By: Eli Watkins
(courtesy of Tim Denson)
Tim Denson walked into Walker’s Coffee and Pub holding a red notebook filled with policy ideas. In most places outside of Athens, people would describe him as unorthodox. Wearing his beard long, he looks like a rabbinical Jeff Mangum with a voice uncannily like David Cross.
Denson is running for mayor of Athens-Clarke County.
By some accounts, he is facing an uphill battle. Current Mayor Nancy Denson (no relation) enjoyed a comfortable margin of victory in the 2010 election. Nevertheless, Tim Denson has a dedicated volunteer team comprised of mostly former Occupy Athens activists, like him.
The platform Denson has released focuses on a number of policy areas including poverty reduction, expanding public transit, economic development, and law enforcement reform.
I spoke with Denson recently to get a clearer picture of his qualifications and vision. Portions of the interview, edited for brevity and clarity, follow:
Let’s start with the big picture. What about Athens would you change and what would you maintain?
The big thing I want to see change is our 38 percent poverty rate. It’s the number one issue we’re focusing on. Part of our platform is actually having a 10-year goal in which we try to cut the poverty rate in half. That is the number one thing that we want to change because high crime rates, unemployment, lack of education, all are connected to that poverty rate. I really think for our economy and our city to prosper, we have to fix that first. I also really want to see the style and tone of our government change. I want it to be much more open, more accessible, more transparent. I want to get rid of the invisible line that separates our elected officials from the people they represent. For the things that are working right now… there’s a lot of innovation now… there’s a lot of innovation happening in our solid waste department. I like the way that’s going.
Why are you qualified to be mayor of this city?
My experience is more from the activist side. When I was down in Florida, I worked with a union to fight for better wages. Here I’ve worked with the economic justice coalition and Occupy. But really, the reason that I think I am most qualified is that I come from a place that most Athenians come from. I’ve worked in the service industry, the retail industry, the agricultural industry. I know what it is like to have to scrape by. I’ve lived under the poverty line. I am now above it. I’m much more privileged now …, so I realize that is a hard thing to do. I can relate to Athenians, their situations and their lives. That is what makes me qualified. I understand what it is like.
What is your current occupation?
I work at Barnes & Noble in the digital department. My wife and I also run a small vintage goods business.
How do you feel about the city’s relationship with the University?
Years back there were some difficulties. I like a lot of the steps that President Morehead is pointing toward and some that he’s taken. Right now, I think [the city’s relationship with UGA] is good, but we could actually improve upon it. One of the things that I’d like to see us work closer on is public transit. I think the easiest way for us to get more affordable, and eventually free, public transit will be to merge our transit systems together. Right now, we have two publicly funded transit systems serving Athens-Clarke County, the smallest county in Georgia. That just seems absurd that they’re both doing the exact same thing and funded the same way. I think that if they worked together, we could have one strong system. I’d like us to work further on some projects, like with UGA students coming to grade school and high school and providing leadership… The university is why Athens is what it is. It’s why we have a strong community. I want us to make our relationship even stronger.
What do you think causes the high poverty rate in Athens?
Well, a lot of it is generational. It’s the kind of thing that’s been going on for decades. Another big part of it is that we have a unique system, with the university here. The big industry is the service industry, which is not very well paying. We have a lot of people who have jobs, and our unemployment rate is pretty good for the state of Georgia. But most of those jobs do not pay well. They offer very few hours, and they’re not paying a living wage. We need to change the culture. There has to be a culture of living wages here. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Not having ready access to resources and education is tough for people under the poverty line… We have unneeded regulations and restrictions on trying to start up small businesses. These people under the poverty line have a hard time really trying to chase their dreams, have their own business, and be empowered economically.
What can a mayor do about that?
From the mayor’s office, first and foremost, my agenda is focused on trying to reverse the course of that poverty rate and working with the Athens-Clarke County Commission to make affordable and eventually free public transit available so that people can get to jobs and educational opportunities easily. Another thing we could be doing is offering quality childcare and early education so that the parents that are trying to pull their families out of poverty know their kids will be taken care of. They can do that and go work those jobs, go to school at night, and try to help their family. Those are the two biggest things we could change at this time.
How and why would you expand public transit?
That’s the way of the future for most forward looking cities. The younger generations coming up are not nearly as automobile-based. They’re a lot more open to cycling, walking, and also public transit. That’s the direction we should be going in. It also helps out the environment, reduces congestion, makes our roadways safer, and makes it easier for people below the poverty line to get around. I’m not saying that right when I take office, with a snap of my fingers, we will have free public transit. But, we could be moving toward making our main lines free. As public transit director Mitch McGuffy says, “Our transit system is not a business. It is a public service.” We should be treating it like that so we can serve the public, particularly the public who can’t afford the fare increases that are happening right now under the current administration.
In this race, your involvement in Occupy Athens comes up often. How does that affect your campaign?
I’m proud of a lot of the work that Occupy Athens did, and the Occupy movement in general. It helped empower a lot of individuals, including myself. Before getting involved in Occupy, I think I was very apathetic about what I could be doing in my community and how I could have an effect on society. After getting involved in Occupy, I realized that there were thousands upon thousands who had the same feeling as me. As soon as we put our forces together, we could actually make some real changes. This campaign is something outside of the Occupy movement, but I don’t think I would be where I am right now if it wasn’t for the movement. I’m very proud of it.
Let’s talk about your stances on law enforcement. Specifically, what would you do about discrimination?
The racial profiling and discrimination section of the platform came from surveys of about 300 people across the city. It turned out that racial profiling was a very high concern, so I think that shows that it is a problem. I’m not saying it is as big a problem as it is in some other communities. But it is a problem that can and should be addressed. We’d like to work with our police department and make sure the training covers that this is not something we want to be pursuing, that this is not the way that we want to be enforcing the law.
What is your stance on marijuana?
Right now, we spend millions of dollars incarcerating nonviolent offenders who had as little as less than an ounce of marijuana. That’s wasting our tax dollars and the abilities of the people who are sitting in prison. It is stunting our city’s progress. We will have to work with some of our state officials and probably some of our federal officials, because we might butt heads a little bit there. I am sure that we can work out some kind of resolution that permits us to decriminalize, or at least deprioritize it in Athens-Clarke County. Hopefully, the state will follow, as we see other places in the country are following too. I want Athens to be at the forefront of this change. I don’t want us to be the ones that lag behind and try to play catch up. We should be the ones pushing forward a progressive policy.
Bottom line, why should the people of Athens elect you, and what should they expect from you, if elected?
Because we need to have a mayor who has a plan. I think we’ve been lacking that for the past few years: lacking focus and vision for the commission. The mayor’s position is where the commission and the people of Athens look to for the big ideas, and I have that. The biggest thing is that we want to make an Athens for everyone. That is our big vision. Athens should be working for everyone here, not just the most powerful, most wealthy, most privileged, but for all people. We’re all in this together. We can all work together for the issues.
