ATLANTA — Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is beginning his second term with a renewed focus on what he calls an initiative that will help define the city’s future.
Speaking to a crowd inside Georgia State University’s Convocation Center, Dickens said he wants to build on the progress of his first four years in office while tackling long-standing challenges across the city.
“Atlanta, we are indivisible. Committed to one city, to one future, and most importantly, committed to one another,” Dickens said.
The mayor says affordable housing, public safety, and youth engagement will be cornerstone priorities during his second term. Central to that effort is his Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, which he describes as the defining effort of the next four years.
Dickens says the initiative aims to direct more than $5 billion into revitalizing long-overlooked neighborhoods through infrastructure upgrades, transit connections, and business development.
“Poverty and inequality are our persistent enemies; they are Atlanta’s Goliath,” Dickens said.
According to city officials, the investments would be funded through tax allocation districts, along with public and private partnerships. The mayor’s office says social and economic inequalities in parts of the city have contributed to high poverty rates, poor health outcomes, low graduation rates, and a lack of work readiness. The goal of the initiative is to improve those outcomes.
Areas expected to see new investment include the BeltLine, the Eastside, Westside, Campbellton, Metropolitan, and Perry Bolton neighborhoods.
A major portion of the proposal focuses on transit, with a projected $1.9 billion dedicated to expanding transit networks to better serve both residents and visitors.
While highlighting accomplishments from his first term, Dickens acknowledged there is still more work ahead.
“I’m not satisfied. How can we be satisfied when too many of our neighbors still sleep on our streets? How can we be satisfied when poverty and inequality continue to divide our city?” he said.
As his second term gets underway, Dickens says the initiative is about continuing the work already started and investing in communities that have long been central to Atlanta’s strength.
“This second term is about finishing that group project by investing where Atlanta has always drawn its strength,” he said.
