Park, onto Technology Parkway Research Court at the very back. Anyway, this is converting that property into their original attempt was to put about, I don’t know, 100, just maybe under a hundred stack flats. Was an equity product, but it was stacked flats. They were not able to make the numbers quite work on that. And so they’ve, they decreased the density of the equity and that’s going to be around 60-ish or so townhome product as well. So that’s where that is at. And again, a carefully selected node within Technology Parkway where we feel like having a small cluster of residential will meld well with the existing higher quality office to create the mixed use that Tech Park is becoming.

00:18:57 – Rico Figliolini

You know, I like the fact that we go from I mean there’s a reason for multi-use and the reason for multi-family development actually. But I like the fact that we’re moving towards equity like the these equity properties. I think that more stabilizes the community also a bit. That’s a lot of development decisions that have been made. There’s been some also first reads of some other stuff that will be in the next city council meeting. So we’ll have links to these things that you all can visit because the city set up on their website a special page showing development applications. So you all can actually go there and you can actually look through the applications and see the you know, the maps and stuff and what’s coming up over the next month or two. There’s somewhere else also in Technology Park, things going on there. I saw some clear cutting just recently. So something’s happening. Something’s beginning. I remember seeing a check, a federal, I think it was Congressman Bordeaux at the time, gave a check for over a half a million dollars back in 2022 for this. And it’s a mobility hub in Technology Park. It’s called Curiosity Corner now. So tell us a little bit about that and what’s coming there, Brian.

00:20:15 – Brian Johnson

So it’s at the corner of Scientific Drive and Technology Parkway. And, you know, really most across the street from Global Aviation, you know, that area. It is, you know, what, a three plus acre parcel. And it’s going to be everything. It’s a mobility hub. So all things mobility can come together there. Everything from the Gwinnett County Transit bus has their route there to EV charging so that you could have electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters, all things mobility can come together there. Testing around that with the Curiosity Lab ecosystem can happen there. There’s also drone, location for drone, both testing and as well as if we have interested companies that are starting to get into the drone delivery space, a number of companies like Amazon, Google, that have arms that are doing, you know, point to point, you know, it’s like, I guess, retail to customer direct delivery of things like medicine and other things, but they need locations and cities to make this work. This could be one of those. We’re also turning it into an amenity to make the employees within businesses here in Technology Park have a place, an amenity to go to, to kind of create the sense of place within the entirety of Tech Park. Here, we’re going to have food truck stalls with, you know, plugins right there, covered seating with fans underneath it and public 5G Wi-Fi. Our hope is that it creates an opportunity for employees in Tech Park businesses to be able to go to maybe for lunch and not have to get on that river of cars that’s either Peachtree Parkway or PIV. To get together, to socialize. There’s some open space there that there could even be some you know, organized events, maybe in the evening, you know, something, you know.

00:22:31 – Rico Figliolini

You’re going to have some green space.

00:22:33 – Brian Johnson

Green space there, yes. So it’s a mix of a lot of stuff. It is a mobility hub, but it’s going to be both for practical, you know, purposes and testing as well, which is what this ecosystem of Curiosity Lab has become.

00:22:49 – Rico Figliolini

It’s amazing. We did a podcast about May Mobility. and people that have gone through Tech Park probably have seen this car, has a wrap and stuff like that. It drives like 35 miles an hour at least and it’s going through and people will see no driver.

00:23:08 – Brian Johnson

There’s not even a person in the car.

00:23:09 – Rico Figliolini

Not a person in the car, right. So it looks really strange when you see it. When I drove in it, getting into that middle seat with some people and seeing this car drive by itself it’s kind of weird too because it takes you a little while to like, damn, look at that. It’s just moving.

00:23:27 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, there’s nobody there in case something happened for them to grab the wheel.

00:23:31 – Rico Figliolini

That’s right. Yes.

00:23:36 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, we’ve had safety stewards in some of the other autonomous vehicles. So they’ve been autonomous, but you always had that person that was sitting there and they weren’t driving, but they were there. This one doesn’t even have that. So it is a little bit of a unique experience.

00:23:49 – Rico Figliolini

So the interesting part is too that it goes, so it’ll go up and down Technology Parkway and it goes through City Hall parking, you know City Hall area and then comes out it goes to with the former Anderby, jug turn if you want to call it that where it comes out and make a left back out onto the street to come on back. So we’re doing a photoshoot.

00:24:11 – Brian Johnson

It also goes through the Marriott parking lot.

00:24:16 – Rico Figliolini

Right, the Marriott, yep. So we’re doing a photo shoot in front of City Hall. We have the marshals there and we’re doing this photo shoot. The cars are parked right literally in front of City Hall. And we’re doing the shoot. And all of a sudden I noticed there’s a car waiting to get through. And I’m like, it turned and it’s the May Mobility car. And it’s like, it stopped and it’s just waiting. I’m like, is that supposed to be staging from here? What is going on? No, the damn thing, it’s just waiting. It’s waiting. And it’s like, I think we need to let it go through. So we step off the parking lot a bit. Now, mind you, these marshal cars are pointing towards us away from the building. They were like, we had three of them there like that. And so we stepped off. We’re still near the edge. And it’s not moving. So I was like, maybe it’s the cars or maybe it’s us. What if we take a couple more steps back? We did that. All of a sudden, after a second or two it decides okay maybe I’ll slowly start moving so it slowly starts moving, weaves its way up and then picks up speed and then goes. And I was like, it was actually waiting for us look at that. It actually worked the way it’s supposed to.

00:25:23 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, it does although you know it’s interesting without people there you know normally if somebody was there and you didn’t want to move you know you could like motion them to like go around or something.

00:25:30 – Rico Figliolini

Really? Oh, you know what yes.

00:25:31 – Brian Johnson

You know, because if you were driving up there and I’m like, Rico, we’re doing something. Can you go around? You’d be like, okay.

00:25:35 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, right. But that car won’t do it.

00:25:38 – Brian Johnson

It’s like, look, this is the direction of travel I’m supposed to be driving, you’re in my way. My, you know, A .I. and my, you know, all our sensors say I can’t go until you get out of the way. But once you do, it’s like, alright, it looks clear. Alright. And then it goes. I mean, so it works.

