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Speaker 1: Happy Monday, and we have a very special Monday episode.

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Speaker 1: We're doing a return of our Shitty Mayor Monday episodes

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Speaker 1: for this Monday, June whatever the day. It is, twenty sixth,

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Speaker 1: during the sixth week of action in Atlanta to stop

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Speaker 1: Cop City, so that is ongoing. We're recording this is

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Speaker 1: slightly ahead of times so we can release it during

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Speaker 1: the week. So we don't know what exactly how exactly

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Speaker 1: things are going to get this report.

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Speaker 2: Nobody's been arrested so far, everything's gone great.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sure. So yeah, we don't quite know what

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Speaker 1: the first kickoff rally is going to be quite yet,

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Speaker 1: but we do want to talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: a certain mayor for this Shitty Mayor Monday. And I

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Speaker 1: have convinced Matt from the Atlantic Community Press Collective to

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Speaker 1: do my work for me this episodisode by writing probably

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Speaker 1: too many words about may Or Andre Dickens.

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Speaker 2: It was only a little over what you told me

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Speaker 2: to write.

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Speaker 1: That's good. That's good, that's good. So yeah, let's hear about.

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Speaker 1: Let's hear about mister Dickens. Man to take take it away.

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Speaker 2: All right? So Andrea to Shawn Dickens was born June seventeenth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four. The younger of two children. His mother

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Speaker 2: divorced Dickens's birth father before he was born, but stepfather

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Speaker 2: adopted him and his sister when Dickens was seven. Working

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Speaker 2: as an airline mechanic, Dicken's stepfather taught him how to

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Speaker 2: take things apart and put them back together, creating an

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Speaker 2: early interest in engineering for young Andre. He grew up

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Speaker 2: in Adamsville neighborhood, which went to Benjamin E. Mays High School,

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Speaker 2: which is in southwest Atlanta. Dickens says the neighborhood kids

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Speaker 2: were rough around the edges, As he told Atlanta Magazine

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Speaker 2: and quote, we fought often, but when the fighting escalated

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Speaker 2: to bats and brass knuckles, he changed course and turned

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Speaker 2: to baseball in books in instead. At age sixteen, Dickens

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Speaker 2: decided that he wanted to be mayor after watching then

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Speaker 2: Mayor Andrew Young. This is about the time he also

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Speaker 2: met Shirley Franklin, whose son he played baseball with. Franklin

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Speaker 2: was Mayor Young's chief administrative officer at the time and

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Speaker 2: spent time mentoring Dickens as a teenager. She would also

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Speaker 2: go on to become mayor herself.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so Andrew Young, I know that name because that's

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Speaker 1: the street where the hard Rock Cafe is.

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Speaker 2: The street where the hard Rock Cafe is. He went

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Speaker 2: on to become an ambassador ambassador to the hard Rock

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Speaker 2: to the hard Rock Cafe. That's also where the Swat

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Speaker 2: vehicle hung out.

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Speaker 1: Across the Hooters exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very notable street in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: After a week long Minorities Interested in Technology and Engineering

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Speaker 2: program at Georgia Tech this summer before his senior year,

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Speaker 2: someone from the program handed him an application to Georgia Tech,

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Speaker 2: which he filled out while waiting on his mom to

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Speaker 2: pick him up. Tech was the only college that Dickens

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Speaker 2: applied to.

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Speaker 1: Huh. I mostly know Georgia Tech as the place that

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Speaker 1: like Raytheon and Lackey Martin go to recruit a whole

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Speaker 1: bunch of their employees.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's it's the tech engineering school of

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Speaker 2: the South, and all the good weapons manufacturers need to

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Speaker 2: get their good Southern engineering. Yeah, he did not go

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Speaker 2: that route, but it is kind of rare for black

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Speaker 2: politicians in general to come from schools outside of the HBCUs.

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Speaker 2: We've got that like big HBCU district here in Atlanta

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Speaker 2: can explain what that is perfectly. Historically black college and universities.

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Speaker 2: There are a group of them in kind of just

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Speaker 2: off downtown Atlanta in an area called the Atlanta University Center,

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Speaker 2: so they're all kind of together in that area, and

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Speaker 2: that is where most of our elected officials who become

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Speaker 2: mayor come from. Dickens is only the second mayor since

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four not to graduate from one of those HBCUs.

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Speaker 2: But Dickens did join Kappa Alpha Psia, historically black fraternity

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Speaker 2: when he went to Tech and was a member of

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Speaker 2: the student government, kind of keeping his dream of being

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Speaker 2: mayor alive. But after graduations he Brewefly left the state

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Speaker 2: before returning home in two thousand and two to take

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Speaker 2: care of his ill mother. This is around the time

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Speaker 2: that he started his public service career and he joined

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Speaker 2: NPUD NPUs our neighborhood Planning units. Atlanta is broken up

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Speaker 2: into twenty five of these neighborhood units and they're each

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Speaker 2: given a letter of the alphabet, so they are advisory

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Speaker 2: boards that give input to the city, but they can

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Speaker 2: issue like zoning variances, and some MPUs have built up

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Speaker 2: like considerable power over their neighborhoods. So this is where

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Speaker 2: a lot of people like first plug into Atlanta government.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's like, is this like really like the

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Speaker 1: zoning board process?

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Speaker 2: And yeah, if you need to get approval to have

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Speaker 2: a bigger awning than you're supposed to have, you got

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Speaker 2: to go through the MPU to get it.

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Speaker 1: Got it? Okay, So I'll consider that for when I

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Speaker 1: want to expand my awning.

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Speaker 2: Yes you're onning or build your onning.

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Speaker 1: Okay, yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: At this point, Dickens and his sister also founded a

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Speaker 2: business called City Living Home Furnishings. And the company is

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Speaker 2: exactly what it's a for interest furniture store if you

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Speaker 2: found the furniture store. In an interview with Georgia State

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Speaker 2: University later in his life, Dickens reflected that this is

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Speaker 2: where he determined that he needed to act rightly to

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Speaker 2: ensure his good reputation.

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Speaker 1: What furniture store teach him this lesson?

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Speaker 2: Oh well, he said, Imagine I'm on TV saying trust me,

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Speaker 2: and all the people would have to do is call

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Speaker 2: the Atlanta Journal, Constitution or radio and say your furniture

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Speaker 2: was trash. Sure history to somebody who are all these

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Speaker 2: places that you know, you've really got to be consistent.

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Speaker 2: It's what he said, and you know, it turns out

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Speaker 2: now I have to know, Wow, spoiler, he goes bankrupt.

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Speaker 2: It turns out the AGAC wouldn't be much of a

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Speaker 2: problem for Dickens, as we've learned years later, that paper

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Speaker 2: would be on his side, bobbing those easy questions and

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Speaker 2: helping him build support for cop City. So, like I said,

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Speaker 2: the family business failed in twenty ten, you can't actually

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Speaker 2: blame Dickens for it was a product of the of

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Speaker 2: the Great Recession.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So I wonderf we can still find any of

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Speaker 1: his furniture lying around.

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Speaker 2: So there's there's actually a store called City Living Home

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Speaker 2: Furnish Furnishing. And I don't know if.

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Speaker 1: It's like somebody just laid little or Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I tried to look it up and I couldn't like

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Speaker 2: figure out if it was just somebody using the same

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Speaker 2: name or not. But there's one that exists in like

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Speaker 2: West Midtown.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Oh boy, sorry, we're gonna I'm gonna get a

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Speaker 1: lot of comments from people in Atlanta down because you

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Speaker 1: said a West Midtown, west Side or whatever you want

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Speaker 1: to call it, it's a it's a Southwest Piedmont. I

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Speaker 1: don't know.

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Speaker 2: There's there's also so no like south of North. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we have all these these fun little little street or

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Speaker 2: neighborhood names. But so after the failing business, he changed

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Speaker 2: course and went to GSU for a master's of Public

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Speaker 2: Administration in economic Development.

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Speaker 1: So this was after twenty ten.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, after twenty ten. In twenty eleven he uh started

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Speaker 2: attending his master's program at Georgia State University, and then

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Speaker 2: he graduated in twenty thirteen, just in time for the

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Speaker 2: municipal election season. So Atlanta City Council, as we've learned now,

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Speaker 2: is comprised of twelve district seats and three city wide

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Speaker 2: seats or what we call at large seats, and so

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Speaker 2: Dickens ran for Post three against an incumbent named h

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Speaker 2: Lamar Willis. Dickens kind of historically when he has these campaigns,

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Speaker 2: either has really good fortune or good insight in choosing

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Speaker 2: his opponent or opponents. A month prior to the election,

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Speaker 2: Willis was disbarred after the Georgia Supreme Court found that

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Speaker 2: he violated numerous professional conduct rules, including it in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and nine, placing a settlement money from a child

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Speaker 2: injury case into his personal bank account instead of giving

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Speaker 2: it to the parents. Wait really, yes, this guy is

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Speaker 2: now back in Georgia government.

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Speaker 1: He is.

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Speaker 2: He's part of the Beltline that makes sense management program.

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Speaker 2: So this happened earlier this.

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Speaker 1: Year, stealing money from injured children.

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Speaker 2: I think he gave it to the child eventually. But

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Speaker 2: you're supposed to put these in like escrow accounts and

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Speaker 2: not in your.

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Speaker 1: Own account, your personal account. No, so.

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Speaker 2: Former Mayor Sureley Franklin indoors Dickens in the twenty three race,

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Speaker 2: or former Mayor Surely Franklin indoors Dickens in the twenty

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Speaker 2: thirteen race, which drew iron attacks by both Willis, who

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Speaker 2: called Dickens out for his bankruptcy of the furniture business,

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Speaker 2: and what Willis alleged was quote unlawful use of Georgia

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Speaker 2: Tech government property. So on the bankruptcy, Dickens went in

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Speaker 2: to about a million dollars in debt and had some

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Speaker 2: tax lines against him, which he's now discharged through both

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Speaker 2: bankruptcy and settling the tax lines. But the unlawful use of.

