New city population estimates from the census put Atlanta's population at 463,878 (Marietta: affordable apartments, house)

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by arjay57

That's not the basis of the criticism that's voiced on these boards. Usually it's suggested that Cobb set out to prevent annexation by the city of Atlanta because of selfish, racist or other nefarious grounds. As was stated in this thread for example, it was "ugly" for Cobb to create barriers to annexation by Atlanta.

So why don't you tell us why, in this hypothetical scenario of yours, Cobb County would want to annex the City of Atlanta?

[David1502]

If you go back and read Ajay57's previous post, the areas of the City of Atlanta which he listed as being the hypothetical targets of Cobb annexation - specifically," Suppose Cobb wanted to carve out the ritzy northwest section of the city of Atlanta, Sandy springs wanted to expand on down to the 75/85 split, and that Brookhaven wanted to take in its entire historic district." The areas he speaks of are the wealthiest neighborhoods in the State of GA. Who wouldn't want them in their tax base.


For historical reference, the City of Atlanta built a fire station in the unincorporated area of Buckhead in the 1940's as an inducement for the wealthy residents there to be annexed (which occurred in 1954). How many poor areas do you see a municipality going out of its way to provide free services hoping that the residents of the poor area will ask to be annexed?


On this Forum, there is a lot of Fantasyland speculation about "What if the City of Atlanta could annex all land within 1-285?" Reality check: It's not going to happen. Do you think the elected officials in the cities of College Park, East Point, Hapeville, Decatur, Chamblee, Doraville and Sandy Springs desire to give up their power just so the claim can be made by the City of Atlanta proper that it now has close to 1 million residents?


Bragging rights for another municipality are not the motivating factors for these elected officials. Besides, has it ever occurred to these who dream of this massive annexation that most of these residents who live in these cities are happy with their local governments and may find them more responsive because they are smaller cities where they can know their City Council people personally. Also, why would Decatur want to give up its highly rated City School District?

[skbl17]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Everyone is trying to nitpick your post but I get your point and you are right on. Take this away from Cobb and consider the fight for Sandy Springs to incorporate. Atlanta had eyed annexing Sandy Springs in the 70s and there was indeed a serious push to do so. Sandy Springs fought back with everything they had and tried to incorporate way back when. It wasn't until the Republican overtaking of state government 15 or so years ago that paved the way for Sandy Springs (and others) to have reasonable laws that allowed them to do so.

Why not shade on Sandy Springs? But Cobb is the easy target.

Another point:

All of those posting in this thread need to realize that the figures in discussion are skewed because of Georgia's laws that give counties the power to act as municipal entities. While there has been a wave of incorporations and annexations in the last couple of decades, it is still largely within Fulton and Northern DeKalb. The majority of the metro area is still largely in unincorporated areas. Laws still favor the majority of the area to remain unincorporated in almost all other areas and make it difficult for cities to annex. These population figures for both the city of Atlanta and the suburban cities do not reflect the growth of the metro area.

MARTA and the Braves.

Sandy Springs is just as suburban and car-centric as most of Cobb, but its mayor and leadership embraced MARTA (Mayor Rusty Paul was one of the few Fulton County mayors to support the "50% of the new sales tax for MARTA" proposal), and they have MARTA stations - albeit in the eastern slice of the city. Cobb County's leadership refuses to discuss MARTA, despite Cumberland's support of membership; that doesn't sit well with many of the C-D regulars. Sandy Springs embraced it, and since rail is the best thing ever, Sandy Springs is clearly better than Cobb!

Add in the Braves move, which may either be the best thing ever (no having to use MARTA or walk down Capitol Avenue? Wooo!!) or the single greatest scam/betrayal in national history, and Cobb's a very easy target for C-D regulars.

- skbl17

[wasel]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

Cobb has a rep for being racist. Let's not sugar coat it. From right after the civil war to Leo Frank on up to today with complaints against police and crosses being burnt on folks yards, there is a documented history of racism in Cobb. A lot more so than the other closer in OTP counties. That aura, that energy, it doesn't go away over night. The westside of the city and by extension the west metro has always had a little more of the good ol' boy stuff going on anyway. When blacks were moving into areas like Peyton Forest, Collier Heights, and Grove Park back in the day they actually put physical barriers in the streets and worse even set more than few homes on fire. Those people left the city and moved to Cobb. They joined up with the folks who were already out there who were even more extreme than them. Never could understand why people like to act like Cobb is just another one of the "normal kids" at the table.

The demographics of Cobb are changing significantly. People identifying as "white, non Hispanic or latino" are just half of the population (53.9%) per 2014 Census figures. Compared to 68.8% in 2000.

Cobb is an easy target but times are changing.

[Dkeating]

Originally Posted by wasel

The demographics of Cobb are changing significantly. People identifying as "white, non Hispanic or latino" are just half of the population (53.9%) per 2014 Census figures. Compared to 68.8% in 2000.

