Opinion: Water nightmare highlights challenges of being Mayor of Atlanta
Dickens criticized for "lack of communication"
As Atlanta’s ongoing water nightmare enters its fifth day, we are already seeing an all too familiar pattern in city politics.
Mayor Andre Dickens and city officials are being heavily criticized for what is being called a slow response to several water main breaks throughout the city over the weekend.
Some residents say they weren’t notified of boil water advisories until hours later. Restaurants and businesses have had to close their doors. Hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion was forced to postpone several shows set for State Farm Arena this weekend.
Dickens himself wasn’t even in Atlanta when the city when residents began noticing low pressure in their taps. The mayor was in Memphis, Tennessee holding a fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
After few updates from his office and water officials over the weekend, Mayor Dickens reiterated his apology for what he described as a lack of communication in brief remarks to reporters on Monday. But he left without taking questions after angry residents shouted him down demanding their water be restored.
Dickens won’t be on the ballot until next year. But for all the ribbon cuttings, street renamings and other pageantry events associated with being the mayor, he/she is easy to use as a scapegoat when things in the city are going wrong.
“[Atlanta’s] water pipes were put down 80 to 100 years ago, before Mayor Dickens was even born,” chuckled UGA political science Prof. Charles Bullock, who emphasized that any sitting mayor will receive some kind of blame for the pipes bursting simply because it happened on their watch.
Dickens can just look over his shoulder to find similar situations that have faced previous Atlanta mayors. In January 2014, Mayor Kasim Reed (along with then-Gov. Nathan Deal) was criticized for the response to the ice storm now remembered as “snowmaggedon.”
But Mayor Reed defended the city’s efforts, saying that the city was up and running within the 36 hours of the storm. He also criticized the national media for constantly showing footage of cars stranded along the highways without context.
The coronavirus pandemic and the social justice unrest that plagued the city in 2020 put a huge spotlight on then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who went viral that summer after a fiery press conference scolding outside agitators to “go home.”
The fallout from the police-involved shooting of a man in a Wendy’s drive-thru was also placed at the feet of Mayor Bottoms, who ended up not seeking a second term in office.
So the ongoing water crisis could be a pivotal moment for Mayor Dickens. Being the mayor might be full of pageantry and prestige, but you are also defined by any crisis that unfolds in the city during your term and how you respond to it.
Frustration among residents is likely to grow the longer they have to live without running water. But will that anger carry over into next year, when Dickens will ask voters for another term in office?
“The voter who is unable to brush their teeth, take a bath or wash up the kids — each passing hour, they are likely to become less forgiving,” said Prof. Bullock.