Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Dekalb Cities Gaining Powerful Allies

As I wrote in April, the second wave of city formation now infecting Dekalb has a slightly different flavor from the breakaways of the last decade. Druid Hills is now in the game and note who their sponsor is - Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) - about as liberal a Democrat as you can get.

Peach Pundit's George Chidi's summary of Druid Hills Civic Association President Bruce MacGregor's comments at a recent meeting at Clairmont Baptist Church reflects the feelings that I've heard from several Dekalb residents.
MacGregor has a basket of misgivings about incorporation — the process sucks, it’s expensive, incorporation doesn’t address schools, it doesn’t really lower taxes, most of the county’s services aren’t really a problem and incorporation fights can piss people off — but when you’re being ignored and in pain, it’s defensive kung-fu. The civic association has several disputes with the county that should be solvable with a little communication, but county leaders have been curiously unresponsive, he said.

Cityhood is not a panacea, however, when no one is listening, what other options do you have?  Beleaguered CEO Burrell Ellis' continued stance of silence is creating a political vacuum and very powerful political players are beginning to fill it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of these city bills are an effort to create a situation that forces the conversation. The Druid Hills and Lavista Hills (Sen. Carter) are just that.

It has little to do with any support, but to create cities that will incorporate all of Dekalb and not leave any part out.

Which is the situation in Fulton.

Jules

griftdrift said...

I figured that given some of the players involved. Here's the problem though, these things tend to develop a momentum of their own.

I think we could either see some of these cities form or we could finally see the end of the CEO form of government. And either one with Democrat's support.

And either would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

Anonymous said...

MacGregor also mentioned something rarely uttered. One of his concerns was that forming a new city would obviate the possibility of being annexed into the City of Atlanta. Its my impression that Druid Hills' more silent leaders want that option held open until they can at least test the waters. (the key here is that the cityhood question may have forces MacGregor into opening the anexation subject--something many key people have wanted to keep quiet).

Anonymous said...

When was Druid Hills and Emory added to Atlanta's 5ht Congressional District?
Wanna Venture the reason?