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Speaker 1: Georgia Tech Georgia government property, what is that I have

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Speaker 1: no idea.

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Speaker 2: I don't know what they I searched pretty hard to

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Speaker 2: try to find it, and I can't, like other than

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Speaker 2: Will willis making the claim.

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Speaker 1: I found no evidence like a computers like what is.

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Speaker 2: I'm assuming like, you know, probably something like he went

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Speaker 2: to a computer lab and used it off hours for

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Speaker 2: some personal, weird business. But yeah, I found nothing that

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Speaker 2: actually really backs up the claim against him. So he

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Speaker 2: won the election in November with fifty three percent of

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Speaker 2: the vote, which is surprisingly strong victory for like a

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Speaker 2: relatively unknown candidate like Dickens was at the time. During

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Speaker 2: his first term twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen, Dickens worked

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Speaker 2: pretty quietly, but towards the end of his term he

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Speaker 2: started to introduce legislation make a name for himself. So

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Speaker 2: he created a forty million dollar affordable housing bond, as

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Speaker 2: well as a study to raise the minimum wage for

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Speaker 2: city employees to fifteen dollars an hour, which ultimately led

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Speaker 2: to the city enacting that wage. Dickens ran for his

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Speaker 2: second term unopposed, so naturally he won.

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Speaker 1: So that's twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Now we're twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, and this

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Speaker 2: is where the story starts to get interesting. We'll see

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Speaker 2: the themes that will play out in his first you know,

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Speaker 2: a couple of years as mayor.

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Speaker 1: Well and we will learn about that story after these

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Speaker 1: the new f Well Premium Plows the Cooler Zone Media,

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Speaker 1: you just hear us do the ad breaks without the

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Speaker 1: ads at all. So in lieu of that by gold

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Speaker 1: gold play by gold played played guitars, guitars, Thank you

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Speaker 1: by gold plated guitars. All right, we are back. I'm

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Speaker 1: strumming away on my on my electric gold plated bass.

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Speaker 2: Doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like it's supposed to.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Danell, cut cut out all of the all of

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Speaker 1: the bad bass. Actually, I can go get my accordion

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Speaker 1: and play that instead if you want.

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Speaker 2: Let's not all right?

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Speaker 1: Well continue.

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Speaker 2: So we're in twenty eighteen now. So in twenty normal year,

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Speaker 2: completely normal year for Atlanta. Nothing happened anywhere else in

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Speaker 2: the world. One of the biggest conversations that was going

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Speaker 2: around in Atlanta in twenty eighteen revolved around an area

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Speaker 2: of downtown called the Gulch. So this is the area

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Speaker 2: that's surrounded by most of our sports team venues, kind

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Speaker 2: of like where Centennial Olympic Park is, and the streets

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Speaker 2: are all elevated in that area around above ground level

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Speaker 2: and at the bottom of the ground level, it's like

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Speaker 2: these early twentieth century like railway lines, but it's mostly

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Speaker 2: parking lots for those those to the stadiums for the stadiums.

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Speaker 2: And it's known as the Gulch because you know, kind

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Speaker 2: of which is a break in the ground.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, looks look it's like a gulch kind.

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Speaker 2: Of so back in it's like a coach.

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Speaker 1: Ooh wow.

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Speaker 2: Back in twenty twenty, twenty twelve, then Mayor Cassimri presented

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Speaker 2: an idea to give a Los Angeles based firm a

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Speaker 2: million dollars to build the Gulch into a mixed use

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Speaker 2: high rise area. The legislation finally passed in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 2: but Andrea Dickens voted against it, saying directly that there

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Speaker 2: wasn't enough focus in the development plans on housing affordability,

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Speaker 2: and this helped cement Dickens's reputation as a housing affordability advocate.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, because he also did that forty million dollars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he just did that forty million dollar bond and

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Speaker 2: we'll we'll have some more affordable housing stuff later. But

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Speaker 2: you know, I should say, we're like five years on

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Speaker 2: now and the gulch hasn't be gone. But they're they're

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Speaker 2: trying to get it done. But before the World Cup

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Speaker 2: comes in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're also it seems like they've been preoccupied with

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Speaker 1: another another construction, construction project that's getting much more of

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Speaker 1: the mayor's attention, which oddly does not have anything to

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Speaker 1: do with affordable housing.

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Speaker 2: No, it just not. Dickens also introduced legislation that led

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Speaker 2: to the creation of the Atlanta Department of Transportation, which,

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Speaker 2: if I'm being fair, was a good idea and pretty

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Speaker 2: necessary to help address bennis decaying road infrastructure and proven

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Speaker 2: No the roads, you're fine, Yeah, so you you drove on,

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Speaker 2: you complained when when we had this last week of

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Speaker 2: action about decap Avenue and all the potholes. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: that is now repaved. That got repaid. It is a

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Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago. They're in the process of repaving it.

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Speaker 1: So the infrastructure working. It's my favorite part. My new

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Speaker 1: favorite part is Moreland. Is that usually around Moreland's drive

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Speaker 1: there's an area where where you're trying to get to

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Speaker 1: the Wanti Forest that just is always constantly flooded no

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Speaker 1: matter what. And that's my favorite area of Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: And I hear that if you get rid of a forest,

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Speaker 2: that will improve.

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Speaker 1: Flood helps it flooding because there's more space for the

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Speaker 1: dirt to soak in water.

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Speaker 2: Exactly. That is how that works. It is science. So

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Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, Dickens introduced legislation to create a task

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Speaker 2: force to decide how to repurpose the Atlanta City Detention

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Speaker 2: Center or ACDC, which is really weird. Every time I

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Speaker 2: hear ACDC, I think.

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Speaker 1: Of this thing.

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Speaker 2: It's jail, and everybody else is talking about something entirely different.

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Speaker 2: So it was built in nineteen nineties leading up to

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Speaker 2: the Olympics and replaced an older jail that now serves

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Speaker 2: as our primary homeless shelter.

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Speaker 1: So that's what ACDC is now.

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Speaker 2: It's called the Gateway Center. Now that was the old jail.

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Speaker 2: ACDC is the current jail.

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Speaker 1: Okay, okay.

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Speaker 2: So in a press release, after Bottom signed this legislation

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Speaker 2: to create the task.

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Speaker 1: Force, whose sorry, who's bottoms?

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Speaker 2: So from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, Atlanta had

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Speaker 2: a mayor name Lance Bottoms, and she was great and

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Speaker 2: did not approve legislation about cop City at all.

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Speaker 1: She did not, she did, she did, she did. So

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Speaker 1: it was a lot. You just lied.

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Speaker 2: I lied.

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Speaker 1: You already purposely spread misinformation on my news podcast.

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Speaker 2: Okay. So Michael Smith was Bottoms press secretary and also

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Speaker 2: currently serving as Dickens press secretary. So he wrote that

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Speaker 2: this legislation that authorized the task force actually authorized Bottoms

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Speaker 2: to close the jail, but the ordinance did not create

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Speaker 2: that authorization, only authorized this task force to recommend future

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Speaker 2: uses of the site should it close. And this is

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Speaker 2: going to be important. The task force met for about

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Speaker 2: a year, but before turning into options, which brings us

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Speaker 2: to June twenty twenty. We're going to skip straight over

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Speaker 2: there with all of this going on.

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Speaker 1: So what was happening in June twenty twenty in Atlanta?

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Speaker 2: There were some protests going on which we're gonna key

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Speaker 2: in just after the jail fight. But the task force

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Speaker 2: offered four options, and the city indicated that was going

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Speaker 2: to go with the second cheapest of the four, which

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Speaker 2: was redoing the facade of the jail and turning the

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Speaker 2: interior into a center for diversions. So instead of having

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Speaker 2: a city jail, we would have this multi story diversion center,

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Speaker 2: you know, to stop people from going into the criminal

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Speaker 2: justice system. And in the middle of the summer of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: This was how is that not just a jail, it's you.

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Speaker 2: Don't enter the criminal legal system. Yeah, so you don't

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Speaker 2: talk to it. You're not in front of a judge,

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Speaker 2: you are not technically arrested. You are given resources, and

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Speaker 2: you are given options to you know, attend courses or

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Speaker 2: counseling or whatever you need instead of entering like the

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Speaker 2: criminal just yeah. And so we have a diversion program

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Speaker 2: here called Policing's Alternatives and Diversions or PAD, which operates

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Speaker 2: in every zone of the city. And is is you know,

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Speaker 2: if somebody gets arrested, like stealing basic subsistance stuff, they

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Speaker 2: are supposed to contact PAD and enter them into a

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Speaker 2: diversion program where they get help instead of going to jail.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: And it works to the extent that the city of

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Speaker 2: or it works to the extent that APD actually does

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Speaker 2: contact PAD. And it depends on kind of the zone

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Speaker 2: how effective it is. But Basically at this point everyone

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Speaker 2: agreed that the jail was going to end its time

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Speaker 2: as a carceral space and become this diversion center to

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Speaker 2: help people avoid entering the criminal legal system. So put

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Speaker 2: it in that that is the plan.

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Speaker 1: Okay is during June of twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: During June twenty because, of course, the bigger news of

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Speaker 2: the summer of twenty twenty was the George Floyd uprising

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Speaker 2: and at that point in Atlanta, the killing of Rayshard

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Speaker 2: Brooks by Garrett Rolf at the Wendy's in Southeast Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So, after the killing of Brooks, Dickens posted on an

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Speaker 2: Instagram saying, quote, I am saddened to start this day

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Speaker 2: with news of another black person killed by police, and

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Speaker 2: especially dismayed to see it happen in our city. Police

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Speaker 2: must de escalate situations like these before they turned deadly.

