North Fulton Secession (Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Roswell: apartment, how much, homes)
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This thinking is the reason metro- Atlanta is in the shape it is in. Milton, Johns Creek, etc.., I have never seen anything like it. That said I predict that in 15-20 years the New South City will be Charlotte.
Not going to happen. Charlotte will not surpass Atlanta in our lifetime. Atlanta is projected to be the 6th largest metro in the country by 2020. We compete more with Dallas and Houston than a metro like Charlotte that is not even half our size.
More than likely many of the quality of life services enjoyed by Fulton County(mostly in South Fulton) would be severely diminished and/or completely abolished. What comes to mind is libraries, Senior citizen centers, Recreation centers and the like. But I don't think that Fulton County will be in the hole governance-wise since they already are in the process of balancing the budget with more layoffs & reduced services anyways.
I don't think that the potential splitting of Fulton county will affect Atlanta & South Fulton anymore than years of negligent governance, apathetic citizenry, & consistently lousy state leadership already has anyway.
Actually I hope this will happen, believe it or not. Maybe this will force many people in my community to take a hard look at the resources they put into government & the lousy return they get back on it. There are waaay too many people in the Fulton County Commission & the State Legislature who are simply in office because they riding off the coattails of racial affinity, rather than simply being qualified for the job. Also, it will force more folks to rely on private means as a quality of life support, like the Church, or charitable services.
Bottomline? Let it happen. I'm tired of folks using "less-taxes" as an excuse to not share their resources with others not like them. Let's take this nonsense off the table once and for all and then move on to the next item of discussion.
Hopefully after these selfish babyboomers die out, the next generation will come into power & realize a more united & holistic way to co-exist. The future of this country & the world demands it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by equinox63
If North Fulton was to successful separate from the rest of Fulton County, how would it affect the city of Atlanta and South Fulton County?
The balkanization of this area has just gotten ridiculous over the past 5 or so years. God forbid we look for ways to cooperate and maybe fix the issues and improve things for everybody. This is like the kids who take their ball and go home if they start losing the game.
And yes, this sort of thinking is a BIG part of why this region is in the shape it's in.
I'm not sure where I stand on the whole issue, so this isn't a polemic for or against, but I know that many of the people in favor of incorporating the new cities in North Fulton, and of re-establishing Milton County, would argue that it's not a matter of taking your ball and going home if you start losing the game, it's one of deciding that you're tired of having the other kids on the playground taking your ball and your lunch money and making you sit on the sidelines, and of having that happen for decades. The perception is that Fulton County has consistently regarded the affluent suburbs as a cash machine, generating tax revenue that is disproportionately spent to the nominal benefit of those in other parts of the county.
To take only one example, the North Fulton area has consistently been underserved by the Atlanta-Fulton County Library System -- a handful of branches north of the river and in Sandy Springs have for years accounted for much more of the library system's circulation than the far more numerous branches scattered around the City of Atlanta. By any measure, those libraries have been stretched too thin, while libraries in the city were overstaffed and underutilized. Yet when the library system tried to build and fund the Ocee Library in what's now John's Creek, Fulton County Commissioner Nancy Boxhill fought it tooth and nail (look for the headline "Ocee Library Funding Comes Grudgingly"), in a bid to get a senior citizen center built more quickly in her district (which already had more libraries than any other county commission district). Even after the funding came through for construction, the county commission kept playing games, using a zoning quirk (the building was zoned for an 18000 square foot space, but built out to 25000 square feet) to prevent the library from utilizing all of its square footage, reducing the funding for furnishings, equipment, and materials proportionally. For a year after the building opened, this funding was held hostage by members of the county commission. Meanwhile, huge numbers of North Fulton residents are still faced with driving 30 minutes or more through traffic at busy times of the day to get to a library branch, and once they arrived they typically find outdated and inadequate collections and facilities, and staffing levels that are inadequate to maintain all of the expected services.
The original version of the AFPL's recent Facilities Master Plan continued this neglect of the North Fulton area, until public outcry dictated that the plan be revised to include a new library in Roswell on land offered by the City of Roswell for that purpose, a new library in the Birmingham area of Milton, and other enhancements in library services north of the river. Without those changes, there's no way the AFPL's bond referendum would have passed in November 2008.
There are so many ways in which the interests of the residents of the Atlanta area would be better served by political representatives who are able to take a longer view and consider the good of the area as a whole, but there are a lot of well-entrenched entities at all levels who behave as if North Fulton still "owes" the rest of the county piggyback rides, no matter how bloated those riders get.
You could repeat the basic outline of the library saga over and over again in different areas, changing only the details. No doubt there's another perspective, and it is reasonable that all of the county's residents should share in the benefits of the success of the northern parts of the county. But there's a strong perception among the residents of the northern areas that the rest of the county is taking much more than is fair and telling them to shut up and like it.
