Snellville - Where Giant Snails Could Roam

"Finally, Kelly, fellow artists and business owners have been working on creating Snail Sculptures for Snellville similar to the cows of Chicago and the Bulldogs of Athens. These fiberglass sculptures will be painted by local artists and displayed at local businesses throughout the City. Proceeds from this would go to purchase a sculpture for the City. Perhaps to place sculptures throughout the City in our vacant buildings so that we can beautify them and attract developers attention." - Kelly Kautz for Mayor of Snellville Website, Excerpted 9/25/11

"Buy that there doller baloneee, hunny, I wanna gets me a new tat soon."

Oh, it will attract their attention all right. Much like this lovely young woman featured on the People of Walmart website.

I realize the idea of the snails may have been well-meaning by Kelly Kautz and other artists (I didn't know until I read the above that Kelly was an artist). With all due respect, here's the way I see it -- The Chicago Cows on Parade Art Exhibit worked because of the juxtaposition of a beloved rural farm animal in a high-rise urban setting. Put big snail sculptures in Snellville, and all we're going to gain is to be the butt of jokes & people calling our city SNAILville in a fake southern twang worse than the late 1970's TV show Carter Country.  A snail has the reputation for being slow moving and sluggish. That's NOT the marketing brand I think we are going for here, even if the snails are painted in colorful Peter Max style.

The above depiction is satire, the idea is real however.

Could it bring tourists? Quite possibly, but 6 months to a year after the novelty of it has worn off, it would only hurt businesses in Snellville by tarnishing the city's image that Barbara Bender has been a big part of revitalizing. Who would want to open their new business in a city if it's considered a joke -- "Oh, your home office is in that city with all the big snails? HA HA HA HA!" Honestly, if this happened and I couldn't sell my house, I would rent a P.O. Box in Loganville or Grayson just so I wouldn't have a Snellville return address on my envelopes or website.

I know some people in Snellville have little lawn sculptures that are snails. Hey, I don't mind, it's your yard. Decorate it with whatever you want as long as it's not infringing on anyone else's rights.

But to get a quick idea (a straw poll, if you will) of how people would react,  I asked people on Twitter what they would think of this idea. Here are some responses:

"No. No. And no. #thinkofthepropertyvalues"

"I won't burn my eyes w/that... I'll take your word for it."

"Seriously?? Where is that info posted? Her website? #Snailsreally "

"LOL! The lady Kautz should move to Florida, they have a gigantic problem with african snails! She can see them for free!"

Yet another reason why I'll be voting for Barbara Bender.


But what do you think? I've made my case - now it's your turn to weigh in on how you feel about this idea.

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