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Speaker 2: Once the suspect fled, unarmed and intoxicated through a parking

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Speaker 2: lot of bystanders, this could have become an investigation rather

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Speaker 2: than a shooting. So, undoubtedly spurred by the fervor and

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Speaker 2: uproar of that summer, Dickens also co sponsored legislation with

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Speaker 2: fellow council members Antonio Brown and Michael Julian Bond that

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Speaker 2: would prohibit APD from using crowd control munitions in military

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Speaker 2: style vehicles against protesters. Okay, This legislation, though, unsurprisingly, went nowhere,

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Speaker 2: and we were shot by balls for the rest of

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Speaker 2: the summer.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and they still are using them to this day. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: But this is also happening at the tail end of

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Speaker 1: budget season. So our budget season goes from like March

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Speaker 1: to or April to June of every year. And the

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Speaker 1: biggest debate in Council that summer was about withholding seventy

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Speaker 1: three million dollars or about a quarter of the Atlanta

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Speaker 1: Police Department's funding, and so we were actually positioned police

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Speaker 1: defund the police. And while the legislation was under debate

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Speaker 1: in City Council, thousands of residents called in for public comment.

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Speaker 1: This is the only time that i've the only time

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Speaker 1: estenment I've seen for this public comment was about seventeen

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Speaker 1: hours according to mainline zine.

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Speaker 2: I seem to recall it being longer, but around that,

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Speaker 2: which is around seventeen.

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Speaker 1: Hours, comparable to the last public comment session related to

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Speaker 1: cop City.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and comparable even to the first public comment.

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Speaker 1: Session about seventeen.

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Speaker 2: How yeah, yeah, yeah, So the actual vote happened on

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Speaker 2: a especially called Saturday session of City Council. At the time,

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Speaker 2: like all other municipalities, Council was meeting remotely through zoom.

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Speaker 2: So the actual vote happened on especially called Saturday session

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Speaker 2: of City Council. At the time, like all of the municipalities,

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Speaker 2: Council was meeting remotely through zoom because of COVID. And

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Speaker 2: we're going to play a clip of one of the

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Speaker 2: few things that Dickens said during that debate and to

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Speaker 2: set the scene. Council Member Dustin hillis one of the

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Speaker 2: very pro cop members. Council proposed a much smaller cut

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Speaker 2: to the budget in the amount of like a few

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Speaker 2: million dollars to remove just quote unquote non essential expenditures

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Speaker 2: from abd's budget, sure without risking cutting into actual pay

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Speaker 2: for police or the raises to police stalary that Council

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Speaker 2: and the Mayor's office previously promised. Because this was a

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Speaker 2: special session on Saturday, Dickens was driving around his mother,

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Speaker 2: so there's going to be a bit of background noise

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Speaker 2: and the quality is not super outstanding.

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Speaker 3: And it is now as much as I'm trying to

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Speaker 3: figure out a way to support it. If it comes

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Speaker 3: down to being two million dollars or three million dollars

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Speaker 3: or each five million dollars, it just is so short

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Speaker 3: of reimagining. You can't reimagine something that almost three hundred

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Speaker 3: million and only take through the bombing and to reimagine

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Speaker 3: it right and to kind of think through what all

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Speaker 3: needs to be done at the end a strong signal

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Speaker 3: that we want reform and we want change.

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Speaker 2: What we hear in this clip is Dickens really doing

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Speaker 2: what he's going to continue to do for the rest

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Speaker 2: of his career, make overtures to the public while still

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Speaker 2: ensuring that at the end of the day, the police

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Speaker 2: are taken care of. He really wanted APD to know

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Speaker 2: that their personal salaries were not only safe, but they

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Speaker 2: were going to grow, and he would always be a

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Speaker 2: champion of that. So we're going to skip here over

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Speaker 2: the copsity vote in twenty twenty one. At this point,

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Speaker 2: I think it's been.

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Speaker 1: If you're listening to this show, you're also probably somewhat there.

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Speaker 2: There are several episodes that you can pause here and

404
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Speaker 2: go back and listen to it to kind of catch

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Speaker 2: up yes on on how that happened in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 2: So suffice it to say that Dickens did not fight

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Speaker 2: against the legislation in its council phase, and what is

408
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Speaker 2: was one of the ten votes to approve the Cops

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Speaker 2: City lease in September of twenty twenty one. If anything,

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Speaker 2: Dickens was one of the quieter members of council when

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Speaker 2: it came to debating Cops City lease. He didn't really

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Speaker 2: say much while the debates were happening. So the last

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Speaker 2: few months, of course, of the Cops City fight happened

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Speaker 2: during election season, and instead of running for a third

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Speaker 2: term as council member, Dickens threw his hat in the

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Speaker 2: ring for mayor, which was an open race, with Mayor

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Speaker 2: Bottoms withdrawing her candid seat. All the way back on

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Speaker 2: May six, a mid rumors that she was on the

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Speaker 2: short list to be Biden's nod for VP, which did

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Speaker 2: which did not happen, which did not happen. So to

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Speaker 2: understand how Dickens won this election, because spoiler, we're talking

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Speaker 2: about Mayor Monday, Mayor Dickens, We've got to talk about

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Speaker 2: how Atlanta runs its municipal elections and how Georgia election

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Speaker 2: law plays out in effect, and who the presumed front

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Speaker 2: runners of the race were. First, municipal elections are run

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Speaker 2: on a non partisan basis. There are no party primaries

427
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Speaker 2: to weat out weeker candidates to run. All you need

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Speaker 2: to do is get the required number of signatures, pay

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Speaker 2: the fee, and file on time. So this leads to

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Speaker 2: a pretty wide field of candidates than you see in

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Speaker 2: most elections. Second is that quirk in Georgia election law

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Speaker 2: that everyone is probably familiar with by this point in

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Speaker 2: time from the last few national election cycles. In order

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Speaker 2: to win Georgia outright, you need fifty percent of the

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00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:24,359
Speaker 2: vote plus one. If no candidate hits that number, then

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Speaker 2: the top two candidates go to a runoff election. The

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Speaker 2: state law also applies to any municipal elections for cities

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Speaker 2: with the population higher than one hundred thousand people like Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: Look Atlanta, which has six hundred thousand.

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Speaker 2: So just around five hundred thousand, I think it's like

441
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,679
Speaker 2: four hundred and ninety thousand at this point, but the

442
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 2: greater metro areas, like the Greater Metro area is something

443
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 2: like six or seven million. Yeah, So the two front

444
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,119
Speaker 2: runterers of the race were not exactly popular figures. I

445
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:52,560
Speaker 2: would go so far as to say it, like in

446
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 2: many cases votes were cast against them, like kind of

447
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:57,960
Speaker 2: like with Trump, instead of in support of.

448
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 1: Instead of voting for Biden, you're voting against Yeah.

449
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 2: So former Mayor Cassim Reid was one of those candidates.

450
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,159
Speaker 2: He left office in twenty seventeen after a second term.

451
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,120
Speaker 2: And then it has this two consecutive term limit, which

452
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 2: Reid had reached. However, you can run for a third

453
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,159
Speaker 2: term if it's not consecutive.

454
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 1: Okay.

455
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 2: So during Reid's second term, lawsuits and scandaled propagated heavily.

456
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,480
Speaker 2: Amongst the things that came out during both during and

457
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 2: after Reed's administration was that Reid made nearly nine hundred

458
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in illegal bonus payments to staff, had a

459
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,240
Speaker 2: bribery scandal in his office that resulted in an FBI investigation,

460
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:37,440
Speaker 2: and ensured that airport contracts went to his friends and associates.

461
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,920
Speaker 1: Based a legalist, a legalist demator.

462
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 2: And to make matters worse for Reid, a month after

463
00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 2: he announced his candid seat, the AJAC release that it

464
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 2: believed Reid was under investigation for allegations of wire fraud

465
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:53,160
Speaker 2: for quote using campaign funds to make purchases of jewelry,

466
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 2: resort travel, lingerie, and furniture.

467
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: I mean that would make sense considering everything else you

468
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: just said. That's not really surprised.

469
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 2: Then, on the other side was Fleesia Moore, who accurately

470
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 2: and not was seen by opponents as the face of

471
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,879
Speaker 2: cop City after Joyce Shephard, who introduced the legislation authorizing

472
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 2: the lease for COPSDY and lost her seat on council

473
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 2: for that reason. While never forced to do so since

474
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 2: city council presidents only vote in tiebreakers, More did say

475
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 2: that she would vote in favor of copsidity if it

476
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,679
Speaker 2: was needed. Then, a week before the election, Felicia Moore's

477
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,479
Speaker 2: campaign Instagram account posted a video with Lee Clevinger, a

478
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 2: white Republican donor and supporter of Moore's campaign. Clevinger can

479
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 2: be heard saying all of Atlanta mayor since nineteen seventy

480
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 2: nine were quote not interested in anything except lining their

481
00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 2: own pockets.

482
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: Hmm, I should know. I feel like this is gonna

483
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: be some Uh.

484
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 2: Since nineteen seventy four, a black person has been mayor

485
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:53,680
Speaker 2: every single time.

486
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's that's what I was thinking. Yeah, So

487
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: that sounds like he's over so well.

488
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, More removed the post and return the campaign contribution

489
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 2: from Clevelander and said later quote, it was an unfortunate

490
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 2: statement by that constituent, and I should have corrected him

491
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:10,639
Speaker 2: or walked away.

