A warmly received Mayor Andre Dickens gave a State of the City update to the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Dec. 4, touting several accomplishments since he had last spoken to the organization in May 2022.
The program began with a spotlight on a joint initiative between Rotary and the city – the Early Childhood Champions Initiative to help train and retain teachers of early learning.
“A year ago…, I came to you with our intention to invest $20 million in early childhood education, which was a first-of-its-kind investment for the city of Atlanta,” said Dickens, sharing credit with GEEARS, PAACT, the Atlanta Speech School and Stephanie Blank. “We had a $20 million goal, and we hit it. I really appreciate the Rotary Club of Atlanta seeing the value and importance and what we’re trying to do.”
Dickens said his “Year of the Youth” initiative successfully got summer employment for 5,000 young people making $17 an hour this past summer, compared to 3,000 the previous year, and 1,500 during his first summer in office.
On public safety, Dickens said that as of mid-November, citywide crimes, including homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults, and shootings are down 20 percent from the year before.
During his talk and during the question-and-answer portion, the mayor was not asked about the current status of the public safety training center or about his support for transit and rail along the Atlanta BeltLine.
The mayor did report that the city’s finances are in good shape.
“The City of Atlanta continues to enjoy its strongest credit rating ever and the highest reserves in the city’s history,” Dickens said. “This administration will continue to be good stewards of our city’s resources.”
One of Atlanta’s major economic drivers is the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which is expected to have 110 million passengers this year. Dickens also boasted that Atlanta’s airport was just named by Business Traveler magazine as the best airport in North America.
Rotary President John Yates asked the mayor about receiving an award from the Technology Association of Georgia.
“I’m so excited to be the tech mayor,” Dickens said. “My goal is to make Atlanta a top-five ecosystem for technology. That means that when people start talking about where they’re going to place their companies and where they’re going to grow their talent, they are not just going to be looking at the [west] coast, they are looking at Atlanta, Georgia.”
Dickens said technology companies are already in Atlanta and more are coming because of the talent that is graduating from the top universities in the city.
“People are coming out of these colleges and universities ready — diverse talent. They don’t have to manufacture the diverse perspectives,” Dickens said. “What I want to do is make sure that we continue to grow local talent.”
The mayor was asked about potholes. He said the City fills about 40 potholes a day and that the City had filled more than 11,000 potholes in the past year.
When asked about the homeless population, Dickens said the city is working on eviction prevention and eviction relief. The city estimates that Atlanta’s homeless population is growing at a rate of 200 people a month. Although the city was able to rehouse 2,400 people last year, the city is having to work hard just to keep up with the growth of new homeless residents.
One of the more provocative questions was when the mayor was asked about the now-closed Atlanta Medical Center. The mayor said the city is trying to find a deal that makes sense to buy the property from Wellstar, which closed the hospital a little more than a year ago.
Dickens said he is talking to the Morehouse School of Medicine about the possibility of the HBCU becoming involved in running a hospital as other universities have done across the country.
Dickens received a standing ovation from Rotarians at the end of the program.
