The Race for City Hall: The 3 ways to stop Buckhead cityhood, according to Andre Dickens

It was a busy, albeit quiet, week for Atlanta’s new mayor-elect.

Andre Dickens made a few public appearances the week after his runoff election victory, but much of the action happened behind the scenes: in meetings and calls with city and state officials, current and future councilmembers and — we presume — potential new City Hall hires.

Dickens has said that selecting his close circle of deputies and transition team is one of his top priorities. We’ll be watching to see who Dickens brings on as his chief of staff and chief operating officer, and who he keeps from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ network of advisors and cabinet officials.

The appearances Dickens did make last week were telling: he stopped by several Atlanta police roll call meetings and greeted sanitation workers — two departments seeking to improve recruitment and morale.

And he stopped by two events hosted by groups opposing the Buckhead cityhood movement.

On Wednesday, he got a hero’s welcome at a big-dollar fundraiser hosted by the Committee for a United Atlanta, where business titans and local officials vowed that the “cavalry” had arrived to stop the secession push.

Our own Greg Bluestein has a recap of that event, where Dickens gave a well-received speech that laid out his three keys to stopping Buckhead City: A potent, well-funded public campaign; an efficient and responsive start to his mayoral term in January; and an effective political counteroffensive. He gave a shoutout to incoming City Council President Doug Shipman and several city councilmembers who were there, and promised to make a personal donation to the committee.

The next night, Dickens made an appearance at a kickoff event for a grassroots pro-Atlanta group called the “Neighbors For A United Atlanta.”

Up next on his calendar: A Monday afternoon meeting with members of the Buckhead real estate community and NPU leaders and members. (We suspect Buckhead cityhood and the contentious issue of zoning will come up.)

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Meanwhile, down at City Hall, folks preparing for over half of the council to depart at the end of the year.

As one councilmember put it, “office switch chaos is in full bloom” as outgoing members start to move out and newcomers get their first glimpse of their new digs.

Officials are predicting the new council will be more progressive than past iterations, especially on issues like policing and housing, but it’s too soon to know how exactly that could play out through when it comes to voting on legislation.

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Outgoing Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms staffed the city’s newest executive department last week.

She announced she had selected Jacquel Clemons Moore to lead the city’s Office of Violence Reduction, which was started in response to the rise in violent crime and homicides Atlanta saw this year.

Bottoms also announced the city is planning to bring violence prevention and conflict resolution programs in areas on the Westside and southwest Atlanta.

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Mayor-elect Dickens doesn’t want his affordable housing plan to be based on the amount of money invested by the city. Instead, he’s setting a numerical goal: 20,000 affordable units.

“Dollars are a moving target in an escalating economy,” he told Atlanta Civic Circle last week. “The cost of housing continues to go up, so I’m just thinking about units and people.”

He said he doesn’t see a use in comparing his efforts to Bottoms’.

“I don’t care about who did what, so I’m not going to rate [Bottoms’] performance. We’re going to be aggressive on housing. It won’t be a secondary issue—it’s going to be primary,” Dickens said.

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Last week we told you former mayoral candidate Felicia Moore was asking for donations from supporters to close out the campaign’s remaining debt totaling $10,000. Moore announced Friday that she met that goal and was able to close out her campaign.

As always, feel free to send us any tips, feedback or story suggestions at wilborn.nobles@ajc.com and jdcapelouto@ajc.com.