The Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Thread (Atlanta, Roswell: neighborhood, move to, friendly)

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

It wasn't that simple. Many of the candidates (particularly the black ones)that fell away in the general election saw their supporters flow to KLB; even Mitchell's endorsement of MN was no guarantee that those that voted for him would get in lockstep.
Like I said before, MN's fatal mistake was pursuing black votes in the southwestern precincts in the runoff when she should have been capitalizing on CW's endorsement in the eastern precincts. This in particular should have been reflected in her media push.
Hope against hope that KLB's campaign messages in no way reflect her stance as mayor. She wasn't going to get elected if she didn't get her hands dirty, clearly.

And I think you may be over estimating the east side in terms of them falling in line with Norwood. I grew up in both the bad and good parts of NW, most of my childhood friends are from SW, and I’ve lived in SE and NE (Reynoldstown and EA), the White people over there are nothing like the ones in Buckhead. The way Norwood moves may have very well turned them off as much as it did people in SW and the Westside. I think I’m pretty diverse in where I go around town, you may catch me at the YMCA on Moores Mill chopping it up with Rick Smith from Equifax (granted he hasn’t been in a while for obvious reasons), or I might be in Va-Hi somewhere catching a bite, then end up on Bankhead at the Blue Flame all the way in the back rolling up a blunt between games of pool. There is no where in this city I don’t go or I feel uncomfortable in, and with that said I think I have a good read on how certain parts of town think. And for Norwood to think that the White people in NE and SE have the same exact mindset as the posh Buckhead crowd, shows how much she miscalculated the voters in Atlanta.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

And for Norwood to think that the White people in NE and SE have the same exact mindset as the posh Buckhead crowd, shows how much she miscalculated the voters in Atlanta.

This is a great point. With 5,000 fewer votes cast than in the November election, it's clear that the result was about Norwood's inability to get people motivated to vote for her. I think a lot of white liberals in eastside neighborhoods just stayed home after their preferred candidate (Woolard) didn't make the runoff.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

And I think you may be over estimating the east side in terms of them falling in line with Norwood. I grew up in both the bad and good parts of NW, most of my childhood friends are from SW, and I’ve lived in SE and NE (Reynoldstown and EA), the White people over there are nothing like the ones in Buckhead. The way Norwood moves may have very well turned them off as much as it did people in SW and the Westside. I think I’m pretty diverse in where I go around town, you may catch me at the YMCA on Moores Mill chopping it up with Rick Smith from Equifax (granted he hasn’t been in a while for obvious reasons), or I might be in Va-Hi somewhere catching a bite, then end up on Bankhead at the Blue Flame all the way in the back rolling up a blunt between games of pool. There is no where in this city I don’t go or I feel uncomfortable in, and with that said I think I have a good read on how certain parts of town think. And for Norwood to think that the White people in NE and SE have the same exact mindset as the posh Buckhead crowd, shows how much she miscalculated the voters in Atlanta.

My assertion was based on the estimate of 90% of registered voter no-shows coming from the four easternmost districts aka Woolard territory. It was apparent that voters there were unenthused by either candidate in the runoff, and Norwood needed them more than Bottoms.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

My assertion was based on the estimate of 90% of registered voter no-shows coming from the four easternmost districts aka Woolard territory. It was apparent that voters there were unenthused by either candidate in the runoff, and Norwood needed them more than Bottoms.

So why isn’t your disdain pointed at Norwood’s failure to run a good campaign? If she didn’t galvanize the voters in districts that were key to her winning, how is that anyone’s fault but her own? You said it herself, the east side is Woodard territory and MN needed those areas more than KLB. KLB didn’t make MN not go over there and do her job. That was miscalculation on Norwood’s part, and no amount of race baiting or sleazy politics was going to change that. If you’re going to throw shade at least call it fair on both sides.

And again, what makes you think she can run a city successfully if she can’t even run her campaign successfully? She fumbled and drop the ball in a lot of areas. All these theories and myths folks in here throwing out about why she lost and not a single one of y’all has said “well yeah,...MN could’ve run a better campaign”. SMH. I’m a business man, and if you can’t read a potential client well enough to close that deal then you don’t deserve that money. Poin..... blank ....End of story!!!

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

So why isn’t your disdain pointed at Norwood’s failure to run a good campaign? If she didn’t galvanize the voters in districts that were key to her winning, how is that anyone’s fault but her own? You said it herself, the east side is Woodard territory and MN needed those areas more than KLB. KLB didn’t make MN not go over there and do her job. That was miscalculation on Norwood’s part, and no amount of race baiting or sleazy politics was going to change that. If you’re going to throw shade at least call it fair on both sides.

