The '17 race for mayor of Atlanta begins, and Turner Field is front-and-center
Late this morning, we received what may be the first piece of campaign literature in the 2017 race for mayor of Atlanta. It comes from Cathy Woolard, the former president of the Atlanta City Council.
She doesn’t mention incumbent Kasim Reed by name, but judging from the last portion of the lengthy, emailed newsletter, he and Woolard will be sparring quickly enough. The topic was – and wasn’t – about what to do with Turner Field once the Atlanta Braves leave:
…It would be quick and easy to develop this area of surface parking lots so close to downtown. But without connectivity to transit, pedestrian and bicycle options, we’ll just dump more cars onto the highway. Without extending the street grid that was destroyed by the stadium and highways, we’ll lose the opportunity to connect some of Atlanta’s most interesting historic neighborhoods to each other and to downtown.woolardletter
Most important, without providing the housing, commercial and employment opportunities that can help lift people out of poverty, I think we will have failed in managing this opportunity…
The profound disappointment that neighbors felt with the sale of most of Fort McPherson to a single private owner after years of community engagement shouldn’t happen again. I am a community organizer at heart and understand how to build a collaborative vision out of many different ideas. It was our model when we met with neighborhood, civic and government groups for years trying to understand how to build the Atlanta BeltLine and will be my model for governing Atlanta.
I need your help to change the way we do business at City Hall.
Yeah, it's that last line.
About the Author
Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.
