Mayor Dickens tees up reelection campaign at State of the City business address

Amid cheering crowds at the Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens used the annual State of the City business address on Feb. 25 to tee up his 2025 reelection campaign. 

The annual State of the City business address brings together political and corporate leaders to hear the mayor lay out the present and future path of Atlanta. At the evening event, Dickens stayed away from major news or announcements. Instead, he focused on the past four years — and why he should have four more in office. 

On Nov. 4, 2025, Dickens will run for a second term as the mayor of Atlanta. The incumbent, who took office in 2022 amid the pandemic, mounting crime and threats of Buckhead cityhood, currently has no opponents. 

The mayor said Atlanta was “fragile” when he took office, but in the years since, he has honed in on some major issues: youth, housing and public safety. His “group project” approach to Atlanta has led to some wins and missteps on all fronts. 

“I promised to make Atlanta the best place in the country to raise a child,” Dickens said. 

Across his term, Dickens has given $2.6 million to youth-serving organizations, $22 million in funding for early childhood education and hired 14,000 young people through the Summer Youth Employment Program. 

But youth support programs are only one piece of the promise. Since his election, Dickens has focused on creating more affordable housing across the city. Some call Dickens the “affordable housing mayor.” He promised to build or preserve 20,000 units by the end of his second term — with 11,000 units already built, he’s ahead of schedule. 

Rapid housing projects like shipping container development The Melody or the newly created permanent supportive housing project Bonaventure add to his housing goals. Dickens also recently created a “blight tax” to force neglectful property owners to maintain or sell their vacant properties. 

Some of Dickens’ biggest cheers of the night came with the Public Safety Training Center, a controversial $115 million project that gained national attention when protestors created a “Stop Cop City” campaign. State troopers shot and killed activist “Tortugita” in January 2023 during an encampment protest on the forested land. 

“When they tried to stop Cop City, we fought back and built the Public Safety Training Center,” Dickens declared. 

More than 108,000 signatures were gathered in 2023 by citizens as part of a “Stop Cop City” referendum, but the facility will begin operation by late March. Despite the facility’s controversy and opponents who say the facility will increase police militarization and violence, the mayor lauded the project and got cheers from the crowd. 

“At our Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, we promise to address the root cause of crime, because not every problem needs to be solved by an officer with a badge and a gun,” Dickens said. 

Dickens mentioned other citywide steps, like a 26 percent decrease in homicides, the addition of 30,000 streetlights, the creation of the Atlanta Department of Labor and two new locally-owned Savi Provisions grocery stores in the city. 

But the biggest cheer of the night came when Dickens affirmed the city’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, saying this is “what love looks like.” He closed out his speech with a vision of love through incremental, constant work in Atlanta. 

“I promise that in Atlanta, our love will look like something, and our love looks like fighting every day for progress and breaking down barriers to opportunity,” Dickens said. “Love looks like taking care of our youth and our seniors; love looks like affordable homes and good schools; love looks like clearing our streets of gangs and guns; love looks like feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.” 

For Dickens, love looks like “a diverse group project.” He wants a 2030 due date.