00:25:59 – Rico Figliolini

No. And it made the right choice because there were three cars that were pointing at it pretty much as it was going and but it was waiting for us to get off and then it made that decision that those three cars are parked that even though they weren’t in parking spaces so it had to make that intelligent choice to say it’s not going to move they’re just pointing that way it’s stable for the last five minutes. Yeah it was just an interesting thing to see. Alright. So we’ve got just a few more quick things, that we talked about a little bit about a special use permit that’s being, this is a bit proactive decision the city council is making and the city’s making about data centers and creating special use permit for that. Walk us through why that as a proactive thing, why that makes sense.

00:26:51 – Brian Johnson

Yeah. So also at this last council meeting we had, we had a couple of preemptive moves. This one is just merely for us to require anybody wanting to construct a data center and by data center I’m essentially saying these are large buildings that are constructed to house server farms. And this is when somebody says, oh you know I’m saving something to the cloud, well there’s not anything actually in the cloud, it’s still going to a server. But the cloud is really server farms and these can be hundreds of thousands of square feet of just servers that require a lot of electricity and a lot of water to oftentimes cool the space. And they serve a purpose. But if you’re not careful and somebody’s got the current zoning allow for it, you could find property chewed up with very large buildings that don’t really provide value to the city because you could have hundreds of thousands of square feet of these servers and five employees that are managing it and it’s not generating retail transactions for us to get sales tax. And it’s not the headquarters of a company that would pay us a business license, so we essentially could have large you know very valuable property chewed up with this but it’s not a value add to us as a city. We feel like there might be exceptions where we could have a modest size one, maybe. Maybe in conjunction with something else with a Google or whatever, Amazon, whatever. But oftentimes these big ones are better left for more rural areas. You know, we’ve become more of a redevelopment city because we don’t have a lot of undeveloped property left. So our property is a premium. And so there’s, Metro Atlanta has a lot of tire kicking going on with developers wanting to do it because the demand for cloud storage just keeps going up and up. We want to be very careful. So we made it to where each specific instance has to get in front of council and has to have a public hearing. And so that’s what this is to do.

00:29:11 – Rico Figliolini

So you, at the beginning, before we started the podcast, you were saying there were a lot of tire kickings going on, I guess. Was it from that or was it also from trends that you saw other cities having some of the same issues had that this sort of, you know, get on your list of that we need to take care of this?

00:29:30 – Brian Johnson

Well, reading some of the recent, I think even the AJC had not to, but a couple of weeks ago, recent article about the demand in Georgia as a whole or Metro Atlanta specifically. And so that got it kind of got already on our screen. We did have specific tire kicking going on here by a developer who was actually, you know, my community development director, Sean Adams will get calls with people asking, hey, I’m, you know, representing a property owner or whatever. And I wanted to know, is this an eligible use? And he was getting a little bit of those. So then he did look, you know, he did look out nationally to see what our city’s doing, what are best practices. He took that and crafted his own language, made it ours, and then presented it to me, and I put it on the agenda for council to consider. So all of what you said is added together is kind of how it ultimately got on an agenda, but it is a preemptive move. So we now do have this protection. So if somebody want to do it, council’s got to approve it and there’s got to be a public hearing so the community gets a chance to weigh in on it as well.

00:30:48 – Rico Figliolini

It’s good to see the function of city. Of the city mechanics if you will. How things come about, why you look at certain things and stuff. So it’s good I think for the public to see this, that it’s not just pulled out of nowhere. It’s like why this? Why data centers? Well, because these trends that you all even went out to look at the competitive field, what was being done, best practices, it’s all great. Rezoning Board of Appeals, rezoning board, I guess, and the Planning Commission. There were recently, and I’ve noticed there on the, I guess, is it the rezoning or the zoning board of appeals, I guess. There were a lot of canceled meetings at certain points. Wasn’t being probably needed, but you all decided to merge, I guess, both of those.

00:31:39 – Brian Johnson

Yes. So Zoning Board of Appeals hears cases of, you know, where somebody has, you know, a hardship due to a zoning or a code compliance, you know. And so they don’t have a lot of cases every year. In fact, two years ago, we went the entire year and there was no case for them to hear. No hardship case for them to weigh in on. So it started to get to where it, you know, you ask somebody or somebody is interested in being civically active. You put them on a, you know, the ZBA and they don’t have a meeting for a year or they’re canceled. That’s one, too training. You know, you like to these board members oftentimes go to training and, you know, we want them to be trained up. And so we just thought that, you know what, we’ll, you know support and provide even additional training to one group. And we combine the planning commission and the ZBA together. So now planning commissioners will also hear, you know, appeal cases on city code that the ZBA would have heard. And so we’re combining it, we’re adding, because it’s a more, call it a body that hearing two types of cases, we decided to add two additional spots. So the planning commission grew, but now we won’t have a ZBA. The planning commission will serve in that capacity.

00:33:08 – Rico Figliolini

And for people that may not be aware, planning commission, these are volunteer positions of appointed people, citizens from our community. The zoning board of appeals would look at not only commercial, but residential appeals, right? So if someone wanted a little leniency on the easement on their property, maybe, or they needed.

00:33:28 – Brian Johnson

Or they wanted to park an RV. A common one is park an RV in their driveway permanently if they’re not using it for a long period, you know, where that’s not allowed per code. And they make a hardship case. And, you know, the ZBA would say, yeah, you know, you do have a hardship case. We’re going to allow it on that particular property. So it’s an important role.

00:33:52 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. So that’s cool. So I think the next one was the new zoning district for the infill residential development. So what does that mean to most people, Brian?

00:34:08 – Brian Johnson

Well, you know, if people knew anything about Peachtree Corners, again, they’re going to look at the city and be like, you know, there’s not a lot of undeveloped property left. So, you know, we are more of redevelopment. So now new projects are oftentimes, they involve the tearing down of a use that’s run its cycle. You know, maybe it was an office building for 50 years, but now it’s time for there to be a new office or something else or maybe a combination. But when that happens, there are oftentimes pockets of smaller properties that maybe things have changed and we could put them to good use. A good example of that would be commercial office buildings used to have a higher parking spot per square foot ratio than we need now. There used to be, you know, the big sea of parking in front of a big, you know, box store is no longer the case. So we oftentimes have office product is a good, you know, again, a good example where there could be twice the amount of parking that they need, but they’d like to do something with it. Well, maybe there’s an opportunity for infill. And so there are pockets, and there’s not a lot of them, but we have pockets where we were kind of like, what are we going to do with these? We don’t have a zoning classification that allows for certain smaller, you know, you could almost argue shoehorn things. But yet, if you don’t do anything, it’s kind of a waste of a property. And so we want to maximize our property and be as flexible as we can. So again, the community development director looked at best practices and came up with the infill residential. So this could be to where you could put smaller, you know, pockets of residential and oftentimes maybe it doesn’t have the same buffer requirement that you would normally have or some of those other things. And so it’s just a way for us to be flexible. Again, there’s not a lot of, cases but there are some cases where we think there could be a use here so it’s just providing us, it’s adding to our you know, our bag of tricks if you will when it comes to trying to maximize what is not. We’re not getting any more property right now, so we’ve got to make that, make the best of what we have.

