Fresh Loaf

Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Connect Atlanta Plan is in its final stages and team members are asking the public to help them fine-tune their progress.

Four meetings located around Atlanta will be the last chance residents have to weigh in on the the city’s first-ever comprehensive transportation plan. It’d be worth stopping by to see what improvements they’ve proposed in terms of roads, rails, sidewalks and accessibility for cyclists, as well. (Project planners posted a link to a proposed bike network PDF file. Click here to check it out.)

After the jump, meeting details and locations.

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Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is out of town again this week, but this time John Sugg won’t need an open-records request to find her. She’s in Denver, of course, serving as one of the co-chairs of the Democratic National Convention. Last night, she was on hand in the Mile High City to kick off the ceremonies with her two co-chairs, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Texas Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who were joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I’ll leave it to the Hillary-ites to point out the irony of having an all-female chairing committee and no women on the ticket. But at least the Dems finally agreed to seat Florida and Michigan delegates with full voting privileges, so no hard feelings, hmm?

Anyway, if you’d like to follow Shirley’s adventures in Denver, or simply follow the convention action on a minute-by minute basis, we recommend you check out the Demver blog set up by Denver alt-weekly Westword. They’ve got a fresh interview with Herroner, in which she opines on Howard Dean’s “50-state strategy” and about Georgia as a potential swing state:

“In my home state of Georgia, there’s a sense that well, a Democrat can’t win here competitively, can’t be competitive on the national level. Well, we’ve seen in our lives, we had a president from this state in our lifetime, in the 70s. The state supported Clinton in his first election and was very close in the second election. So there’s no question, just a few years ago, it was competitive. So I think it’s a mistake [to write off Georgia].”

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And isn’t it ironic? A little too ironic, don’cha think?

Earlier this month, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced that state revenues were in the toilet, budget estimates were projecting a $1.6 billion ( yes, that’s a “B”) shortfall and that he was considering raising most people’s property taxes.

Hmm. This reminds us of an earlier situation involving a large government entity. We just can’t quite put our finger on it…

Oh, yeah – It’s Atlanta! Remember when CL broke the news back in January about the city budget crisis and the media shit-storm that followed?

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In a few hours, the latest round of head-butting between the Atlanta City Council and Mayor Shirley Franklin will commence. This time, the issue is the recently shuttered Fire Station #7, which the mayor ordered closed in July as part of $21.6 million in city budget cuts. Located on Whitehall Street just south of the I-20 overpass, #7 had been the city’s oldest fire station still in service.

Councilman Ceasar Mitchell has proposed legislation to reopen #7 by skimming the $1.12 million in needed operating funds from a number of other sources, such as the annual budgets for consulting services, travel and office supplies. which held the distinction of being Atlanta’s oldest station still in service, (more…)

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The departure of Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders from the Atlanta mayor’s race earlier this week has, by political strategists’ calculation, left behind a large window of opportunity for the right candidate.

Specifically, we mean someone backed by the Atlanta business community – anointed by the Chamber of Commerce, as it were. Borders, a protege of mega-developer Tom Cousins, had been that person, but now she’s out.

Therefore, the buzz of the moment has concentrated on a well-known and universally respected chief executive, a man of unique achievement who’s arguably done more than anyone since Ted Turner to restore the vibrancy of Atlanta’s downtown business district.

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Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders is expected to announce shortly that she will discontinue her campaign for mayor. Borders, one of the favorites in an already-crowded field of hopeful successors to Shirley Franklin, became the first declared candidate in April 2007.

No, her decision has nothing to do with the Atlanta Dream’s terrible WNBA record (she’s a team advisor), or her rumored fling with ex-presidential candidate John “Loverboy” Edwards (OK, we made that part up).

Actually, if we may be serious for a moment, we’re told Borders is stepping aside to spend more time with her ailing parents, Dr. William H. and Gloria T. Borders.

Last December, Borders left her position as senior vice president of marketing and communications at real-estate giant Cousins Properties to head her own consulting firm, LMB LLC and concentrate on her mayoral campaign. She will continue her term as Council president. No word yet on whether she plans to run for re-election or rejoin Cousins.

