“I am set up physically, mentally, and spiritually to do this job,” Dickens (above) said of being the 61st Mayor of Atlanta. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta VoiceThe 61st Mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, is now caught up on the Hulu original series Paradise, a political thriller starring award-w inning actor Sterling K. Brown. Having heard great things about it, Dickens wanted to see it for himself“I watched eight episodes on Sunday, and now I’m caught up,” Dickens told The Atlanta Voice when the Mayor offered this journalist unprecedented access to his day-long schedule. Starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, The Atlanta Voice spent nearly eight hours with the Mayor as he moved across the city. From outside the entrance to City Hall, to Buckhead and the Atlanta Press Club, to the westside and the city’s largest park, Dickens’s time was accounted for minute by minute. All in all, he ate and drank little, hugged a dozen people, shook countless hands, received numerous text messages from constituents, responded to several emails, made an overdue phone call, and attended five public eventsIt was just another day in the life of the Mayor of Atlanta. Just another day in a man’s life many still refer to as ‘Dre.’“I’m grateful that I still have the energy and capacity to do this work,” Dickens said between bites of a salad from the back of a black SUV. Asked if this was the job he thought it would be, Dickens said, “After I was a city council member for eight years, this is about 90% of what I thought the job would be. So the work part of the job, the making decisions about hiring and firing, making decisions about money and direction of certain initiatives, the goals, and the strategies, are what I thought the job should be.”Dickens (right) speaks with a developer on the construction site of The Proctor, a residential project located next door to K&K Soul Food on Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy. The visit to the construction site was his fourth public appearance of the day. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta VoiceLeaning back in his seat, Dickens touched on the fact that he has been one of the more accessible mayors in recent history. A common phrase to describe his first four years in office is that “he’s everywhere.” “I didn’t actually know how much accessibility people are growing fond of,” he said. “When I was watching mayors of the past, I never called them. I just saw them and said hi. I never thought about calling the mayor.”  Without saying who the message was from, Dickens read a portion of a text from a local small business owner. This person was reaching out to say they needed some advice and maybe a bit of help with the project they were working on. “Please, please call me back,” he read. “Inevitably, he is going to say, ‘I just want to talk to you,’ said Dickens.Even though he wouldn’t eat again for hours and only managed a few sips from a bottle of water between appointments, Dickens was positive about the hectic life of Atlanta’s commander-in-chief. That includes the phone calls to constituents. “I might as well just pick up the phone and call him,” Dickens said. Like so many others he needed to make that day, that call would have to wait. There was business to attend to.Dickens (right) with his political mentor former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin center, left) and former Atlanta Mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andre Young (seated, right) during Franklin’s street naming ceremony in Atlanta on Thursday, March 27, 2025. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice11:07 a.m. – Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is one of Dickens’ heroes and inspirations. He has been extremely vocal about how he spent a lot of time in their home as a young man and a close friend of her son. Dickens often tells the story of the time as a teenager when he told Franklin he wanted to grow up to be the mayor of Atlanta.On Thursday morning, during a street naming ceremony for Franklin, the first female Mayor of Atlanta, he retold the story, joking at the end that he didn’t think she would become mayor before him.“It is truly an honor to honor the one and only Shirley Franklin,” said Dickens while standing on a podium in front of Franklin, former Atlanta Mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and dozens others. “We’re going to celebrate Shirley Franklin all day today,” he said. Moments earlier, while standing in his office in City Hall, Dickens, his security, and several staffers were preparing to make their way to the corner of what was once known as Central Avenue but will forever be called Shirley C. Franklin Blvd. Dickens lit up when he spoke about giving Franklin “her flowers” and why it’s important.“It stirs my heart just thinking about how much her guidance has raised me,” he said. “My hero has been with me throughout the entire journey.” Dickens (left) dropped by the Buckhead Club for an Atlanta Press Club event on the afternoon of Thursday, March 27, 2025. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice 12:05 p.m. – From speaking freely about his mentor to taking questions from Atlanta Journal-Constitution city hall reporter Riley Bunch, Dickens was on the move again. His to-do list for this day was just beginning. “The positive side of availability is that you get to hear it from all sides,” said Dickens as the SUV pulled up to one of the gleaming towers of glass and steel that make up the Buckhead skyline. Dickens had a scheduled speaking engagement with the Atlanta Press Club at the prestigious Buckhead Club. Before leaving downtown, two salads and water bottles were waiting for him in the SUV. He barely had time to touch either as the SUV moved through traffic, which was the only way the mayor’s car could. Think of a presidential motorcade with just one car and fewer people inside.When asked if he enjoys engaging with the media at events like this, Dickens said it is part of the job.