Franklin opposes Buckhead cityhood, calls effort a distraction

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UPDATED: 6:12 p.m. June 21, 2008
Franklin opposes Buckhead cityhood, calls effort a distraction

By JEFFRY SCOTT
Published on: 06/21/08

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said Saturday she opposes the idea of Buckhead, the city's most affluent community, breaking off and becoming its own city, saying it would go against diversity efforts of the last 50 years.

State Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta), who likely would have some say in Buckhead's attempt at cityhood, called the idea "half-baked."

Franklin and Adelman were responding to the initiative by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation to split Buckhead from Atlanta.

Franklin said the city has flourished "because we have embraced our diversity over the last half-century, not because we have opposed it."

"I think [the effort] is a distraction from the real issue facing the city," she said. "The real issue facing Atlanta is how do we survive in global economy. This is talking about now. We need to be talking about the future."

Franklin, who was in Miami attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said by "diversity" she means the city's socio-economic, cultural, business and residential make-up, and was not necessarily drawing a distinction along black and white racial lines.

Adelman, chairman of the Senate Urban Affairs Committee, called the Buckhead secession idea "half-baked at best." A Buckhead cityhood bill, he said, would face especially tough sledding in the Legislature if it were to include a proposal to create a new school system.

"That would be a truly extraordinary complicating factor," said Adelman, whose committee could hear such legislation if it were introduced.

Oliver Porter, who helped found the city of Sandy Springs and is assisting Dunwoody's efforts to do the same thing, said Buckhead cityhood is not a new idea. "Ever since Sandy Springs successfully did it, people have said, 'Why not us in Buckhead?'" he said.

Sandy Springs, Milton, Johns Creek and Chattahoochee Hills Country have all broken off from Fulton County and become cities in recent years, and Dunwoody is trying to do so in DeKalb County.

Porter, however, agreed with Adelman that Buckhead would face some difficulty in the Legislature. "There are significantly more legal hurdles to overcome for Buckhead to become a city than there were for the other cities," he said. "They are part of a city. We were not."

Bert Brantley, spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said Saturday that Perdue had not been asked about the formation of a city of Buckhead, and that he would "let the legislative process play out" before he made a decision. But, historically, Perdue has not opposed the formation of new cities.

Noting that the governor signed the bills creating Johns Creek and other cities after they were passed by the Legislature, Brantley said, "his view is, how can he tell one group they can't form a city when we've already gone down this road and told others they can?"

Supporters of the Buckhead secession movement point to Atlanta's debt problems and school property tax rates as reason to break away.

Franklin said she is not opposed to discussing the idea of Buckhead breaking off on its own. "That's how we sort out our problems, by airing them," she said.

But Franklin said she favors a consolidation of cities under some kind of metropolitan governance, similar to Augusta and Jacksonville. "That's the best way for the city to address the problems that plague us — traffic, health, environment," she said.

Buckhead was annexed by the city of Atlanta in 1952, and the north side neighborhood has grown into one of the most affluent in the nation.

According to the Buckhead Business Association headed by former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, the community encompasses an area of roughly 28 square miles, has a population of about 70,000, and represents about 45 percent of the city's property and sales tax base.

It's the site of the Georgia governor's mansion, the Atlanta History Center, Lenox Square and huge multi-million dollar homes on sprawling wooded acres. It has been dubbed Beverly Hills 30305.

Franklin said discussions of what impact the neighborhood's secession from the City of Atlanta would have on finances were premature.

"I don't even think you get the financials," she said. "The question is: Are you looking at the present, or are you looking at the future of the city 25 or 30 years from now? This is not the way to look to the future."

Reaction among Buckhead's residents seemed mixed Saturday morning. Tommy Thomas, owner of Thomas Barber Shop on West Paces Ferry Road, said that the subject of leaving Atlanta has been discussed for years.

"Most people never thought it would go anywhere, but maybe it will now," said Thomas, 57, who has run his shop for 38 years. "Any time you can get out of the city of Atlanta and call your own shots that's a good thing."

At the Corner Cafe on East Paces Ferry Road and Piedmont Road, Bill Marriott, 79, who has lived in Atlanta 63 years, said he hadn't given the notion much thought.

"I would think it would be a hell of a task making a city," said Marriott, who has lived in Buckhead for 12 years. "But I never thought Sandy Springs would, either."

– Staff writer Jeremy Redmon contributed to this story.