492
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 1: Unfortunate statement, not just like fortunate if someone saying something

493
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: incredibly racist.

494
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 2: So this was the setting that led to election night

495
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:22,399
Speaker 2: that Tuesday. To everyone's surprise, Dickens eked out a second

496
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,719
Speaker 2: place victory above Read with just under six hundred votes

497
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,800
Speaker 2: for a total of twenty two one and fifty three

498
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 2: votes for Dickens. More had a much better showing with

499
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 2: thirty nine two hundred and two.

500
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: But neither of them was over fifty.

501
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 2: But neither of them broke the fifty percent, so we

502
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 2: went to a runoff. So during the runoff, More really

503
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,400
Speaker 2: courted conservative Buckhead.

504
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:46,679
Speaker 1: And Buckhead's like the northern we have more conservative like

505
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: not suburb, but like neighborhood of Atlanta neighborhood.

506
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,719
Speaker 2: It's the one that wanted to turn it into its

507
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:52,120
Speaker 2: own city.

508
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 1: Yes, which wanted to get to the kids succession, which

509
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 1: is built on a whole bunch of legacies of red

510
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: landing in segregation and blah blah blah.

511
00:25:58,200 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that.

512
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,480
Speaker 1: Okay.

513
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 2: So Moore also earned the endorsement of Reed, the.

514
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: Guy who just said the racist thing.

515
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 2: Guy who know, the former mayor who lost to Dickens

516
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 2: for second place by about six hundred votes.

517
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:14,919
Speaker 1: Okay. So I'm trying to keep all these names straight

518
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: here because there's a lot of names coming into my

519
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:18,640
Speaker 1: head now.

520
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,359
Speaker 2: In a situation that led many progressives in advantage to

521
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,360
Speaker 2: look at the guy who, well, he voted for copstate,

522
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 2: he still supported closing the jail, was willing to cut

523
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 2: seventy three million dollars from APD, and had been a

524
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 2: pretty consistent advocate for affordable housing on cancel On Council.

525
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 2: So it was between More and that guy. Yeah, so

526
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 2: progressives made a decision and went for Dickens in the runoff.

527
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 2: Dickens won by a landside with sixty three percent of

528
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 2: the votes, so and fifty five votes. Moore actually lost

529
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 2: thirteen thousand votes from her general election total. Interesting, thus

530
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 2: Mayor Andre Dickens becomes our next leader. Turn Out for

531
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 2: the runoff was in line with what we saw four

532
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,440
Speaker 2: years earlier when Keisha Lance Bottom faced off against Scarrison's

533
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 2: candidate of choice. Mary Norwood.

534
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: Get wait, don't put what do you mean.

535
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 2: If she runs for Merrigan?

536
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: Right now?

537
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 2: I misunderstood everything that has happened.

538
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 1: She's a scary woman.

539
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna So the Norwood Bottoms run off only

540
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,640
Speaker 2: had four thousand more voters than we did in twenty

541
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:25,560
Speaker 2: twenty one's run off.

542
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 1: So that was the twenty seventeen election. Twenty eighteen elections

543
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: got okay, no, the Mary Norwood, that was the twenty

544
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: Bottoms one. I'm gonna act like I know Atlanta history. Yeah,

545
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: also a US correct you on some of this Atlanta

546
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: history here. That's I feign ignorance to have you explained

547
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: concepts for the audience, making me sound more ignorant than

548
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,640
Speaker 1: I am, but actually then explained to you. I continue,

549
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 1: Sorry I was.

550
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 2: We should say that twenty seventeen runoff was actually much

551
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 2: more evenly matched. Bottoms only one by eight hundred votes.

552
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:58,240
Speaker 2: So that and that's scary.

553
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's scary because Mary Norwood cannot be the mayor.

554
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 2: So Dickens it's Dickens has said that he won with

555
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 2: you know, consent to govern, and it's not really stretching

556
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 2: it when he says that Atlanta has supported him in

557
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 2: this particular election.

558
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: Yea, with this.

559
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 2: Particular opponent, we largely did.

560
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: Sure.

561
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 2: In the interim period, Dickens does the usual things. He

562
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,160
Speaker 2: appoints a transition seam. This included your usual cast of characters,

563
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 2: but it is also worth noting that it included Dave Wilkinson,

564
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 2: president and CEO of the Advanta Police found.

565
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 1: I've heard of them, the Atlanta Police Foundation. That's like

566
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: a it's like a it's like a it's like a

567
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: charity for police or something.

568
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it's a nonprofit, you know, your standard nonprofit.

569
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: Okay, they do cool thing tax deductible.

570
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 2: Tax yet you can donate to them, tax deductibly, just

571
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 2: like they might advertise, just like.

572
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: The stream or does today.

573
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 2: That's the second Destiny reference in as many episodes. So

574
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 2: as soon as Dickens is sworn in, he faces the

575
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 2: Buckhead secession crisis. And you know, we we explained a

576
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 2: little bit earlier what bucket is. But Atlanta is a

577
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 2: very large metropolitan area, and much of the Fulton County

578
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 2: itself was at one point part of unincorporated Atlanta, and

579
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 2: then in two thousand and five an unincorporated area just

580
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 2: to the north of Buckhead, called Sandy Springs, was the

581
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 2: first to become its own city. The initial breakaway cities

582
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 2: that happened after that were predominantly white, and racism played

583
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 2: a heavy role in their formation. But starting in twenty sixteen,

584
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 2: newly formed black majority cities also started cropping up around

585
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 2: the metro area, like the city of South Bolton and Stonecrest.

586
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 2: So Buckhead wanted to do the same thing. They wanted

587
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,239
Speaker 2: to become their own city, and by no means was

588
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 2: that popular sentiment in Buckhead. But it's more complicated because

589
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 2: the city hood drives were not like part of incorporated

590
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 2: Atlanta the previous ones. Buckhead is incorporated Atlanta is Atlanta.

591
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 2: It's part of the Atlanta Public school system. It's also

592
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 2: an APD zone. It has its own parks, roadways, and

593
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 2: water system that are all like City of Atlanta property. Ye,

594
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 2: so to have the best chance of actually seceding, Buckhead

595
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,239
Speaker 2: needs a state congressional vote, Otherwise it would require a

596
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 2: city wide vote, which it would buy with people.

597
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.

598
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 2: So in twenty twenty two, it found that Bucket seceession

599
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 2: bill started working its way through the legislature. The bill

600
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 2: didn't make it very far this first time around. It

601
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 2: dies on February eleventh, so just a couple weeks into

602
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 2: the session. But in order to kill it, Dickens reached

603
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 2: out to Governor Kemp and other Republican leaders and developed

604
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 2: a working relationship early on in his term as mayor.

605
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 2: Dickens also kind of to quell this buckhead secession played

606
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:39,239
Speaker 2: into the race of crime narrative that bucket secessionists were

607
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 2: claiming was the reason that they wanted to seceed. Dickens,

608
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 2: in partnership with local law enforcement agencies and the Atlanta

609
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 2: Police Foundation, created the Repeat Offender Tracking Unit. They claimed

610
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 2: most of the crime problem in Atlanta comes from repeat offenders,

611
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 2: and by sharing information about so called criminals between agencies,

612
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 2: crime would drop. Of course, this is very problematic from

613
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 2: an abolitionist perspective. When someone enters the criminal legal system

614
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 2: therein it haunts you. The task force only serves to

615
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 2: reinforce that, and in response to the formation of the units,

616
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 2: Southern Center for Human Rights said quote, if APD is

617
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 2: planning to double down on the vary strategies that they

618
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 2: themselves admitted do not work in pursuit of a solution

619
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 2: that keeps people behind bars, the effort is doomed to fail.

620
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 2: You know else is doomed to fail.

621
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 1: Our audience is actually buying these products that are advertising

622
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: on our show for some reason, probably, but who knows.

623
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 1: I've I've heard, I've heard the I've heard the blue apron.

624
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: The cooking boxes are really convenient if you live an

625
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: active and busy lifestyle. Like Matt from the from the

626
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: Atlantic Community Breast Collective.

627
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 2: I actually use Hello Fresh, Okay.

628
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: Good, because I think they're the ones that actually are

629
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: advertising on our show. So thank you, thank you for

630
00:31:50,200 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 1: that great, great work. You already got it, all right.

631
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 2: We are back, all right, so kicking back in with

632
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 2: the Buckhead session movement. In order to mollify Buckhead, there

633
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 2: was also an opening of a police precinct in Zone two,

634
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 2: in which Buckhead sits. This is the third precinct in Buckhead,

635
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 2: which is made up of just twenty eight square miles.

636
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: That's wild because like Portland only has like three or

637
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 1: four precincts in total.

638
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have six.

639
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,960
Speaker 1: Jortland has like more people in like Portland proper than

640
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 1: like Atlanta does.

641
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 2: I think our territory is more expansive, yeah, than like

642
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 2: your population wise there's actually more people in Portland proper.

643
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 1: Just pretty funny.

644
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 2: I should say that the third precinct in Zone two

645
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 2: was planned before Dickens took office, but he made sure

646
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 2: to talk.

647
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,239
Speaker 1: About it a lot earlier. Yeah I bet I bet so.

648
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,000
Speaker 2: And then, in what would fit perfectly as a scene

649
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 2: in the Wire, Dickens spent both this year and last

650
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 2: year talking about how crime and Buckhead dropped more in

651
00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 2: both years than any other zones.

652
00:32:57,760 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: What's the Wire?

653
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 2: Well, there's a podcast about the wire?

654
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 1: Oh really a podcast? Yes?

655
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 2: Huh, I forget the name of What's the Wire? It's

656
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,719
Speaker 2: a it's a TV show about oh police?

