Comments on: Decatur Named One of Georgia’s “Renaissance Cities”

By: Udog

Udog — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:50:43 +0000

You nailed it TeeRuss. As a member of a family that has been here since 1936 it has always been obvious, especially the success of the schools.

By: Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:41:12 +0000

Chris – This is pure conjecture, ignores facts, and is offensive. To pick on just one piece of your “argument”: I don’t consider myself “compliant” for being a big supporter of our waste management system here. We, as citizens, pay more to have our trash taken to the landfill, which costs the city money, and are incentiveized to recycle. The city can actually recoup money by selling our recyclable goods on the market. This makes more economic sense than the way it is done in most other places. This is just good governance. The “good ol boy” locations in Georgia don’t allow themselves to think up common-sense solutions such as this because they are shaking from their into anti-government fits, thus they find themselves isolated from the 21st century, and I might add, with deteriorating downtown cores.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:20:17 +0000

I don’t think the relationship between taxes and quality is just so. Actually, I think the tax rates here are a consequence, not a driver, of something else that happens to be the key reason for our success. That key is our scale.

A municipality the size of DeKalb County or City of Atlanta is essentially ungovernable by the people. Once you get beyond a certain number of residents, each resident has so little input that the government becomes detached from the will of the people. This is why DeKalb County can be so wildly corrupt and obviously mismanaged but nothing can be done about it.

In Decatur we have more direct interaction and input into our government, and it is accountable to us. In order to maintain this control we must forego the impulse to “scale up” and reduce the per capita cost of government services, so our taxes are higher. THIS is what our high taxes pay for – manageable scale.

Other factors mentioned above make it work here better than similarly scaled communities – affluent, educated residents thanks to our proximity to ATL and Emory/CDC, a built environment that encourages community interaction, quality schools, etc. At some point in the past it became a virtuous cycle as more affluent/educated people became drawn to live here.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:26:25 +0000

So I guess you don’t agree that Decatur is a poster child for downtown revitalization, not just in Georgia, but nationally?

By: brianc

brianc — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:24:17 +0000

“Not to discount our schools’ remarkable improvements at all, but I think there are other factors beyond just performance making our schools attractive. ”

100% agree. After all, there are statistically better schools in N. Fulton and other places.