This is all true...but keep in mind that it will never happen. There simply aren't enough supportive votes in the legislature and there isn't any chance of there being enough. I don't believe that there is much public support for this devisive action...it seems to me that it's a small group of loud, whiny citizens.
Outside of the proposed Milton County area, perhaps there's not. And given that it requires a state legislative action, and there's no percentage in it for rural representatives to act on it, you may be right that it'll never happen. But I live in East Roswell, and it's not a loud, whiny minority. There may be a minority that's both loud and whiny, but they're supplemented by a substantial number (have no idea if it's a majority or not) of my fellow residents who're neither loud nor whiny but who sincerely believe that they've been getting the soiled end of the stick for way too long from Fulton County.
The City of Atlanta shouldnt be too worried, as it is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and things are looking pretty good for it in the long term if it continues its demographic trends. The city of Atlanta's population is getting more diverse both racially and socioeconomically. It will be interesting to see how the politics of the region will be 10 years from now when Atlanta is 50% white. My only worry is that someone will try to push for a consolidation of the remaining Fulton County and Atlanta, which would completely obliterate the gains the city has made.
Outside of the proposed Milton County area, perhaps there's not. And given that it requires a state legislative action, and there's no percentage in it for rural representatives to act on it, you may be right that it'll never happen. But I live in East Roswell, and it's not a loud, whiny minority. There may be a minority that's both loud and whiny, but they're supplemented by a substantial number (have no idea if it's a majority or not) of my fellow residents who're neither loud nor whiny but who sincerely believe that they've been getting the soiled end of the stick for way too long from Fulton County.
I still contend that it's a loud/whiny minority that supports this move...along with a lot of bandwagon jumpers. It's an easy idea to get behind if you don't know a lot about it.
Atlanta would be bankrupt.
And the kids in south Fulton would have to go to the schools there.
If the kids in South Fulton currently don't go to South Fulton schools, then where does the South Fulton school population come from? Secondly, what percentage of South Fulton residents attend North Fulton schools? And thirdly, what North Fulton schools are populated with South Fulton residents?
The state constitution would have to be amended to allow for a new county or two counties would have to agree to consolidate. (Constitution caps the number of counties in GA.)
There had been some discussion of private funds being raised to offer an incentive to two small counties to merge. However, I think the big money folks are pretty satisfied with the incorporation of the various cities and most folks are pleased enough with the schools in N Fulton, so I think the likely hood of being able to raise the money has diminished tremendously.
The percentage of S. Fulton students at N. Fulton schools is pretty small actually. It is just difficult for some folks to process the fact that areas like Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Roswell etc have minority residents who have children in the schools, I think.
There is the same issue in parts of DeKalb. Folks presume that every minority student at N. DeKalb schools comes from outside the area. That isn't true at all.
I still contend that it's a loud/whiny minority that supports this move...along with a lot of bandwagon jumpers. It's an easy idea to get behind if you don't know a lot about it.
If anything, people are more likely, in my experience, to oppose something that they know little about than to support it, given the natural tendency of most people to resist change.
Your assumption seems to be that aside from the politicians who're actively promoting the idea of Milton County, and a handful of people who write letters to the editor, no one else is in favor of it. You "contend" that that's the case, without offering any evidence, even anecdotal evidence, to support that. Despite that, I would concede the "minority" portion of your argument (though not necessarily the "loud" or "whiny") if the entity we're talking about a "minority" of is "the population of the entire metro Atlanta area". If we're talking about "the population of the proposed Milton County", I'd need to see some pretty compelling evidence, because anecdotally, most of my neighbors, most of the folks I talk to at my kids' school functions, at the parks, etc., are in favor of it. I can't categorically state that they're a majority of the entire area, as I haven't systematically surveyed a representative sample of the population, but by far the majority of the people I've heard express an opinion support it. Not in a "loud" or "whiny" way -- it's not something that most of us talk about a lot, but when it does come up that's how they feel.
The state constitution would have to be amended to allow for a new county or two counties would have to agree to consolidate. (Constitution caps the number of counties in GA.)
There had been some discussion of private funds being raised to offer an incentive to two small counties to merge. However, I think the big money folks are pretty satisfied with the incorporation of the various cities and most folks are pleased enough with the schools in N Fulton, so I think the likely hood of being able to raise the money has diminished tremendously.
The percentage of S. Fulton students at N. Fulton schools is pretty small actually. It is just difficult for some folks to process the fact that areas like Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Roswell etc have minority residents who have children in the schools, I think.
There is the same issue in parts of DeKalb. Folks presume that every minority student at N. DeKalb schools comes from outside the area. That isn't true at all.
True.
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