Deal Approves forming Eagles Landing from exisiting City of Stockbridge (Atlanta: fit in, neighborhoods)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by demonta4

There is not a single affluent area in this country that’s neglected. Trust me, I come from the Westside on MLK Dr and Cobb is a totally different world (just like Buckhead and areas of Gwinnett). There’s no logical reason for a wealthy area to deannex other than being selfish.

Nonsense. There are plenty of relatively affluent areas that get neglected. Maybe not as much as your area, but there are plenty. If you have corrupt government like Georgia does, its all about which group has power. If your neighborhood doesn't, tough.

Prime example is North Fulton in the Fulton County government.

[atler8]

See my earlier thread that sounded the alarm on the proposal to carve out a new city from the already existing City of Stockbridge.

republicans in the legislature are quietly advancing a proposal to carve up the city of Stockbridge

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by Forhall

Deal signed it today. I feel this opens a huge stability issue in Georgia. Now anytime an affluent section of a city gets sick of supporting the less affluent sections they can just break off. It's one thing to allow new cities from unincorporated areas, but from an already exisiting City?

It could easily lead to parts of Atlanta breaking off the join more affluent suburbs or create new cities if they get sick of paying taxes for schools and crime in the poor sections of the city.

Increased taxes to support schools elsewhere and crime in poorer sections of a city are valid reasons to secede or incorporate. On the flip side, too many municipal corporations wanting to duplicate services already provided through a county are a mess.

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

Increased taxes to support schools elsewhere and crime in poorer sections of a city are valid reasons to secede or incorporate. On the flip side, too many municipal corporations wanting to duplicate services already provided through a county are a mess.

I disagree. That's selfishness. I don't understand why the most common trait among American citizens is selfishness. We are by far the most selfish country on Earth. We view everyone through a lens of income and class, and we collectively decide that those with less of it deserve nothing. The vast majority of the population does not see the collective good of paying taxes to support fellow citizens and ensure they have basic needs such as healthcare, housing, and education. It's now to the point where people believe it's valid to simply use a city until they get what they need, then drop it when they don't feel like paying for it anymore?

I think the people living in certain affluent communities don't realize they are only affluent BECAUSE of Atlanta. Being part of a world class city has raised the profile of many neighborhoods and now they think they can just go it alone. No one seems to realize that creating the instability of carving up cities would destroy that entire metro.

Here's an analogy for people to consider: Would the US have become a major world player and arguably the most powerful country in the world of each state broke off when they made it? We're lucky the Northern states believe more in collective good or they would have left the South behind already and we would have 2 much weaker countries not taken seriously by anyone on the world stage.

[Carolina Knight]

I will use education as an example.

It is common to see counties have two or more geographically-based school districts. Each school district makes decisions locally that affects its schools locally.

County-wide school districts are common also. A problem with county-wide school districts is having successful schools in a specific area of the county, having failing schools in a specific area of the county, and using the entire county to bail out the failing schools. Actions taken have been busing students across county to better schools, academic programs being created at failing schools, turnover, and closing schools.

Another example would be law enforcement. An affluent unincorporated area thinks it does not have enough uniformed officers to patrol. It decides to incorporate and start its own law enforcement agency rather than approach the county's sheriff for increased patrol or a substation.

[CaliDreaming01]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

for it or against....

I think you guys are talking up the alarmism a bit too much.

Balkanization... fracturing.... Buckhead might be next....

hardly.... That is exactly the problems as-is. That area is already fractured between parcels that were loosely annexed to Stockbridge for tax digest gain in the past and parcels that weren't. That is why this is happening and is hardly an excuse for the alarmism some people have about the precedence this brings... at least in the way people bring it up, like Buckhead breaking off from Atlanta.

It's hardly an efficient pattern to provide city services (police, cohesive zoning, road maintenance and development, etc..) efficiently between the cities and the county.


This is an issue of an area that clearly has its own unique identity, is used for tax digest gain of another established town when the area was first built, is not a clear cohesive area of the city of Stockbridge compared to a checkerboard of annexed parcels with unincorporated land.

