Who is Joe Gwinnett?
Gwinnett Daily Post By Douglas Sams
LAWRENCEVILLE — His description reads like this: 33-year-old white male. Lives in a $164,025 home with a family of three. Household income, $67,654. Spends his money on home loans, retirement plans and sports tickets.
It could be the profile of Everyman U.S.A. In this case, it describes Joe Gwinnett, the statistical representation of the county’s common man amid 684,494 residents, 233,368 households and 175,533 families.
The data comes from ESRI Business Information Solutions, a marketing research firm that helped the Gwinnett Daily Post draw a social and economic picture of the county. The data shows, at least in some ways, that Joe Gwinnett is better off than others.
His household pulls in $19,653 more every year than the state average and $21,039 more than the national average. His home value is $40,692 more than the Georgia average and $25,191 more than the U.S. average. He also has more buying power, so the retailers build stores all around him where he can spend his money, creating plenty of convenient shopping.
But this average Joe can be his own worst enemy, because people use him to form stereotypes about Gwinnett, said Charles Gallagher, a sociology professor at Georgia State University.
By concentrating on Joe, they might overlook that nearly one third — some 228,000 Gwinnett residents — are black, Asian and Hispanic, and gaining more social, economic and political power at city hall and the state capital.
They might not realize that in some parts of Norcross, Joe would be the minority. They also might fail to see the growing number of minority-owned businesses and the construction of several Korean churches in parts of Duluth and Norcross.
Joe: Perception and reality
Nevertheless, many, said Gallagher, think of Joe Gwinnett as being a “fat, balding, white Republican — someone who gets his news from Fox and thinks the market, if left alone, will fix everything.” They also have the impression, he said, that Gwinnett residents are generally “intolerant, gun-loving and homophobic.”
It’s unfair and inaccurate, Gallagher said, but it’s the common problem of perception versus reality.
“The suburbs are typically thought to represent middle class conformity, intolerance to religions other than Christianity and a narrow circle of like-minded friends, while the city is perceived to be inhabited by more urbane, open-minded, tolerant individuals,” he said. “It is also thought to house perverts and deviants. ... Each population has its own stereotype. Unfortunately, crass stereotypes like these are the way we define one another.”
Even so, the ways county residents view Joe Gwinnett are as diverse as the population itself.
Ismael Garcia, a 20-year-old University of Georgia student born in Caracas, Venezuela, is working this summer at JCrew at the Mall of Georgia. He thinks Joe is about 33-years-old and lives in a $150,000 home.
Jimmy Warren, a 32-year-old state trooper living with his family in Buford, says Joe is 42-years-old and owns a $300,000 home.
Sydney Kelley, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother from Lilburn, thinks Joe’s household pulls in about $95,000 a year to support a family of four. But Alicia Chinnery, a 22-year-old from the U.S. Virgin Islands now living in Norcross, said Joe makes $10,000 less and still has to support a family of five.
What is considered typical Gwinnett also varies from one person to the next.
Kelley sees the growing threat of gang violence, the stability of home values and the continued strength in the school system. Chinnery said “clean, big and beautiful,” best describe Gwinnett and that she feels much more safe in her apartment on Jimmy Carter Boulevard than she ever did in the “rough and tough” Clarkston neighborhood she first lived in.
Many said traffic and crowded schools are common, but Dave Shubeck, a 49-year-old military history buff who grew up in Chicago, finds Gwinnett ahead of other counties when it comes to protecting the environment.
“My experience is that we haven’t been overdeveloping,” said Shubeck, who lives near Stone Mountain. “We’re making good progress in our schools, too.”
Alissa Klinefelter, a 14-year-old freshman at Dacula High School this fall, said the abundance of malls and shopping define Gwinnett for her.
Joe in the future
Joe Gwinnett could look much different in the future given the way the county’s minority populations are gaining political and social clout, experts said. But no matter who Joe Gwinnett becomes in the next decades, Gallagher said he or she will most likely encounter the same common challenges Gwinnett faces today.
“We have gotten to the point that developers tell county planners what to do,” Gallagher said. “While more developments might make owning a house a reality for folks of all colors and class backgrounds, the roads can only accommodate so much traffic, a classroom can only hold so many students, landfills can only absorb so much trash and our waterways can only swallow so much run-off from new developments.”