At mayoral Beltline forum, winner is … the moderator
Tonight’s mayoral candidates’ forum on the Beltline and other green issues probably left some asking two questions: 1) Why isn’t Cathy Woolard running for mayor? And 2) did she just lay a zinger on her successor while moderating the forum?
Woolard, a former City Council president, at one point bundled a bunch of audience questions into one: How far did they expect to take the Beltline by the end of their first term?
But each of the candidates gave too tepid an answer for Woolard’s satisfaction.
“I think we are going to get transit done, but it’s not going to be soon,” answered Lisa Borders, the current Council president and one of the frontrunners in the mayoral contest.
After each answer, Woolard goaded the candidates by muttering that she still wouldn’t have transit after four years with such unambitious vision. “I’m still driving,” she’d say, mocking the answer — in a good-natured way, I should add.
She did give a bit of credit to state Sen. Kasim Reed, who noted that if a regional sales tax for transit, which he’s been pushing, is approved next year by the state Legislature, the Beltline could get the funding it needs to speed construction. (I’ll put up another post a bit later on my impression of the candidates’ performances, but wanted to post this piece on Woolard — UPDATE: Click here for a full review of the forum.)
But when Jesse Spikes, the last of the four candidates on stage, finished his answer (and Woolard spit out her last “still driving”), Woolard added: ““If you want to know how to build it in four years … I do think some notes were left over when I left City Hall.”
Intentional or not, that came across to me as swipe at Borders, who succeeded Woolard as Council president. Borders had begun the evening by crediting Woolard for being the first politician to advocate the Beltline, and by she crediting herself with helping to push along what Woolard had started.
Before the next question came, candidate Mary Norwood turned the tables on Woolard. “Cathy,” she asked, “why don’t you give us your three-minute version” of how to make the Beltline a reality?”
The moderator proceeded to answer the question in real why-I-thought-you’d-never-asked fashion. She whipped through a series of ideas on how to fund the project (through existing tax-allocation districts and a tax on parking lots, among other things), on how the transit portion of the Beltline ought to be altered to justify spending the money on it (run it across town on Auburn Avenue, through downtown and to the Atlanta University Center, rather than continuing further south), and on getting the thing done without all this hand-wringing (she observed that Denver was among many cities that have completed major transit lines in less than four years).
“You can do it pretty quick,” she said.
In fairness to the other candidates, it’s a bit easier for those of us who aren’t running — including Woolard — to offer bold answers to big questions. We don’t have to balance promises that we’re making to different constituencies and campaign contributors. For example, the city’s powerful parking lot industry might not be so keen on the parking tax idea.
Candor, smarts and a bit of showing off about did get some of Woolard’s colleagues sore at her when she was a politician, and the cerebral approach isn’t necessarily the way to get votes. I still remember being so impressed at Woolard as a congressional candidate in DeKalb County, only to find out the hard way that she wasn’t connecting with voters — she didn’t even make it into the Democratic Party runoff. came in third.
I suppose it’s inevitable that an evolutionary law of politics usually leaves us with a choice between smart people who are very careful to calibrate their sentences (and ambitions) on one hand, and ambitious blowhards on the other. Still, I get kind of jazzed when the showy brain comes along and works some magic. After all, as Borders noted, we probably wouldn’t even be this far along on the Beltline if it wasn’t for Woolard.
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Comments
13 Comments on At mayoral Beltline forum, winner is … the moderator
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Not Even Close on
Tue, 29th Sep 2009 10:21 pm
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Ken Edelstein on
Tue, 29th Sep 2009 11:07 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 8:11 am
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Ken Edelstein on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 8:17 am
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Not Even Close on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 10:08 am
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Darin on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 10:31 am
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R Walker on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 1:13 pm
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Silvia Medrano on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 1:40 pm
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Beltline mayoral forum: Which candidate scored? | Atlanta Unsheltered on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 2:39 pm
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Laura Douglas-Brown on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 4:55 pm
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Ken Edelstein on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 5:34 pm
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TWTC: Developments on Atlanta’s Beltline : EcoLocalizer on
Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 11:03 am
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gondawrang on
Sat, 19th Dec 2009 9:08 am
Ken,
Are you serious? If you are going to try to stretch this jab then you better damn well mention the the spearing that Mary took from Cathy. Your credibilty took a significant hit in my book. Poor journalism tonight.
- Not Even Close
Ouch, Not Even Close. Don’t shoot the messenger. You’re saying it was a jab, too, right? Isn’t that kind of unusual in a candidate’s forum?