00:36:36 – Rico Figliolini

So, it’s good to see the city being proactive So not just reactive to everything that’s coming along, right? You want to plan things out. I mean, that’s why the comprehensive plan is there that just got revised and stuff. We’ve hit on quite a few things. So there’s a lot of stuff going on in the city, more things coming. Anything that we’ve left out, Brian, that you just want to mention for the time being?

00:37:01 – Brian Johnson

No, not really. I mean, you know, encourage people to go. I think you put a link on there, the latest edition of Peachtree Corners Life has a, the mayor has a column in there.

00:37:14 – Rico Figliolini

Yes. On our website about deer population.

00:37:15 – Brian Johnson

Yes. And, you know, deer. So for those who want to know what we’re doing and we’ve, we’re actively getting to a point where we will have a deer management plan, but if anybody’s curious as to what we’re doing there, I encourage them to read that. But, you know, right now that was, you know, our last council meeting was a lot of land use stuff. Good things. Essentially all but one project was equity. And, you know, and all of it was city negotiated a less dense product taken into consideration, traffic and other things. So, you know, I think these are going to be, it’s going to be new injection of life into property that right now is stagnated. So good things. And we’ll continue to drive forward.

00:38:05 – Rico Figliolini

Sounds good. We’ve been spending our time with Brian Johnson, City Manager. Always appreciate his willingness to come on and talk about things. Southwest Gwinnett Magazine, let me just show you. This just is probably hitting your mailbox this week. Wesleyan Artist Market, that’s happening at the end of April. So check this out. Some decently good stories in here about summer camps. And local author, Great Atlantic Christian and their expansion and some other things. Even a former Beatles tribute drummer who just opened a coffee shop here on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Well, Peachtree Boulevard, actually. I need to start saying that.

00:38:46 – Brian Johnson

There’s still a section that’s PIB.

00:38:49 – Rico Figliolini

Is it?

00:38:50 – Brian Johnson

I mean, technically, it’s Peachtree Boulevard if you’re heading north from 285 until the split. At the split, if you stay on the right heading north, it’s still PIB. It’s only Peachtree Boulevard while it’s a state route.

00:39:08 – Rico Figliolini

Gotcha. Thanks for explaining.

00:39:08 – Brian Johnson

There is still a section of PIB as it heads up into Gwinnett. Yeah. You got to be a government junkie to know all this stuff.

00:39:17 – Rico Figliolini

No, I appreciate that. And I’m more of a political junkie than government junkies.

00:39:23 – Brian Johnson

I’m paid to be a government junkie.

00:39:25 – Rico Figliolini

For sure. Thank you Brian, everyone else yeah no, hang with me for a second. But everyone else thank you. You’ll find the important links below and if this is on YouTube or Facebook, just check out our website and you’ll for this post, this podcast post and you’ll see all the links in there leading back to pictures and all sorts of things that you need. Alright thank you guys, appreciate you being with us, bye.

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Peachtree Corners Life

Inside the Solicitor General’s Office: Lisamarie Bristol on Justice in Gwinnett County

Published

2 months ago

on

March 25, 2025

By


On this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini speaks with Gwinnett County Solicitor General Lisamarie Bristol about her work addressing the county’s growing case volume and implementing new justice initiatives. From launching a public resource website to tackling a 4,000-case backlog, Lisamarie shares how her office is improving efficiency and accessibility in the legal system.

She also discusses innovative programs like the Diversion Program, the Duty Attorney Pilot Program, and the Special Victims Unit—each designed to enhance fairness and provide second chances where possible. Tune in to hear how Gwinnett County is adapting to its rapid growth, the role of technology in legal processes, and how community partnerships are strengthening justice for all.

Key Takeaways & Highlights:

  • Understanding the Solicitor General’s Role – How the office prosecutes misdemeanors, traffic offenses, and quality-of-life cases.
  • 4,000-Case Backlog Solution – Strategies to streamline processes and improve case resolution speed.
  • New Legal Resource Website – How Gwinnett residents can access critical legal information and victim advocacy services.
  • Diversion Program Success – Over 1,400 successful cases, providing alternatives to prosecution and preventing repeat offenses.
  • Special Victims Unit – Dedicated to handling sensitive cases like misdemeanor sex crimes and vehicular homicides.
  • Teen Dating Violence & Social Media Risks – How technology is impacting legal cases involving young people.
  • Expanding Access to Legal Support – Partnerships with Mosaic Georgia, PADV, and HIMSA House to assist victims and underserved communities.
  • Justice System Challenges – Addressing mental health, substance abuse, and legislative changes affecting prosecution.

Listen in for an insightful conversation on justice, reform, and the future of law enforcement in Gwinnett County!

Resources:
Gwinnett County Solicitor Website: https://gwinnettsg.com/
Campaign website: www.lisamariebristol.com 
Mosaic Georgia: www.mosaicgeorgia.org 
PADV: www.padv.org 
Ahimsa House: www.ahimsahouse.org 

Transcript:

00:00:01 – Rico Figliolini

Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. I appreciate you guys joining us. We’re in our little smart city just north of Atlanta. I have a great guest today, Lisamarie Bristol, Solicitor General for Gwinnett County. I appreciate you joining me, Lisa.

00:00:18 – Lisamarie Bristol

Thank you so much, Rico. It’s a pleasure to be back with you.

00:00:21 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, this is our second podcast together. I think the last one was just before you got elected?

00:00:29 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes.

00:00:29 – Rico Figliolini

Right? ‘22?

00:00:30 – Lisamarie Bristol

It’s when I was still campaigning so probably about three years ago now. Oh my.