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The Atlanta Development Authority today announced $1.5 million in low-interest loans for developers of multifamily housing who want to build affordable units.

The city’s got a long way to go toward Mayor Shirley Franklin’s goal of adding 10,000 affordable housing units in the city by 2009 — since 2005, however, Atlanta’s only seen the addition of 3,500 units. Today’s announcement may be the incentive some developers might need to pursue the vital component of a balanced urban environment in today’s market.

After the jump, view the city’s press release announcing the program. Details on how to apply for the incentives are included.

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SCANA Energy has donated 1,000 fans to the city as part of the seventh annual We Hope Young People Bake Day “Help Atlanta’s Elderly Stay Cool Campaign” hosted by Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Atlanta Fire Rescue.

Starting Mon., July 28, low-income elderly residents can call 404-330-6026 to register and find out the nearest fire station to pick up their free wind circulator. Fire stations providing fans are listed after the jump.

P.S. If you’re a college-aged cheapskate who just wants a free fan, you best not get any bright ideas to dress up like the late Estelle Getty and try to freeload. Not cool, for a variety of reasons.
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Former Atlanta Councilwoman Debi Starnes, who has served for the past year or so as Mayor Shirley Franklin’s homeless czar (czarina?), found herself dropped from the city payroll last week.

But, unlike other city employees who fell victim to the latest round of layoffs, Starnes is planning to keep her job. The deal she worked out with Franklin, a personal friend, is that she can stay on as the mayor’s policy adviser on homeless issues as long as she finds private funds to pay her way.

“I have to raise the money to cover my salary,” which totals $96,000, Starnes explains. “It’s the right thing to do. When the city is so broke it’s laying off firemen, it doesn’t make sense to keep funding my position.”

Although Starnes hasn’t started looking for donations yet, she says she intends to find new sources so she won’t cannibalize money that already flows to the Regional Commission on Homelessness, the local umbrella program administered by the United Way. Starnes, a longtime homeless advocate with a doctorate in community psychology, represents Atlanta on the Commission, along with Franklin.

The city’s current budget crunch won’t affect the operations of such city homeless initiatives as the Gateway Center, Starnes says, because it’s funded and staffed by the Commission, which has collected $50 million from public and private sources.

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There are times in a journalist’s life when he or she feels they are simply screaming into the void. Casting information into the ether and metaphors into the vast unknown realm where ponies, wishes and jet skis go to die.

Then there are times you bring about sweeping, monumental change, and you remind yourself why you do what you do even though you live under a bridge and eat copies of your own newspaper for minimal sustenance.

Now, my friends, is one of those times.

After it originally considered scaling back its recycling and leaf-and-limb programs to offset the budget shortfall, the city today announced it will continue picking your aluminum cans as it always has. On July 7, the city discontinued its contract with Dreamsan, the private contractor that’s managed the program since 2002, and will now use city trucks to do the hauling. The move saves cash-strapped Atlanta an annual $3 million. We take full credit and if anyone says otherwise then nah nah nah.

An excerpt of the city’s announcement follows after the jump.

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Governing Magazine, a great policy mag whose recent article about Atlanta’s gentrification craze we already linked to yesterday, published a mini-profile on its website about Mayor Shirley Franklin and her mos def of deft skills: “indirect leadership.” The profile’s author, Stephen Goldsmith, is a former mayor of Indianapolis, and by golly, he knows good leadership when he sees it.

The gist of the story: When Franklin took office, the city had two separate courts — one for traffic and moving violations, one for all other city-code violations. Franklin saw low-hanging fruit and reached out to pluck it. Since she had no direct control over the city’s justice department, she gathered support in the legal community and was open with the judges involved. With the help of a pro bono analysis conducted by a consulting group, Franklin was able to consolidate the court operations and personnel. The move saved $7 million. Additional reforms created the “single, technology-driven paperless court” Goldsmith discusses in his article. The city’s court budget has been trimmed a total of $19 million, he says.

What are some examples of Franklin’s “direct leadership” skills?