657
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: Is Is this one of like those like a millennial show?

658
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 2: Are we doing a bit?

659
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: Is this like one of those millennial shows?

660
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 2: It did come out in the early so this.

661
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: Is this is like succession for old people? Got it?

662
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 2: Secession for old people?

663
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: Yes?

664
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 2: I highly recommend watching it and check out the podcast

665
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 2: that I can't remember the name of.

666
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, plug someone else's podcast. Great, great job.

667
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 2: As the Buckhead secession issue wound down, a Southeast Atlanta

668
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 2: apartment complex started to draw increasing attention from the press

669
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 2: due to rampant issues in the complex. A lack of

670
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 2: care by the owners. This sad. This massive apartment complex

671
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 2: operator called Millennia. The company had a reputation across the

672
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 2: country is terrible and it is deservedly so. At Forrest Cove,

673
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 2: the complex was unfit for human habitation.

674
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: Oh really? Uh?

675
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 2: And we have to acknowledge that Dickens here had an

676
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 2: out just to blame Millennia. And but in February he

677
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 2: told the approximately seven hundred residents that the city would

678
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 2: be moving them to safer housing while the complex was

679
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 2: either fixed or rebuilt. The rollout of this wasn't perfect.

680
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 2: On April thirteenth of this year, Sean Keenan, a local

681
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 2: reporter really of.

682
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:18,479
Speaker 1: The friend of the show, New York Times supporter Sean

683
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:19,800
Speaker 1: Keenan makes another appearance.

684
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 2: So Keenan released a new story eight of this year

685
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:26,880
Speaker 2: April thirteen, twenty twenty three, showing that the first that

686
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 2: a quarter of Forest Cove residents were relocated to complexes

687
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 2: identified as dangerous dwellings on the ajac's residential.

688
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 1: Watchdoglyph's that's pretty funny. So I have learned a little

689
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: bit about Atlanta's like rental situation here, and it seems

690
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 1: like it kind of sucks to be a renter in Georgia.

691
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: It seems like you have almost no rights.

692
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 2: No protection. I didn't have air conditioning for a little while,

693
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 2: and it turns out that you are not guaranteed air

694
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 2: conditioning in any.

695
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,640
Speaker 1: Retali, which is hard being like in Atlanta, because like,

696
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 1: I never had AC in Portland, but that's that's Portland.

697
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 1: It's not We're not dealing with the Atlanta humidity in

698
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:04,160
Speaker 1: Atlanta heat.

699
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:06,879
Speaker 2: No, it's it's pretty miserable. Thankfully, my air conditioning did

700
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 2: get fixed eventually, but yeah, there's no recourse for things

701
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 2: like that. So until that report by Keenan, it it

702
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 2: appeared that the city was doing diligent work taking care

703
00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 2: of displaced residents and ensuring that they retained access to

704
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 2: care and services with as little disruption as possible. And

705
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 2: by and large that that happened, but you know, for

706
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 2: a quarter of residents not so much. At this point,

707
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 2: more questions are cropping up, so the story is likely

708
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:35,399
Speaker 2: going to continue to develop, but.

709
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 1: We don't really know where's the point going to go

710
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:40,280
Speaker 1: because this is like current events. Yeah.

711
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, so another force cove issue that will probably come

712
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 2: up later in Dickens's term was that he made a

713
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 2: promise to residents that they'll be able to return to

714
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 2: the apartment complex eventually. But Millennia was denied hot assistance

715
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 2: to fix the property, and it's unlikely that they'll do

716
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 2: so on their own, so the fate of the complex

717
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 2: is pretty up in the air. The city does own

718
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 2: approximately eight acres in the neighborhood, which could and should

719
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 2: go to building low income housing, but it's prime real

720
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 2: estate for further gentrification. So yeah, we'll see how that

721
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:10,040
Speaker 2: plays out.

722
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: No. One of the first things like that I noticed

723
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 1: when I was visiting Atlanta like last year, was that

724
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 1: like all of like this most of the Section eight

725
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:19,840
Speaker 1: housing has been converted into like luxury condos or like

726
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: new new like like a like a five story apartment complexes.

727
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: And no, like the speed of the gentrification was was

728
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: kind of surprising to me coming coming from Portland. Like

729
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 1: there's still gentrification of Portland, absolutely, but did the the

730
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 1: expansiveness of it here and the speed of which it's

731
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: accelerating was was surprising to me.

732
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're not building like low income housing complexes,

733
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 2: but what's happening here is that they're they're adding a

734
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:51,280
Speaker 2: certain percentage of new like if you're building a massive complex,

735
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 2: a certain percentage of your off like your dwellings have

736
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,840
Speaker 2: to go at at a certain point of the average

737
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 2: monthly income. Yeah, but that's not really addressing this like

738
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,280
Speaker 2: large scale issue that is going because you still.

739
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: Have hundreds of them that it costs like three thousand dollars,

740
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:09,560
Speaker 1: and you have like a dozen that are a low

741
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 1: income and you just you do the barest amounts to

742
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 1: script by while still filling up most of the available

743
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:16,640
Speaker 1: real estate with very expensive apartments.

744
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 2: And I should plug here. There is a fantastic book

745
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 2: called Red Hot City by GSU professor named Dan Immerglock.

746
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 2: If you want to learn more about gentrification in Atlanta.

747
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 2: It's great. Yeah, absolutely and set vital reading. So towards

748
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:32,760
Speaker 2: the end of Dickens's first one hundred days in office,

749
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:36,240
Speaker 2: APD chief Rodney Bryant announced that he was going to retire.

750
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 2: Bryant was not very well liked by city leadership. Felicia

751
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 2: Moore had made a campaign promise to get rid of

752
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 2: Bryant on her first day in office, but Dickens said

753
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,480
Speaker 2: he'd give him one hundred days to improve public safety

754
00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 2: and kind of see where things were at before firing him, and.

755
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 1: What happened after those one hundred days.

756
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,760
Speaker 2: Bryant stepped down and Dickens tapped then Deputy Chief Darren

757
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 2: Sheerbaum as interim replace.

758
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 1: I've heard of this guy before. This is the guy

759
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 1: who made that weird confess about having sex in the

760
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,440
Speaker 1: woods with all those police officers. I heard that a

761
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 1: podcast recently. That's so crazy.

762
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,279
Speaker 2: Sheerbom, who may or may not have said those things.

763
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 2: His prior role was overseeing the Cop City development, and

764
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 2: he was also pretty well liked by APD officers, so

765
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 2: Dicks officially hired him in October of twenty twenty two.

766
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 2: But if you're a leftist or even just against Cop City,

767
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,120
Speaker 2: this is actually like kind of a lost Cheerbomb is

768
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:27,240
Speaker 2: incredibly pr savvy, as you saw in that city council meeting,

769
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 2: and he does pretty well when he's talking to them.

770
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 1: No, when I was first doing stuff on Cops C

771
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: I remember when he was just like the spokesperson for

772
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 1: he wasn't actually like the chief yet. And then he

773
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:42,560
Speaker 1: became the chief in like last fall, and they've gotten

774
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:44,960
Speaker 1: better at their propaganda since then, a lot better.

775
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I watched this like every week

776
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 2: he does a pretty good job. Yeah, this brings us

777
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,399
Speaker 2: to budget season twenty twenty two. In April, Dickens tells

778
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,320
Speaker 2: the AGC that he wants to hire two hundred and

779
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:57,279
Speaker 2: fifty APD officers a year for three years, hoping that

780
00:38:57,360 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 2: the total of seven hundred and fifty new hires will

781
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 2: net a four hundred and fifty increase in officers for

782
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 2: the department.

783
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 1: Okay, so hiring a lot, some of them might nutrition raise,

784
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: other people might not stay on, but you're trying to

785
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,720
Speaker 1: like net to get another like four hundred or so officers.

786
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 2: Yep. So Dickens also approved four thousand dollars bonuses for APD,

787
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 2: paid using American Rescue Plan Act money.

788
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 1: And great useful.

789
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 2: Initially, in June, Dickens promised police a raise of three

790
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 2: and a half percent, but in November it became apparent

791
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,240
Speaker 2: that the city would have a budget surplus, so Dickens

792
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 2: and council raised that to nine percent, bringing APD to

793
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:34,680
Speaker 2: a total of a twenty seven percent raise over the

794
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 2: course of three years.

795
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 1: Funny how much money they're just getting pumped this past.

796
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 2: Three years, and I don't know what happens, Like three

797
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 2: years ago, but it seems like something shouldn't.

798
00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:46,319
Speaker 1: No. I mean, like you were talking about how like

799
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 1: how Dickens was like previously working to get like like

800
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 1: a seventy million reduction in police budget. You know, probably

801
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 1: probably in some ways, probably just like for pr raates,

802
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,040
Speaker 1: because during twenty twenty that was the popular thing to do.

803
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 1: And now we used to like funneling millions and millions

804
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: dollars towards the police Foundation, towards individual officers, towards raises, bonuses,

805
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: you know, standard mayor stuff.

806
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 2: Oh, and we're not done. In November, it was an

807
00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 2: early Christmas for APD. Dickens also debuted forty new SCAD

808
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 2: and so SCAD is the Savannah College of Art and

809
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 2: Design Arts college.

810
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 1: A big art college in Georgia.

811
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,279
Speaker 2: Yeah. So they designed these police Ford Explorer vehicles for

812
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:26,920
Speaker 2: an officer take home program.

813
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 1: Via looked like shit.

814
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,279
Speaker 2: Each vehicle cost sixty thousand dollars. So the total price

815
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 2: tag of this was two point four million dollars to

816
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:36,800
Speaker 2: improve officer morale.

