Our pick for City Council Post 2 At-Large: Aaron Watson
It’s a shame that some of the candidates for City Council’s Post 2 At-Large can’t be farmed out to other district races with less impressive rosters. As it is, we’re forced to decide between three seemingly qualified and capable guys running for the same open seat.
There's Weslee Knapp, an engineer and real estate broker who thinks his private sector expertise could knock down walls in City Hall's bureaucratic maze. Amir Farokhi is a 31-year-old attorney and Grant Park resident whose smart-growth vision for Atlanta doesn't just sound exciting, but doable. And Aaron Watson, a corporate finance lawyer, boasts a long record of leadership that includes the Atlanta Public Schools board, the Atlanta Housing Authority and the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
All the contenders have big ideas and want to effect change. But only Watson has the record to back it up.
And what a record. In 1993, Watson was recruited to reform a highly dysfunctional Atlanta school board. For eight years — five of which he served as president — Watson helped solve the system's financial woes, building up its reserves, paying off its debt and winning approval of a special tax to cover capital projects. He also helped negotiate employee pension plans, an issue the next Council must address before the city drowns in red ink.
As an at-large councilmember representing a citywide constituency, Watson would be focused on policy issues that can transform the city. He's concerned about affordable housing, Atlanta's water supply, sustainable transit options and turning Atlanta’s Southside into a booming and smartly designed part of the city.
Knapp, with additional political experience, could one day streamline the permitting process that now causes businesses to think twice about moving intown. Farokhi, who embodies the youthful progressive politics the city (and state) sorely needs, belongs in public service. (On nearly every point, Farokhi and Watson match up: Wanna save money? Close the city jail. How can transit become a reality? Sorry, commuters, but it's time we talk about a parking tax.)
In the case of those two candidates, it's a decision between a political newcomer with strong potential or a polished reformer with the experience to navigate the egos and agendas he’ll encounter at City Hall. In the end, Watson prevails as the kind of demonstrated leader, coalition-builder and big-picture thinker that the city desperately needs.
Folks like him don't come around too often. Watson deserves a seat on Council.
COMMENTS
RE: Our pick for City Council Post 2 At-Large: Aaron Watson
Posted by the lovely ms. catfish on 11.02.09 @ 11:24 PM
Thank you Lev for speaking truth to power re: Aaron Watson. I am very disappointed in CL's endorsement for this seat.
RE: Our pick for City Council Post 2 At-Large: Aaron Watson
Posted by Lev Bronstein on 10.15.09 @ 01:21 PM
I've watched Watson for years. He's the quintessential "go along to get along" politician.
Our favorite Watson moment was his paid shilling for the deck in Piedmont. I had friends who were pro-deck right up to the moment Watson stood in front of an all-black southside NPU and said "They" (later parsed to mean the neighborhoods around the park who opposed the deck) don't want people like "you" (southside black Atlantans) in "their" (the northeast again) community, but "we" (his client, the Garden) think it's "your" park too and "you" shouldn't let "them" (the racists of Morningside, Virginia-Highland, Candler Park, etc.) keep "you" out.
It was pretty standard-issue pronoun-based race-baiting, but what made it great was the immediate follow-up and (unanswered) challenges to Watson from the local city council member: If these neighborhoods were full of and dominated by ugly racists, why had he chosen to live among them in Morningside for years? Could there be other reasons for opposing the deck than race? Could Watson be supporting it because he was being paid to do so?
In terms of Watson's effectiveness, note that the NPU in question voted unanimously to oppose the Deck, though to be fair, it may be that his use of pronouns was so convoluted and confusing that the citizens were as much baffled as offended.
Reconcile that overall performance with the adjectives used in your endorsement. Watson's major attribute is being soft-spoken; if you want someone who won't rock the boat, he's the man.
But I don't think this is the time and the place for that, and I hope that "we" will join "them" in choosing a better candidate.
Lev
RE: Our pick for City Council Post 2 At-Large: Aaron Watson
Posted by Benevolus on 10.14.09 @ 09:41 AM
Suddenly Aaron Watson is for 'smart growth' after serving for many years on the Atlanta Development Authority? What kind of growth has he been working on all that time?
Between that and his tenure on the Atlanta Housing Authority during it's poorly planned and executed banishment of public housing residents from Atlanta, one could get the impression that Mr. Watson is more concerned with representing developers and big business rather than the ordinary citizens who actually need stronger representation.
JT