City Of Farmhouse, Georgia

It's been five years since the incorporation of the City of Dunwoody and coincident with the re-write of the city charter a movement to spin-off a new city is gaining steam. This city which is tentatively named the "City of Farmhouse" would encompass the area shown in the map below.

As an experiment in local control the City of Dunwoody has convinced many citizens that more is better. As in "more local". Hyper-localism is a new model for urban government but is one that has taken hold throughout the Pacific Northwest and has been readily embraced by local Farmhousers and cyclists alike.

The proposal for this new city is expected to be submitted in the next legislative session with a referendum vote in the following year. Proponents have already formed the two obligatory non-profits with one to "educate about" and the other to "advocate for" the new city. A proposed "viability" report was recently submitted to the Carl Vinson Institute in an envelope that also contained thirty thousand dollars and it is expected that this report will be issued on CVI letterhead shortly.

There has been some concern from those who will remain in the City of Dunwoody regarding the departure of Perimeter Center and the associated tax base but this is virtually identical to the complaints expressed by DeKalb when Dunwoody was first formed and this argument is expected to carry as much weight now as it did then. There have also been complaints that this move dilutes minority vote by carving out an almost exclusively non-minority city but others point out that this has a non-dilutive effect on the remaining City of Dunwoody and will in fact increase minority concentration there.

This new City will be up and running in less than three years but to get there everyone's help is needed. There will be several "virtual town hall" meetings via interactive webcast and Parks, Police and Roads Tasks forces are already spinning up.

Exciting times. Become an agent of change!

Practical Reality

It doesn't matter what folks say something is. It doesn't matter what something is or was supposed to be. The only thing that matters is what something really is.

That is practical reality.

A perfect and timely example is "local control" and what makes this pretty interesting is that DeKalb's out-of-touch public school bureaucracy has co-opted the term. The assertion is that politicians elected at the county level are more "local" than bureaucrats at the state level.

Real...

Simple...

Equation...

But only for real simple minds, because it is little more than a play on words--a perverse little pun.

So let's look at this from a pragmatic point of view.

By and large do the voting public in DeKalb county feel that DCSD administration is "local" to them in any meaningful way? Do these administrators listen and learn about issues in the community AND address these issues in a straightforward, effective fashion? Do the public feel that it REALLY makes a difference who they elect to the School Board when Board members are structurally prevented from direct, forthright action under the threat of sanctions for "micro-managing"?

For many in DeKalb the answer is probably a strong yes, but for others it is an even stronger no. The former have representation in the controlling bloc which wields the political power necessary to ensure that the hired bureaucrats bend to their will and comply with their wishes. The other Board members, who feel their constituency is not well served, are relegated to the role of annoying outsiders--increasingly less-than-loyal opposition.

It is the latter constituency, empowered by the geographical self-aggregation that prevails in today's America, who have been and will continue to be "break-aways". They do this not out of racism and only partly over money--more based on how it is squandered than where it is spent. The practical reality is that these voters are disenfranchised by a system that has so diluted their representative voice that they have no control over any aspect of the school system charged with educating our children.

Without ANY control it doesn't really  matter whether it is "local" or not and it appears this group would prefer some control at whatever level is available rather than no control at all.

Dunwoody: Showing Europe The Way

Dunwoody has not only been the role model for our neighbors to the south but has spread its religion of "I, Me, Mine" across the pond. In Spain, the Catalan separatist movement has been re-energized by the economic crisis as Catalonia sees itself as net donor supporting the economically weaker areas whilst sharing equally in the harsh austerity programs. They want to keep their wealth in Catalonia and to hell with the rest of Spain.

Catalonia announced a snap election potentially opening the way for the country’s most economically important region to declare independence. “The hour has come to exercise our right to self rule,” said Artur Mas, Catalonia’s president.

Under the current fiscal system, Catalonia collects taxes from its residents, but turns them over to the central government, which then disburses a designated amount to each region to pay for public salaries, social services, infrastructure and the like. In 2009, the latest year for which figures are available, Catalonia provided 19.49% of the federal government’s tax revenue, yet received only 14.03% of the state’s spending.

Previously, Mas had called for a fiscal reform that would enable his government to collect its own taxes and turn over a designated amount to the central state (rather than the other way around). The courts struck this down silencing all moderate voices in the region.

He is not alone in his separatist views. “We have no other option since our will has been totally ignored” says Soledat Balaguer, a member of the secretariat of the Catalan National Assembly. “Catalonia needs to be its own state.”

Sound familiar?