Athens Decides: Mara Zúñiga
After growing up in Nicaragua and migrating to Brooklyn in 1972, mayoral candidate Mara Zúñiga says she understands the struggles of migrants in Athens.
“I believe it’s always difficult because you have to learn the language, you have to learn the system, and also you have to try and be part of it,” Zúñiga said. “I think that’s probably the two most difficult things.”
Her political journey started at the age of 17 years old when she visited Nicaragua with her mother to take care of her ill grandmother. Zúñiga then moved from Brooklyn to Athens, where she continued to be politically active. She ran for mayor in 2022, coming in as first runner up in the election with 25% of the vote. As she runs for mayor again, one of her biggest promises to Athens is total nonpartisanship.
“This means sitting down with people that agree with you and disagree with you, and that your solutions you will present as mayor will be evidence based,” Zúñiga said. “It has to be recommendations based on evidence that will give all people better quality of life, better wages, better housing. That can’t be politicized, and I think that’s where we start.”
Zúñiga aims to restore trust among citizens and the local government by promoting transparency and evidence-based decision making.
“It is evident in some folk that they (the local government) have an agenda, and because of their lack of trust, every action is questioned. I think if you have evidence-based governance where you can say, ‘We believe this should be done because look at these numbers, and this is the evidence we bring forward on why this would be best,’ the trust in the governance would increase,” Zúñiga said.
Similarly, she also plans to use this same evidence-based approach to increase participation in city planning and policy-making.
“The end goal is increased participation. I would want to look at all these programs with fresh eyes and look at the data. If we see that those things are working, even if it takes us a while, we can keep them, we can reform them, and we can improve them,” Zuniga said. “It doesn’t matter that they exist. It matters if they are giving us results.”
One of Zúñiga’s focal points in Athens is homelessness. According to the Athens-Clarke County Continuum of Care’s 2024 point-in-time count, there were 386 people experiencing homelessness at the time, 12.5% higher than the previous year.
“These are people that have ended up in the most vulnerable situation,” Zúñiga said. “There are no services everywhere else, and this is the reason they (other counties) send them here. For some reason, Athens was chosen, the smallest county in all of Georgia. We’re chosen as the place to serve that population, and we find ourselves strapped.”
Zúñiga aims to remedy homelessness in Athens by holding the other counties more accountable for their residents who come to Athens seeking services.
“I do think it’s fair if there were a way that we (Athens) can share the costs with these other counties whose population of the most vulnerable in their communities we opened our doors to. I would go to a state level representative and speak with them about that policy which created us (Athens) to be a hub. The next best possible option would be to work with our neighboring communities and share the cost,” Zúñiga said.
“It is evident in some folks that they think (the local government) has an agenda, and because of their lack of trust, every action is questioned. If you have evidence-based governance … the trust in the government would increase.”
Another important point of Zúñiga’s campaign is to make sure the Clarke County Police Department receives the resources they need to be more successful.
“One of the things that we overlook is law enforcement, because as the population increases, there’s more work for police officers. The bigger the city, the bigger the problem,” Zúñiga said. “Therefore, when we look at the police or the sheriff’s department, we really have to start thinking of them as our neighbors who are protecting us with the resources that they need to save lives.”
Zúñiga also hopes to bring awareness to opioid deaths and how to prevent them, as well as addiction itself.
“The way we start addressing the opioid problem is (by) supporting law enforcement. We need to provide public safety officials with situational awareness for overdose risk, public education for overdose recognition and response. We need to equip law enforcement and public safety officials with that: a campaign that will go out and get information out there,” Zúñiga said.
Promising total nonpartisanship, Zúñiga promises to seek diversity in opinions, not just appearance. She believes that her solution driven mindset and her community focused approaches demonstrate that she is the mayor Athens needs.
“I want to be a relationship builder, someone who unifies, someone who gets results and someone who people can trust. That’s what I want to be as an Athens mayor. And I think that if you deliver that way, we can begin to have Athens work for everyone,” Zúñiga said.
YOU MAY LIKE:
Athens Decides: Tim Denson
By Riley Pepin
