Streetalk: What is Mayor Shirley Franklin’s legacy?
November 1, 2009 at 8:49 am by Jeff Slate in Streetalk
Robbie: She fixed a few potholes, she kind of got the Beltline started, and that’s about it. The sewer still isn’t fixed, crime is out of control, the budget is a mess. She’ll go down as the mayor who didn’t do much of anything. She fixed a few potholes, but there are still potholes. She fixed the budget a little bit, but the budget is still a mess. She started the Beltline, but the Beltline is still so far out of reach. She’ll go down as the mayor who never finished anything she started. Her legacy is eight years wasted.
David: A lot of people give her shit, but she revamped the damn sewer system. It wasn’t popular, but she made tough decisions that had to be done. She’s a decent person. She’s got family issues with her kids, but her legacy will be that she made Atlanta face up to the fact that we were 100 years behind in our infrastructure — and she started the foundation to correct it. She had the guts to do what was necessary. She’s going to come out historically very well.
Zen: Bullshit. People came to Atlanta to party. That’s what we were known as. She took that away. She took away the essence of Atlanta. Now it’s, “What time are the clubs closing? When is the booze going to be cut?” Now it’s, “Why did I even go out?” Ray Lewis had nothing to do with regular old Atlantans. People who do crime are going to do crime, regardless. People who go to clubs go to dance and have a good time. They don’t go to kill people. How in the hell did they get it in their minds that the nightlife was the cause of any crime? She ran this city into the sewer.
(Photos by Jeff Slate)
November 1st, 2009 at 10:52 am
Words that come to mind about Shirley’s reign: Cronyism. Autocrat. Disappointment. Lapel flowers. Legalized corruption. Not Campbell. Eagle. Kathryn Johnson. Pennington. Pridgeon. Ethics reform (without enforcement). Park closures. Tom Coffin. Furloughs. Enron-like accounting. Financial mess. Taxes. Junkets. Diss the NPUs. Smoke and mirrors. Pothole Posse.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:30 am
I think Shirley will always be remembered fondly as the only mayor during the 2000-2009 decade who did not spend time in federal prison. I hope I’m not speaking too soon.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:38 pm
better than the alternative, but we deserve(d) better.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Kasim ran both of Shirley Franklin campaigns.
http://www.notkasim.blogspot.com
November 1st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I think Mayor Franklin will leave a legacy of brut strength in the face of large adversity and turmoil. She is not liked by many for reasons that I can’t defend, but I will tell you that residents, if honest, will remember her fighting spirit. She was not the best Mayor, but she was not nearly the worse. I think her personality to ignore controversy from the residents and critics, has harmed her in the viewpoint of others. People, in general, love to talk about someone whom they can easily lay their burdens. But you could bet your bottom dollar, when Mary Norwood gets done with Atlanta, the world will completely ignore us eventually. No more legacy of triumph. This Sara Palin styled leadership will leave much to the imagination because we will get no answers to anything that requires real thought and implementation. Atlanta gets what they deserve in exchange for all of the gossip, race haters, class-lest children of legacy and apathetic residents, who are so spoiled, but pin their own woes on others.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 am
Shirley Franklin has been a huge disappointment to the City of Atlanta. She has gutted the hopes of the public to actually change things for the better. She has led the City with a twisted iron fist. It’s her way or the highway and everything and everybody else be damned! Good riddance Franklin.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Shirley saddled Atlantans with enormous financial burdens. She had no sense of what we could afford. Now we have the most expensive water in the nation, the highest sales tax in the state and sky-high property taxes – and we’re by no means done with paying her bills. That’s her real legacy.
1. A $4bn water-sewer program that was never properly value-engineered and cost-managed. When Shirley’s fantasy that the feds and state would share equally in the capital cost was proven wrong, Shirley should have gone back to the drawing boards and asked what Atlanta could reasonably afford and how to get there. Instead, the insider engineers and consultants were given their head.
2. A ballooning pension and retiree health liability. She never had the gumption to tell council that their pension giveaways were unaffordable, (which is why Lisa and Mary can hide behind claiming they didn’t know). Pensions now eat up 20% of the city budget and if accounted for properly retiree costs would be easily double that. Total folly.
3. A plethora of TADs bleeding tax revenue away from supporting basic services and into making developers rich. Worse, we are on the hook for Beltline bonds that in the real estate slump won’t be self funding. Right through her time in office we have had huge growth in the property tax base and in the city’s resident population, yet both property and sales tax stagnated even before the recession hit. Why did Shirley not step up and say the diversion of tax is excessive and must stop? Because she has run the place for developers, not for residents.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I can think of millions of ways Shirley did an excellent job. I will be the poorer for it when she exits the public stage.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 am
The Franklin administration has been more of the same Campbell administration, only without the indictments. Clearly a shill for developers, she was hostile and out of touch with neighborhoods and constituents. She missed a big opportunity to separate storm water from sewer. So, even her proudest achievement as the sewer mayor is flawed. Her complete ignorance of historic preservation leaves a legacy of loss both to the built environment and the tree canopy.