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Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting a series of items to help everyone get ready for the Leadership Exchange trip to Atlanta later this month. We'll look at what we've learned in the past, and what we hope to learn this time around. And we'll try to get everyone ready to make the most of what should be a fascinating trip to a city built on one of the most intriguing partnerships in American urban history - the longstanding collaboration between African American politicians and the mostly-white business establishment that's produced what's known as "the Atlanta Way."
And while most of us north of the Mason-Dixon line know Atlanta as one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, complete with an annoyingly successful baseball team and a reputation as a hot spot for singles, the average Philadelphian can be forgiven for knowing little about a town once described by author James Baldwin as "the city too busy making money to hate."
So just where, exactly, are we going?
We're going to a place where water is a very big deal - and fighting over water is an even bigger deal. Improving water supplies and infrastructure are among Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's top priorities, but if she fails to improve the situation, she won't be the first. Atlanta Magazine recently wrote, "After eighteen years, fourteen governors, and endless posturing and finger-pointing, the results of the tri-state water war can be summarized in one word: nothing." (We'll have the chance to hear from Mayor Franklin on 9/25.)
Where are we going?
We're going to a city legendary for its sprawl and congestion. Predictably, that sprawl has begun to choke the city's economic growth, and even the Chamber of Commerce is saying "enough." Less predictably, the region's traffic jams, rated America's worst by Forbes Magazine, are driving white suburbanites back to the city, changing its racial balance faster than any other American metropolis. With mayoral election coming next year, Governing Magazine writes that "Atlanta residents are getting used to the idea that after more than three decades of African-American leadership, they may have a white mayor again before too long."
Where are we going?
We're going to a city struggling to close a $140 million dollar deficit, where City Council is forcing the mayor to lay off police and close firehouses in order to avoid raising property taxes by $30 dollars a year. The same city government is simultaneously fattening its public employee pension plans while underfunding them by a billion dollars. Local columnist Mike Wise writes of the Council, "While ordering [Mayor] Franklin to make additional cuts, they awarded themselves an additional $3 million next year to spend on staff, travel and other constituent work." Wise notes that an election is coming up - a great time for Council members to have a few extra dollars to spend.
Where are we going?
We're going to a city that's begging for government infrastructure dollars despite - or perhaps because of - its record economic growth. Mayor Franklin was in Washington recently to ask for state and federal help with roads, bridges, public transportation, and, of course, water. She told the feds that she hears the same two questions constantly: "Why are water and sewer rates so high?", followed quickly by, "Why didn't the federal government help us more?" Meanwhile, the city struggles to get the help it wants from its own state government. Asked to name Atlanta's biggest challenges, one regional leader recently wrote: "The state insufficiently funds the criminal justice system, education, trauma care and mental health ... An anti-Atlanta mentality foolishly believes that a weak Atlanta serves the rest of the state well."
Where are we going?
We're going to a city whose next leader is anyone's guess. Term limits will force Mayor Franklin from office in just over a year, and the frontrunner for the job just dropped out of the race. (This person is Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, and she'll be with us on the first day.) This leaves some residents wondering where the city will find the "world class mayor" it needs to become a world class city.
Does any of this sound familiar? Atlanta here we come!
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