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Health & Fitness

City Elections for those in the southern districts

Voters in the southern districts (2, 3 and 4) should support candidates who share their views and will work for them.

As the November elections draw near, voters in the southern districts of the newly minted city of Brookhaven, (districts, 2, 3, and 4) need to face one hard truth: the city of Brookhaven was not created for them.  This recent drive to establish the city of Brookhaven followed a poll commissioned by Mike Jacobs in which residents in three northern precincts expressed a preference for living in a new city rather than remaining in unincorporated DeKalb or joining Chamblee or Dunwoody.  Jacobs did not bother to include in this poll citizens in the areas that now comprise the southern districts of the city. 

However, these northern neighborhoods could not finance their dreams of a city on their own.  They needed the southern areas to help provide a tax base that could support a city.  That is why we were included in the boundaries of the proposed city by Mike Jacobs and his pals -- not for our benefit, but for the benefit of those in what is now District 1.      

The legislation which Jacobs pushed through the legislature required only a simple majority throughout all four districts to pass this measure.  If you look at how the precincts voted and where they lie within the boundaries of the city, you will see that all the southern districts  (2, 3, and 4) voted it down.  It only passed in the northern district, which has nearly 50% of the registered voters, and where the voter turnout was so high that it provided the majority needed for passage.  If a majority in each district had been required for passage, the proposed city would not have been approved.   

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Well, what’s done is done, and now we have to make the best of it.  Jacobs and the Broohaven Yes proponents have forced us into this city against our will, and if we’re not careful, they can force a lot of other things down our throats. Instead of going along with their plans, the citizens of the southern districts must take an active and informed role in choosing the mayor and their city council representatives.  We should vote for the candidates who will protect and represent the interests of our communities, our neighborhoods, our districts. The candidates who opposed cityhood are more likely to represent the views and values of the majority of the people in the southern districts.  Having expressed concern about the feasibility of the city prior to the July 31st vote, such candidates are more likely to be fiscally responsible and less likely to have received campaign contributions from companies and vendors eager to do business with the city -- a situation that raises questions about conflicts of interest. 

By electing such candidates, those of us in Districts 2, 3 and 4 can find our voices in this new city.   

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