The Greenhaven Economy

Abundant affluent population and solid business sales

Greenhaven, the name for the proposed city covering most of southern DeKalb County, is gaining more supporters by the day. State legislator Pam Stephenson recently announced that she will sponsor a bill in support of the creation of Greenhaven.

The group spearheading this cityhood push, Concerned Citizens for Cityhood in South DeKalb (CCCSD), has conducted 142 meetings since June 2014. Although there’s been almost unanimous support for forming this city, there are residents in different areas of the proposed city that are not happy about the idea of creating Greenhaven.

A petition has even been created to gather support for establishing a moratorium on creating new cities in DeKalb County, the petition states, “We support a moratorium on cityhood and annexation proposals in DeKalb County to give citizens time to participate in a deliberative, comprehensive, and equitable process for improving DeKalb County governance.”  

Opposition is small but vocal

While it’s understandable for those wanting their address to remain connected to the Atlanta or Decatur “brands”, Greenhaven would become the new brand for an area which has been a hodge-podge of postal zip code-based “city/town-like” entities. 

These unincorporated areas with names which associated with the real cities of Decatur, Stone Mountain, Lithonia and Atlanta beg the question: Can you vote in those city’s elections for mayor or police chief? Do you have any voice in the way those cities are run? With a new city of Greenhaven, your vote will count towards picking a mayor and city council. You will be able to go to a city hall meeting and voice your concerns. As residents living in an unincorporated area, you have limited say over zoning issues specific to your areas.

While this opposition represents an overwhelmingly small percentage of residents in the affected area, much of the anti-Greenhaven sentiment centers on their desire to keep an Atlanta or Decatur address or having concerns about the city not sustaining itself because of having a “majority of low-income residential properties”.

Nearly half of Greenhaven households make more than $50,000 and more than 21,000 businesses generated $10.5 billion

On the topic of household income in Greenhaven, yes, there are low-income residential areas. This should not come as a surprise as most cities have low-income residents. There are also many middle and high income residents in the proposed city. This too, is not a surprise. When looking at DeKalb County overall, income is not delineated by geography- as in the northern part of the county has higher household income and the southern part has lower household income as some media may portray; there are broad swatches of high poverty in areas around Chamblee, Doraville and Brookhaven, in addition to some areas in extreme southwestern, west central and central DeKalb.

Northern and central DeKalb County poverty rates by census tracts 2012.

Source: The Policy Map, by the Reinvestment Fund (TRF)

Southern DeKalb County poverty rates by census tracts 2012.

Source: The Policy Map, by the Reinvestment Fund (TRF)

The largest median household income sub-group in the proposed city of Greenhaven was represented by those making $50,000-$74,999 (20%), followed by households making $35,000-$49, 999 (17%). Nearly half of all households (45%) in the proposed city of Greenhaven had a 2014 median income $50,000 and higher.

Source: Esri Demographics

In 2014, Greenhaven had 21,428 registered businesses which generated nearly $10.5 billion in sales. While many of these businesses line Greenhaven’s main thoroughfares: Flat Shoals Parkway, Memorial Drive, Candler Road, Wesley Chapel Road, Covington Highway, many businesses are tucked away in homes and industrial parks, underlining the bustling entrepreneurship found in Greenhaven. Cityhood darling, Sandy Springs, Georgia has 3,700 businesses while it’s about a third smaller in population than Greenhaven, but Greenhaven has nearly six times the number of businesses Sandy Springs have.

Source: Dun & Bradstreet, Official Sandy Springs website

If the city of Greenhaven is given the green light by the people, the second part of the hard work will begin. Beyond having to set up elections for mayor and city council, organizing city departments and hiring people, the task of putting in place the measures which would help bring about the social changes and the rebranding of a long economically neglected area will begin. 

Written by: 

Ari Meier handles the social media and content creation for CCCSD and is a resident and advocate of the future Greenhaven. His day job is Social Media Marketing and Content Creator at Hawaii-based real estate solutions provider, PEMCO Limited. He's also an author of three books, a modern painter and plays keyboards in his indie rock band, blue.math.