817
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,959
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let's let's get them, get them, you know,

818
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,400
Speaker 1: two million dollars with the cars, just to make them happy.

819
00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 2: U seventy additional take home vehicles are in the pipeline

820
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 2: once equipment becomes available to out cool. So yeah, this

821
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:50,839
Speaker 2: this program is just continuing to grow.

822
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,759
Speaker 1: Fuck whatever scad designer was paid to fucking design those

823
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: shitty cars.

824
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 2: So one of the things that was missing during the

825
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 2: budget season back back in spring was the very thing

826
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,720
Speaker 2: that helped Dickens solidifies his image as a Progressive Council

827
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:09,839
Speaker 2: member affordable housing. In his initial budget, Dickens put no

828
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:12,879
Speaker 2: increase in affordable housing for his alleged ship.

829
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 1: You had a budget surplus, and you're like, no, let's

830
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:17,320
Speaker 1: give them a to give all the money to the

831
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 1: police who are already getting a ninety million dollar training facility.

832
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,680
Speaker 1: Let's giving even more money. Sure. Great.

833
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 2: So Dan Emergleckt, the GSU professor I just mentioned he was,

834
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 2: he's an affordable housing advocate and he was part of

835
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: Dickens's transition team, and he told Capital B after the

836
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:35,960
Speaker 2: prospective budget was released, quote, for this to be his

837
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 2: first budget to make a step backwards is extremely disappointing.

838
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:43,120
Speaker 2: And that's basically how all the progressives felt. Yeah, so

839
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 2: Dickens did cave to housing advocate pressure and he added

840
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 2: an additional seven million dollars in the affordable Housing budget

841
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:52,560
Speaker 2: before the budget was passed in June.

842
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: Cool cool, cool.

843
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 2: Remember back in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one, everyone

844
00:41:57,760 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 2: was in agreement that the jail was going to close.

845
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, the a, they were going to convert it to

846
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: that other thing.

847
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 2: That it was going to be a center for Diversion

848
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 2: in Equity. Yeah, it was going to be great. And

849
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 2: by this point it actually had a name, the John

850
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:10,280
Speaker 2: Lewis Center for Diversion in Equity.

851
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: Great.

852
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 2: But in June of twenty twenty two, city council voted

853
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 2: down legislation authorizing the mayor to close the jail. Then

854
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 2: plans came out in early August that instead of closing ACDC,

855
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 2: Fulton County in Atlanta were in talks to rent seven

856
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 2: hundred beds from the facility to Fulton County to address

857
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 2: the overcrowding problem at Rice Street, Fulton County's main jail.

858
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:34,840
Speaker 1: Maybe they should just keep less people in jail.

859
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 2: Activists warned that the lease would not alleviate these issues

860
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 2: and that city council needed to instead focus on decarceration.

861
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:44,799
Speaker 2: And then there was an acl report that came out

862
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 2: later in the year that found forty five percent of

863
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 2: the overall jail population in Fulden County is unindicted.

864
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're just holding people that actually have not been

865
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:54,799
Speaker 1: indicted offertic crime.

866
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 2: Great. Remember it was Dickens who introduced the legislation to

867
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,960
Speaker 2: find a way to repurpose this jail, he said in

868
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:05,320
Speaker 2: a statement when the lease to Fulton County was coming up. Quote,

869
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:09,240
Speaker 2: as I've continually supported since my time on Atlanta City Council,

870
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,839
Speaker 2: I remained committed to fully repurposing the ACDC facility for

871
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 2: non incarceration purposes. But we are also confronted by a

872
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 2: real and immediate crisis of overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail.

873
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 2: Many of these detainees are Atlanta residents, and our conscience

874
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 2: calls us to act. This is a temporary lease agreement

875
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 2: and will allow the City of Atlanta to play a

876
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:32,759
Speaker 2: role in alleviating this humanitarian crisis and to provide the

877
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 2: necessary time for Fulton County to develop and implement a

878
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 2: long term solution humanitarians, because we always know adding more

879
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:46,280
Speaker 2: prison beds really reduces the problem. So the temporary solution

880
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,759
Speaker 2: that we're talking about is a four year agreement, and

881
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 2: Fulton County is paying the City of Atlanta fifty dollars

882
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 2: per bed per night. So when the full seven hundred

883
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 2: beds are taking Atlanta will be making twelve point seven

884
00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:58,520
Speaker 2: million dollars a year.

885
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: Remember when we had to release all those people from

886
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:03,680
Speaker 1: prison and jail in twenty twenty to to overcrowding and

887
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 1: then violent crime dropped. Isn't that crazy?

888
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,240
Speaker 2: That is crazy. So the twelve point seven million dollars

889
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:12,879
Speaker 2: sounds like a lot of money, But before the lease

890
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 2: went into effect, acdc's average population was under fifty individuals

891
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 2: per night. The city's Department of Corrections budget is sixteen

892
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 2: point one million dollars a year. So the city is

893
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:26,279
Speaker 2: still going to lose money running this jail, even with

894
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 2: Fulden County paying for their.

895
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: Retaining for their share.

896
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:31,320
Speaker 2: State answer.

897
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

898
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 2: Then on April fourteenth of this year, the news came

899
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 2: out that Lashawan Thompson died in Rice Street Jail, having

900
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 2: been neglected and ignored by Fulden County deputies. When they

901
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 2: finally checked on Thompson, they found that he had been

902
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,879
Speaker 2: eaten alive by bugs as he lay dying. And this

903
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,880
Speaker 2: was in September of twenty twenty two, just after Atlanta

904
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 2: approved this lease. The cell Thompson was in was so

905
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 2: disgusting that a jail employee refused to enter without putting

906
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:01,880
Speaker 2: on a hazmat suit first.

907
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:03,759
Speaker 1: Oh, imagine what it was like to live in there.

908
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 1: That's crazy.

909
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 2: And this death isn't the result of overcrowding. Thompson was

910
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: in jail on simple battery charges and being held on

911
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 2: a twenty five hundred dollars bond. He was also unindicted.

912
00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:17,359
Speaker 2: There was no reason for Thompson to be in jail

913
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:19,440
Speaker 2: at the time of his death. If he had the money,

914
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:20,959
Speaker 2: he probably would have been it live today.

915
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:22,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just blocking up poor people.

916
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 2: And yeah, so this is the sort of thing that

917
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 2: Dickenson Council have enabled with this new jail lease. Before

918
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 2: we get into Dickenson copp City in twenty twenty three,

919
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:35,720
Speaker 2: we need to talk briefly about some more American Rescue

920
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:39,439
Speaker 2: Plan Act Sheck Henry Dickinson Council pulled off this year.

921
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 2: At the end of January, Atlanta announced that it was

922
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 2: returning ten million dollars in ARPA funds earmarked for rental

923
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:49,439
Speaker 2: assistance that the city never used. What did just use

924
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,839
Speaker 2: infromental assistance. So this naturally upset a lot of people.

925
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:58,319
Speaker 2: Public comment was quite feisty that day. Atlanta is of

926
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:00,840
Speaker 2: course increasingly pricing out. It's like see residents as we

927
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 2: just talked about, and ten million dollars would go a

928
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 2: long way to helping combat that. And then to add

929
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 2: insult to injury. A few weeks later, Council passed and

930
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 2: Dickens signed legislation that gave five hundred thousand dollars in

931
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 2: ARPA funds to the Atlanta Police Foundation to provide additional

932
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 2: police and first responder housing. So really reinforcing the city's

933
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 2: going to take care of police before everyone else.

934
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:27,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh boy.

935
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:32,239
Speaker 2: So let's move on to how Dickens handled cop city

936
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,680
Speaker 2: since January eighteenth. I think it is probably a good

937
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 2: place to start, or the killing of Tortigito by Georgia

938
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,840
Speaker 2: State Patrol officers the day that everything happened, Dickens wished

939
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 2: the trooper a speedy recovery. I can find nowhere in

940
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 2: which Dickens made any comment other than it's unfortunate that

941
00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 2: Tortigito was killed. Not surprising. He never accepts any level

942
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:56,879
Speaker 2: of responsibility for towards death, insisting instead that responsibility lies

943
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 2: with Georgia State Patrol or DECAP County. He refuses to

944
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 2: ignore coledge of the fact that the city's insistence on

945
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,799
Speaker 2: trying to build Cop City both ensured TOT and the

946
00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:05,879
Speaker 2: officer's presence in the.

947
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,240
Speaker 1: Woods and napd's involved in the raid.

948
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, so this moment also kind of changed how

949
00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 2: Dickens approaches cop City. Before he was relatively quiet, but

950
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 2: he begins this like full court media press after January eighteenth,

951
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 2: and we don't know the exact details, but it does

952
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 2: seem like to Cab County. Atlanta officials in APF came

953
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:32,240
Speaker 2: to an agreement in January to pass this land disturbance permit.

954
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,880
Speaker 2: In February, after a student protest at the Atlanta University

955
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 2: Center and letters from AUC faculty that opposed construction of

956
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,239
Speaker 2: Cop City and expressed solidarity with protesters, Dickens announced that

957
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:48,360
Speaker 2: he would hold a forum with the president of Morehouse College,

958
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 2: David A. Thomas, who is a vocal Cop City supporter.

