Nicole Evans Jones

There are three responsibilities that are equally important. Council members must legislate, provide administrative oversight through committee work, and tend to constituent concerns. An at-large council member has the profound task of understanding each of the city’s 240+ neighborhoods, and their unique interests. As an At-Large member, I plan to act as a thought-partner with district representatives.

Across a 30-year career with Atlanta Public Schools, I served as an assistant principal and/or principal at a number of schools/neighborhoods throughout the city. An average budget for a given school was around $7.5 million, with around 70 teachers and staff as direct reports. And then in my current capacity as a small business owner, I oversee the budget for the company. Our most recent annual operating budget was approximately $250K.

My greatest expertise include building trust, problem solving and collaboration. In my time with APS, I realized that you can only do so much inside the classroom. So I focused heavily on wraparound services. This included everything from hosting job fairs to building community gardens to laying the foundation for the Pre-K campus in East Atlanta.

On Council, bridge building is essential. Our city has so many distinct neighborhoods. Bringing City Hall to each of them is a tall order, you can trust that I will do.

Zoning minutiae is a growth area. As we get into the zoning re-write and sort through all the different classifications of development – I will need some help. In those moments I will hope to lean on my colleagues, research, administration officials, and community organizations to help light the way to housing policy solutions. Ones that align with my vision that greater supply - where neighborhood support exists - equals lower prices and lasting solutions.

I seek information from both traditional (New York Times, AJC, Scholarly Research Journals, etc.) and non-traditional sources (social media, gossip, etc.). There is even a phrase for it: “paragogy’, which simply means that you learn something from a peer, then you research it to confirm/disprove accuracy and gain greater understanding of the subject.

Atlanta is at its most effective lobbying before the General Assembly, when it speaks with one voice. We have an Intergovernmental Affairs office, which drives that narrative with input from the Mayor and City Council. So my plan would be to lobby for the positions I think are important to our Intergovernmental Affairs Director, so that these views become part of the city’s platform for that year’s legislative session. And then where it makes sense, in concert with the city’s lobbyists, I am more than happy to advocate for an issue before the legislature if it’s additive to the team effort.

The City of Atlanta needs support in the areas of communications and transparency. Particularly on larger projects -- such as a new stadium or Centennial Yards (previously “the Gulch”) – the city could have been more deliberate around engaging the community. I think there is now a general mistrust of any large undertaking, no matter how noble its intentions, because of this legacy.

To fix it, we need to get the next one right. Some examples include the Midtown Connector and the Stitch. Those are massive projects that will fundamentally change the residential, cultural, and commercial character of our city. On Council, I will focus on ensuring that surrounding communities are engaged – and both progress and setbacks are shared transparently - so that no one feels like something is being forced through. Ideally, we would do so in part through a strengthened and empowered NPU system.

The City must do a better job of reaching people with information. We have our NPUs and NAs. We have interest groups and civic organizations. But these groups constitute a small fraction of our overall population. Take this election for example, where around 300,000 or so people will vote. But the vast majority aren’t members of a community organization.

In a situation like this, you can be transparent, but people must know how to access the information to gain the full benefit. So, I think then the city could be more proactively transparent. Some of that is on the administration. But a lot of that has to be on Council as well.

In my career with APS, I made a point of not confining my work to the school building, to instead work with families and understand the character of the surrounding neighborhoods. I think a good council member has to have this attitude as it relates to transparency and a number of other issues. And I’m committed to delivering.

There are a number of good ideas stemming from this initiative. I like the idea of increasing support resources and also clearly articulating a standard operating procedures toolkit to the Neighborhood Planning Units. At the moment, we have a highly heterogenous system. Attendance and engagement vary greatly from one NPU to the next. In some ways that’s a good thing and a reflection of our unique and diverse neighborhoods. But it other ways, it weakens the impact of the system overall. By investing resources and clearly setting expectations, we could standardize outputs, efficiency, and transparency, while still honoring the uniqueness of each neighborhood. I think the city and residents alike would both benefit.

Atlanta is positioned as a national, and even international leader on the subject of equity. Equity in all its forms. We are the town with the moniker, “the city too busy to hate.” So, when any demographic or group is being targeted or facing discrimination, that is us falling short of our promise as a municipality.

Working with community groups, the Atlanta Regional Commission, as well as the Atlanta Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Equity, and the City’s Director of LGBTQ Affairs I think it would be worthwhile to explore a task force on this subject. To find out of there are ways we can legislate our way towards better outcomes for transgender residents specifically. Or if there are departmental norms and procedures that need to change such that we can make improvements, we should look into that too.

In my 30-year career in education administration, I saw the arc of school shootings turn from abnormal to commonplace. In society at large, the conversation surrounding violent crime has transitioned from outrage to apathy. So many feel helpless and that we are past the point of action. I will do everything I can to stir action.

A great deal on the gun topic falls under federal and state purview. But I do think there are things the city can do surrounding the provision of mental health services. Certainly, pre-arrest diversion and other programs that offer care while lowering recidivism make a difference. In terms of something tangible, the state legislature recently voted against the idea of a study committee on the link between mental health and gun violence. To my knowledge, there’s no state law that prevents the city from convening a committee of that kind on its own and then presenting their findings to state and federal lawmakers. That’s a bill I would introduce right away.

