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A modern civil war in Atlanta is waged by a carpet picker with deep roots in the Big Apple.
Bill White, 54, is fueling the growing movement of the affluent, predominantly white suburb of Buckhead to separate from the city of Atlanta – even though he’s a New York-born and raised Yankee who only moved south than three years ago. .
Prior to assuming the secessionist role, White was a New York businessman and former director of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, whose family started the Upper East Side Beach Cafe in late from the 1960s.
“We love New York, we have always loved it, we will always love it,” White said of himself and her husband Bryan Eure. “We miss all the friends and the life we had there, but we don’t miss the politics or the policies that are ruining New York City.”
The Long Island native wears his affinity for NYC in plain sight: a 1977 Yankees championship ring donated by George Steinbrenner.
Like New York City, Atlanta has seen a sharp increase in violent crime during the pandemic. Homicides, shootings and assaults are all on the rise this year in the city, according to police data compiled by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Witnessing the increase in lawlessness prompted White to continue his efforts to make Buckhead, where the median price of homes listed is close to $ 600,000, his own town, with his own police and his own judicial system, he said.
“We had a guy come to our driveway and try to steal our car. My sister’s house was broken into and her neighbor’s house was broken into. Our friends have been hijacked. They had their cars broken into, ”White recalls.
Buckhead City would triple the number of cops in the area and pay them better than the Atlanta Police Department, which he says is being undermined by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Buckhead courts, he said, would not be lenient with offenders.
In May, White became Chairman and CEO of the Town of Buckhead Committee. He was chosen, he says, by community activists eager to tap into his personal network and management skills. He raised over $ 400,000 in his first fundraiser this month.
The process of withdrawing Buckhead from Atlanta went quickly. A bill authorizing a vote is currently under consideration by the state legislature. If signed by Governor Kemp, a Republican known to be close to White, the legislation would head towards a vote. However, the referendum would controversially only affect members of the proposed new city, excluding residents of the larger city of Atlanta. White said he was happy with the internal poll so far.
“It’s pretty crazy what we’ve been doing over the past 12 months. We are creating a city from the ground up, ”White told the Post, brimming with confidence.
The secession plan has proven to be extremely divisive in Atlanta, where it has been adamantly opposed by the city’s establishment Democratic leaders. Buckhead’s loss of tax revenue would be a blow to the town’s economy, and accusations of racism swirled around.
“As we continue our efforts to increase public safety in Buckhead and beyond, we sincerely hope that Atlanteans stand united to meet the challenges that lie ahead,” a spokesperson for Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told the Post. “Any effort to separate Atlanta on racial, economic and partisan lines is an affront to who we are as a city.”
Long before he became a political actor, the Fordham University and French Culinary Institute graduate worked at the family-run restaurant on 70th Street and Second Avenue.
“I cleaned the toilets, I was a waiter, I was a dishwasher, I was a manager. I did it all, ”White recalls.
He also made stints as a volunteer firefighter and alcohol cruise captain. During his summer at Fordham, he delivered two babies in the Bronx while working as an emergency medical technician.
White avoided the military during the Gulf War, but wanted to find a way to help. So he created a foundation to support the United Services Organization, which caught the eye of real estate baron and philanthropist Zachary Fisher. Fisher then moved him to the Intrepid, which White widely credited with reinvigorating over the next 18 years. Today, he heads Constellations Group, a business consulting firm.
Aretha Franklin performed at White’s 2011 wedding to husband Bryan Eure, a ceremony presided over by powerful lawyer David Boies.
Once a major Democratic donor who even hosted a $ 25,000 plate dinner for President Obama in 2014, White radically changed sides in 2016 after President Trump’s victory and became a GOP mega fundraiser.
After his parents died, White decided to move to Atlanta with Eure, an insurance executive who has worked with White for more than two decades. They sold a loft in Chelsea as well as a place in the Hamptons.
“[He] has been my husband for 21 years and it’s like 140 in the LGBT world, ”White said with a laugh.
His detractors in Atlanta resurfaced a million dollar settlement between White and New York in 2010 over an alleged illegal fundraising scheme involving the state pension plan. White admitted no wrongdoing then and maintains his innocence today by saying he regrets ever settling with then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
“The resolution was purely monetary and Andrew Cuomo was trying for a pound of flesh because I was supporting David Paterson,” White said.
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