The two men most likely to compete to be the next mayor also stressed negotiation first. Fulton County Commission Chairman Michael Lomax has received contributions from banks for his 1989 campaign for mayor but also said he was turned down by two banks for a home-improvement loan because he lived in the wrong neighborhood. Lomax opposes linking city deposits to bank lending. I've never encouraged that in Fulton County. It can be a win-win situation.
Nobody has to lose for blacks to make their neighborhoods acceptable.
And Jackson, the city's first black mayor and expected to be a candidate again next year, hopes to raise campaign funds from the white business community, or at least to blunt its opposition. He said pulling money out of the banks is an option, but not the first option. You're talking about conservative institutions. That's not going to change. To whatever extent we can legally and economically leverage city money, I'm willing to consider that.