And again, what makes you think she can run a city successfully if she can’t even run her campaign successfully? She fumbled and drop the ball in a lot of areas. All these theories and myths folks in here throwing out about why she lost and not a single one of y’all has said “well yeah,...MN could’ve run a better campaign”. SMH. I’m a business man, and if you can’t read a potential client well enough to close that deal then you don’t deserve that money. Poin..... blank ....End of story!!!

As a counter point, Trump ran a great campaign and he's horrible. Hillary wpuld have been much better but cannot campaign well.

A good campaign does not make a good leader. Sometimes it's the opposite - those who campaign well just know how to tell everyone what they want to hear instead of being truthful about what can and cannot be done.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by atler8

All I know is that the operations of the City of Atlanta government have long needed a MAJOR shakeup.
Boot non-performers & streamline the processes to make it work effectively FOR THE PEOPLE!
Furthermore, any hint of corruption is NOT ACCEPTABLE!
I don't know that I have seen any reason to be confident that Ms. Bottoms can deliver that which is so badly needed.

Where exactly has Bottoms shown that she won’t deliver on that? Because her and Kasim live in the same neighborhood? You’re gonna have to explain that one to me, straight up. And how exactly was Reed corrupt anyway? He hasn’t been indicted for anything, not even a whiff of anything close to that actually. And to be honest, I haven’t seen anything more out of Atlanta in the last 10 years that I haven’t seen from any other Metro county. Shirley Lassiter in Gwinnett went to prison, the sheriffs dept has been caught in multiple scandals, where is the broad condemnation of Gwinnett County politics? Cherokee County got caught illegally drawing school districts, just to keep out a charter school, where was the outage from that? And Cobb just finessed their people out of badly needed money for schools, parks and roads just to build a shiny new stadium for the Braves. And I didn’t see anywhere near the outcry about corruption in the Cobb threads back when their recent election went down. Why may I ask is that constantly the talking point about COA when there really isn’t proof, but in other areas where there is proof a lot of y’all are quiet as a mouse. And before you point to the recent purchasing scandal, please remember that Kasims brother Tracy was head of procurement damn near a decade before Kasim even dreamed about running for mayor. Kasim tried to force his brother out just for the optics, but Tracy already being entrenched in city hall made that not as easy as it sounds. Same with Bottoms, she has never been involved in anything, in fact most of the bigger scandals in Atlanta in the last 20 years happened before she was ever on the city council, it’s not like she had a whole bunch of influence to cause shannigans over at Parks and Rex. But lo and behold Norwood was in office while that was going on, but yet no one says anything about that, and Bottoms is supposed to be the corrupt one. Yeah ok. If MN is so against corruption why didn’t she speak up when these deals were being made all around her? She’s been in office a long time and a whole lot of folks have been indicted, went to prison and come home already before she even said a peep. Some of y’all are so transparent it’s not even funny.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by Forhall

As a counter point, Trump ran a great campaign and he's horrible. Hillary wpuld have been much better but cannot campaign well.

A good campaign does not make a good leader. Sometimes it's the opposite - those who campaign well just know how to tell everyone what they want to hear instead of being truthful about what can and cannot be done.

Bad analogy. Trump read the room to a T, he may have ran a horrible campaign, but he knew what to say and where to say it in order to win. You can’t say the same for Norwood.

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

Bad analogy. Trump read the room to a T, he may have ran a horrible campaign, but he knew what to say and where to say it in order to win. You can’t say the same for Norwood.

I wasn't. Read it again. I'm comparing Norwood to Hillary - bad campaign, but better leader than opponent with better campaign strategy. It was a counterpoint to you saying Mary wouldn't have been a good leader due to a bad campaign.

[Saintmarks]

Okay, I'm out of state now as most of you know and when there was a resident of Cobb and not city of Atlanta.... even though we lived on Beecher Circle in SW Atlanta when I was born, so am a native Atlantan!

At any rate, have always been interested in the mayoral race in the city of Atlanta. Because of the metro area's convoluted balkanized status, the mayor of Atlanta has always been more than a mayor for the city proper but an ambassador (for better or worse) for the whole metro area. That less than 10% of the metro area gets to vote on this unofficial leader for the metro is sad, but that is another topic for another time.

So... do you folks see Ms. Lance-Bottoms as following in Kasim Reed's excellent footsteps (who I found a great mayor that laid down obvious differences to work not only for the CofA but for the region and the state) or is she one of the types that will use the office for own little fiefdom? As in several DeKalb type of leaders of yore?

From my perch from a distance, I would think that Norwood would have carried on Reed's legacy. Don't know enough about KLB to know. Takes?

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by Forhall

I wasn't. Read it again. I'm comparing Norwood to Hillary - bad campaign, but better leader than opponent with better campaign strategy. It was a counterpoint to you saying Mary wouldn't have been a good leader due to a bad campaign.

You’re right. Rep for that and my mistake.