Breaking Up Stockbridge; Georgia Looks to Make a New, Richer Suburb

Some in Stockbridge want to annex a piece of the suburb to make a smaller, richer town they feel would be better able to attract amenities. The idea from Stockbrildge resident, Vikki Consiglio, would, she argues, make a new city that would have a more "high-end feel" according to reporting from Margaret Newkirk in Bloomberg Business. "For more than a decade, the Atlanta area has been dividing into ever smaller pieces segregated by race and class as cities are carved out from unincorporated county land," Newkirk writes.

"She says her section can’t attract businesses like Buckhead’s because of the lower income of the rest of Stockbridge. Her idea: The whole neighborhood could break away," Newkirk reports. The new whiter, richer city, to be called 'Eagle's Landing' would also leave behind millions of dollars in debt for a now decidedly poorer Stockbridge to contend with.

Experts say that this secession would have a ripple effect. "It raises the specter that residents of other well-heeled Georgia neighborhoods could ask the state for the same thing. This topic had all attendees buzzing at a recent municipal finance conference in Detroit, according to Tracy Gordon of the Urban Institute, a think tank. Citigroup Inc. says investors are concerned it could create a 'destabilizing precedent,'" Newkirk reports.