All right, who’d have thought it would end like this for LaVista Hills?
Well, just about everyone, I suppose. It is DeKalb County, after all, a place I’ve called Bizarro World in the past.
The campaign to create the city of LaVista Hills gave rise to racial fear-mongering, “mysterious” Democratic operatives, “secret” Republican money, feuding neighbors, truths, half-truths, outright lies and a paper-thin defeat of 136 votes from nearly 14,000 cast.
And now — drum roll, please — there are accusations that something fishy occurred with the voting, allegations that brought a GBI investigation. A stolen election? That's what some of the pro-city folks no doubt hope occurred, because many are demanding a do-over.
My guess is that the GBI investigation will find sloppiness or even incompetence but not outright fraud. The idea that DeKalb pols are conspiring to rig an election is pretty outlandish. I mean, their conspiracy to bring a practice soccer field to the county didn’t work.
Regardless, last week’s election defeat is the first time voters in north metro Atlanta have shot down a new city since Sandy Springs created the rush for cities 11 years ago.
I'm a resident in what would be LaVista and before voting, I joked I was leaning 51 percent "No" on the question of turning an amorphous collection of north-central DeKalb neighborhoods into a full-fledged city. The conventional wisdom had it that LaVista Hills had a pretty fair chance of passing because DeKalb's government is so nefarious. And even though the group advocating for cityhood had split into two factions, it seemed residents would hold their noses and vote for the city.
But my “no” vote reflected the misgivings of the electorate, which split 50.5/49.5 percent. While voting, I figured I’d go with my better self. I worried about leaving other neighborhoods behind, about balkanizing the county, about how all this would run and what it would cost. I still believe that the more people have a stake in DeKalb, the more chance they have at raising hell and fixing things.
But then, the next day, I had buyer’s remorse. Self-interest Bill started whispering.
'I think we shot ourselves in the foot'
Maybe the cityhood folks were right: a moat around our neighborhoods would prevent those pesky Brookhavenites to the north from swooping down and snatching prime commercial territory. Perhaps the Tuckerites, our neighbors to the east, would give up their small-town “aw shucks” routine and start grabbing land around Northlake Mall. And, of course, there’s Atlanta, the long land-locked city that is licking its chops to grow.
A last-minute campaign flyer showed a badly lit photo of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, making him look all sinister-like. It warned residents he wanted their communities for his own. It was an old-school racial appeal and has been disowned by those it was meant to help.
The campaign to create a city had an inherent flaw. Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton — those new cities were largely built by Republicans. The proposed LaVista Hills was far more Democratic.
“I think we shot ourselves in the foot,” said Don Broussard, a pro-city movement leader. “The stench of a Republican conspiracy never got cleaned off this thing.”
In fact, the pro-city forces split into two orgs — LaVista Hills YES and LaVista Hills Alliance — soon after a contentious meeting at which a Republican strategist addressed the group, laying out a hoped-for path to victory.
“He was reciting from the Republican playbook on how to win this,” said Broussard.
The Alliance folks had more Republican ties and and YES folks were largely the remnants of the old Briarcliff city movement that never got off the ground.
One last-minute, pro-city flyer had an old photo of anti-city leader Marjorie Snook standing with Obama signs in front of her house. Problem was, 18 of the 24 precincts in LaVista voted for Obama. In fact, the anti-city crowd used a little jiu-jitsu and publicized the Obama attack ad to help them.
Last-minute fliers: Your taxes will go up
State Sen. Fran Millar, the Dunwoody Republican who helped carve the boundaries and became a villain/hero in the process, thinks LaVista will be surrounded by land-hungry municipal neighbors wanting to carve up the corpse of LaVista in annexations.
Millar complained about the mysterious “Neighbors Against Higher Taxes,” a movement that sent out last-minute flyers warning of higher taxes if LaVista Hills was created.
“Who paid for that?” he asked.
Jeff DiSantis, who headed Michelle Nunn’s Democratic campaign last year, took credit for that barrage. He said some “progressives we know” kicked in about $10,000 for the mailers.
The last effort may have been the needed push, although it’s hard to tell — there were some really angry precincts that already wanted nothing to do with LaVista.
Take the Shamrock area, a neighborhood that screamed bloody murder at being included in the map of the proposed city and repeatedly demanded to be taken out. The Shamrock precinct went 73 percent against the effort, a margin of 289 votes.
“You look at our vote and say, ‘Hmmm, if we weren’t included they might have a city,’” said Staci Melton, a resident of the area who was involved in the “No” effort.
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