00:00:34 – Rico Figliolini

Yep, yeah. You took office January ‘23 so a good tenure. So lots to talk about right? But before we get to that I just want to say thank you to our sponsors. And we have two great corporate sponsors both based in Peachtree Corners, both family run. EV Remodeling Inc is a company that does great work. You have a dream home, they can build it, renovate it, add home space to you, renovate your bathrooms, your kitchens. They design your space like they want to design your life. So 260 families plus have been really happy with their work. So you should check them out. EVRemodelingInc.com. We appreciate their support. And Vox Pop Uli. Vox Pop Uli is family run as well. I want to thank Andrew and Daniel for supporting us. You have a brand, you want to bring it to life. These guys will put your logo, your brand on almost anything. Think of truck, car, vehicle wraps. They’ve done over 1,600 last year, I think alone. So check them out, trade show things, embroidering, whatever you need. If you have a logo and you want to put it on an object, challenge them because I think they have yet to fail whatever we need done. So it’s kind of cool. So check them out, voxpopuli.com. So I appreciate them doing that and supporting our journalism, our podcasts, and the magazines that we produce. But let’s get to Lisa. Let’s get to, do you prefer Lisa or Lisamarie?

00:02:11 – Lisamarie Bristol

Marie, actually.

00:02:13 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, Lisamarie. So you’ve been tenured in the job of Solicitor General for Gwinnett County since ‘23 of January. For those people that aren’t aware, tell them what the job entails. What does that job do in this county?

00:02:29 – Lisamarie Bristol

Great. Well, thank you so much again for having me here today. I’m really honored. Full circle moment. You were the first podcast I did when I was first campaigning for this seat. So it is wonderful to be back here. As Solicitor General, my job as the elected prosecutor is to handle prosecuting cases in state court, recorders court, and we handle all of the misdemeanors, the traffic offenses, the code enforcement, animal cases. So everything that’s not a felony comes through my court. My office is responsible for prosecuting cases in 11 courtrooms. We are the second largest office in the state of Georgia in terms of Solicitor General offices, and we are definitely a high volume office. So anything from DUI, domestic violence cases, death cases that are misdemeanor amounts, as well as traffic offenses and quality of life cases like junkyard and animal barking cases. All of those are prosecuted through my office.

00:03:33 – Rico Figliolini

Wow. That’s a lot. And I remember when we first spoke back then that there was a huge caseload backlog of I think over 4,000 cases in ‘22 and it was going to be a challenge for anyone that took office, the amount of courts, the amount of work to be done. And trying to make it in an efficient way. So you’ve started some programs to help better work the system if you will versus the system working you. So one of one of the things you all set up and maybe you could tell us about it. It’s the launching of the new website and what that does for anyone that needs to interact with the agency, with the department.

00:04:20 – Lisamarie Bristol

Absolutely. One thing I realized is a lot of people understandably just don’t really know what my office does. And the reality is, is most people will interact with a Solicitor General’s Office traffic court or something at that level. Lots of people get traffic tickets or they may be the unfortunate victim of a traffic accident. There’s lots of, you know, lower level misdemeanor kind of public safety or public nuisance crimes that may touch our community where they may be a victim or a witness to a car accident case or something that occurred in their community, not necessarily severe violent crimes all the time. And so one thing that I thought was really important was reaching our community. And reaching our community in a way that they got an opportunity to understand what we do, how we do it, why we do it, in not a very traumatic way. And so we created this website which allows us to give out information that we know we’re constantly being asked about. Things like record restrictions for people with older cases and older convictions to clear their record. So we have lots of information on there about that. Lots of information about our victim advocacy program and how victims and survivors of crimes can receive resources and help and assistance if they need it. We also talk a lot about what my office does and how we can help people and what we’re here to do. So if you go to GwinnettSG.com, there’s just lots of different nuggets of information. One thing on the website that I’m especially proud about is we started a safety resource library where we’re trying to periodically add different topics, whether it’s teen driving safety or DUI, a safety PSA, so people can kind of go there and kind of get like the high level nuts and bolts about different topics that affect everyone in our community and just get some quick information.

00:06:26 – Rico Figliolini

Well, you also have some additional links to other websites that are helpful as well, it seems, right? Gwinnett County Courts website and all that.

00:06:36 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes, we have websites and links to all of our other county stakeholder partners, as well as lots of resources to other agencies that serve victims in the community. So whether it is somebody who needs help for domestic violence, they need shelter, they need resources, food, culturally relevant services. We’ve tried to provide kind of a one-stop shop if this is where somebody ends up to find all of the things that they could possibly need. Additionally we have you know the generic contact us page where if you reach out to us if you can’t find the information on our page, contact us, send us an email. And if we don’t have the answer we will definitely try and point you in the right direction of who does.

00:07:21 – Rico Figliolini

And the good part is that the site can be read in not just Spanish, but Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Chinese, Arabic. Quite a few languages.

00:07:34 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes, whatever language you need. I mean, Gwinnett County is the most diverse county in the entire United States. I don’t know if anyone had the opportunity to see our chairwoman deliver the state of the county earlier this month. We have, for the longest time, Gwinnett’s been known as the most diverse county in the Southeast region of the U.S. We’ve recently been recognized as the most diverse county in the country. I think that’s phenomenal. And as such, I thought it was very important to have a website that could properly serve such a diverse and vibrant community. So yes, all of the languages are available with a click of a button.

00:08:15 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, that must complicate things, I’m sure, in the courtrooms as well, right? A little bit.

00:08:20 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yeah, it does. And we try and have, you know, court certified reporters as quickly as possible when needed. And I’m grateful for the resources that we do have and definitely trying to expand the resources that we have even within my office. One of the things that we definitely worked on was making sure some of the core victim resources that we put out on a regular basis, we develop them in more than just English and Spanish. We expanded them, I believe, to Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, some of the more regularly seen languages that we were seeing throughout the community to make sure that we could reach people where they are.

00:09:00 – Rico Figliolini

For sure. I mean, there’s a large Korean population, Vietnamese population in Gwinnett County. Yeah. So it must be. So, I mean, with the growth of the county, which continues to grow, with second largest county in the state, a million plus residents, and that’s going to keep growing probably as much as 20% over the next decade, I bet. Easy. How does that affect your office? How does that affect budgeting and the things that you have to do?

