Everybody Hates the Mayor of Ponce!

When I told a few of my friends in passing that I was going to interview J. Winter a.k.a. the Mayor of Ponce, they didn’t hold back. Expletives were thrown around like bags of cocaine at one of the Mayor’s seedy parties, formerly hosted at the Ford Factory Lofts. Asshole, fucking douche bag and jackass were just a few of the choice words used to describe the interviewee. Without knowing much about the guy, his agenda evokes enough emotion from his critics that he could actually be a politician.

After hearing stories about the Mayor binge drinking, abusing drugs, hitting on girls and running rampant like a juggernaut through Atlanta’s night life, I was surprised that I had never met him before and especially curious as to why so many people hated him. He sounded like a rock star that wasn’t in a band and couldn’t play an instrument. Maybe he was a DJ?

Walking up to the door step of his apartment in the Virginia-Highlands, appropriately named “Highlands High,” I wasn’t surprised to find broken glass in the entryway and blood spatter along the wall of the staircase leading up to his second story bachelor pad. Immediately offering us a beer as we walked through the door, he hadn’t waited to start drinking but didn’t want to go at it alone, either.

After some introductions and joking around about the recent drama he’s been dealing with regarding his comments about the dub step scene, he led us out to the “Mad Pussy Deck.” He couldn’t recall the origin of the name, obviously coined during one of the all-night bashes that exasperates his straight-laced, next door neighbor.

The “MPD,” littered with empty beer bottles, cigarette butts and shabby deck furniture, didn’t appear to be a persuasive setting for anyone trying to seal the deal. But much like the Mayor, once I got past its rough edges, it had its charm.

Purge: What’s the beef that the dub step community has with you?

Mayor: They realize that no one takes their scene serious. I don’t see why anybody would. It’s really annoying music. I’ve never been one to tell someone that they listen to really crap music. I hate that person. I listen to crap music. I like Ke$ha. I like everything. It doesn’t matter to me, but dub step — that’s for, like, six year olds.

They get mad [at us] at Creative Loafing because we don’t really promote their events or anything like that. So they went nuts when they thought [what I wrote] was a music review. They don’t understand that it’s my point of view of a night out. It doesn’t have anything to do with music. I just happened to be at a rave.

Purge: Were you at one of their events?

Mayor: Yeah. I went to an underground rave. It was the same as the ones I went to back in high school. It was idiots running around doing drugs. I’m all for that, but you’re going to get made fun of if you’re wearing a Yoshi back pack and Yoshi has little glow sticks on. Yeah man, you look like you work at the Lady Foot Locker. So yeah, they got pretty pissed.

Purge: The very mention of your name leads to looks of disapproval and silent swearing. Where did you come up with the idea to be the Mayor of Ponce?

Mayor: In 2004 I lived at the Ford Factory Lofts. Our house was called J Bar and for four years it was total debauchery over there. That’s kind of how it got started. The whole idea was kind of like a Don Quixote type thing mixed with the Mayor of Sunset Strip, Rodney Bingenheimer. You live in the reality that you set. If I say that I’m this, there you have it.

I also have a lot of Ponce lineage. My grandmother met my grandfather after World War II at a bar called Poncey’s. They got married and had my dad. He was born on Ponce. My mom lived down the street in Inman Park. They had their first date on Ponce at the Plaza Theatre. My other grandmother died at the government assisted living building on Ponce. I grew up in Stockbridge, but I remember coming up here in the 80s. That’s when Ponce de Leon was really dirty.

Basically, the whole shtick with the Mayor of Ponce is if people get it, they get it, and if they don’t, they get really angry about it. They don’t get that it’s a joke.

Purge: You write a column for Creative Loafing, how did you carry the Mayor of Ponce moniker over to that?

Mayor: When I first started writing for them I did this Night Crawler column. I went to them and said, “What do you think about my pen name being the Mayor of Ponce?” There was no way they were going to let me do that, but they came back and said that they didn’t see a problem with it. Those columns were written all first person.

