Serious questions surround the Buckhead cityhood process
By Ben Young, Publisher, Georgia Trend
Our feature about Buckhead in this month’s issue casts some light on the problems and solutions underway in the midst of the increase in crime that has energized some residents in one of Georgia’s most important neighborhoods to attempt to secede from Atlanta.
This month’s publisher’s letter isn’t intended to take sides in the issue, but to draw attention to some context, and to what I believe is a fact: the way Buckhead is going about seceding is wrong.
Since I am writing for readers around the state, including many economic development, county and city government leaders, it may come as a shock to realize that in its current form, the proposed legislation authorizing a vote on Buckhead leaving Atlanta to form its own city excludes people from outside the district from participating. Restricting voting in this way is standard practice but this is the first time a Georgia neighborhood has attempted to secede from an existing city.
This could create a precedent in Georgia for any neighborhood in any city to secede regardless of the impact on surrounding neighborhoods. If repeated from city to city, it could throw the management of our state’s complicated and valuable infrastructure into total chaos, undoing years of planning efforts that have made this network the envy of other states.
It would also have a devastating impact on our reputation for the best state in the country to do business. Putting our reputation as an Atlanta united aside, no business leader will take Georgia seriously if this is rushed through in its current form, because there is simply too much at stake and too little information available at this point to effectively arrive at a decision of this magnitude.