00:09:30 – Lisamarie Bristol

Well, growth is a thing. Actually, the day I took office, my office grew. So we gained an extra judge in our circuit, a seventh state court judge. And gaining an extra seventh state court judge meant growing my office by an extra team and that was day one. And yes we do continue to grow, we do see an increase in numbers of cases that come in. I think we’ve seen a growth of approximately 2,000 cases per year so far that coming through state court. Two to three thousand citations per year and increasing coming through our recorders court. And the growth is something that we do have to deal with. I have increased my staffing levels and kind of restructured, not kind of, actually restructured how my office handles cases in an effort to be as efficient as possible. We have flipped how we look at our cases. So we are front loading a lot of the work. And what I mean by that is the effort that we’re putting in, every single case that comes through my office has to be touched. It has to be investigated. We have to reach out to the victims. We have to make these first critical touches and calls and safety planning and things like that. That has to happen no matter what. At the beginning of 2024, we had approximately 14,000 cases open in this office for state court alone. But by front-loading the work, by having my amazing investigations unit, my amazing victim advocate unit, who all since I took office has been nationally credentialed and poured a lot of training into both teams. What we’re able to do is we’re able to figure out which of those cases need further resources and need to be prosecuted at a higher level versus which ones we can divert and put into our diversion programs. Or which ones we need to go ahead and put in our accountability courts by identifying those low level offenses by identifying those low level or non-frequent fires so to speak, we’re able to kind of reserve some of that energy and efficiency so we can put that towards the cases, the more serious violent cases that we know need our attention.

00:11:48 – Rico Figliolini

So we’re talking about the implementation of the diversion unit essentially. And how that frees up the case, well not frees up but certainly frees up the time. I can see why you want to front load that to just, it’s almost a triage in a way because the flood keeps coming, right? It doesn’t stop. You can’t even put up your hand and say, whoa, it’s going to get more just essentially even just because of the expansion of population. Just the natural thing of it. So how do you identify these cases sooner than later? What makes you delay them or divert them? What criteria do you use?

00:12:31 – Lisamarie Bristol

That’s a great question. So diversion for those who don’t know, free trial diversion is an alternative to prosecution. So what it means is that someone who either has a minimal or no criminal history is given the opportunity to still be held accountable for their behavior, but rather than it ending up with them having a criminal conviction and criminal history, it gives them an opportunity to participate in this program pre-adjudication and keep a clean record if they successfully complete the program. So typically, a diversion program will be for someone who is either a youthful offender with very few cycles on their criminal history, less than three, someone who’s not been convicted of any felonies or any violent crimes, someone who’s maybe had a couple of traffic citations, anything that’s not violent or overly serious, things like that. They come into the program, they have to pay a fee. They usually have to do some forms of community service. The fee is not exorbitant. They’ll do some community service and they may have to do, well, they will have to do some sort of treatment. Maybe it’s anger management. Maybe it is a values clarification course, if it’s a theft-based class. Maybe it’s defensive driving if it’s a traffic offense or something of that nature. But they complete their portion in hopes that we are addressing what got them there in the first place, right. And once they successfully get through the program, which takes about six months, with no further arrests or any run into the law, the tradeoff is we will expunge their record. We’ll dismiss their case and the record will remain clean. So it gives them an opportunity to have. Yes, they did mess up. Yes, they did get a case. They were held accountable. They did have to pay their fine. They had to be supervised for six months. They had to go through this program, but they hopefully learned a lesson from it. And they have a chance to have a do-over without having the tarnish of a criminal record on their back.

00:14:37 – Rico Figliolini

So does this, just because the question pops to mind, I’m sure that other people might have the same question. Number one, are these minors or this would be anyone?

00:14:48 – Lisamarie Bristol

It could be anyone. It depends on their criminal history. So if, for instance, someone who is in their 50’s for the first time comes into contact with the criminal justice system and has a slip up and they’ve never done anything, they too would be eligible for our diversion program and would be able to maintain a clean history.

00:15:13 – Rico Figliolini

Go ahead. I’m sorry.

00:15:14 – Lisamarie Bristol

Well, as I’ve said before and what I campaigned on is knowing that convictions even to misdemeanors can have such a dire impact on people’s lives. It can keep from getting student loans, from you know stable housing, from jobs, from serving in the military. There’s a lot of things that can impact them. People with criminal histories may be prohibited from even getting a liquor license which may prevent them from being able to get a job as a server at a restaurant. So our goal is for those who are low risk, who have made a mistake, who may be restorative, to have that opportunity to do so. And so we’ve really expanded our diversion program. We’ve expanded our reach. We’ve tried to get people into our diversion program as quickly as possible. And I’ll tell you, our numbers are impressive so far. Between ‘23 and ‘24, we put in about 1,900 people into our diversion program, 1,900 cases, excuse me, with over 1,400 cases successfully completing it. So we have about a success rate of successful completion of about 74% on our diversion cases. We haven’t tracked this year yet.

00:16:31 – Rico Figliolini

So I guess the question for me would be a couple of questions. One is, how do you keep track of that? That’s a lot of people. You know, how do you keep track of it and make sure that it’s done in a comprehensive way? Because, you know, people can do things and fool around and stuff. And maybe you’re not getting quite all the information. But so how can you track that reasonably well? And the second part is when you expunge the record, what if they come in back into the system? Do you still, will you still know that they’re a repeat offender at that point? Or because the case is, the records expunge, you don’t have that record. So I guess that’s the two questions that I know that would come to mind to a listener.

00:17:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

Great questions. So for the first one, how do we keep track? Well, first, my office keeps track of, we have a team that is dedicated solely to our diversion program. And so their sole responsibility is keeping track of sending out the offers, maintaining the offers, signing them up, keeping up with their monthly check-ins. They are actually supervised by the probation office, not by my office, but they are responsible for staying on track of them and at certain timelines, checking in to ensure that certain cases have hit certain benchmarks to see that we’re on track. If someone has absconded or has disappeared or is not doing what they need to do, that team then pulls that case. We’re notified by probation. We pull that case and that case is then put on the regular track for prosecution, which would account for the 26% of people who unfortunately did not successfully complete the program. So we have multiple ways to track it, both internally within my team, as well as the independent probation office that handles the actual supervision of the people in the program. In terms of how do we know if they’re second offenders, the great thing is, well, what people are going to always know is for criminal records, there’s levels, right? As a criminal justice agency, we will always see somebody’s entire criminal history. So even though their record is expunged, that means for employers, for housing, for those reasons, yes, it is expunged. But law enforcement will always be able to see it. So I will always have access to their entire criminal history and see whether or not they’ve already been afforded an opportunity to go through diversion on a previous case. So those are all things that are checked prior to them being admitted into our program.