“The mood of the media shifts so much now. You never know what you’re going to get,” he said. Following a brief introduction, Dickens, who obliged two separate selfie requests within minutes of taking his seat at the table marked “Reserved for Speakers,” took to the stage to take questions from Bunch.Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta VoiceThe topics of discussion ranged from the Atlanta Beltline to public safety and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in the summer of 2026.“We will have eight matches take place here in Atlanta. That’s like hosting a Super Bowl every time,” Dickens explained. “We do big well.” Two participants were given the opportunity to ask Dickens questions, one of which was about the plans to improve the city’s south side. An older woman asked him why there was so much interest in improving the south side when other issues in sections of the city also needed fixing. She read her question off of her cellphone. “I’m trying to solve a multi-generational problem of the southside getting things last,” he said, followed by a small round of applause. His third appointment of the day, Dickens (center) was at Westside Park to take part in the renaming of the park to Shirley Clarke Franklin Park. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice 1:25 p.m. – The pavilion at Westside Park, the city’s largest green space, was decorated for a party. Franklin was being honored again, this time with the renaming of the park to Shirley Clarke Franklin Park. “You don’t know how many times you have to give people their flowers, so go on and give it to them,” Dickens said, honoring Franklin twice on the same day while on the way to the park.There are two Andre Dickens on this trip. There’s Andre Dickens, who easily transitions from telling old stories about growing up in Atlanta to speaking about his motivations for wanting a second mayoral term. Then there’s the Andre Dickens “Same guy, different hats, and different emotions,” Dickens said. “The Shirley Franklin dedications are an honor, and that does my heart good. For some of the other stuff, that’s when the CEO has to come out. I have to stand before people and answer questions that will be interpreted in a number of ways.”Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice3:00 p.m. – A man looking down on the site of The Proctor, a residential project in the early stages of construction, yelled out to Dickens, “Yo Dre, what’s up, man.” Kimario Smith, the co-owner of K&K Soul Food, which has been located a few feet away from The Proctor site on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway for four decades, wanted to get Dickens’ attention. “Hey, Mario,” the Mayor yelled back and waved in his direction as he continued his site tour.“That’s my guy, they are third-generation business owners,” Dickens said. “We need our legacy Black businesses to stay alive. If we don’t support them, then they go under, and it becomes townhomes for rich people.”  According to City Hall data, Atlanta has 508 licensed legacy businesses, which employ some 11,000 people. A scheduled construction site tour required hard hats and the boots Dickens keeps in the back of the SUV. You never know when you have to walk over some Georgia red clay soil. Positioned on Oliver Street, the residential project has a total development cost of $54.3 million and has a Black-owned developer. There are plans to set aside affordable units at The Proctor for Atlanta Housing tenant-based housing choice voucher participants.The parking lot at The Proctor will be large enough to accommodate congregants from Prayer of Faith Church-God-Christ next door. Pastor Leenois, Sr., joined Dickens on the tour with the developer. Back in the SUV, Dickens was asked if he ever got tired and if these daily schedules and topics like the necessity of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center ever got to him. “No, I never get tired. I get frustrated. I get to the point where I want to take a minute, rest my eyes sometimes, but I never get tired,” he said.Dickens looked at his phone, out of the window, and back at his phone.“I am deeply interested in everything that goes on in Atlanta, he said. “It’s my city, and I’m in the movie of Atlanta. I want to see what’s next.” Dickens (left) took a moment to discuss a piece of art in his office at City Hall with The Atlanta Voice Editor-in-Chief Donnell Suggs (right). The journalist and the mayor spent the entire day together for this story. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice 4:01 p.m. – On the way back to City Hall to take a virtual meeting with his staff on a new initiative to help legacy business owners and prepare for an in-person regularly scheduled meeting with Atlanta Police Department Chief Darin Schierbaum.As public as the Mayor has been about his love and respect for his mother, Sylvia Dickens, his daughter Bailey, his alma mater, Georgia Tech, and his believed hometown, Atlanta, Dickens is very private about his personal life. During the ride back to City Hall he took a private phone call, one of the few he had found time to take during the day. Asked how he manages to have a personal life with the kind of daily schedule he keeps, Dickens said he knew what he was getting into when he decided to run for office in 2020.Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice“I am set up physically, mentally, and spiritually to do this job,” he said. These days, he often ends his public statements with “in my next term” or “during my next term.” Currently campaigning for a second term, Dickens has no public opponent at the moment. Despite there being calls for changes in leadership in Atlanta, there is only one man standing in the arena as of April 1, 2025. However, there’s plenty of time before the filing deadline on August 21, 2025, and Election Day, November 4, 2025.The mayor’s day ended with him receiving an award from Communities in Schools, a local non-profit organization that helps at-risk students. He had been awake since 5:45 a.m. and out of the house and in the gym at 7:45 a.m. He wouldn’t get home till 9 p.m.“The challenge is that there is only one Thursday at 7 pm,” Dickens said. The post Andre Dickens: ‘I’m in the movie of Atlanta and I want to see what’s next’  appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less