Suburbanites in Louisiana vote to create their own city

[Ex Lurker]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/us/baton-rouge-st-george.html

BATON ROUGE, La. — Residents of a largely white suburb of Baton Rouge voted on Saturday to incorporate a new city of their own — to be called St. George — and take away control of the community’s taxes, schools and other services from the less affluent, more diverse surrounding parish.

The outcome was a rebuke to parish leaders, and illustrated just how strongly many residents wanted to separate themselves from Baton Rouge, the state capital, which is governed jointly with the parish.

Yet with just 54 percent of voters supporting incorporation, the referendum also demonstrated a split in the community over the proposition, with concerns that going ahead with incorporation could sow further division and financial uncertainty in what would be Louisiana’s fifth-most-populous city.

Backstory: In the wake of Alton Sterling's murder at the hands of Baton Rouge police, the people of Baton Rouge elected a progressive Black woman as mayor, with a mandate to make sweeping changes, in particular the police department and making sure public services were properly funded and reached marginalized areas and people. The white reaction was this thinly disguised attempt at secession, which would carve out a new, mostly white, mostly prosperous, enclave. In other words, they are not willing to be governed by POC, nor are they willing to pay their fair share. This is not a done deal yet, as it will likely be held up in court for years, but you might think of it as an opening salvo in the reparations battle that will probably be fought nationwide in the not too distant future