In a tight District 3 race, Perrin Bostic leans into good governance to challenge Byron Amos

In the cozy living room of Elon Osby’s home in Penelope Neighbors, a half-dozen neighbors sat in a semicircle around Perrin Bostic, the 33-year-old challenger to Atlanta City Councilmember Byron Amos.

One by one, they listed frustrations with City Hall: unreturned calls, unanswered emails. “I mean, if you return my call, then we’re 90% there,” one of Osby’s neighbors said, drawing nods.

Bostic listened and made his pitch for why he should represent Atlanta’s District 3, which stretches west from downtown across Vine City to Bankhead and Grove Park.

 “Most of this conversation we’re having across the district is not even about policy,” Bostic said. “It is about doing the most basic functions of the job.” He promised to be a council member who is “more present in the community” and who will return phone calls.

That simple pledge has become the quiet center of a rare Atlanta City Council campaign that has mounted a credible challenge to an incumbent. Bostic’s campaign is pitching new energy in a district defined by contradictions: blocks of boarded-up homes beside new townhouses and long-promised redevelopment amid neglected infrastructure. 

District 3’s home vacancy rate is about 20%, almost double the roughly 11% rate citywide, and only 35% of residents are homeowners, compared with 46% citywide, according to Atlanta Regional Commission data from 2023. 

A rare contest against an incumbent

Serious challenges to sitting councilmembers are uncommon in Atlanta, where name recognition and low voter turnout often secure reelection. Both candidates have secured high-profile endorsements and raised substantial sums: Bostic reported over $58,000 in contributions and Amos just over $102,000, as of Sept. 30. 

Amos, 53, himself won the open District 3 seat in 2021 by just 45 votes, in a runoff that drew fewer than 3,000 voters out of about 33,000 eligible voters. Now the incumbent, the private security company owner and former Atlanta Board of Education member is seeking a second term.

At a meet-and-greet cookout last Friday evening at the Village Skate Park in Bankhead, where blight and half-million-dollar townhomes can be seen from the same corner, Amos rejected the idea that he’s disengaged.

“I know a lot of people in the district that appear to be upset, because their individual issues have not been moved at all, but District 3 is a challenging district,” Amos said. “We have been working … to solve those issues so they don’t reoccur again, and sometimes that takes time.”

Amichi Bertrand, who organized the barbecue, described Amos as “a quiet supporter” of the district and a “good mediator” for the community.

The challenger’s pitch

Bostic grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and came to Atlanta to earn a master’s degree in public administration from Georgia State University. He’s worked as the policy advisor and director of constituent services for former District 3 Councilmember Antonio Brown, as the Northwest Georgia outreach representative for US Sen. Raphael Warnock, and, most recently, as the administrator for Fulton County Magistrate Court — a job he left to focus on his campaign.

His over six years of experience in government, Bostic said, have taught him how city bureaucracy connects — or fails to connect — with residents. “People can’t get their emails returned, calls returned — these types of things that actually are crucial to connecting people to services,” he said. “They haven’t seen their council member. They haven’t had any type of engagement.”

By Bostic’s estimate, about 65% of his conversations while canvassing are about those basic expectations. Others vary by neighborhood — the prevalence of short-term rentals in Home Park, displacement in Grove Park, blight in Bankhead — but he said he hears from most people he talks to: “I reached out to my council member, and I didn’t get anything back.”

“People need to know that you care,” Bostic said. “Just showing up and spending time and fellowshipping and getting to know people in the neighborhood has to be the foundation for moving the district forward.”

Amos defends his record

Amos doesn’t dispute that the race isn’t about deep policy differences. His opponent’s talk of “fresh ideas” and “new energy,” he said, is a “copy paste” of his own priorities. Both candidates, for instance, agree better roads, sidewalks, and parks are top priorities. 

Since taking office almost four years ago, Amos said, he’s improved infrastructure, public safety, and reduced blight for the district. The city council passed his 2024 blight-tax proposal that would threaten absentee property owners with a steep tax bill unless they fix the dilapidated structures they own. The proposal awaits adoption by the Fulton County Commission. The council also just passed legislation he sponsored that allows the city of Atlanta to seize blighted properties from negligent landlords.

Amos said those measures show “the city is not scared to use all of its tools to create affordable housing.” He also cited road improvement projects on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and intersection redesigns on West Lake Avenue.

“Some issues in the city definitely take time, especially since they are historical issues,” Amos said. “I have the wisdom and knowledge to get this done.”

Low voter turnout and disengagement

Both candidates agree District 3 suffers from chronic voter apathy. “Voter apathy in District 3 has been the issue,” Amos said. “One of the districts that needs government the most is one of the districts that is not participating.”

He said he’s been working with business and faith groups to involve residents in policymaking. “People really don’t think the government is for them,” he said. By working with community leaders, he added, “They can look back and say, ‘Okay, we asked for that, and we did this together.’”

Bostic sees disengagement as a symptom of dissatisfaction. “People don’t feel like City Hall is working for them,” he said. “District 3 is one of the least engaged districts across the city, and that’s largely because we [elected officials] haven’t done a good job … just showing up.”

To ensure the district gets its fair share of resources, Bostic said, he’d audit city departments for efficiency and staffing. “District 3 is consistently left out,” he said.

Local race, national undercurrents

This year’s Atlanta City Council races are unfolding under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“This is a unique moment of where we are with what’s happening at the federal level,” Bostic told voters in Osby’s living room. “We’re going to really need some strong, strong local leadership.”

He said his time working for Warnock has prepared him to deal with the federal government, and advocated for stronger public-private partnerships locally to respond to threats of federal funding cuts.

Amos shares that concern, but warns that voters could take out their frustration with Trump on local elected officials. “All politics is local,” he said. “I think more people will come out to vote their national feelings in this local election.”

He also acknowledged his vote for the city to provide funding to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — dubbed “Cop City” by critics — could alienate some younger voters. “The majority of my community leaders at the time wanted me to vote yes,” he said, due to their public safety concerns. But if new voters interpret that as indiscriminate support for law enforcement, he added, “then that would trigger National Guard conversations, ICE conversations.”

“Atlanta police is not that,” he emphasized.

 Amos said his record and those of his council colleagues show the city hasn’t bowed to federal pressure on any issue, whether it’s law enforcement or equity policies. “We haven’t done anything to show, or even think, that we’re moving to align ourselves with national policy,” he said. 

Amos said the city is also prepared for federal funding shortfalls and to resist federal overreach. “We’re fortifying,” he said. 

A choice about trust

Both candidates talk about reducing blight, improving infrastructure and better public safety for District 3, but neither offers a radical policy shift. The contest turns instead on trust and visibility with voters – and whose calls get answered.

For Bostic, the difference is about presence. “I’m running a campaign that is truly inclusive of everyone in our district,” he said.

Amos stands by his experience. “It’s an interesting time in politics, but [a voter’s decision] should be one based off of substance and track records and a side-by-side comparison,” he said. “I think the voters have a real decision to make.”

“We’re very cordial,” Amos said of his challenger. “At the end of the day, one of us is going to represent the other.”