ATLANTA — Every morning, William White looks at the tire marks on his new charcoal-colored driveway and gets angry. He and his husband, Byran Eure, live on a quiet, tree-lined street in the wealthy Atlanta enclave of Buckhead and were seconds away from becoming one of the area’s latest crime victims.
Two men had jumped out of their vehicle and were in the process of stealing White’s car when they looked up and saw a surveillance camera recording their every move. The men, in mid-pursuit, pointed to the camera, hopped back in their car, and high-tailed it out of sight.
White knows he and Eure are lucky. No one got hurt. But that can’t be said for the hundreds of other carjackings, robberies, rapes, and shootings that have spiked in Buckhead over the past year. In fact, things have gotten so bad that a group of residents, led by White, are pushing for cityhood.
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White says leaving Atlanta would finally give Buckhead control over crime and allow its police officers the freedom to go after criminals without the fear of retribution.
“We are fighting for our lives,” White, the CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “My sister-in-law’s house got broken into. I am afraid for my family.”
White, who moved to the tony part of town three years ago, has raised more than $600,000 for the cause and is on track to hit his $1.5 million-to-$1.6 million goal by next year. Once dismissed as a pipe dream, the campaign for cityhood has gained traction in the Georgia Legislature and caught the attention of some high rollers.
“We are pushing state legislators to hold emergency hearings to discuss advancing our cityhood bill in a more expeditious way as soon as possible because of the rampant crime,” he said.
The bill to create Buckhead City was introduced on the last day of the 2021 legislative session, making it one of the first agenda items when lawmakers meet under the gold dome in January. The bill would have to pass both the House and Senate before it’s sent to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk. If he signs off on it, the question of cityhood would be put on the November ballot for Buckhead voters.
White is confident that when put to a vote, Buckhead City will come out ahead.
“Oh, it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said. “Just wait and see.”
So, who is this white-haired, middle-aged Yankee raking in millions of dollars?
His story is about as colorful as it gets.
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As the former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in Manhattan, White has been credited with bringing it back from the brink of financial ruin. He left the organization in 2010 after agreeing to pay a $1 million settlement to end an investigation into his role in a pay-to-play scandal. He was never charged with a crime and has said he did nothing wrong.
White told the Washington Examiner that he “decided against my better judgment to settle it as it was a political item, not because of anything else.”
“I retired my unblemished career in the nonprofit world to develop my for-profit businesses for the remainder of my professional career,” he said.
White’s celebrity inner circle includes Aretha Franklin, who sang for the 670 guests who attended his 2011 wedding to Eure at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. Also on the guest list were former New York Gov. David Paterson, Barbara Walters, Gayle King, music mogul Clive Davis, and Victoria’s Secret model Karolina Kurkova.
There were red, white, and blue spotlights on the side of the building, and guests walked up one of three red, white, and blue carpets. At coat check, the Gay Men’s Chorus serenaded the crowd with “Son of a Preacher Man.”
Inside the event was a who’s who of the politically connected and powerful elite. Former Vice President Al Gore’s lawyer, David Boies, who led efforts to overturn California’s Proposition 8, officiated.
White’s inclusiveness and ability to get along with just about everybody is part of his tough-guy charm and has helped him build his political credentials with Democrats and Republicans alike.
He and Eure have raised massive amounts of money for Hillary Clinton and backed her two White House runs. Former President Barack Obama was the guest of honor at the $39,500-a-plate truffle risotto fundraiser the couple hosted at their Chelsea townhouse. White has even helped raise almost $1 billion for Democratic philanthropist and Republican boogeyman George Soros’s healthcare platform hedge fund.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
White and Eure raised the ire of some deep-blue Democrats after jumping ship from the Clinton camp to former President Donald Trump’s on the night Clinton lost.
In fact, White drove from Clinton’s watch party to Trump’s election celebration.
“That White and Eure can be so morally vacuous as to simply decide they wanted to go with the winner — whoever that may be — and race to the other side of Manhattan to join him at his victory party is almost as jarring as the fact that these men aren’t at all embarrassed to reveal this shallow opportunism to the world,” Huffington Post columnist Michelangelo Signorile wrote in a scathing piece about the couple in 2018. “There are surely many other crude status seekers of every gender, race, and sexual orientation who are as vile and pathetic as these two, but the fact that they are gay — and wealthy, white, and male — does deserve some attention.”
After helping Trump build his war chest, White popped up in Atlanta three years later. He told the Washington Examiner he and his husband decided to make the move to the Peach State to spend time with Eure’s family.
White brushes off the haters but said it stings when people accuse him of playing politics in his push to create Buckhead City. In fact, he said it has nothing to do with the trappings of wealth, race, politics, or privilege. Instead, it has to do with standing up for what’s right.
“It’s not about politics,” he said. “We have nothing to do with that. Some people say, ‘Oh, we can’t support [Atlanta Mayor] Keisha Bottoms because she’s a progressive Democrat,’ or ‘I don’t want to support Kemp because he’s a Republican and he liked Trump.’ That has nothing to do with us. We are staying away from all politics.”
Multiple calls and emails by the Washington Examiner seeking comment from Bottoms and Kemp were not returned. White told the Washington Examiner that part of the frustration Buckhead residents face is not being taken seriously by Atlanta leaders.
“We haven’t heard from the janitor, let alone the mayor, let alone the City Council president, let alone the people running for office,” White said. “Nobody has reached out to me, nobody has reached out to our group. We are all over the internet, and no one has said, ‘Hey, I work for the city. My name is Keisha Bottoms, and we’d love to talk to you.’ They don’t give a damn about Buckhead. They only give a damn about our money, but this is the end of the road for them. The piggy bank is over for them.”
White has also pushed back on suggestions the group should wait until a new mayor is elected.
“They want us to keep hanging on thinking something is going to change, but that is the definition of insanity,” he said. “We are not insane people. We are normal, hard-working, red-blooded, loving patriots.”
White said he’s also been disgusted by the low blows they’ve faced in their fight for cityhood.
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“The insincerity and the race-baiting by them is disgusting,” he said. “It’s absurd. It has no relevance.”
White, who said he’s gearing up for a long fight, added that the more critics call the plan divisive, the more it emboldens the group and strengthens its resolve.
“It’s going to be a knockdown, drag-out campaign, but I can’t wait.”
