“I don’t think that I will be running for city council. While I don’t like what Alex Wan did with Cheshire Bridge, I hope he understands now that adult/LGBT entertainment is important for the development of any city,” Morrison told GA Voice today.
“My run would purely have been to make the statement that Atlanta, the home of the civil rights movement, should also include tolerance of lifestyle choices as well,” he said.
Morrison added he was in talks with Atlanta gay nightlife promoter Chris Coleman about creating an “LGBT voting bloc.”
“The LGBT community really needs to vote as one body to create real power for itself. I think that is a message that we all need to get behind,” he said.
Morrison has also said he and other business owners talked about backing a candidate to run against Wan if one stepped forward. However, Morrison said today Wan is expected to meet soon with the Cheshire Bridge Business Association and they want to hear what he has to say.
“The adult business owners want to take a wait and see attitude. Alex Wan is supposed to meet with the Cheshire Bridge Business Association so we’d like to hear what he says. I think Alex could be very could for the district but he needs to understand that we are part of the district too,” Morrison said. “Even if he were elected, we could always pick a candidate in the next election 2.5 years out.”
Morrison talked about his possible run because he was angry with what he said was Wan pushing his personal moral values onto the city. Wan’s legislation was amended several times before he decided to only target adult businesses to be outlawed from Cheshire Bridge Road.
“We’re a permanent part of the landscape,”Morrison said of adult businesses two weeks ago. “He was able to take his personal views and push forward this legislation — that is not going to happen in this election.”
Wan’s proposed legislation, which failed to be approved by the full city council on June 3, would have repealed the grandfather clause that allowed adult businesses to stay open along the popular thoroughfare, dubbed by many as Atlanta’s red-light district.
Several business owners and developers spoke out against Wan’s legislation, arguing the proposed rezoning basically was a property rights issue and they promised to take the city to court.
People living in the neighborhood surrounding the thoroughfare and supportive of the legislation, however, complain of the seediness and blight the sex clubs and porn stores bring to the area and, they say, impedes greater development of the area.