No. I would review the matter with city attorneys to understand their arguments as to why the decision was made not to count the ballots. Equally important, given how far along the Training Center is in its development, what are our goals and what is possible if a referendum passed?

No. My answer to this question is similar to the last. If elected to Council, I would be a client of the Law Department and thus have full access to their attorneys. At that point, I would want to hear their arguments and understand where we are in the legal process and what their justifications were for making the appeal.

In my time at Toomer Elementary School, we grew the Pre-K center to the point that it was the largest and most requested public center in the District. I saw then how critical it is that we normalize 3- and 4-year old child care and education as a right. I would use my seat on Council to work with APS and identify the funding to guarantee access to all in Atlanta.

As children get older, I would like to partner with Invest Atlanta and Worksource Atlanta to enhance apprenticeship offerings. This would be not just about jobs with major employers but also supporting entrepreneurship.

And public safety and community policing is a big topic. One thing I would highlight is the Community Safety Housing Program -- an affordable housing program for first responders. Because the program is so popular, I think we could grow the service hour requirement to engender greater engagement and positive interactions between law enforcement and youth.

We have to begin by ensuring we invest MOST dollars wisely. Taxpayers have entrusted us and we need to re-pay that faith by wisely investing those dollars.

But MOST on its own will not tackle a challenge of this scale. There has to be a major infusion of federal dollars if we want our water infrastructure to catch up on a realistic timeline. I am committed to seeking out those opportunities and working with the administration to help identify and apply for grants that could get us there.

We simply must do better as a city on pedestrian infrastructure. Much of our sidewalks are in a state of bad repair. More still simply does not exist along major roads where it should. And in all cases, we certainly should be focusing on being fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The City’s Department of Transportation has made strides toward introducing equity concerns into their prioritization model. And in general, they are doing a better job about being systematic with their approach. At this point, I think the biggest question is about money. On Council, I would push to dedicate a certain percentage of the general fund budget to sidewalks. We could call this the Sidewalk Trust Fund. And then I think we should consider a push in the future for a sidewalk specific T-SPLOST.

Equitable transportation is a priority. We must deliver mobility solutions for everyone that connect everyone. I grew up in Southwest Atlanta. Its section of the BeltLine Trail has come last. Just as it’s not lost among residents that we are still waiting on the Campbellton Corridor project and Summerhill BRT to be completed. Which doesn’t even get to the total lack of sidewalk infrastructure in specific parts of town.

I want a seat on the Transportation Committee so that I can join Councilmembers Overstreet, Boone and others who have been vocal on these topics and are working to hold ADOT, MARTA, and others to account. I want to legislate a budget set aside for sidewalk funding, with an emphasis on underserved populations and geographies. And I will use my skills as a bridge builder to engage neighborhoods on this topic, and make calls for complete streets that go beyond our busy commercial districts and into all parts of town.

As a former school administrator, I understand just how difficult it is for kids who are housing insecure, and the effect that instability has on families and neighborhoods. Furthermore, whether the person in question is a child or an adult, this is a societal failing. And we must do better.

We can group homelessness largely into three causal buckets. Circumstances caused by financial woes, mental health challenges, and substance abuse concerns. We need to grow the PAD budget significantly to help in the latter two cases. Our affordable housing investments should contain a significant amount of transitionary housing provisions, as we know so many bad outcomes happen owing to a lack of support in the immediate aftermath of the loss of one’s home. We should focus there. And then I would just add a note about LGBTQIA+ youth homelessness. This demographic is disproportionately affected by this challenge and deserves its own tailored policies and investments.

The most important word besides affordable in the housing conversation, is lasting. Examples abound from other cities where abatements, grants, and other such policies hit early sunset dates and affordable units got sold on at market rate. San Francisco is a cautionary tale in this way. So, as we look at tools such as those from our Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Housing Opportunity Bond, I think it’s important that we emphasize not just achieving 20,000 units, but 20,000 units that will endure as affordable.

In practice, this means putting long time windows, such as 30 years+, on unit price incentives. It means inserting clauses such that affordability contingencies are specific to the property or land and do not expire if the home is sold. The same would hold true in a case of inclusionary zoning. The given percent of units required to be affordable at a percent of Area Median Income would need to stay that way for a prolonged time.

It is important to focus both on renters’ rights as it relates to avoiding unfair evictions as well as providing supports for individuals and families going through an eviction. In the latter case, that transition puts residents at a high risk for being unhoused, an outcome we of course want to avoid.

Last year, money was set aside in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to assist with legal aid for tenants as they went through eviction proceedings. That is a noble cause and a good investment. As we continue to grow the percent of the general fund budget dedicated to that Fund, I would hope that we continue to identify resources to provide direct assistance.

By going one neighborhood at a time and hearing from folks what they want. What works for one community won’t work for another. We can and should promote things like density and transit-oriented development. But we also have to be respectful of the fact that it won’t work in every place. We must do this both because it’s the right thing to do and because the re-write becomes an infeasible piece of legislation if we get too aggressive trying to push density on districts that don’t want it.

Whether we’re talking about a CBA process as a stadium is being built or something like determinations on residential versus mixed use zoning on a particular street – in all cases we need actively engage residents, hear them, and then act on what can be deem prevailing interests and majority opinion.