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Comments

By A McCommon

Jun 30, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this

JD and Pete are both wrong - Fulton County is actually considered "North Fulton," "South Fulton" and "Atlanta." As a resident of South Fulton, I can't vote for mayor or city council, because I don't live in the city limits - I live in unincorporated Atlanta. So no, I didn't vote them into office. Only residents of the city of Atlanta can do that.

As far as the two separate counties in the past are concerned, they were actually combined because BOTH counties were going bankrupt and couldn't operate on their own (Why else would Milton County agree? To help someone else out? No, I don't think so). Read your history before you comment, please.

Oh, and by the way - Grady Hospital is run by Fulton AND Dekalb Counties.

By Pete

Jun 28, 2008 4:46 PM | Link to this

I agree with JD. The city waste money in city offices, mainly on people who feel they are entitled to a job. Many of us north of the city feel that if you raise taxes to improve the city it is O.K., but if you keep wasting tax funds to employ worthless "workers" instead of diligent Fire & Police departments, we want our money back.

All the mis-managed departments (Underground Atlanta, Grady Hospital, Hartsfield Airport for example) are all ran by unqualified and unaccountable people who are chosen mainly by the citizens of South Fulton, and you seem to keep empowering the wrong people to help us all.

You have had many chances to have a voice, but you are the ones playing the race card when North Fulton calls foul. If you won't spend our money wisely, then we will spend it ourselves - and anyone can live in our city, but if you work for our taxpayers, you will be qualified to do so.

By JD

Jun 28, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this

Does anyone remember when North Fulton and South Fulton were two separate counties? The only reason they were joined was to spread the $$ into South Fulton and give the residents a chance at a better life. These are the same residents who now "work" in city offices at the expense of the Buckhead & North Fulton tax base. When you relay on a hand-out, your chance gets taken away. Even the AJC classifies the metro area into South Fulton/Atlanta and North Fulton...lets go ahead make it official.

By Peg

Jun 28, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this

"ATL...the new Detroit" is does have a nice ring to it...a ring of truth.

By Peg

Jun 28, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this

"ATL...the new Detroit" is does have a nice ring to it...a ring of truth.

By Peg

Jun 28, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this

"Atl...the new Detroit" is does have a nice ring to it...a ring of truth.

By Hank

Jun 28, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Shirley is afraid that if Buckhead splits they will take all their money with them, then who will foot the bill for lazy women in city offices?? Maybe they can go to nail school and make up the difference there...they will be ok - after all they are blessed.

By Arrghh

Jun 23, 2008 9:33 PM | Link to this

Shirley, you incompetent twit, do you really want to know why I'm all for a city of buckhead? It has something to do with all the scandals coming out of your administration where entire departments are led off in handcuffs because of corruption. It has something to do with the total inability to balance the city budget without constantly coming up short and blaming everything on a computer program or something else to deflect your incompetence. It has something to do with city employees getting their nails done, etc, using city credit cards. It has something to do with assinine ideas like self cleaning toilets (for the homeless?) at $150,000 a pop. All I can say is good riddance to you and your cronies. Buckhead is just the latest locality to say get lost to you and your administration. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

By ATL

Jun 23, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this

I have a great idea. Why doesn't every neighborhood in Atlanta become its own City. Then we can really get nothing done.

By Brian

Jun 23, 2008 3:22 PM | Link to this

Affluent areas have always had to foot the lions share of city expenses.

The attitude that affluent areas employ, when they push to annex after they have used city services to further their status and stability is the biggest part of the problem.

I agree that this isn't an issue of race, even though a fair share of posts here, smack of racism. This is an issue of class.

Policies adopted in the city of Atlanta with respect to development, transit, and movement toward progress haven't helped the plight of the less fortunate.

Many of these "cities" are formed due to studies funded by the region. To use regional funds to assist these areas in developing a sufficient infrastructure, only to incorporate at a later date, leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those placed at a disadvantage by such an action.

What these areas are doing equates to using a regional ladder to get over an obstacle and then setting fire to it once they have reached the top.

There is just something fundamentally wrong with the "haves" taking action to increase the burden placed on the "have nots".

These GOP based positions have proven to benefit a microscopic percentage of the population.

The reality is, the very people that these measures vicitmize, are needed to make those lives of priveledge go round. The affluent simply don't exist without the disadvantaged. The two need each other to survive. I find it humorous that you so often forget that!