More "New Cities" Around Atlanta = Less Affluent Metro Region? (Sandy Springs: 2013, schools)

[Nanosolar]

According to the study on fragmented government:

Mellander's analysis finds fragmented government to be negatively associated with the affluence of states. The number of local governments per capita is negatively correlated with three key measures of state economic performance — average incomes (-.51), average wages (-.61) and high tech industry (-.30).

I bet you can extrapolate these results to metro areas as well. Thus, the creation of John's Creek, Sandy Springs, etc. may have a negative economic impact on the entire metro region.

Does Having Lots of Local Governments Help or Hurt Economic Development? - Richard Florida - The Atlantic Cities

[emcee squared]

Well, the Twin Cities has over 300 individual cities in the metro, but is a wealthy area. Likely an outlier.

[netdragon]

I think this is just flawed science, where they (or you) see a correlation but interpret it improperly. Old industrial cities, which are usually struggling rust belt communities, tended to be very small.

[Saintmarks]

I don't get how an area looking to have more local control instead of letting the larger county run all municipal services changes anyone's income level. This might cause someone who has a cushy crony county job to suffer, but who else would be affected?

And looking at the map, Georgia is at the bottom of the heap in terms of local governments. How can the OP come to the conclusion that Sandy Springs and Johns Creek are affecting the economy in any shape or fashion when Georgia is still so low on the totem pole?

[bfarley30]

I definitely wish every area or section of a county would stop trying to be it's own city. People wonder why nothing gets done to connect the region. It's because every section of the region wants it's own plan and wants to do things there were. Once they become a city they can but it doesn nothing but create regional issues. Most people don't just work, play, and live all in one area, unless you are talking about Atlanta, which is the only true city. People are going to want to govern their own streets separately from the next street over the way this is going!

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bfarley30

I definitely wish every area or section of a county would stop trying to be it's own city. People wonder why nothing gets done to connect the region. It's because every section of the region wants it's own plan and wants to do things there were. Once they become a city they can but it doesn nothing but create regional issues. Most people don't just work, play, and live all in one area, unless you are talking about Atlanta, which is the only true city. People are going to want to govern their own streets separately from the next street over the way this is going!

There could be individual cities, but ARC needs to have more power given to it by the state to make decision for the whole region.

[bfarley30]

Originally Posted by cqholt

There could be individual cities, but ARC needs to have more power given to it by the state to make decision for the whole region.

To me that's part of the issue. If you have a bunch of lobbyist from different cities telling the state what they want, how are you ever going to get on the same accord? Johns Creek wants this and Sandy Springs wants that while Brookhaven wants the third.

And we all know with the current leadership the state is just going to "give" the ARC the power to do what's needed to improve the entire region. Would I like it to happen, YES !! Will it happen, no .

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bfarley30

I definitely wish every area or section of a county would stop trying to be it's own city. People wonder why nothing gets done to connect the region. It's because every section of the region wants it's own plan and wants to do things there were. Once they become a city they can but it doesn nothing but create regional issues. Most people don't just work, play, and live all in one area, unless you are talking about Atlanta, which is the only true city. People are going to want to govern their own streets separately from the next street over the way this is going!

Oh, I don't know about that.

It seems to me that you have to break it down as to what kind of governance issues you are talking about.

For instance, things like regional transportation and water obviously call for broader planning and management.

On the other hand, I don't see any reason at all why matters such as parks, zoning and land use, procurement, and policing shouldn't be under local control.

Huge bureaucracies -- especially those that aren't subject to the accountability of the marketplace -- tend to become bloated, inefficient and non-responsive.

Smaller cities demand higher scrutiny. Can you imagine, for example, something like APS existing in the city of Decatur? They'd never permit a widespread teacher-led cheating scandal. They wouldn't create a ridiculous structure that spends several times as much money as comparable systems on "central office personnel" and outside vendors. Nor would they tolerate schools that graduate under 40% of students.

[Nanosolar]

It would be nice if Atlanta did something like Tokyo did in 1943. Basically combining the city and county government into one, while retaining some characteristics of the other smaller municipalities that existed around Tokyo. This removes a layer of government and retains the local control many are concerned with. Combine Dekalb, Fulton and a few of the suburban counties to form one big area, so we are all working towards one goal and not bickering about who gets what.

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by bfarley30

I definitely wish every area or section of a county would stop trying to be it's own city. People wonder why nothing gets done to connect the region.

I grew up in a state, CT, that had no county governments. Yet, they have commuter rail on the coastline and are adding commuter rail through Hartford to Springfield, MA. The problem of nothing gets done is fixed by a DOT that is qualified, adequately funded, understands that adding lanes only works to reduce traffic in rural areas, and actually gets things done. CT had the opposite, like GA, for the longest time. Then they changed up the leadership, and things changed.

It's too bad we didn't get TSplost passed to get some teeth behind ARC, but the project list also was not great so I am not surprised. Now people are wasting their money on a stadium instead of finishing the beltline and rail to Cobb County. (the beltline is getting done, but the rail component is on hold)

By the way, the whole "small government being less wealthy" thing is lost on CT because it is one of the wealthiest states in the country.