CityLab Daily: The Quest for a New Black City

Greenhaven on my mind: What does it take to break off and start your own city? For more than a decade, the metro Atlanta area has been finding out, with several neighborhoods doing just that. But now the movement faces its greatest test: If successful, Greenhaven would become the second-largest city in Georgia, with 300,000 people and a larger share of African American residents than Atlanta.

CityLab’s Brentin Mock takes us to this part of South Dekalb county, where organizers are pushing for a ballot measure to create the self-contained city. There’s just one problem: State lawmakers need to approve the plan by Wednesday—and it doesn't look like they're going to do that, even as a similar plan for white-majority neighborhood in North Dekalb is poised to pass. This first story in a series about Greenhaven’s cityhood movement looks at what stands in the way on the quest to a new black city.