Sunday, November 01, 2009
Sports, Politics, "Hunt's Grunts"

Make yours count

 

By Hunt Archbold

A year ago this week, our nation was in a frenzy, and people were abuzz across the globe as a political season for the ages came to a climatic conclusion with Barack Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States. Indeed, much has transpired since then, and only in time will we be able to properly evaluate Obama’s presidency. But there’s no denying the historical nature of his victory. And here, 52 weeks later, we have another important election, this one to determine Atlanta’s next mayor. And I wonder just how many of this would-be great city’s residents, and not just its 258,000 registered voters, really even care?

Being mayor of any major metropolitan or capital city can’t be an easy job. Last November, the residents of Sacramento, Calif., elected former NBA All-Star point guard Kevin Johnson. In October, while attending a conference in San Francisco, Johnson was robbed of some personal items and clothing when he set his bags down to assist an elderly man who was struggling to get his bags into a cab. Johnson’s bags were later returned, but his city could lose even more—as in the NBA’s Kings, if their home, the aging Arco Arena, isn’t replaced in the near future, according to Johnson. Indeed, the NCAA recently bypassed Sacramento’s bid to host NCAA men’s tournament basketball games through 2013 because of concerns about the conditions at Arco.

Whoever becomes Atlanta’s next mayor won’t have such problems, as major events in a variety of sports will continue to be a part of the city’s future—including last week’s announcement that the ACC men’s basketball tournament will return here in 2012. In his campaign for Atlanta mayor in 1961, Ivan Allen, Jr. promised to build a modern sports facility to attract a major league baseball team. Four years later, Atlanta Stadium was finished, and the Braves relocated from Milwaukee to play there in 1966.

This ushering-in of big-time sports to the city was followed by subsequent Atlanta mayors putting their personal stamp on Atlanta’s increasing national (and international) sports footprint. After initially opposing the idea, Sam Massell fought to have the Omni built in the early ’70s. Andrew Young was crucial in the city’s successful bid to land the 1996 Olympics. There was Maynard Jackson, standing before the world and accepting the Olympic flag in Barcelona in 1992; and Bill Campbell four years later, putting Munson Steed III in charge of making the Atlanta Games the Tacky Olympics, filling the heart of the downtown area with a carnival-like collection of seamy vendors and soapbox preachers selling unlicensed swag, giving away condoms and preaching the good word of Jesus.

No, the next Atlanta mayor won’t have many sports-related issues to deal with. But that’s a good thing, because with crime high throughout the city and stress levels spiking over taxes, there are so many other areas in dire need of a fix. Who will be most capable of fixing the city’s money problems and producing the best plan for public safety? There’s been much mudslinging among the three leading candidates (as well as from outgoing mayor Shirley Franklin) as election day draws near. And as we approach Tuesday, two prevailing questions loom: Will front-runner Mary Norwood win the majority of votes and become Atlanta’s first white mayor since 1974? And if she’s in a runoff, will it be Lisa Borders or Kasim Reed opposing her on Dec. 1?

Borders has the public support of some of the local hoops community. NBA legend Julius Erving recently co-hosted a campaign fundraising event attended by the likes of Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Steve Smith, Teresa Edwards and Chamique Holdsclaw. It appears as if those athletes fully intend to make their votes count. But who else? Will you, City of Atlanta resident? A small informal poll I took last week among friends and random strangers left me wondering if anyone cared.

When Franklin barely won a hard-fought election in 2001, turnout was 41 percent, and then just 23 percent four years later, when re-election appeared inevitable. With so much at stake at a crucial moment in this city’s history, how could the percentages not be more than 50 percent this Tuesday? But they won’t even approach that number. Are you one of the 250,000-plus registered voters who can make your voice be heard this week? Do you even know where your polling place is located? 

The current state of city affairs is a mess, and the senseless acts of violence that fill our newsprint and airwaves must be targeted appropriately and stopped. What about former two-division world boxing champion Vernon Forrest, robbed and brutally murdered in the Mechanicsville neighborhood last summer? What began as a routine stop at a gas station with his 11-year-old godson resulted in the 38-year-old Augusta native reportedly being shot seven or eight times in the back, including three times as he was laying on the ground.

What would Forrest say today? What will you say, come Tuesday?

As it was a year ago, a change is a’comin’.

Happy times … and check out sos.ga.gov (or the Election Guide on page 21 of this week's Sunday Paper) to find your polling place. SP