959
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:54,840
Speaker 2: This was a big problem for Dickens, as the colleges

960
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 2: that make up the AEC and we didn't talk about

961
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 2: which one those were earlier. It's more House, Spellman, Clarken University,

962
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 2: Morehouse College of Medicine. All of them carry with them

963
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,719
Speaker 2: an incredible amount of historical and political power in the

964
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 2: city of Atlanta, so keeping AUC support is pretty vital

965
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 2: if you want to continue to run for elections. The

966
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 2: attendance at the forum was limited to only AUC students

967
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 2: and faculty, but a stream was duped and broadcast on

968
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:23,560
Speaker 2: Instagram Live. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find

969
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 2: a complete copy, but there are definitely highlights that have

970
00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 2: made it out. Overall, Dickens was pretty patronizing and sarcastic

971
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:33,000
Speaker 2: to students. Several times students called the mayor out for

972
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:36,400
Speaker 2: his behavior, but he continued to show distain the rest

973
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:38,880
Speaker 2: of the night. One student called him out for his

974
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 2: lack of prior acknowledgment of towards death and Dickens's usual

975
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 2: sidestep responsibility, again saying that it was unfortunate toward died,

976
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:48,640
Speaker 2: but insisting he was the wrong person to blame because

977
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:51,319
Speaker 2: it didn't happen in the city of Atlanta and the

978
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 2: officer was not from APD. At one point, Dickens went

979
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:57,960
Speaker 2: on a TI raid after a student called him a sellout.

980
00:48:58,000 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 2: This we do have audio four.

981
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:02,919
Speaker 3: Let me just chany this witch. I ain't never been out.

982
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 3: You can't you can't you Yeah, you got the wrong

983
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 3: resume that you're looking at.

984
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:09,239
Speaker 1: I know, I know.

985
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:12,279
Speaker 3: We like to yell and shout out things just to

986
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 3: be heard. You've been heard, You've been heard. I guess what.

987
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 3: You picked the wrong resume to pull him on a

988
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 3: race car.

989
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 2: Whatever Dickens was hoping to accomplish that night, he failed.

990
00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:26,240
Speaker 2: Several Memes and audio remixes of Dickens's performance went viral

991
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 2: in the Atlanta Twitter sphere and continue to crop up

992
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 2: this day, like the I Am not a sellout one.

993
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:32,320
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've seen.

994
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 1: It, is that the I'm still ruined by the by

995
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:42,360
Speaker 1: the by the doctor, Han good good doctor memes. That

996
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 1: just reminded me of the I Am a surgeon memes.

997
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: A great job, great job, Yeah, great work.

998
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 2: So Dickens does, of course, continued to try or to

999
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,320
Speaker 2: build or manufacture support for Copsody over the next two months.

1000
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,440
Speaker 2: In March, she was visiting the neighborhoods around Copsody to

1001
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:02,960
Speaker 2: hear feedback from residents, and he, of course started in

1002
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:05,839
Speaker 2: the wealthier neighborhoods and he only went to the less

1003
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:10,440
Speaker 2: affluent neighborhood, which, like cop City, is actually in after

1004
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 2: a member of the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee called him

1005
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 2: out for only favoring the wealthy communities. Local residents have

1006
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:20,040
Speaker 2: told ACPC that Dickens skips over the houses with DTF

1007
00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:20,799
Speaker 2: signs out front.

1008
00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:22,399
Speaker 1: That makes sense, yeah, checks outy.

1009
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:25,520
Speaker 2: He's done several interviews now on cop City with both

1010
00:50:25,560 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 2: the AJAC and wab a local public radio station. The

1011
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:33,799
Speaker 2: AGAC interview was particularly interesting because one of the interviewers

1012
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:36,239
Speaker 2: asked Dickens what would happen if cop City ended in

1013
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 2: a cost overrun. Dickens told her that any large overruns

1014
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:43,760
Speaker 2: would be paid for by philanthropic dollars from the foundation.

1015
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:48,600
Speaker 2: He said this out. He said this, but a member

1016
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,440
Speaker 2: of his cabinet had already confirmed that two APF City

1017
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 2: was willing to pay thirty two million dollars at that point,

1018
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:57,080
Speaker 2: and of course we've now learned that that number is

1019
00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:02,479
Speaker 2: sixty seven million dollars. Uh. Did you follow the City

1020
00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 2: of the Lanta's Twitter account?

1021
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:07,040
Speaker 1: No, I don't want to see that ship, but I

1022
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 1: know they have turned it into just a cop city

1023
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:10,440
Speaker 1: of propaganda chan.

1024
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 2: It's a NonStop propaganda channel, which is like really fun

1025
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,239
Speaker 2: to watch because every cop City post is like bombarded

1026
00:51:17,239 --> 00:51:18,920
Speaker 2: with negative replies and quot tweets.

1027
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 1: I've seen these posts, I know, I know. I've talked

1028
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:24,800
Speaker 1: about how they launched their own website trying to combat

1029
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 1: all of those top cop City websites, and yeah, they've

1030
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 1: really accelerated their propaganda the past few months. And yeah,

1031
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: just turned the actual City of Atlantic account into a

1032
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 1: cop City propaganda UH like platform, which is funny because

1033
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 1: they oft They also will often advocate and say like,

1034
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: this isn't the City of Atlanta's project, this is the

1035
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:46,440
Speaker 1: APS project, which they'll often like use that use that refrain,

1036
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:49,120
Speaker 1: and yet we have the City of Atlanto account being

1037
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:52,760
Speaker 1: turned into a into a megaphone to promote to this project.

1038
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Atlanta Police Foundation doesn't actually give interviews to

1039
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:59,360
Speaker 2: UH like news anymore. Yeah, they filter everything through the

1040
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 2: City of Atlanta, which.

1041
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: Normal charity organization.

1042
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 2: It's completely normal for them never to show up at

1043
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,919
Speaker 2: city Council to talk about anything and to hide from

1044
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:15,360
Speaker 2: the public. It's fine. So meanwhile, Dickens is of course

1045
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:18,680
Speaker 2: like dogged by opposition to cop City at every turn.

1046
00:52:19,160 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 2: On April thirteenth, three, Georgia State University students, with the

1047
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 2: support of this keynote speaker, interrupted a global symposium Studies

1048
00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:31,160
Speaker 2: that Dickens was giving opening remarks. Dickens grows increasingly frustrated

1049
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 2: as the disruptors will not leave, and eventually Dickens and

1050
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 2: his retinue like just walk out. On April eleventh, Dickens

1051
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:41,280
Speaker 2: had hired a new senior policy advisor named Karen Rodgers.

1052
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,359
Speaker 2: Dickens brought Rogers over from the Atlanta Police Foundation, where

1053
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:49,160
Speaker 2: she'd spent seven years working in community engagement, and he

1054
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:51,359
Speaker 2: brought her on, of course, to advise about cop City.

1055
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 2: On April eighteenth, Dicab County Medical Examiner released the autopsy

1056
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 2: on Towards death, and that same day, just before the

1057
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 2: article came out that the autopsity was released, Dickens held

1058
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 2: a press conference on the steps of City Hall. He

1059
00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 2: was surrounded by a group of nearly one hundred all

1060
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:13,560
Speaker 2: older black leaders, including former Mayor Bill Campbell and Andrew Young.

1061
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,360
Speaker 2: This appears to have been a hastily thrown together event

1062
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:19,799
Speaker 2: and only a few media outlets were even aware that

1063
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:22,080
Speaker 2: it was happening. Like, we didn't get an update that it.

1064
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 1: Was going on. I didn't know that was happening.

1065
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just it kind of cropped up and seemed

1066
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:28,720
Speaker 2: to take everyone by surprise. And of course it looks

1067
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 2: like the press conference was held to counteract the autopsy

1068
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:34,719
Speaker 2: report coming out that day. Yeah, but that failed, and

1069
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 2: the autopsy report was the bigger story. Notably, the AJAC

1070
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:42,319
Speaker 2: did not print the autopsy report on the first day,

1071
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,160
Speaker 2: but it was pretty well covered elsewhere on the landscape.

1072
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 2: And the autopsy caused a second city councilor to speak

1073
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 2: out against cop city, and a growing number of state

1074
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:56,240
Speaker 2: representatives have started to speak out, you know, as that happened,

1075
00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 2: and as the rest of the solidarity fund. But Dickens

1076
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,520
Speaker 2: is of course unmoved and preparing for this fight to

1077
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 2: last a while. Then, of course, there was the city

1078
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,839
Speaker 2: council vote on June fifth, and there had been some

1079
00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:13,319
Speaker 2: work done behind the scenes to try to get this

1080
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 2: set back to committee. Apparently Dickinson like peeled off city.

1081
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 2: He called the maybe votes into his office early that

1082
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:23,759
Speaker 2: morning and peeled off the votes and to ensure that

1083
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 2: that copsidy continued on. We should I wrote this, of course,

1084
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 2: I think two months ago point. So, yeah, a couple

1085
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:38,800
Speaker 2: quick highlights again, the affordable housing. So with our affordable housing,

1086
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 2: it is supposed to get a certain percentage of our

1087
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 2: general operating budget, and it started out at one and

1088
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:45,279
Speaker 2: a half percent, and then it was supposed to go

1089
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:46,760
Speaker 2: up to two percent, and two and a half percent

1090
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:48,279
Speaker 2: is where it's going to cap out. So this year

1091
00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 2: was supposed to go to two percent. He kept it

1092
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:53,200
Speaker 2: one and a half percent, but he did announce a

1093
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:57,560
Speaker 2: public private partnership to offer one hundred million dollars in

1094
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:02,560
Speaker 2: in affordable housing bonds. Real, So we love our public

1095
00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:05,640
Speaker 2: private partnership at lant away things to get things done.

1096
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, that seems like the way. That's I mean, that's

1097
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 1: what I'm excited about. For for the the extra thirty

1098
00:55:11,160 --> 00:55:14,520
Speaker 1: million dollars bond to APF, that'll certainly get paid back

1099
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:16,000
Speaker 1: in a reasonable time period.