00:19:13 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. Okay, great. That answered my questions on that. So glad to see that that would work that way. Anything else about the diversion unit that you’d like to share?

00:19:25 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think one of the things I’m really happy about with our diversion unit is we are working really hard to expand the service providers within it. And by that, I mean, we’re trying to find as we are such a diverse county and not just in culture, but in needs. So we’re really trying to find diverse service providers that we can refer people to. That means having a variety of different types of anger management courses, not just always sending people to the same provider. The reality of it is, is if you have, say, a 23-year-old young lady, she might respond very differently to an anger management course then, let’s say a 30-year-old man. And we’re trying to be mindful of things like that and having a better rolodex of options so that people can be placed with the most impactful provider that will actually help them buy into the reformation and actually make a difference in what they’re doing.

00:20:26 – Rico Figliolini

Are you working with nonprofits in Gwinnett County as well that do outreach of this sort?

00:20:32 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes. And as we go around and we meet new nonprofits, I have members of my team who are able to kind of vet what they’re able to do, how they’re able to do it, and whether or not we can refer people not only through our diversion program, but sometimes through regular deed bargains with our defendants. Sometimes the victims in cases need some of these resources. So it’s really been helpful to kind of build these relationships with our community partners and other nonprofits. so we know what’s out there and so that we can utilize them and they can get the support as well.

00:21:08 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. There’s another program that you implemented as well, the Duty Attorney Pilot program. I know you’re proud of that as well. So tell us a little bit about that.

00:21:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

One thing we recognized when I took office is that, you know unfortunately some people are unable to bond out of the jail. They get arrested on a misdemeanor charge and they may have, they may, they will have a bond, but they may be unable to post the bond for various reasons. And for every day that they’re in jail, that leads to housing instability, job instability. It can really have a huge impact on them. And some of these crimes are, again, you know, nuisance crimes or nonviolent crimes that could destabilize them. One of the things I worked really hard with and did take partnership with other community partners, with other stakeholders rather, was getting a schedule so that we could have duty defense attorneys scheduled to be at each one of my jail calendars. We do three jail calendars a week so far. Hopefully they’re going to increase that soon. And at each of those jail calendars, there is a duty defense attorney. That means every person that we can get ready and put on those calendars, has the opportunity to resolve their case, even if they would otherwise not have had that opportunity or they would have had to wait a little bit longer for an appointed attorney to maybe get to them. The reality is we don’t have a public defender’s office here in Gwinnett. And our indigent defense defendants are dependent upon the attorneys who take the cases. And sometimes they’re stretched thin. Sometimes there’s complex things happen. People get stuck in other courtrooms. And what was happening is sometimes the defendants in jail got stuck because their attorneys could not make it for various reasons. I really wanted to address that. And having the duty pilot program has worked. It’s worked a great deal. I’m very proud of it. We’ve been able to increase our volume, increase our calendar sizes, and really start to move those cases on a more consistent basis. Because, honestly, the cases that we’ve identified that can be fast-tracked, our goal is to get them out of the jail, let them be held accountable for whatever they’ve done, and keep moving forward. It saves the county. It’s better for us in terms of community safety, and that’s definitely what we’re working towards.

00:23:38 – Rico Figliolini

So, obviously, you’re addressing a lot of the pressing challenges of the office, and you’ve done it, right, since ‘23. The, there’s other challenges as well. And you’ve implemented another program, the special victims unit program that you all did. And very important part, right, for the other side of that crime. So tell us a bit about the special victims unit.

00:24:03 – Lisamarie Bristol

So when I took office, one of the things I also recognized is there are some cases that just require extra care. I’m very fortunate I’ve had the experience to have worked with all types of crimes throughout my career on both sides. Whether it’s been from traffic, through serious violent felonies, as both a public defender and a prosecutor. And sometimes there are crimes that just require a little bit more TLC, a little bit more attention, more training to deal with them. We have a great deal of misdemeanor sex crimes that the legislature has carved out to be handled in state court now. And those are crimes of sexual nature that occur between consensual teenagers, anywhere between 14 and 18, sometimes 13 and 17. And frankly, those are just very sensitive. The subject matter is sensitive. All the facts usually surrounding the topics are sensitive. Both parties on both sides, usually the parents and guardians involved, it can be very sensitive. And I recognized really quickly that it was important to have a team that could really dive deeper and focus in on that, that I could spend extra time training and focusing their attention on handling those cases with the extra care they really do require. So our misdemeanor sex crimes, our vehicular homicides, which are cases where unfortunately due to a traffic accident, someone has passed away. And those are horrendous cases to deal with, but unfortunately they happen. So it’s an accident that a loved one has passed away. Again, very sensitive, very highly emotional at times and requires a little bit of extra attention. And so there are just certain crimes that have been, that we’re seeing an increase in volume at times in the office. Gwinnett has the largest school district in the state. So a lot of kid cases and just needed that extra touch. And so creating that Special Victims Unit was my solution to that.

00:26:16 – Rico Figliolini

Are you finding, I mean, so there wasn’t anything like that before? Or is this new? Are you improving on what might have been there?

00:26:28 – Lisamarie Bristol

Special Victims Unit is brand new to this office. There wasn’t anything like that in this office before.

00:26:34 – Rico Figliolini

Are you finding any trends in that part? Let’s stick to that for a second. When you say, you know, we have the largest school district, you know, and parents worry about the safety of their kids, both inside the school and outside. Are you finding any trends that you’re seeing that you’d like to share?

00:26:53 – Lisamarie Bristol

What we are seeing is we know that teens are engaging in intimate and romantic relationships younger these days, and they’re exposed to a lot more. They are, whether it’s on the phones, on the media, what have you. And we are seeing that they are exposed and more experimental with things earlier now than probably several years ago, 10 years ago, even. I think that’s part of the reason why this whole kind of Romeo and Juliet portion of sex crimes is carved out. So what my office is trying to do is not only are we not only just the creation of the special victims unit, we’re also trying to be very proactive. So for instance, February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. And my office participated in a number of activities trying to get ahead of it. And what we did was we participated in resource tabling here at the courthouse where we set up tables with tons of information about teen dating violence, where we could share the importance on signs of healthy dating, management partnerships, and just regular partnerships amongst teens. We actually went out and we were in five different high schools throughout the month of February, where we were invited over their lunch periods to meet with various teenagers throughout the Gwinnett County Schools and talk to them and meet them where they are about healthy dating habits, healthy boundaries, how to seek help if they felt like they were in an unsafe situation. Whether it’s a friendship or an intimate partnership. Because what we do know is sometimes teens don’t feel comfortable or don’t want to talk to their parents. So we were able to give them other resources. Here are some toll-free numbers you can call. Here are some safe adults you can speak to. Speak to your teachers, speak to your counselors, if that’s what you need to do. There are some red flags you need to consider. So we’re really trying to be proactive with educating the public as well, not just being reactive.

