Keisha Lance Bottoms sworn in as Atlanta mayor

Keisha Lance Bottoms was sworn in as Atlanta’s 60th mayor on Tuesday.
According to a press release from the City of Atlanta, Mayor Bottoms took the oath of office at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College with an audience of more than 2,000 residents, community representatives, dignitaries, and elected officials.
Bottoms beat Mary Norwood in the bitterly contested Dec. 5 runoff election. Norwood didn’t officially concede to Bottoms until two weeks after the election and asked for a recount. The recount determined that Bottoms received 832 more votes out of about 92,000 votes cast, according to Fox 5.
In her first remarks as mayor, Bottoms made commitments to prioritize housing affordability, transparency, public safety, education, and transportation in her first 100 days in office.
“I am honored to have the privilege of serving the people of Atlanta, and I am thrilled to serve as only the second woman mayor of our great city,” Bottoms said. “As the 60th mayor of Atlanta, I will seek a new understanding, one grounded in civility and productive dialogue, to build a greater Atlanta. Within my first 100 days in office, we will take measurable actions to prioritize equity, affordability, a stronger school system, and access to transit. The theme of our campaign was ‘Keep Atlanta moving forward, leaving no one behind,’ and that is what I intend to do as mayor.”
During her inaugural address, Bottoms pledged to invest $1 billion in housing affordability – the largest affordable housing investment in the city’s history, according to the release. She also promised to introduce a sweeping ethics and transparency reform package in order to “ensure the city’s contracting and procurement process is beyond reproach.”
Bottoms, an advocate for education, announced multiple commitments to improving education, the press release said. She plans to appoint a Chief Education Officer to her senior staff to act as a liaison between the administration and Atlanta Public Schools, and she intends to establish a college savings account initiative for all students enrolling in Atlanta Public Schools.
Additionally, Mayor Bottoms announced her goal of achieving a AAA credit rating, the highest rating possible for a municipal government, for the first time in Atlanta’s history. She announced an expansion of the Clean City Initiative to improve Atlanta’s highways as well.
“Thanks to generations of tremendous leadership, the bar has been set incredibly high for our city. I thank everyone for your belief in me, and for your belief that, as one Atlanta, we can raise the bar higher still,” Bottoms said.
To read Mayor Bottoms’ remarks as prepared, click here.