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THIS TIME IT’S PERSONNEL: City Council unanimously passes an ordinance requiring the mayor to get its approval before making additions or reductions to the city’s personnel, the latest in an ongoing melodrama between the council and mayor.

DEER IN HEADLINES: A six-legged deer found in Rome, Ga., is understandably popular.

BUSH: Went down to Georgia.

CHILDRESS: Hawks’ restricted free agent is considering an offer to play in Greece.

RIGHT TO AIR ARMS? U.S. House Homeland Security Committee chairman doesn’t think we should have guns at the airport.

ROCK DRUMMERS: Require at least as much physical endurance as soccer players, according to a recent British study that used Blondie drummer Clem Burke as its test subject.

LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER: Researchers and companies like Xerox are backing away from utopian visions of a paperless society that became popular in the late 20th century, using the phrase “paper-less” instead to focus on the more pragmatic, but less glamorous, goal of simply not wasting as much paper as we do now.

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— Griftdrift returns from a snorkeling adventure in the Gulf of Mexico to weigh in with a spot-on analysis of Secretary of State Karen Handel’s decision to remove PSC Commission candidate Jim Powell from the ballot, and a judge’s subsequent decision to put him back on the ballot.

—Lori posts a pictorial tribute to Fire Station No. 7, which was closed yesterday due to the city’s budget crisis, on Mingaling. There’s nothing there about Shirley Franklin going “Philadelphia” on the protesters who don’t want to lose their fire station — and almost needing her own fire put out — but there’s some pretty pictures.

— Over at Jason Pye’s blog, he passes along info that Bob Barr, former CL columnist and now presidential candidate, has opened up an on-line store where you can pick up campaign t-shirts and hats. They’re spiffy.

— In a campaign of a different sort, there’s a long back and forth on ATLmalcontent regarding a fellow blogger’s tome on the requirements for a male to be a feminist ally. Which is something we should all aspire towards, no?

— A new trend in Atlanta television news is called “backpacking.” No camping involved. Just news reporters doubling as camerapersons. Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire explains how WXIA is trying to get a bigger bang for the buck. And essentially telling viewers: Expect less.

— Over at the Wren’s Nest, someone has discovered that the family of Joel Chandler Harris sued Coca-Cola for copyright infringement in 1932. Br’er Rabbit didn’t win because Br’er Coca-Cola out-foxed him.

— I’m still trying to figure this one out, but the ladies at Pecanne Log seem to have this inexplicable crush on our own Thomas Wheatley, to the point they appear to gush over him with every post. Today, there’s no Thomas-gushing going on, but there is a nice sigh of relief that the Crum and Forster building has been saved from the clutches of demolition by those ramblin’ wrecks over at Georgia Tech.

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Where my colleague Andi sees the mayor’s office as half-empty, InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery sees it as half-full…or something like that.

On Monday, Shirley Franklin got all up in the grill of a group of folks loudly protesting the closing of a city fire station. That much is not in dispute. But Andi saw the incident as evidence of a mayor too lately given to confrontation:

What’s with Franklin’s defiant attitude? It was her administration’s mismanagement of the budget that precipitated the city’s budget crisis and the fire station’s closing. A little contrition would go a long way, but Franklin seems incapable of it at the moment.

Towery, on the other hand, perceived an embattled leader showing her mettle:

At one point, Franklin, who originally hailed from Philadelphia, said that if the boisterous crowd pushed her, they would see her Philadelphia side come out. What, in fact, we saw was her Atlanta grit.

Hard decisions made by good leaders and backed up by a willingness to be right at the center of the action. It’s the stuff that future leaders need, and Shirley Franklin’s got in abundance. We think she is one tough, strong, and good mayor. We are proud of Mayor Shirley Franklin.

If we may be allowed a psychological musing, the difference in perspective may come from Towery’s own political past as a state legislator, when he must’ve confronted his share of hostile crowds. And while Andi ran for president in 2000, sadly he did not receive a plurality of the vote. If he had, much misery and bloodshed could have been avoided – although the administration would undoubtedly be in the thrall of big bio-diesel.

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