In Search of Facts--UPDATED TWICE

Okay, so I'm intrigued now. The Crier had that article last week about Goodwill possibly coming to the old Harris Teeter/Ace Hardware location. John Heneghan's blog had some very nice comments from Dunwoody residents in support of it. Emails flying around Dunwoody, however, give concrete ways to fight it. And I, frankly, had never even stepped foot into one, although I know the organization has a very good reputation and many of my friends frequent locations that are close to their homes in other North Atlanta communities (Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, and Peachtree Corners). My friend Robin at Sustainable Peachtree Corners raves, raves, raves about her location, and said she doesn't recall there being any community resistance when it came to her neighborhood about three years ago.

I am trying to gather more info about Goodwill:

* I visited the Alpharetta and Peachtree Corners stores this weekend.

* I also wrote to North Georgia Goodwill to request impact data on documented positive and negative effects of Goodwill stores on communities.

* And I offered to donate my writing services to their newsletter for an article or something, so that I could find out more about the organization.

The Peachtree Corners store is particularly nice, by the way, and I encourage anyone who has mixed feelings about this store in an "upscale" area to visit it and see for themselves. My older daughter and I had a ball there. However, the Peachtree Corners store is almost exactly 6 miles from the proposed Dunwoody location. I believe the statistics are that Goodwill typically draws from a 5-mile radius, so the target customer ranges of the proposed location and the Peachtree Corners store overlap like a Venn diagram.

And, hey listen, I used to live off Jimmy Carter Boulevard not far from I-85, the epicenter of gang activity in Georgia. I don't want gangs and crime and all that, believe me, and I moved to Dunwoody for the same quality-of-life reasons that many of us did. I think having a walkable/bikable community depends on feeling safe. However, I have yet to see data that indicates that the presence of a Goodwill store increases crime, decreases property values and causes the crumbling of a community. If you have data that demonstrates that, please share it with us! If that data does not exist, is there the possibility that the addition of a Goodwill store to our community might do just the opposite? I think getting facts is a good step and will share anything I find with you.

In short, there's a fact that must be admitted. It is reasonable to expect a 40,000-resident city to include a thrift store as part of a sustainability strategy, and Goodwill is an extremely impressive organization. I spent 17 dollars there yesterday and told my older daughter how good it felt that 85% of that money was going to go directly to help people in need--not just those who are poor but Goodwill makes massive efforts to provide job training to those with handicaps.

There used to be a fantastic teen-focused second-hand store named Plato's Closet (I know, sounds like a strip club, but isn't!) over by Bruster's. Now that my older daughter is a teen, I wish it were still there. If Goodwill doesn't come to Dunwoody, it might be advantageous for our community to try to attract another store like Plato's Closet, as well as other small thrift shops that target other demographics (maternity, children, etc.) Plato's Closet was small, cute, funky, fun and affordable, and I, for one, miss it. (It moved to Sandy Springs, by the way.)

I don't know. Just thoughts.

UPDATE: Just a bit later, same morning

Okay, I just found this article, in which you might be interested.

UPDATE: 5:45 PM

I just heard from Elaine Armstrong from North Georgia Goodwill's public relations department, and she writes:

Unfortunately, we don’t have a study related to these issues specifically. I am not sure if local crime statistics/property values would even give us enough information to link a shift (either up or down) to existence of a Goodwill store.

I share with you a few things that might be relevant to your blog. We served more than 1 million donors at our stores last year. Between January 2008 and September 2008, we served more than 46,000 donors at our Sandy Springs store location alone. Collecting donated goods allows us to divert millions of pounds of goods that might otherwise end up in landfills. Things that we cannot sell in our stores are offered for sale to recyclers. Those items may end up overseas in third-world countries or could be turned into other items, such as carpet fibers.