Despite what you may have heard, Atlanta, GA, isn’t all beautiful Southern weather, tree-lined streets and roads named some variant of Peach Tree, and a sizzling night life–the imagery of your favorite Usher song.

Inner city Atlanta is beleaguered by the financial and legal troubles caused by its own government officials. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, many of the lower-class citizens of that city, such as the women who had to be tasered in front of her two small children by a security guard, are also causing a ruckus.

The well-to do citizens of the surrounding Atlanta suburbs have had enough of their inner city neighbors and cutting ties as fast as they can with the ATL.

The city has experienced an ongoing succession of government scandals, ranging from a massive cheating racket to corruption, bribery, school-board incompetence and now the potential loss of accreditation for the local DeKalb County school system. For several years, problems of this sort have fueled political reforms, including the creation of new cities in northern Atlanta suburbs. Due to the intensification of corruption scandals in DeKalb, some state-level reform proposals could become national news very soon. Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2013/03/suburbs-secede-from-atlanta/#ICY7SIacqHdGZA3p.99 ” target=”_blank”>The city has experienced an ongoing succession of government scandals, ranging from a massive cheating racket to corruption, bribery, school-board incompetence and now the potential loss of accreditation for the local DeKalb County school system.

For several years, problems of this sort have fueled political reforms, inluding the creation of new cities in northern Atlanta suburbs. Due to the intensification of corruption scandals in DeKalb, some state-level reform proposals could become national news very soon.

One formerly unincorporated community, Sandy Springs, seceded from Fulton County, GA, and became a self-contained city in 2005 after the Democratic-controlled legislature become Republican controlled and the secession was finally allowed to take place.

As the richer communities surrounding Atlanta break away from the core of the city, inner city Atlanta is being left poorer and is becoming more black demographically. In 2000 Atlanta was 52% African American; in 2010 the city was 57% African American. The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus noticed the changes that were taking place and in 2011 that body filed a lawsuit to dissolve the newly created cities–places like Sandy Springs– claiming they were a “super-white majority” and diluting the voting power of minorities.

According to an article on World Net Daily, a “key leader in the black community and a driving force in support of the lawsuit, who wishes to remain anonymous, bemoaned the “disturbing tendency of black electorates to not elect the smartest and brightest, or even the cleverest.”

The federal trial court rejected the lawsuit, and the court of appeals affirmed the dismissal.

But the problems of inner cities that are causing those with the means and the will to leave are problems that are appearing in other places across the country. Turns out that those who are looking to live a higher quality of life for themselves and their children are placing their bets on the rural towns and suburban communities outside of the cities. My step-father and mother live in one such community outside of a metro area, and the residents of my parents unincorporated area are resisting the city’s attempts to incorporate them.

Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of the book, Spreading the Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, has written extensively about Robin Hood theme, i.e., lets take from the rich and give to the poor, that he sees running through the presidents’ housing agenda.

Writing for Forbes, Kurtz says:

President Obama’s plans for a second-term include an initiative to systematically redistribute the wealth of America’s suburbs to the cities. It’s a transformative idea, and deserves to be fully aired before the election. But like a lot of his major progressive policy innovations, Obama has advanced this one stealthily–mostly through rule-making, appointment, and vague directives. Obama has worked on this project in collaboration with Mike Kruglik, one of his original community organizing mentors. Kruglik’s new group, Building One America, advocates “regional tax-base sharing,” a practice by which suburban tax money is directly redistributed to nearby cities and less-well-off “inner-ring” suburbs. Kruglik’s group also favors a raft of policies designed to coerce people out of their cars and force suburbanites (with their tax money) back into densely packed cities.

Black and white people with the means to do so are avoiding the inner cities and leaving behind neighborhoods that are more mired in poverty and dysfunctional government than ever before. As bad as this may sound: Who can blame the people for leaving?

Sources:
“Suburbs secede from Atlanta“–World Net Daily
“How Obama Is Robbing The Suburbs To Pay For The Cities“–Forbes
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Jamila Akil is a Senior Editor at Beyond Black and White. Follow her on Twitter @jamilaakil