00:28:58 – Rico Figliolini

Are you seeing any activity or exposure to social media that you have to attend to in some of the cases that you do?

00:29:08 – Lisamarie Bristol

We do. Sometimes a big part of it is explaining to teens the impact of some of the things that they’re doing on their phones and the potential pitfalls to some of that behavior. And a lot of times going out to the schools, whether it’s just a teen dating, violence awareness, tabling event, or just being at their career fairs or going to career days and speaking to different youth groups and answering those questions has been really beneficial. We also participated in a teen summit where we did a panel discussion, there was an attorney, an advocate, and an investigator from my office that all participated in the Teen Summit, which was in partnership with PADV, the Partnership Against Domestic Violence. Huge event over at Gas South last month. And they had the opportunity to ask those kinds of questions. What is, you know, what happens if I take this picture and I send it to my friend or if I get this picture and I send it out to my other friends? So I think having those conversations with young people in a space where maybe they feel a little bit more comfortable asking those questions has definitely been helpful. And we’re certainly trying to make sure that when we’re talking to them, they understand who we are and they’re meeting us not on the worst day of their life. So they can build that kind of trust and rapport with us.

00:30:32 – Rico Figliolini

I like the way you put that not on the worst day of their life, yes. Because some kids don’t you know, I think critical thinking sometimes is lacking, depending on the age. And they think you know they get a picture from from a friend from a friend and they think it’s okay to put it out because they didn’t shoot it you know. And it’s like you know whatever. But yeah some of these kids just, you want them to grow up a little faster in how they think, but you don’t want them to grow up too fast, right?

00:31:02 – Lisamarie Bristol

Exactly.

00:31:03 – Rico Figliolini

Technology, you know, that’s always, we’re talking about phones and smartphones and all sorts of things. How has technology affected you? Good and bad, either in office to make efficiencies or in other ways? Are there innovative technologies you all are using? How does that work?

00:31:26 – Lisamarie Bristol

So one of the things we were able to do in coming into office is we did apply for some federal ARPA funding. And, you know, the ARPA funding was earmarked for offices affected by the COVID backlog. And I was like, hey, that’s us. We are definitely affected by the COVID backlog. And very grateful we were able to apply for some of that ARPA funding to enhance and upgrade a lot of the technology in our office. Whether it is scanners for investigators so that they can move quicker in uploading evidence along with our trial assistants, just making sure we have the equipment that my team needs to work more efficiently. So those are things that we were able to do and does help us do our job better.

00:32:17 – Rico Figliolini

You talked a lot about community outreach just before. You talked about preventative. Preventing crime, crime awareness in the community, promoting that. Are there any significant partnerships or collaborations that you’re doing with other agencies within the county that may not have been done before that you’re expanding on?

00:32:38 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes. One of the first partnerships that we were able to forge was with Mosaic Georgia. Mosaic Georgia is a nonprofit here in Gwinnett County, and they service victims and survivors of sexual assault crimes. They do free sane exams. They do free counseling and forensic interviews and anything that somebody may need. If schools reach out to them, if a victim reaches out to them, they’re a one-stop shop. They’re an amazing organization. Mosaic is someone, is an organization that I think is critical to a county like Gwinnett and the work they do is just so important. I was really excited to develop a partnership with them. They are one of the nonprofits that receive benefits from the annual 5K that my office does. It’s our signature event. So every October, we’ve done two so far. We do our Dash for Domestic Violence Awareness 5K. It’s the first Saturday in October at Alexander Park. And the proceeds from that 5K, every single penny we raise, whether it’s from registrations from runners and participants or sponsorships, is divided amongst Mosaic Georgia, Partnership Against Domestic Violence, or PADV, which is another nonprofit that services survivors of domestic violence both here in Gwinnett County. They also service them in Fulton County. We have a shelter here in Gwinnett County under PADV. They assist survivors with getting TPOs, temporary protective orders. They will help house them for about 90 days as they get back on their feet and give them some housing stability, child care, a little bit of job training to help people who are leaving those really hard situations stabilize and have a moment to catch their breath with dignity so that they can hopefully make that pivot and launch to a better place. And we also formed partnerships with the HIMSA House. HIMSA House is probably one of the more unique organizations that my office has partnered with. On a steady basis, the third recipient of proceeds from the 5K. HIMSA House houses animals. When people are leaving domestic violence situations, what a lot of people don’t realize is about 70% of people who would leave a violent situation do not because of their pets. And they don’t want to leave their pet behind. They have no escape to bring them. HIMSA House will house their pets up to a certain amount of time. And not just cats and dogs. And I ask them every year what’s the most interesting animal they’ve had for the year. They’ve housed horses, snakes, dogs, cats. They have quite an interesting list. But it gives that survivor that extra level of peace so that they’re able.

00:35:40 – Rico Figliolini

I didn’t even think about that. That makes a lot of sense. When you think about that the other things come to mind also then. Yeah, it’s just amazing. So let’s shift gears a little bit and because you know you’re not you don’t live in a silo right? Georgia State House legislators they’d like to pass laws and, you know even if we need them or don’t need them, the reforms that are happening at the state level and legislation, they tend to impact a variety of people, a variety of organizations. I am sure they impact sometimes the prosecution of cases or stuff. What approach do you have to that? And what do you see happening in the statehouse currently that might affect Gwinnett cases?

00:36:28 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yeah, that is an excellent question, especially. Like of us just getting over crossover day. I think what we’re seeing in the legislature is sometimes we have lawmakers who have the best of intentions and they want to fix one problem and it sometimes causes a domino effect down the line. And we don’t always have the opportunity to be like, wait, wait, wait, let’s stop and think how this can play out because you’re going to, you’re going to pass this lovely law and then you’re going to hand it to me to enforce it. And so the way I approach it is I really do try and be open and have relationships with my Georgia delegations. I actually spend as much time as I can down at the Capitol while they’re in section. So I’ve been down there quite a bit. I have conversations with different committees. I’ve testified before the committees and offered input on legislation that is being put before the Senate or before the House to make sure that they understand the impact of what it is that they’re trying to put out there and maybe reconsider some of the wording, reconsider some of the clauses. And I think having that open dialogue and having the availability to do that makes a huge difference. And I think it makes an impact because they know before they do something, they know they have a partnership in their prosecutors and they can say, hey, is this going to mess you up? How is this going to mess you up? How do we shift that? And we’ve definitely seen some improvement, I think, on certain things, not all things, by having that communication.

