In the Deep South, residents of an upscale suburb fight to secede from their neighbors

[brooklynite]

Los Angeles Times:

When Vikki Consiglio exits her subdivision next to the Eagle’s Landing Country Club, leaving behind a neighborhood of neatly manicured lawns, circular driveways and golf fairways, she cannot help feeling a wave of disappointment.

“I see the Waffle Houses and the McDonald’s, the Walmart and the dollar stores,” she said. “I’m thinking, ‘Is this all I can have?’ There’s no fresh farm-to-table, no parks, no entertainment.”

In what she says is a bid to attract more upscale amenities to this rapidly developing suburb about 20 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, Consiglio has come up with a controversial plan: to form a new city, Eagle’s Landing, by combining unincorporated pockets of the county with the most affluent parts of the existing city of Stockbridge.

The proposal to form a new city, up for a vote on Tuesday, has roiled Henry County, raising tense debate about racial and economic disparity and voting rights. Once a sleepy rural, predominantly white region, the county has seen an influx of minorities and a solidification of black political power as its population has exploded in recent years. In 1980, whites made up more than 80% of Henry County’s population, but now they have dwindled to less than 50%.

(the vote failed on Election Day)

[irisblue]

1. 🤦 🤦

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Something similar was proposed in the Hamptons a few years ago.

The pricey beachfront homes along Dune Road in Southampton, Easthampton, etc. wanted to secede from Suffolk County. They would call themselves Peconic County. Their efforts failed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peconic_County,_New_York

[marybourg]

3. Many years ago, the city of Los Alamos, NM,

consisting mostly of middle class government workers and scientists, seceded from huge, poor Bernalillo County (larger than R.I. and Delaware together, with one traffic light), primarily for tax, rather than social reasons.