The Private City of Sandy Springs in the NYT

Advocates for replacing government with the private sector in the operation of cities have Atlanta's own Sandy Springs to look to as a model as reported in a lengthy piece in the New York Times over the weekend. Sandy Springs' outsourcing of nearly every function of its municipal government to a collection of companies around the U.S. and the world (a multinational company based in the U.K. handles the issuance of business licenses, for instance) has been successful in saving money, and as is evident by driving around, the city "works." But critics see the private takeover of government in the affluent Atlanta bedroom community as a textbook manifestation of the "two Americas" scenario where the nation's wealthiest begin to wall themselves off from everyone else. One thing privatizing city government has not been able to eliminate: the annoyance of the vocal, dissatisfied citizen. [NYT]