Hundreds of residents turned out last week for the biggest meeting yet regarding the creation of a new city in northern DeKalb County. It was hosted by the newly created Lakeside City Alliance, which is investigating the possibility of starting a new city that would encompass much of the Lakeside High School attendance zone but also stretch west toward Century Center and east toward west Tucker.
At the end of the meeting, former state Rep. Kevin Levitas, one of the alliance's organizers, raised the issue of race in this proposed city. Under its current proposed boundaries, he said, Lakeside would be about two-thirds white, roughly 17 percent black, roughly 17 Hispanic and the rest would be of various other racial groups. (He admitted those numbers, off the top of his head, didn't add up to 100 percent.)
"I've heard from some folks down at the capitol that it's an all-white city, and it's not," Levitas said.
Assuming Levitas' rough numbers are relatively accurate, it raises an important question: Would Lakeside be too white? Does that matter, and, if it does, why? Tell us in the comments section below.