In the movie The Big Short, about the financial collapse on Wall Street, one character defends a bad stock pick by saying he wasn’t wrong, just early. The people who estimate population growth could use a similar excuse and use it often – “the growth is coming some time.” Except thus far, it doesn’t look like they were early – just wrong, in regards to long anticipated or feared growth wave heading towards Pickens County. Although they did not single out Pickens, at the most recent chamber meeting, the state Chamber of Commerce gave a pep-talk and took input on how the whole state should handle all the new faces and a sizzling economy apparently just around the corner. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce program, Georgia 2030, indicated the state…show more content… The U.S. Census projected our population as 30,309 in 2015. As a comparison, the state’s figures for Gilmer County had them right behind us at 28,306 in 2010 and they grew to 28,829 in 2014. While some areas of North Georgia and the metro area have seen growth that is straining infrastructure limits (just look at Highway 575), much of the talk about rapid growth at home is little more than wishful thinking or fear tactics depending on how you view it. Consider that historically Pickens County has mostly been a rural area, which had a tremendous growth spurt during the real estate boom but then returned to our normal growth pattern. So, despite what many people would have you believe, in the long view of history, we’ve been a slow growth area which saw a significant spurt during one period. Slow growth is the norm, not the exception here. Talk of growth often leads to fears that we will end up with undesirable industrial growth, or looking like Riverstone Parkway in Cherokee County or with a water park dominating the Talking Rock
