Aus from Bill White’s point of view, his home town of Buckhead, the richest and most beautiful neighborhood in Atlanta, has become a “war zone”. Crime, says the man, has risen dramatically. There are more break-ins and murders than before. You have to fear being shot everywhere: while shopping, filling up your car, while jogging. And the city administration does not care. “So it is time,” says White, “that we take matters into our own hands.”
What Bill White is planning amounts to a revolution. It should transform Buckhead and mean economic disaster for Atlanta. It might even have consequences for the state in which the metropolis is located, Georgia, and for all of America.
White, 54, owner of a consulting firm, chairs the Buckhead City Committee – a group that seeks to split the Atlanta neighborhood off and make it a city of its own. He’s fighting, you might say, for the buckxit.
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That sounds a little crazy, but White’s chances are not bad. He convinced several MPs to support the Buckxit and to write a corresponding bill. The Georgia Parliament plans to vote on it next year.
In the event of a positive vote, a referendum will follow, but not everywhere in Atlanta, only in Buckhead. According to surveys, 55 to 60 percent of the people there want independence. “If everything goes well,” says White, “Buckhead City will be born in the summer of 2023.”
In America, smaller towns and cities merge again and again, but Buckhead City would be the first in the country’s recent history to be created in the opposite direction: by splitting off from an important metropolis. Atlanta is one of the most populous cities in the southern United States, a real economic powerhouse, home to Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, UPS, and CNN.
Buckxit would plunge Atlanta into crisis
And Buckhead is Atlanta’s economic heart. Bank towers, luxury hotels and fashion boutiques are concentrated on 62 square kilometers. Only a few minutes’ drive west of the glittering skyline are villas with wide courtyard entrances and large swimming pools. This is where White and many of the 90,000 other Buckheadians live.
“We want a divorce,” says White now, and like at the end of a marriage, Buckhead’s secession is all about one question: Who gets what? Atlanta would go away empty-handed. The city is losing a fifth of its population and 40 percent of its tax revenue, according to a study by the Committee for a United Atlanta.
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This is an initiative that seeks to thwart White’s plans. According to her, a buckxit could be felt in almost all areas of public life and should plunge many institutions in Atlanta into financial difficulties: including schools, the police and local transport.
But that’s not all. “The spin-off of Buckheads,” says Edward Lindsey, co-leader of the counter-movement, “would set a dangerous precedent.” Other affluent neighborhoods in America, Lindsey says, could suddenly try to break away from their cities as well. Lindsey believes a buckxit would have “destabilizing consequences” for all of Georgia – and possibly other parts of the United States.
In fact, there are four districts in Cobb County, which borders Atlanta – and Buckhead – to the north, and they want to go on alone: East Cobb, Lost Mountain, Mableton, and Vinings all expect higher income than expenditure after a targeted separation.
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Buckhead would definitely benefit. After the split, the quarter would earn $ 203 million more annually than it does today, according to an analysis commissioned by the separatists. The expenses would also be higher, for example because White and his people want to build new police stations and rehabilitate streets.