Pine Lake, Georgia
Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox settlement
Pine Lake is the smallest city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 752 at the 2020 census.
History
[edit]Pine Lake was established as a city in December 1937,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> after a short life as a summer retreat run by the Pine Woods Corporation. The corporation sold lots around a small fishing lake to Atlantans who lived in (then) faraway areas like Buckhead for use as a weekend retreat. The 20' x 100' lots sold for $69, and the advertisement for lots directed people "from Decatur down the [unpaved] Rockbridge Road East." Many homeowners continued to use their property as a weekend getaway long after the city incorporated. Prior to development, Pine Lake was a portion of a farm. The lake was formerly a widened region of Snapfinger Creek, and the valley that encompasses much of the town was where corn was grown. The lake was dammed by the Army Corps of Engineers as erosion and flood control, prior to the official FDR lake projects.
Geography
[edit]Pine Lake is located at Template:Coord (33.791505, -84.206428).<ref name="GR1">Template:Cite web</ref> According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is land and 5.00% is water.
Demographics
[edit]| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 480 | 63.83% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 141 | 18.75% |
| Native American | 5 | 0.66% |
| Asian | 8 | 1.06% |
| Other/Mixed | 55 | 7.31% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 63 | 8.38% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 752 people, 386 households, and 199 families residing in the city.
Education
[edit]Residents are zoned to schools in the DeKalb County School District.
- Stone Mountain High School
- Stone Mountain Middle School
- Rockbridge Elementary School
All of the schools are located outside of the Pine Lake city limits in unincorporated sections of DeKalb County.
In Media
[edit]Welcome to Pine Lake, is a documentary feature film released in 2020 by ViacomCBS. The largely observational film looks at the all-women leadership in the predominantly white city of Pine Lake. The documentary claims that the primary funding source of the city's police force is from traffic tickets issued predominately to people of color from the surrounding communities. According to National Public Radio member station KCRW, the filmmaker “found that this progressive town was participating in an unfair and ultimately racist criminal justice system.”<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February, 2022, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, " 'Welcome to Pine Lake' is a scathing indictment of the privilege of obliviousness when it comes to class and race."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- City of Pine Lake official website
- Pine Lake Association of Involved Neighbors
- Documentary reveals how a small Georgia city's history of over-policing belies its liberal image - CBS News - October 2020