Then I started doing the Dangerous Moves where we took it a whole lot further. We would throw a hotel party at the Clermont or we would do a Buford Highway bar crawl. We would have some pretty wild nights. I actually used my real name in it. It took me out of the equation. It was more legit.

Purge: When you’re not intoxicated, what’s your day job?

Mayor: I work for a promotions company, and I do freelance landscape designs for people. I stay busy, but I’m not too motivated. I kind of like my free will in life.

Purge: What does a day in the life of the Mayor of Ponce look like?

Mayor: If someone calls me to hang out I rarely say no. I’m more of a yes guy. If anyone wants to hang out, it’s hard for me to turn it down. I try to mix it up, especially living paper airplane distance from all of these bars in the Highlands and seeing the same people out. This is a great town — we’ll get weird out on Buford Highway or go to Buckhead, even hit Midtown and hang out with that crowd.

Purge: Do you usually wake up with a hangover?

Mayor: I tell you man, it’s getting harder the older I get. You just can’t do it. You’re drinking a lot, doing drugs and the depression… and the restart button is getting harder to hit, the Keith Richards button. He’s been doing it for 50 years now and his body needs it. Hitting that Keith Richard’s button is getting old.

Purge: How old are you now?

Mayor: 30.

Purge: How much more partying do you have left in you?

Mayor: As long as you still have a good head of hair, you’re still in the ball game. I would say at least by the time I’m 40 it’s time to give it up man. It would be getting a little too cliche.

Purge: Would you buy a house and move out to the burbs?

Mayor: I would never live in the suburbs, but I could see pulling up roots and moving somewhere else. Never New York City — I could never live in New York. I don’t understand my friends who say, “Yeah, I’m moving to Brooklyn”. “Mother Fucker you can’t even make it in Atlanta. Your ass is going to move to Brooklyn? I’ll see you in a year and a half.”

I take it personal when someone leaves Atlanta.

I love the Yankees who move down here, they’re like, “Back home, this is how we do it. You guys are so backwards down here in the South”. Louis Bazaar said, “If you don’t like how we do it down here, Delta is ready when you are, partner”.

Purge: If some guy wants to beat your ass or his girlfriend wants to hook up with you, where can they find you hanging out?

Mayor: I don’t have a hang out. I think that’s what keeps it great. Probably Star Bar the most, just because it’s kind of lawless in there. I think that’s the best part about me is that I’m constantly changing it up. Plus, I probably owe a lot of bars money.

I think I got banned for life from MJQ like three times. I’ve been banned from Estoria countless times. I’ve been banned from a bunch of bars, but they keep letting me back in. I don’t know. I don’t get it.

Purge: Would you say that you get a lot of “action” because you have created a reputation for yourself writing for Creative Loafing?

Mayor: [Laughter] Yeah, I mean, if a girl asks me what I do, I can actually say I’m a writer, even though it might be kind of bull shit. I’ll run with it, absolutely. I ain’t got much going for me, man. I’ve got to use every advantage that I can.

The funny this is, I’m friends with this guy named Butch Walker. Great guy, amazing guy. But I’ve gotten a lot of leftovers just being at a show with him. I was in a video, and I’ve been recognized from that and pulled ass from that on just a random night. I wasn’t even with Butch. The Butch Walker leftover is absolutely amazing. That is one way I can actually get laid.

Purge: If you could change anything about Ponce, what would it be?

Mayor: The gentrification is kind of annoying, but there’s nothing wrong that at all. People will get mad at a story that I write and their come back will be, “Great street Ponce,” “Nice Chipotle, dude,” or “Awesome, we have an Urban Outfitters now, asshole!” It’s “no holds are barred” on the Internet. They’re not going to put their name on that. That’s what I love about the Internet. Blog comments are basically a virtual bathroom wall.

As far as Ponce looked in the 80s, it’s cleaned up a lot. It’s a pretty magical street, man. It’s just as spiritual as it is profane.

Coming Soon: Love him or hate him– Check out the Mayor of Ponce/ J. Winter’s new column on Purge ATL.

Photo Credit: Christy Parry