The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Passage of Gulch project a test for administration
Mayor has struggled to steer $5 billion deal; Monday vote possible.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms promised to usher in a “new day” after she was elected last year and vowed to eliminate the dysfunction at City Hall.
But upon taking office in January, Bottoms walked into a government in crisis. New indictments in a federal corruption investigation loomed. A cyberattack nearly crippled city operations. She also had to absorb the fallout from accusations city employees systematically violated the state’s open records laws.
Now with less than a year on the job, Bottoms is trying to achieve the most significant political win of her tenure: convincing a skeptical City Council to sign off on a $5 billion Gulch development project that will reshape the city’s downtown.
A number of unforced errors m ight have jeopardized her chances to close the deal, which could come up for a vote in council chambers as soon as Monday.
Bottoms put a formerly disb arred atto r ney, whom she describes as a mentor, in a critical role in the negotiations with the developer. She apparently overestimated how much political capital she had stocked up with the council and underestimated the level of distrust of
City Hall among the public.
The episode so far has left some city officials and business leaders wondering who is advising Bottoms.
Longtime Councilman Michael Julian Bond, who co-sponsored the legislation for the Gulch project, said the ordeal has revealed some “growing pains” in Bottoms’ young administration.
But will Atlanta’s new mayor grow out of them?
“That remains to be seen,” Bond said.
In a statement, Bottoms said the Gulch episode had taught her patience.
The distrust for the project often seems rooted in its origins: the administration of Kasim Reed. A federal corruption investigation has targeted Reed’s inner circle. As the council began to learn about the contours of the proposed development, Reed’s former deputy chief of staff, Katrina Taylor Parks, pleaded guilty to bribery charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
Bottoms has had to postpone three votes she called for to approve the Gulch deal for lack of support among council members. The council revolt forced the mayor back to the negotiating table with developer CIM Group, winning concessions despite Bottoms and CIM’s protests that the deal was non-negotiable.
Though the financing package appears closer to what council members have said they need to OK the $5 billion downtown mini-city, the concessions may not be enough. Council members have expressed concerns about not having enough public input in the plan.
Bottoms’ community engagement has largely consisted of radio show appearances, robo-calls and a social media campaign financed by the developer. To date, she has held only a single 90-minute town hall with carefully screened questions from the audience.
In an email, Bottoms pointed to other meetings she had held in the community and with the city council.
“Each meeting resulted in feedback that helped shape the current deal,” the mayor said. “The full resources of this Administration remain available to all who may have concerns.”
Former state Sen. Vincent Fort, who ran against Bottoms in the general election last year, and who is a leader of the Gulch opposition, said Bottoms had yet to build solidarity in the community.
“Leadership is about finding a broad consensus,” Fort said “She’s not concerned about a broad consensus.”
Key figures from Central Atlanta Progress and the Metro Atlanta Chamber have argued that the Gulch project should move forward, not only because of its benefits to the city, but to keep Bottoms from looking weak, according to several people familiar with the negotiations who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
However, former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young said the friction surrounding the Gulch says less about Bottoms than it does about the politics of the city.
“Everybody talked about me like I was a dog,” Young said about his stint as mayor. “‘I was weak.’ ‘I had no vision.’ It takes a while to learn how to run a city.”
Bottoms’ national profile continues to rise. She is a frequent guest on national news shows and her ability to appear poised in moments of chaos, like the cyberattack, has increased her demand on the national speaking circuit.
When she demanded that her entire cabinet resign, she earned national attention, especially on social media. She also made headlines with an announcement that the city’s jail would no longer take federal immigration detainees because of President Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrant children.
She recently posed on the cover of Ebony magazine with U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, often mentioned as potential presidential candidates in 2020. In the latest Ciara music video, Bottoms makes a cameo appearance.
But to some, Bottoms presence on the national stage only highlights a lack of engagement at home.
“Politics isn’t about being a celebrity,” Fort said. “Politics is about serving people, particularly those people who can’t get help from anyone else.”
In her statement, Bottoms said the spotlight comes with the job.
“Having that attention in no way limits my focus on our communities,” she said. “In fact, one might argue the opposite: much of the attention that our Administration has received has been recognition for the progressive policies we have championed.” Bottoms has political successes as mayor. She eliminated the cash bond requirement for some low-level offenders who otherwise would sit in jail because they can’t afford bail and she fulfilled a campaign promise by signing an ordinance that returned disputed property deeds to the Atlanta Public Schools.
She created a program that provides jobs in the city’s watershed department to prisoners so they can support their families and have a source of income upon release — an initiative inspired by Bottoms’ father, Major Lance, a well-known rhythm and blues musician, who was incarcerated when Bottoms was a young girl.
Even during the controversial Gulch negotiations, Bottoms worked with the council to increase police pay by 30 percent over the next three years — a move expected to make officer wages competitive with other agencies in similarly sized cities for the