YIR: Buckhead’s Future: To-Be-Determined

The movement to force a referendum on whether Buckhead will secede from the city of Atlanta gained traction in 2021, heading toward a likely vote in the November 2022 election.

When the General Assembly reconvenes in January, legislators will consider bills, sponsored by Republicans who do not live in Atlanta, that would green light a referendum, in which only residents of the proposed Buckhead City could vote. If approved, that legislation would go to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who publicly has been neutral on the issue. The Democrats who represent Buckhead in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate oppose secession.

Jewish institutions in Buckhead include the Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Jewish HomeLife, and Atlanta Jewish Academy.

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Buckhead covers approximately 18 percent of Atlanta’s land area. Its estimated 87,000 residents make up about 20 percent of Atlanta’s population. More than half of Atlanta households earning more than $100,000 reside there. Racially, Buckhead is more than three-quarters white.

Crime and taxes are the issues most frequently cited by secession proponents.

Buckhead is part of Atlanta Police Department Zone 2, which includes West Midtown, Lenox Park, and Piedmont Heights. Compared with the same period the year before, homicides, rapes, and aggravated assaults increased in 2021, while robberies and burglaries declined. Bill White, CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, says that a planned 250-officer police force will be three times larger than APD’s Zone 2 deployment. The Committee’s website declares that “A larger police presence that is allowed to do their job will decrease crime dramatically and quickly.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Buckhead accounts for 40 percent of Atlanta’s assessed property — tax revenues, perhaps more than $200 million, that would be lost to the city. Also undetermined is the fate of several thousand Atlanta Public School students living in Buckhead.

Sam Massell — Atlanta’s first Jewish mayor, who served from 1970-74 — calls secession an “ill-advised proposal.” In an AJC op-ed he wrote: “I don’t want to see our city cut into several slices, believing that — in the long range — it would degrade the quality of life of the new creations and the remaining citizens. … It would destroy the community brand, which would require decades to rebuild.”