Fulton County to be split in two?

There have been talks of splitting up Fulton County, which is the most populous county in the State of Georgia, at 1,020,104 residents. The county is made up of fourteen municipalities: Alpharetta, Atlanta, Chattahoochee Hills (formerly Chattahoochee Hill Country), College Park, East Point, Fairburn, Hapeville, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park, Palmetto, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Union City. There is also a large unincorporated area known as "Unincorporated South Fulton," which is large enough to be a city in its own right; however, the residents of this community, of whom I am one, voted down the resolution to become a city. The reason being is that resolution wasn't thought out well and I didn't like the name of the potential city, which would've been just "South Fulton."

Now, North Fulton residents and government leaders are trying to recreate Milton County, which joined Fulton in 1931 - 32, along with Campbell County to save money. Roswell joined Fulton, ceding from Cobb, to make Fulton County a contiguous entity. This annexation gave Fulton a very irregular shape -- the county is 70 miles, "nose to tail." The two communities, North Fulton and South Fulton, are very, very different: North Fulton is very wealthy and mostly white; South Fulton is a low-income community that has gone through hard times and is mostly black. Because of this, many have accused the North Fulton residents of racism.

I don't think it's necessarily racism, but there are some racial over and undertones. I personally don't mind North Fulton splitting off from the rest of the county. I just don't like the fact that Atlanta and Fulton County's governments could merge, becoming Atlanta-Fulton County. This would mean every unincorporated area in the county would become apart of the City of Atlanta. The other cities in the county would still be independent, unless they de-incorporated and Atlanta annexed them. The City of Atlanta doesn't function well and neither does Fulton County; so this would be a big quagmire, to say the least.

This development will be very, very interesting to watch, whichever way it goes.

Fulton County to be Split Up

Milton County Debate Heats Up (WSB-TV)