Cobb is an easy target but times are changing.

True. It will be interesting to see if people in SE Atlanta will talk less about Cobb racism when SE Atlanta is whiter than Cobb (if it isn't already). I feel like a lot of online discussion takes as its targets Cobb County, Forsyth County as they were in the 1980-90s.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by wasel

The demographics of Cobb are changing significantly. People identifying as "white, non Hispanic or latino" are just half of the population (53.9%) per 2014 Census figures. Compared to 68.8% in 2000.

Cobb is an easy target but times are changing.

It's leadership is slow to change and they purposely gerrymander the districts to keep most of that changing demographics in District 4.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by Dkeating

True. It will be interesting to see if people in SE Atlanta will talk less about Cobb racism when SE Atlanta is whiter than Cobb (if it isn't already). I feel like a lot of online discussion takes as its targets Cobb County, Forsyth County as they were in the 1980-90s.

I agree completely. The gentrification taking place from Grant Park outward could well lead to an area which is over 75% white, yet at the same time, the suburbs of Atlanta will be the most diverse communities in the Metro. Everyone keeps bringing up things that happened over 50 years ago (and in some cases over 100 years ago - Leo Franks murder was brought up), yet they are avoiding the current trends where gentrification has led to decreasing number of African Americans in the City of Atlanta where numerous public housing developments have been torn down over the last 20 years. These residents have been given Section 8 Vouchers and essentially forced to move to the suburbs to find affordable apartments.

[AtlantaIsHot]

Originally Posted by atler8

I just found another link that shows what you mentioned about Marietta and it's "struggle" to hold it's population, at least as far as the 1 year estimate is concerned for the change from 2014 to 2015.
A click on the map here at the link blow will enlarge the map which shows that in Georgia, not only Marietta, but Valdosta & Albany were also among the largest 1 year losers in percentage population terms in the country.
I find the inclusion of Marietta to be a headscratcher.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/u...153819078.html

It's quite strange about Marietta. It's seemingly an anomaly as every other sizable town or city in Cobb is increasing. For Marietta, not only the 2015 estimate, but also the 2010 census figure showed a drop. While it remains sizable with 60,000 people, I can only assume that the relative paucity of new construction is responsible. Smyrna, by contrast, has a multitude of new construction sites. One can sort of imagine why East Point or College Park have declined a bit what with the perceptions people hold about them, but Marietta?? Fortunately, most municipalities in the metro are seeing growth. Sandy Springs is on an absolute TEAR. Nearly 12,000 people in only 5 years??? If it's accurate, it could add 24,000 people in the largest increase in it's history-more than the 18,000 in the 90's and the 21,000 in the 80's.


Regarding Atlanta's low 2010 figure, someone once told me that Atlanta was one of the cities with the LOWEST response rate to the census. In other words, unusually large numbers of people wouldn't speak to the counters or mail in the forms either due to fears about government or mistrust of their agenda. That might be partially why it was lower than it seemingly should've been. Rather hard to prove.

[evannole]

Originally Posted by AtlantaIsHot

It's quite strange about Marietta. It's seemingly an anomaly as every other sizable town or city in Cobb is increasing. For Marietta, not only the 2015 estimate, but also the 2010 census figure showed a drop. While it remains sizable with 60,000 people, I can only assume that the relative paucity of new construction is responsible. Smyrna, by contrast, has a multitude of new construction sites. One can sort of imagine why East Point or College Park have declined a bit what with the perceptions people hold about them, but Marietta?? Fortunately, most municipalities in the metro are seeing growth.


Regarding Atlanta's low 2010 figure, someone once told me that Atlanta was one of the cities with the LOWEST response rate to the census. In other words, unusually large numbers of people wouldn't speak to the counters or mail in the forms either due to fears about government or mistrust of their agenda. That might be partially why it was lower than it seemingly should've been. Rather hard to prove.

See my earlier post. The City of Marietta bought and demolished several run-down apartment complexes that totaled nearly 1,000 units on Franklin Road. (Last night, I guessed it was more like 500 units, but I just looked it up.) With most of these units likely being multiple occupancy, this undoubtedly accounted for several times the one-year reduction we saw from 2014 to 2015. The population is still up by 4.4% since 2010, and the city center is booming.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by evannole

See my earlier post. The City of Marietta bought and demolished several run-down apartment complexes that totaled nearly 1,000 units on Franklin Road. (Last night, I guessed it was more like 500 units, but I just looked it up.) With most of these units likely being multiple occupancy, this undoubtedly accounted for several times the one-year reduction we saw from 2014 to 2015. The population is still up by 4.4% since 2010, and the city center is booming.

I'd like to see Marietta clean up its borders and annex more of the surrounding area.