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Health & Fitness

What is the perfect size for a city?

The most important reason for creating a city is local control. You want police responsive to your needs; you want zoning decisions made by your community; you want to decide where your park money goes.

 

In DeKalb County each Commissioner represents either 130,000 people or 350,000 people (the super districts).  Decisions about local issues in our area are typically made by the five County districts which are controlled by the southern part of the County.  Our plan would be to create districts with around 10-13,000 residents each. We would expect that a lot of decisions could be made at the city district level of government.

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Analyses of potential efficiencies are always iffy because of different circumstances. But at a Lakeside meeting at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Oliver Porter (who has been involved in city creation and development internationally) mentioned that nationally the most efficient size was around 125,000 residents. That doesn’t mean a city has to be that size to be efficient; but it does mean that up to a certain point, larger size makes possible continuing economies of scale. The proposed City of Briarcliff has about 93,000 residents. 

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County officials often say that they need more money because of more people or more problems in the county. In today’s world, additional residents should not always translate into proportionately higher costs. Today we can design functions around computerized systems and interactive communications. We don’t need bigger city halls and new offices; we simply need good systems and better communications.

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