00:38:13 – Rico Figliolini

Do you, are there specific legislative reform or policies you would like to see updated that hasn’t been touched yet?

00:38:24 – Lisamarie Bristol

I would love to see us have some updates on or some better clarity on our intention with the misdemeanor sex cases. That’s been one of the things that I’ve been talking about probably the most since taking office, just in terms of intent and direction and some better guidance. It’s a really sensitive topic, and I would love to dive a little deeper into that. And generally, you know, most recently they passed some more law. I don’t know if they’ll make it to the governor’s desk or not, but I know it’s about crossover day regarding how we are assisting victims. We need to be victim-centered and whether or not victims can include their pets for TPO protection and things like that. So I think we’re seeing the legislature becoming more sensitive and aware to a more victim-centered, trauma-informed approach. And I think that’s important in this work that we’re doing.

00:39:24 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, cool. Mental health, substance abuse. I mean, we touched upon that a little bit. Is there anything you want to share about that as far as some of those issues, mental health issues, basically?

00:39:39 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think mental health is an issue that we’re continuing to see in the community as we continue to search for resources. I think that’s going to be our biggest downside is finding the right amount of resources to assist the people who need it. I think we’re trying. I think we’re at least acknowledging that, you know, there are people that we’re scared of and the people that we’re upset with and the people that are just in new settings. And I think we’re finally moving into an era where we know we can’t treat them all the same. For the people who, their real issue is mental health. It becomes, okay, well, what can I do? So you don’t just keep coming back. We don’t quite have the answers yet, but definitely working on it to make sure we’re not just putting them on that hamster wheel so they keep turning back.

00:40:27 – Rico Figliolini

Yes. I think we all feel to some degree we’re on a hamster wheel, right? Day keeps going, which is that by the time Friday comes, Monday comes, we’re still doing the same old, same old, and you want to make sure that you don’t keep doing that, right? So, okay. I mean, you’re only in this now. It’s been two years? Well, two years. 

00:40:52 – Lisamarie Bristol

I’m in my third year now. Yes. Two years and two and a half months.

00:40:57 – Rico Figliolini

So too early to talk about a legacy, of leaving a legacy in Gwinnett County. But what would you like that to be if that was the case? What is the most important thing that you’d like to make sure you left once you do leave?

00:41:14 – Lisamarie Bristol

That’s a really great question. Thank you for that. I would really love to know that you can look back at the work that my office does, the work that my team does, the work that I do, that it makes an impact, that it leaves people better than how we found them. That I understand that a big part of what I do is supporting victims during some of the hardest times of their lives. Trying to keep the community safe during, you know, really hard times, whether it’s DUI or domestic violence cases, or whether it’s a family grieving their loss of a loved one. That can be really hard work. My desire is to have a legacy in knowing that people look back and say, even though it was a really hard time, Solicitor Bristol’s team treated me with compassion and kindness and respect and dignity, whether they were the defendant or the victim or the witness. And that even when held accountable, they came out knowing that what happened to them was fair. That is the legacy I really want to leave because sometimes you may not like what happens to you. You may not like being held accountable, but you can still acknowledge that it’s fair. And I think that’s important to me. It’s very important to me that what the work we are doing, we are supporting the victims. We’re educating, giving resources and doing what we can, but we’re still treating everyone with dignity and compassion and being fair in how we do it.

00:42:51 – Rico Figliolini

I’ve got to believe being a mother of three, middle schooler and high schoolers, that that probably informs a little bit about how you feel about doing these things.

00:43:03 – Lisamarie Bristol

Absolutely. Everything that I do, I’m always mindful that my children are watching me. And I never, ever want to do anything that I would be ashamed to do in front of them. So absolutely.

00:43:14 – Rico Figliolini

Well, yeah, the kids are definitely watching even when we’re thinking they’re not watching.

00:43:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

All the time.

00:43:21 – Rico Figliolini

Final question, I guess. You came in on, I won’t say it was a wave or anything, but you came in during a time of a lot of elections going on in ‘22, a lot of changing of the seats, if you will, changing of the chairs. It feels like musical chairs sometimes, they keep going back and forth. But I think there was some good expansion, some good things done. What would you consider saying to someone seeking a career in public service or law enforcement in Gwinnett County, what would you say to them that they should know about from your experience?

00:43:59 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think anyone who wants to serve publicly has to know it can’t be about them. It has to be about people. It’s a very humbling experience, and you may think you’re right, and you may think you have the best approach, and you might. You might be correct in that, but this work is not for the faint of heart. I will say, knowing when you walk into public service, you are walking into a situation where you are dealing with a cruise ship, not a speedboat. And it’s going to be small, incremental changes that make the biggest impact. And sometimes it’s easy to get lost in thinking, I’m not doing enough. But if you take a breath and you look back over it, and know where you’re heading, it’s worth it. It’s absolutely worth it. And so when I look back at where we started on January 1st of 2023, where my team is today, it was small. It was small steps along the way, but I am incredibly proud of the work that we’re doing. And I’m absolutely looking forward to continuing it on into a second term.

00:45:11 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. So we’ve been speaking to Lisamarie Bristol, Solicitor General in Gwinnett County. Appreciate the time you’re giving us. Thank you, Lismarie. Hang in there with me for a minute. I just want to say thank you to our sponsors again, EV Remodeling and Vox Pop Uli for their great support of these podcasts, the magazines, and all that we do. If you have questions for Lisamarie, certainly if you’re watching this on Facebook, YouTube, or X, leave them in the comments, post them. I’ll have links in the show notes as well so you can reach out to her directly. If you’re listening to this on an audio podcast like Spotify or iHeart, certainly share it with your friends and share our video podcast as well. We appreciate that. It’ll be easier for other people to find our podcasts as well. So Peachtree Corners Life here in the city of Peachtree Corners. Thank you, everyone. And thank you, Lisamarie.

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