Buckhead, Georgia residents and businesses have contributed $1 million to support the initiative to create Buckhead City, members of the Buckhead City Committee said in an emailed press release Thursday.
“The Buckhead City Committee expects to raise another million dollars before the end of this upcoming legislative session (April) to further advance Buckhead’s path to cityhood,” according to the press release.
“The question of whether to remove Buckhead neighborhoods from the jurisdiction of the City of Atlanta and incorporate as a distinct municipality may, via action of the Georgia General Assembly, appear on the November 2022 ballot. A poll released earlier this week revealed that a vast majority (64 percent) of Buckhead voters want to create a Buckhead City. Concern about crime and mismanagement by the City of Atlanta are the primary motivators of the initiative.”
Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White said in Thursday’s press release that Buckhead residents are fed up with what he called rising crime rates and an underfunded and understaffed police force.
The Buckhead City Committee is a nonprofit volunteer organization. Members raise funds to, among other things, tend to legal and political counsel, advertise and promote materials, and establish a new city charter, the press release said.
Members of the Georgia General Assembly announced late last month that they will convene a three-week long special session starting November 3. There, they will hold hearings and discuss whether Buckhead should incorporate as a municipality separate from Atlanta.
Governor Brian Kemp called for the special session.
The hearings were announced at a press conference by Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta), author of a bill that would put Buckhead City on the November 2022 ballot.
Atlanta made national headlines this year after FOX News host Tucker Carlson described, in sometimes graphic terms, how crime rates in Buckhead have soared. Carlson also said certain of Atlanta’s politicians incited that violence.
Carlson said Atlanta leaders have made too many inflammatory remarks about Buckhead, which is wealthy. He said district residents have endured that abuse in silence. Buckhead residents account for a fifth of Atlanta’s entire budget, he said. Carlson said Buckhead residents shouldn’t have to “send huge sums of money to a city that hates them.” He blamed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for motivating hundreds of Atlanta Police Department officers to exit the force.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill White” by Buckhead City. Background Photo “Buckhead Skyline” by Mike Gonzalez. CC BY-SA 3.0.