I didn’t catch the spearing that Mary took from Cathy, though. Please, do explain.
Someone who was there commented on my Facebook account that she thought it was a jab at Lisa and that she “kinda got Mary, too.” But like I said: The part I saw came across to me as more of swipe at Lisa, because Lisa was the one who was talking about taking up the mantle from Cathy when she succeeded Cathy in office.
I’m sure other readers would like to know what I missed, as would I. (But, hey, could you inform without the anonymous meanness?)
You’re right, Ken — Cathy really was the star of the show. I don’t know her at all but if I had to guess one reason she shined is she probably lives a helluva lot closer to the Beltline than the candidates (I know where the candidates live, which is far from the BL, not sure where Cathy lives).
Just as with the green transportation forum, the candidates were asked about something that’s not part of their day-to-day lives; with the last forum, it was MARTA, sidewalks, biking. This time it was the Beltline. Those of us who live near the Beltline (I live three blocks from it!) are probably a lot more interested in how it turns out.
Any way we slice it, we won’t be getting a mayor who lives near the Beltline — you know the project that all the candidates say is the biggest development initiative ever, and the project with the most potential to transform the city.
As a matter of fact, last I heard she did live near the Beltline. The other thing is that she still views the Beltline kind of as her baby, so she’s particularly looking out for it. At the time she was in office, however, she didn’t live so close to the Beltline; I believe she lived in Candler Park.
After Woolard finished her monologue well described above:
“The moderator proceeded to answer the question in real why-I-thought-you’d-never-asked fashion…that Denver was among many cities that have completed major transit lines in less than four years).”
Mary responded with (paraphrased), “Oh that’s a great idea. We should look into that – those are some great idea that we should have thought of that.”
Woolard snapped back by saying that she offered the papers multiple times in year’s past. The crowd oooh’d, cheered, and snickered against the spearing.
That jab was much more pronounced than the one that you perceived.
I would love to see a tax on surface parking lots located in areas heavily serviced by MARTA train and bus lines — central downtown and midtown particularly. This is a great idea for revenue. Also, if higher parking fees encourage people to get outta their cars, you’ve got congestion relief and generation of ground-level retail foot traffic, too. I hope this can happen.
I also like the idea of a light rail line connecting Auburn Ave (and maybe the historic King Center area) to downtown and University Center. Though a dedicated bus lane with a simple-routed bus line, similar to what the Peach bus does, would serve well too.
I’m just fed up with the Beltline. I was a big supporter when Cathy and Ryan were promoting it way back when. When it was a transit project. Now its just sucking money and attention away from real transit projects. As you can see by the candidates answers there isn’t a leader on the horizon who will make this project a successful transit solution.
If you live close to the project it will be nice for those that also work close to it (20 years from now). Otherwise its somewhat of a novelty. Walk a mile, pay two dollars, ride a mile get groceries/eat/see movie/pay two dollars ride a mile, walk a mile home. This won’t get people out of their cars. Most of the city lives walking distance to a major city street. Bus rapid transit would do soooo much more for a lot less money and time than pinning all our hopes on the Beltline.
Anyway, I’m not excited about our mayoral choices. I think it will be a terrible turn out as there isn’t much to get excited about with any of these candidates.
This mayoral forum was about to start…but wait! We’re missing someone…Mary Norwood! George Dusenbury of Park Pride, one of the sponsors, introduced the mayoral forum on transporation and the Beltline and explained that Mary was running late because she was……stuck in traffic.
With a Marta station across the street from the All Saints Episcopal on North and W. Peachtree, maybe she couldn’t figure out how to get from Buckhead to Midtown using public transportation. Someone please get her a BreezePass!
[...] “Why didn’t she take MARTA? We’re right across the street from a station.” Other than a turn-the-tables moment involving moderator Cathy Woolard, state Sen. Kasim Reed offered the most unexpected answer of the evening. Woolard asked what each [...]
Hi, Ken: Great post, as is your post on the District 6 forum. One minor issue: There wasn’t a Democratic runoff the year Cathy ran for Congress. That was when Cynthia McKinney staged her comeback and shocked everyone by getting more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, despite a crowded field. Now I’m off to take my cat for a walk. 
Ah, thanks for catching that Laura. I’ll correct it.
[...] was some discussion about Reed’s one percent sales tax idea at the Beltline Mayoral Form back in September According to Ken Edelstein at Atlanta Unsheltered, “if a regional sales tax for transit, [...]
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