1100
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 2: Any completely reasonable time period. And you know that'll get

1101
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:22,400
Speaker 2: paid back, I'm sure, And we're not going to continue

1102
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:24,759
Speaker 2: to pay anything and APF is not going to make

1103
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:28,240
Speaker 2: any money off. No, this is surely.

1104
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 1: This project's not a massive taxpayer sinkhole.

1105
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:33,640
Speaker 2: So that's it.

1106
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 1: That's the mayor.

1107
00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:37,040
Speaker 2: That's the mayor. That's where we are.

1108
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:39,560
Speaker 1: And then when's the next mayoral election.

1109
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,360
Speaker 2: So twenty twenty five, and of course Dickens has to

1110
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:45,480
Speaker 2: move the needle. There was there were like some calls

1111
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 2: for a recall campaign around Chickens, especially amongst the movement,

1112
00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:52,919
Speaker 2: Like I personally don't think that it would have any

1113
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 2: chance of succeeding. There's kind of there's a perception that

1114
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:01,080
Speaker 2: he's doing okay. And you know, when you have somebody

1115
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 2: that was probed by the FBI for corruption just a

1116
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:08,640
Speaker 2: few years ago, your standards of what the area kind

1117
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 2: of changes.

1118
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:12,440
Speaker 1: People seem to be putting lots of there. They're dedicated

1119
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 1: some of their dedicated efforts in terms of like electoral

1120
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:19,080
Speaker 1: sign up stuff as being put towards the referendum which

1121
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: got approved a few days ago. To continue, they need

1122
00:56:21,719 --> 00:56:23,680
Speaker 1: to clutch like what seventy five thousand signatures from people

1123
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,600
Speaker 1: who were residents of Atlanta and registered to vote in

1124
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:29,560
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, which seems like a pretty high bar.

1125
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 1: That's a lot of signatures.

1126
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 2: So it's a lot of signatures. And because the organizers

1127
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:37,840
Speaker 2: say this municipal clerk was like playing games and withholding

1128
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:42,680
Speaker 2: approving the signatures, so they don't have approving the referendum,

1129
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:44,919
Speaker 2: and so they don't have the full like sixty days,

1130
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:47,879
Speaker 2: it's like two weeks fifty No, it's fifty seven days.

1131
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:50,759
Speaker 2: So I think it's like it's they have to have

1132
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:52,920
Speaker 2: them by August fifteenth.

1133
00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:55,760
Speaker 1: Which is a lot of signatures, and augustifting is around

1134
00:56:55,840 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 1: when construction was supposed to start for cup City. So yeah,

1135
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:04,840
Speaker 1: and then for other mayor role candidates, I've heard rumor

1136
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:08,560
Speaker 1: that friend of the show ontologically evil Mary Nor would

1137
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:10,240
Speaker 1: may be interested in trying to run again.

1138
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,200
Speaker 2: So this is like her her kind of move is

1139
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 2: she does she runs from mayor. All right, Well, first

1140
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:17,920
Speaker 2: she does a term of city council and then she

1141
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:20,160
Speaker 2: runs from mayor, and then she doesn't get the mayor

1142
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 2: all spots, so she takes a you know, four years off,

1143
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,800
Speaker 2: she comes back, runs for city council, runs from mayor,

1144
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:27,520
Speaker 2: takes four years off. So we were now in her

1145
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:31,080
Speaker 2: you know, mayor, her city council term, and if she's

1146
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:32,720
Speaker 2: going to do this for a third time, then she

1147
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:36,800
Speaker 2: will run for mayor in twenty twenty five, which would suck.

1148
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:40,320
Speaker 2: I mean, she came close last time she.

1149
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:44,040
Speaker 1: Did, and I think how depending on if depending on

1150
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,160
Speaker 1: how progress in the cop City construction goes, she has

1151
00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:50,080
Speaker 1: a way to frame this being like like I was

1152
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 1: the one who was actually in support of this popular

1153
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:56,800
Speaker 1: proposal the whole time. And look we succeeded only because

1154
00:57:56,840 --> 00:57:57,160
Speaker 1: of me.

1155
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:00,680
Speaker 2: Yes, she can do that, and there's so then as

1156
00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:03,680
Speaker 2: demographics are changing, we're no longer a majority block city.

1157
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:08,240
Speaker 2: The population is down to like forty eight percent black people.

1158
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 2: So there Dickens is being called possibly the last black

1159
00:58:12,560 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 2: mayor of Atlanta, and you know that will be a

1160
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 2: shock to our systems. And Mary Norwood would be like

1161
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,320
Speaker 2: just a way to quickly kill that.

1162
00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:26,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like I said, the only way to accurately

1163
00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:30,600
Speaker 1: describer is just ontologically evil. Like she is. She she

1164
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:36,280
Speaker 1: is just that bad. She's like she's yeah, it's not great,

1165
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:40,120
Speaker 1: would not be fun. But she's not the mayor. It is.

1166
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: It is Mayor Dickens who is the shitty mayor of

1167
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:45,200
Speaker 1: this episode, and based on how much power he has

1168
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:47,560
Speaker 1: to change things and how much what he's decided to

1169
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:50,280
Speaker 1: do with that power, when instead of actually supporting all

1170
00:58:50,320 --> 00:58:53,360
Speaker 1: the affordable housing things, he's funneled millions of dollars to

1171
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,760
Speaker 1: cop City, to the Atlanta Police Foundation, has refused any

1172
00:58:56,800 --> 00:59:02,440
Speaker 1: measure to revoke the land lease ordinance, and even even

1173
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:04,480
Speaker 1: even if not not to cancel the project, even just

1174
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:06,560
Speaker 1: to move it somewhere else. He's refused every step of

1175
00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:10,400
Speaker 1: the way. And yeah, well we'll see how that does

1176
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 1: him in the next election cycle.

1177
00:59:11,920 --> 00:59:14,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really interested to see, uh, how he plays

1178
00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:15,320
Speaker 2: the referendum.

1179
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:18,680
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm I'm interested to see if the referend

1180
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:20,200
Speaker 1: then will even be a threat at all, because if

1181
00:59:20,200 --> 00:59:23,080
Speaker 1: it if it's if it's if it fails to get

1182
00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:26,080
Speaker 1: a significantbortion of signatures, then he may just ignore it

1183
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 1: because why would he bother to talk about it.

1184
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:30,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're definitely not going to devote any resources to

1185
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,560
Speaker 2: it until they're sure that it is a threat. But once,

1186
00:59:33,840 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 2: once it, you know, potentially becomes a threat, they will

1187
00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:38,440
Speaker 2: They've got to start doing something.

1188
00:59:38,600 --> 00:59:41,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we are. We are like what two or

1189
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:43,040
Speaker 1: three days into the week of action at this point.

1190
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 1: I definitely I don't know what what things are like,

1191
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:50,800
Speaker 1: but there's still is some days left. So yeah, if

1192
00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:53,600
Speaker 1: you if, if you're if you're in Atlanta, try to

1193
00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:56,800
Speaker 1: stay safe and stay as dangerous as you feel comfortable.

1194
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 2: Say hey to us when you see us, Sure, do.

1195
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:02,160
Speaker 1: You have any do you have any things you would

1196
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:05,920
Speaker 1: like to plug Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective.

1197
01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:08,680
Speaker 2: Yes, so I am Matt and I work for the

1198
01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:10,800
Speaker 2: Atlantic Community Press Collective. If you want to check out

1199
01:00:10,800 --> 01:00:15,000
Speaker 2: our work, our website is Atlpresscollective dot com. We also

1200
01:00:15,040 --> 01:00:19,080
Speaker 2: do a lot on Twitter. Our handle is at Atlanta

1201
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:23,520
Speaker 2: Underscore Press and our Instagram, where we post a lot

1202
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:26,040
Speaker 2: of our videos is atl Press Collective.

1203
01:00:26,680 --> 01:00:29,040
Speaker 1: And then you can also donate to a solidarity fund,

1204
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:31,960
Speaker 1: not at the regular solidary fund website. Still, I believe

1205
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 1: it's I believe it's still the National Bail Fund one, right.

1206
01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:36,800
Speaker 2: I believe it is still the National Bail Fund until

1207
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:39,200
Speaker 2: probably until that court case is settled.

1208
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:42,200
Speaker 1: Got it all right? So yeah, make sure you go

1209
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:44,680
Speaker 1: to the right site for the for the Act Blue

1210
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:47,920
Speaker 1: National bil Bail Fund towards the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. Anyway,

1211
01:00:48,680 --> 01:00:51,560
Speaker 1: So that was the shitty mayor of today, Mayor Andre Dickens.

1212
01:00:51,600 --> 01:00:53,200
Speaker 1: I'll make the joke again. I think it's funny that

1213
01:00:53,200 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 1: the previous mayor was named Bottoms. The current mayor is

1214
01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:00,720
Speaker 1: named Dickens. It's Dickens, Dickens Bottoms anyway. Comment, that's the

1215
01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:02,840
Speaker 1: joke that I've made before. I'm gonna keep making it

1216
01:01:02,880 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 1: until he's until he's no longer mayor unless someone else

1217
01:01:06,280 --> 01:01:10,360
Speaker 1: runs for we could do, nor would dickens Bottom. No never,

1218
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna bother joking with that because that

1219
01:01:13,400 --> 01:01:20,760
Speaker 1: would be so don't exactly exactly that doesn't need that anyway. Yeah,

1220
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: see you on the other side, Stay safe, stayed interesting

1221
01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 1: the Week of Action TATA. It Could Happen Here as

1222
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 1: a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from

1223
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:36,520
Speaker 1: cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com,

1224
01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:39,280
Speaker 1: or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1225
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:42,360
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources

1226
01:01:42,360 --> 01:01:45,200
Speaker 1: for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia

1227
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:47,760
Speaker 1: dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.