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Health & Fitness

Atlanta says Druid Hills meeting presentation was no big deal

A small portion of DeKalb (East Atlanta and part of Druid Hills) is historically inside the City of Atlanta—or put another way a small part of Atlanta is in DeKalb. But the portion(s) could get bigger if the entirety of historic Druid Hills is added to the city—and ironically so, since an annexation will have been caused by the legislature’s provocative interest in making new cities.  It’s a stretch to say that Atlanta officials have “proposed” annexation to Druid Hills residents, but what is one to think when Durya Farooqui, Atlanta’s second in command participated on a panel billed as “Cityhood and Annexation Options” for Druid Hills. Although the new COO’s presentation was a litany of dry facts, it had a selling flavor reflecting on growth, operational improvements and valuable assets.

To put the visit into perspective, anyone from Atlanta’s economic development office could have made the trek and delivered information, but this one clearly had the weight of Mayor Kasim Reed behind it. So for the host city for the Centennial Olympic Games, fulcrum and namesake of the Southeast’s top economic region and any number of superlatives to enjoin the subject of Druid Hills emerging “governance options”, it is at least politically significant. Who knows, maybe Reed sees Druid Hills (and possibly Emory University) contributing to the city’s next round of the fabled rising Pheonix.

The Atlanta visit could easily have been interpreted as an “offer” by the public because it was done…in public. Nah—not according to Farooqui’s deputy, Hans Utz (via the city communication office) in which he painted a reserved picture of the city’s role in the annexation matter—no position, no recommendation and responding to a Druid Hills invitation. In an e-mail, the city stated, “We have (only) met once with the Druid Hills Civic Association to understand what questions they had regarding the annexation process and what information we should bring to the community meeting.  Annexation is an activity pursued by the community.” Is Atlanta selling hard? Says Utz, “We do not think it is appropriate to attempt to unduly influence what has to be a local community decision.” 

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A DHCA position for annexation would do one obvious thing—it would threaten the City of Briarcliff’s ability to distinguish itself from Lakeside City—and reduces its proposed population and tax base. Briarcliff might be a non-starter without the monster neighborhood. However, without an actual vote or formal position from DHCA, Briarcliff could keep Druid Hills on its map and simply let individuals vote. That’s essentially the same approach Lakeside and Tucker are taking with their maps for the legislative decision—they have no formal neighborhood association votes, so can map whatever they please. Hell of a way to run a railroad, especially since a referendum would not offer a choice vote.

This truly moves the cityhood phenomenon to another level, which has mostly been characterized by wide-ranging affluent post-1960’s areas that have been tightly affiliated unincorporated “umbrella” communities. Geopolitically OTP and Republican, up until Brookhaven, new city referendum successes can be traced can to uniformly Republican voting blocks that are literally in lock-step with their legislative cityhood sponsors. The phenomenon of different city-making proponents bidding for the same autonomous ITP areas that differ by legislative representation is new enough, but to now deal with a large affiliated area with its own leadership that also has annexation options may be morphing the city-making movement too fast for even a “damn the torpedos” legislature to be comfortable with.

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One the subject of Atlanta annexation possibilities being “on another level”, Deputy COO Utz deflected a question about conversations with Emory University. I would note that one of the few lines that the Atlanta Journal Constitution chose to quote from incoming President Wagner’s welcome speech a few years ago emphasized that he considered the school as a Greater Atlanta asset. It may have been code for “we’re in DeKalb, but not DeKalb’s or maybe he was just positioning for more regional funding, such as transportation.

Consider this about the “not DeKalb” theory. Druid Hills and Emory had just been added to Atlanta’s 5th Congressional District during Cynthia McKinney’s rerun and Vernon Jones had chosen to highlight “DeKalb’s” Emory when he horned in on a reelection stump by George Bush. By 2004, both DeKalb personalities had become the faces of what possibly has become the most detested county government in American history and more importantly to “regime change” via judicial and legislative maneuvers, fodder for an interminable series of media disasters.

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