PRESS ROOM
Councilwoman-elect has big plans for Forest Park
By BILL BANKS
For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/17/05When Sparkle Adams beat David Rashmir and longtime incumbent Henry Estes in last week's Ward 1 City Council race, she became Forest Park's first-ever African-American elected official.
"Now that I've made history," Adams said in a recent interview, "I want to bring a new awareness to Forest Park, to show that your vote can make a difference."
Those votes were few and far between during the Nov. 8 election.
Of the city's 6,604 registered voters, only 1,037 — a paltry 16 percent — made it to the polls. Adams won with merely 115 votes, to Estes' 70 and Rashmir's 27.
It was a far cry from bygone times when Election Day rivaled Super Bowl Sunday for civic passion.
Last week, only a few political die-hards hung around the city's recreation center waiting for final results.
But veteran observers recalled the time 35 and 40 years ago when that same gymnasium was wall to wall with citizens, all of whom were bringing food and waiting around until 4 a.m. for definitive tallies.
"We can return to those days," Adams said. "But Forest Park has had years of complacency, years of an invisible government with people in office who draw checks but don't go out into the community.
"Look around," she said. "We have too many abandoned homes, too much graffiti, too much gang activities, but for our elected officials it's been out of sight, out of mind."
Adams, 50, was born and raised in Chicago — "I'm from the South Side, which is the best side," she said, laughing — and moved to metro Atlanta in 1980.
She has lived in Forest Park since 1985.
She's had a long career in state and government service and works for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
"When I grew up, we used to have block parties," she said, "and neighbors watching out for each other. If I did something wrong, you can sure enough bet my mother knew about it before I got home."
But Adams said her motivation for public office isn't fueled by nostalgia. She truly believes that the past can be a model for contemporary times.
"My idea," she said, "is to start a junior council for students ages 8 to 12 and a teen council for ages 13 to 19.
"Then we will have block captains, who are adults, with each captain responsible for watching a certain number of houses. Possibly we might have four captains and four alternates.
"The whole point," Adams said, "is to start building civic awareness and community pride from a young age."
It's also a chance for the adults, the block captains, to work with the junior and teen councils, to bridge the gap between generations.
"I can't save the whole world," she said, "and maybe right off I can't save this city. But I can sure make my ward a much better place to live."
This wasn't Adams' first electoral experience.
Four years ago, she lost to the now 82-year-old Estes by seven votes.
Following that 2001 election, she and another candidate, Darnell Moorer, who lost in last week's race for mayor and who's also African-American, contested the results.
They claimed that Forest Park election officials didn't follow proper procedures.
"There were a lot of improprieties in the voting," Adams said. "That election was at City Hall, and incumbents were allowed to stay on the grounds since they worked there while we [challengers] were escorted by police off the grounds.
"There were a whole bunch of things that happened," she said.
"Some voters went to the polls, but their names showed up in the absentee boxes. They even counted votes from dead people."
A judge dismissed their claim, although this year's election was moved from City Hall to the much larger — and more neutral — recreation center.
In the end, however, not many voters, living or otherwise, showed up.
Forest Park's commercial core has been declining, most experts agree, for the past 25 years, since Southlake Mall opened in nearby Morrow.
Adams, however, said she believes this trend can be reversed, ironically because of the loss of Fort Gillem.
"We can use that land," she said, "and draw the upscale commerce, the high-end developers, the big-time investors. We have this prime property, and we need to use it to our advantage. Personally, I'd like to see it become a mall. Why should we have to go to Morrow to shop?"
The outgoing Adams — "I never met a stranger," she said— is reticent on only two issues: her precise birthday (though she does give her age) and the particulars regarding her first name.
She will grudgingly admit, if pressed, that it comes from Sparkle Plenty, a 1950s character in the "Dick Tracy" comic strip.
"No," Adams said crisply, "it's not a name you see every day. But then again, I'm not the kind of person you see every day."
