Last night was the Mayoral Forum on Transportation, led by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and co-hosted by a number of transportation and environmental organizations such as Sierra Club, PEDs, Advance Atlanta, or MARTA Army.
I took some tabulated notes and impressions of all the candidates for Atlanta Mayor. Most of them gave solid answers to questions by moderator journalist Rose Scott.
The questions were as follows:
- Introductions
- Is the Atlanta Streetcar a good idea?
- Should the city be responsible for repairing sidewalks?
- How to connect transportation equity and affordable housing?
- Do you support facilitating bike access to all?
- How would you influence MARTA to improve transit?
- How would you balance building bike projects vs. community opposition?
- Dealing with Uber/Lyft?
- What do you propose to curb greenhouse gas emissions?
- Closing statements.
| Candidate | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Aman | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Rohit Ammanamanchi | N | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| Keisha Lance Bottoms | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| John Eaves | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Kwanza Hall | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Laban King | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Vincent Fort | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Ceasar Mitchell | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Mary Norwood | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Michael Sterling | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Cathy Woolard | N | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Glen Wrightson | N | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
There was unanimous consent for providing access to bike infrastructure.
The question that candidates answered best was on the sidewalks. Responses were least elaborate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Racial issues came up on numerous issues, namely in biking environments.
In my opinion, Norwood and Mitchell spoke the strongest answers, not surprisingly from their time at City Council, with solid challengers in Woolard, Ammanamanchi, Hall, Lance-Bottoms. But that's just on transportation issues, let's see how the candidates play out in other topics.
Also, as a joke, I came up with a list of adjectives for candidates. Can you find out which match whose?
- Dreamer
- Five Points
- Energized
- Teacher
- Regionalizer
- Entertainer
- Methodical
- Basics
- Very Cautious
- Inquirer
- Playboy
- Fortune Teller
