Mayor Andre Dickens was sworn in to office for a second term Monday, along with all members of the Atlanta City Council.
Thousands of people crowded into Georgia State University’s Convocation Hall for the inauguration ceremony — including top politicians like U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams, U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and other former Atlanta mayors like Kasim Reed and Shirley Franklin.
“As a 16-year-old boy I set my sights on a dream: to serve the city that raised me. A city shaped by giants,” Dickens said from the stage. “Today, I am honored to continue that calling for four more years.”
Atlanta residents overwhelming backed the Adamsville native for a second term in the November municipal election, with more than 85% of the vote.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The scene was starkly different from the inauguration events four years ago held at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium, in almost freezing temperatures while attendees wore masks and were tested for COVID-19 upon entry.
On stage Monday, Dickens reflected on his decade of public service, both as a city council member and mayor, proclaiming that the city will “remain indivisible.”
“Four years ago, Atlanta faced a test unlike any that we have seen before — the questions were heavy,” he said. “These were not individual questions, but collective ones. Because Atlanta is and always will be a group project.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
There are big challenges ahead for the city’s leadership.
Atlanta has lost millions of dollars in federal funding since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The city faces the prospect of losing even more if it challenges a Trump administration order looking to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, a hallmark of Atlanta’s history.
And city officials have a little more than six months to finish preparations for the FIFA World Cup games it will host this summer. Eight matches in Atlanta will test the city’s ability to manage visitors expected to number in the hundreds of thousands.
The mayor also has big plans for the next four years.
A lofty proposal to extend the city’s tax allocation districts and hopes of expanding MARTA into a regional transit system are two of the top items on Dickens’ agenda for his second term.
Returning and new Atlanta City Council members were also sworn in to office Monday, a majority of whom are staunch Dickens allies. The group includes Marci Collier Overstreet taking over as council president after serving on the city council.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Overstreet graduated from Benjamin E. Mays High School — same as Dickens — and has a journalism degree from Georgia State University. She has promised to work in lockstep with the mayor.
“As your next council president, I will lead with one question in mind: Will my decisions benefit Atlanta’s residents?” Overstreet said. “Every policy, every budget, every project should be able to stand before this question and pass the test.”
The mayor hopes to leverage his council relationships to pass the ambitious TAD extensions, a controversial plan that he says is needed to fight racial disparities across neighborhoods.
Dickens wants to utilize an estimated $5.5 billion generated by the extensions to fund major projects that have the potential to reshape the city for decades to come. But he’ll need approval of Fulton County government and Atlanta Public Schools to realize the full amount.
The project list includes $130 million toward the ambitious Stitch project that would cap Atlanta’s downtown connector with a city park, and $100 million for a new hospital campus currently under negotiation.
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
“The defining work of this next term is the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, an effort to ensure that every neighborhood in Atlanta is safe, connected, healthy and whole,” Dickens said during the inauguration speech.
“When we invest in people, families, neighborhoods, we don’t just reduce the harm,” he said. “We dismantle the conditions that caused the harm to exist in the first place.”
There are three new faces on the council, representing district seats where the incumbents did not run for reelection.
Kelsea Bond, a 32-year-old Midtown resident, became the first Democratic Socialist elected to the body after a landslide victory in District 2.
Former MARTA Board of Directors member and Piedmont Healthcare executive Thomas Worthy secured the Buckhead-representing District 7 seat in a December runoff after longtime council member Howard Shook decided to retire.
Atlanta native Wayne Martin, who has previously served in leadership positions for both the Atlanta Housing Authority and Atlanta Public Schools, also won in a runoff after a crowded race to fill the coveted southwest Atlanta District 11 seat vacated by Overstreet.
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