This often happens as towns look for tax digest gains and developers look for moderate extra zoning privileges they couldn't get from the county.

There is room to be for or against this, but the alarmism is a bit much and there are real and clear problems in the exurban to suburbanizing area of selective annexations growing further from the core of the established towns. Stockbridge is hardly the only place this is happening, but they are creating that problem too.

Love it or hate it, this will create two cities with cohesive borders and a mix of commercial, residential, and industrial lands without preferential cherry picking.

This makes me feel much better about the situation. Now I can see why Governor Deal allowed it.

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

This may be "economic balkanization", but NOT "racial balkanization". Granted, the new City of Eagles Landing WILL be more affluent than the old Stockbridge, but it will still be "Minority/ majority" with really no ethnic group in the majority.

Yeah, I have always been confused about people bringing up racial balkanization because that area has a large African-American population. There are larger percentages of whites than in other parts of the city but its still majority-minority. I think the explanation cwkimbro makes more sense.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Sam Massell would no doubt disagree with you mightily

Au contraire. See the article cited by Icon a few posts back where Mayor Sam talks about his strong opposition to the notion of Buckhead becoming a separate city. I have heard him say this myself.

I have never heard anyone who's a serious player in the Buckhead crowd suggest such a thing. Bear in mind that they are the same people who sit on the boards of the big downtown and Midtown companies and CIDs and other organizations.

The Mayor Who Does Not Want A New City

So, if Buckhead were to become a city, would more harm than good be done? Financially speaking, Buckhead may not need Atlanta–but Atlanta may need Buckhead. According to Massel, the repercussions that would be inflicted on Atlanta would far outweigh any benefit.

“There is sentiment for that [Buckhead becoming a city], I am opposed to it, and I have been able to stop it up until this point,” Massel told me in an interview last year. “I think it’s a mistake. It would bankrupt Atlanta and stop all growth; the economy would die.”

“Buckhead has 84,000 people, 29 million sq ft of office space, 1,500 retail units and 5,300 hotel rooms, – I mean it’s like a city. It’s got a skyline, it’s definitely a factor that protects the rest of Atlanta. We have 20% of Atlanta’s population, 20% of the land area of Atlanta, we pay 45% of the taxes. Everyone in Buckhead wants to protect Buckhead because it protects the rest of the city,” Massell said.

Massel predicts that there would be about 45 percent lost revenue for Atlanta if Buckhead became its own city. Without the support of Buckhead citizens, low-income families would be left to deal with lacking infrastructure, transportation and security. By taking Buckhead away from Atlanta, Atlanta would be severely depleted financially, especially considering how much economic activity and wealth is clustered in Buckhead.

Massell continued; “It’s thinking small and not seeing the broad picture. It would bankrupt Atlanta, it would be the headline in the Wall Street Journal. A bankruptcy in Atlanta would stop all growth. It would be bad for all of us.”

https://www.buckhead.com/should-buckhead-become-a-city/

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by bu2

Buckhead could make the same argument. Parts of other communities around the state could make the same argument. Doesn't mean it will happen, but it is a really bad precedent.

Hardly...

You clearly don't understand the point I'm making.

Look at the current borders of Stockbridge and look at the current borders of Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhoods.

They can't make the same argument I just laid out. The situation is a world a part.

[fourthwarden]

I think a big part of my issue with this whole thing is that current residents of Stockbridge who aren't in the Eagles Landing area don't get a vote in the matter, while people in unincorporated Henry do. So you have a lot of non-residents voting about splitting an existing city apart.

IMO it should have been set up via two, separately tallied votes. First, the entirety of Stockbridge gets to vote to release Eagles Landing from the city. If, and only if, that passes, then the new area gets to vote on the formation of a new city.

As it is, though, you're really not setting up a proper democratic process.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by bu2

Nonsense. There are plenty of relatively affluent areas that get neglected. Maybe not as much as your area, but there are plenty. If you have corrupt government like Georgia does, its all about which group has power. If your neighborhood doesn't, tough.

Prime example is North Fulton in the Fulton County government.

North Fulton was never neglected either, if anything, they neglected South Fulton. North Fulton had way better services even before they incorporated.