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Matt Westmoreland
Matt Westmoreland is running for City Council Member - Post 2.
Personal background
Matt was born and raised in Atlanta. He attended Atlanta public schools, and he has a bachelor's degree in History from Princeton University. He is on the Board of Directors for Invest Atlanta and the Atlanta BeltLine.
Professional background
Matt worked as Program Director for Horizons Atlanta, overseeing nine summer enrichment programs from underserved communities. He has also worked for Atlanta Regional Commission and in the D.C. office of Congressman John Lewis. After college, he taught at Carver Early College High School in Southeast Atlanta.
Political background
Matt Westmoreland is currently the Atlanta city council member representing Post 2 At Large. He was first elected in 2017 and has served one term. He is chair of the Community Development and Human Services Committee, and a member of the Finance and Transportation committees. Before serving on city council, he was on the Atlanta Board of Education.
ON THE ISSUES
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Public Services
His policy platform and priorities are identical to his platform and priorities from his 2017 campaign.
Believes the biggest issues facing Atlanta are income inequality, disparate health outcomes, racial and social justice and housing instability.
Wants to promote health centers, public art and walkable communities.
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COVID
As of August 9, 2021, Matt Westmoreland’s website did not contain information on this issue.
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City Budget
Voted in favor of the city's current budget for 2022.
Wants more funding for public safety, parks, recreation, green space and transportation projects.
As a member of the Board of Education, he chaired the Budget Commission and led efforts to cut waste, increase teacher pay, allocate funds based on student need and director more funding to the classroom without raising property taxes.
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Housing & Urban Development
Wants to make sure housing is affordable long-term.
As a city council member, he voted for a ban on investors harassing longtime residents to pressure them to sell their homes in gentrifying areas.
As a city council member, he helped pass a $100 million housing bond to build and preserve 3,500 units of affordable housing.
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Public Safety
Wants to build fully-staffed, well-trained, competitively-paid and community-focused police and fire departments.
Wants to build a new police training center. He said, "this city absolutely needs a new public safety training center. The current facility is atrocious ... I'm sensitive to concerns people have raised over the proposed location."
As a city council member, he supported building a $90 million police and firefighter training facility on 85 acres of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm that the city previously set aside as greenspace. The facility, nicknamed "Cop City" by activists, is widely opposed by residents, businesses and environmental nonprofits.
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Transportation & Infrastructure
Believes transportation and mobility are key to creating economic opportunity and closing the racial wealth gap.
Wants to "design a framework that gets people ... out of our cars one that fully supports the transit-dependent residents in our city."
Wants to make streets safer for people biking, walking, on scooters and on wheelchairs.
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Zoning
Wants to encourage density while protecting tree-covered neighborhoods.
Proposed zoning changes that would reclassifying some single family residential districts in the city to multi-family use districts.
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