Friday morning felt like any other day in the city, so much so that one would have never guessed that a seismic shift had occurred just hours earlier — in the announcement that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms would not seek reelection. 

Bottoms, who saw Atlanta through a historically turbulent period amidst the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest throughout the summer of 2020, made the announcement with no explanation for her reasoning Thursday night.

At The Swag Shop on Edgewood Ave., the morning began quietly. The barbershop is owned by musician and Atlanta local Michael "Killer Mike" Render, who made headlines last year for his impassioned plea for calm during the riots in the city in May while standing alongside the mayor.

Barber Paige Marie said she was surprised to hear the news.

"It makes you feel numb; it makes you feel uneasy," she said. "Because you're not sure who's next."

Marie said she was happy with how Bottoms handled her term.

"I feel like she's actually been pretty good, in my opinion," she said. "She did what she could. I feel like she did the best she could with the circumstances that she was given. I think she kept it positive. She wanted us to remain safe."

Customer Rizzo Gun, who is an independent musician, agreed.

"This is my first time hearing about it, but I'm shocked that she's not running again," he said. "I think that she was good for the culture. She was good for the Black community."

Sydney Tyler, who is a student at Georgia State, was also shocked to hear the news.

"I think last year during the riots she really helped get the city back in the order," she said. "She believed that it wasn't who we are. I believed having a Black woman as a mayor of Atlanta was important."

Stone Mountain resident Sean Johnson said he sympathized with what Bottoms encountered through the last year of her term.

"It's been a rough year for everybody, with everything going on," he said. "It's hard to hold an office like that going on."

Johnson said his hope for the next mayor was to address the crime wave currently affecting the city.

"Crime, just crime," he said. "We had 21 shootings since last Thursdays and four deaths. I just want to make sure crime goes down."

Bottoms is set to join a short list of Atlanta mayors who served a single term — the last to do so was Sam Massell in the 1970s. Maynard Jackson — Atlanta's first Black mayor — did not seek reelection in 1994, though he had previously been mayor of the city from 1974 to 1982.

Tags: Georgia  Atlanta  election  Georgia Politics