James_September-October_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 91
are strong, their streets are safe and
their homes are valuable, activists
conclude they must somehow be
opened, altered or redistributed.
That instinct is not confined
to land use planning. It reflects a
broader shift in American political
culture. Public intellectual Rob
Henderson has described what
he calls the “downwardly mobile
elite”: highly educated people
whose expectations exceeded
their economic success and who
increasingly resent those who have
prospered. Related to this is historian Peter Turchin’s theory of “elite
overproduction,” which states that
societies can produce more highly
educated, status seeking elites than
there are elite positions to absorb
them, and this creates serious political and cultural conflict. Whether
or not one accepts every aspect of
these theories, they help explain
why successful neighborhoods are
increasingly viewed as inequities
to be corrected.
The same mentality increasingly filters into local government. If a
neighborhood is beautiful, safe and
prosperous, activists assume it must
be the product of exclusion rather
than good stewardship. If residents
seek to preserve it, they are portrayed negatively. The assumption is
no longer that successful communities should be studied and replicated but that they should be transformed. Through these theories, we
can see that, in many ways, we are
witnessing a politics of resentment,
perhaps even a revolution of envy.
This is where the debate ceases to
be about planning and becomes one
of social engineering.
REPRESENT RESIDENTS FIRST
The purpose of local government is not to redesign successful
communities according to the ideological preferences of planners or
recently elected activist politicians.
It is to represent the people who
already live there. Successful com-
munities should not be penalized
because they succeeded. Public
policy should help more communities achieve Roswell’s quality of
life, not erode the characteristics
that made Roswell successful.
The question facing Roswell,
Milton, Alpharetta, Johns Creek,
Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and
the rest of Atlanta’s leafy northern
suburbs is not whether they should
embrace the future. The question is
whether that future will build upon
what made these communities successful or throw it away to satisfy
political dilettantes pursuing the
latest planning orthodoxy.
Atlanta’s leafy suburbs became
desirable because generations of
residents and local leaders exercised restraint, protected trees,
preserved neighborhoods, invested
in green space and understood that
growth should strengthen a community rather than erase its identity.
The purpose of local government is not to socially engineer
successful communities into something planners find more ideologically satisfying. It is to steward
them responsibly while ensuring
future growth occurs where it
makes the most economic, environmental and civic sense.
If a local politician looks at
large, tree-covered lots and sees
nothing more than land that can be
repurposed in the name of equity,
then that politician has fundamentally misunderstood the community
they were elected to represent.
Voters should replace leaders who
see successful neighborhoods as
problems to be solved rather than
assets to be protected. Those who
wish to pursue a radically different
planning philosophy are free to
make that case elsewhere, but they
should not impose it on communities that have consciously chosen a
different path.
Advocating for housing
affordability on behalf of home
builders and owners in support
of private property rights,
responsible regulation and
industry integrity.
Austin Hackney
E X EC U T I V E V I C E P R E S I DE N T
Cindy Morley
D I R EC TO R O F P U B L I C A F FA I RS
Chadwick Hagan is the founder of Hagan
Capital Group, a private fund and corporate
finance advisor in Atlanta.
S E PT E M B E R/O C TO BER 2026
404.763.2453
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