ATLANTA: After main Atlanta out of the COVID-19 pandemic and a coinciding crime spike, Mayor Andre Dickens believes he deserves a second time period as town quickly hosts its most high-profile occasion for the reason that 1996 Olympics.
Dickens not too long ago launched his reelection marketing campaign with $1.4 million within the financial institution and help from Atlanta’s enterprise and political elite, together with civil rights hero and former mayor Andrew Younger and Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson.
Atlanta’s subsequent mayor will preside as guests flood town for eight matches of the 2026 World Cup. No outstanding challengers have emerged for the autumn election. If that holds by way of candidate qualifying in August, Dickens’ second mayoral bid might forgo the drama of 2021, when the then-city councilman gained a shock victory over two better-known rivals.
Dickens says he is fulfilling guarantees to decrease crime and enhance reasonably priced housing. And he shrugs off criticism from activists who say he is alienated town’s progressives – most notably for his help of a $115 million police and firefighter coaching heart derided by opponents as “Cop Metropolis.”
“The town bought stabilized throughout my time period, unified throughout my time period, and is on a path that everyone can need to come right here to boost a household,” Dickens instructed The Related Press in an interview.
Emory College legislation professor Fred Smith Jr. mentioned Dickens has been an “energizing drive,” including he ramped up reasonably priced housing development and helped thwart efforts for Atlanta’s wealthiest neighborhood to interrupt away from town.
“When it comes to the place he has finished much less nicely, I believe loads of of us who pay shut consideration to Atlanta authorities do not feel heard, particularly on points associated to transit and the general public coaching heart,” Smith mentioned.
Massive days forward Atlanta is considered one of 16 cities within the US, Canada and Mexico internet hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with a preview this summer time when it hosts six matches of the FIFA Membership World Cup, one other worldwide soccer event.
The video games will convey extra site visitors to the more and more packed metropolis. Like previous mayors, Dickens has been gradual to broaden public transportation. He backed away from plans to construct a lightweight rail line alongside town’s Eastside Beltline path, saying shifting to different tasks will assist higher-need areas. These are anticipated to take years to finish.
Regardless, Dickens insisted Atlanta may have a “very festive time” in the course of the World Cup with repaved roads and upgraded lighting. “I would like folks to depart understanding our tradition, having supported our small companies, having skilled Atlanta in order that they could need to come again as a trip or convey their enterprise right here, open an workplace right here,” Dickens mentioned.
Housing boosts Dickens promised to construct or protect 20,000 reasonably priced housing items over two phrases. Over half have been constructed or are below development. Most are leases and round three-quarters are for folks making 60% or much less of the midpoint family revenue, which was $85,880, based on 2023 US Census Bureau figures. Some are on government-owned land or a part of neighborhood redevelopments with mixed-income housing.
Even because it builds, Atlanta is rapidly shedding reasonably priced items as wealthier folks transfer in and push poorer, longtime residents out, a sample that was accelerated after the Olympics. Dickens acknowledges this impediment.
Regardless of investing thousands and thousands to scale back homelessness and rapidly home folks, Dickens’ administration was criticized in January when a person died after being crushed in his tent by a bulldozer clearing a homeless camp forward of Martin Luther King Jr. vacation occasions.
Dickens known as for rethinking how town clears encampments, however mentioned they’re unsafe for folks residing there and close by residents.
Crime and controversy:
One other high precedence for Dickens was lowering crime, which spiked in Atlanta and different US cities in the course of the pandemic and later fell. From 2023 to 2024, general violent crime in Atlanta fell by 46 per cent, and youth crime dropped by 23 per cent, legislation enforcement officers mentioned at a latest press convention with Dickens.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum credited Dickens with elevating officers’ pay and letting them take dwelling patrol vehicles, saying the strikes retained extra officers and halved 911 response instances. Dickens additionally launched sports activities and job packages for 1000’s of younger folks to take a “holistic” method to crime.
Then there’s “Cop Metropolis.” Dickens has supported the coaching heart since he was a council member, saying Atlanta would profit from better-trained police.
However the mission grew to become a flashpoint for progressive activists who argued it will additional militarize police and injury the atmosphere of an adjoining black neighborhood. Tensions rose when a protester was killed by police who argued that they had shot at them.
Efforts to “diminish and vilify” the coaching heart’s critics have created a “deep, deep, deep distrust between individuals who might have been this mayor’s best allies” and Dickens’ workplace, mentioned Rohit Malhotra, founding father of the Heart for Civic Innovation, a progressive group that sought a voter referendum to reject the development.
Water woes and an oversight struggle Final Could, a burst pipe disadvantaged many Atlantans of water for days, and Dickens was slammed for poor communication. He now says plans are underway to repair town’s getting old water and sewer system.
The town’s inspector common resigned in February following a long-running feud with Dickens. She accused him of attempting to thwart her oversight of Metropolis Corridor. He mentioned her strategies broke the legislation.
Dickens mentioned he hopes to fix relationships together with his critics. “The unifier in me goes to make use of the ability of being a second-term mayor to convey everyone into the group mission,” Dickens mentioned.
