Sprawling Forward

Host of the 1996 Olympic Games, a huge airline hub and a thriving business center, Atlanta, Georgia, is many things to many people. Since 2002, Shirley Franklin has served as mayor of the sprawling metropolis, and her two terms as the first black female to lead a major Southern city have found her presiding over a breakneck pace of development, a decline in violent crime, the rise of “Dirty South” hip-hop and one of the most widely praised urban public school systems in the South. But with sunshine comes rain. Critics have branded Mayor Franklin’s campaign against homelessness a thinly veiled attack on the poor, and others have called her “ATL” marketing campaign irresponsible. In this month’s “City Hall,” we chat with Mayor Franklin about urban policy, planning, crime, music and the Olympics.

TNAC:Atlanta’s crime rate is close to an all-time low. How was that achieved, and what policies, police enforcement or demographic changes led to it?

Shirley Franklin:Well, the city of Atlanta experienced a very high crime rate during the ’90s. Over a period of 10 years we were at the top of the list for the most violent city in America. We’ve used the ComStat model to develop policing techniques. For instance, we reinstituted walking beats. Atlanta had not had walking beats in 25 years. In the South, once we got air conditioning in cars, our officers started riding in cars. We reinstituted and expanded our mounted patrol for crowd patrol and visibility. We’ve used Segways. We also used a zone redesign. There had not been a zone redesign in Atlanta in 18 or 19 years before [new police commissioner] Chief Pennington came.

TNAC:How do the surrounding suburbs interact with the city, and what challenges have you faced as a result of this rapid development?

SF:The city of Atlanta does not have any physical barriers — we don’t have a river, lake or mountains — that prohibit development, as many cities do. So over the years, and going back to the ’50s, Atlanta has sprawled. And our metropolitan area includes part of metropolitan Chattanooga. I mean, we are very close to Alabama, and we spread out very close to the Alabama-Georgia border. The key for us in the [past] six years [was] to recognize that the city could add density to its development, allowing people to live closer to their jobs because the jobs have remained Atlanta-centric.

TNAC:How has the momentum in urban development and economic growth been sustained since the Olympic Games of ’96? And if you had to give a few tips to the mayor of Beijing, what would they be?

SF:My first advice is to plan to have some fun and enjoy yourself. Don’t get so overwhelmed by the logistical challenges or the post-Olympic challenges that you might face. The second thing is involve as many of the local residents as possible — as volunteers, in planning and in events leading up to the games — because it will be inspiring for them. And the third piece of advice is hold onto your hat, because after the Olympics, there will be so much interest in investing and in reporting on your city — there will be more interest than you could possibly imagine. The amount of development that has followed the Olympics has far exceeded anything we anticipated. On an annual basis we issue permits [totaling] $3 billion. Before the Olympics we hit $1 billion that we invested in the city, so we had to completely overhaul our permitting process to handle the volume, complexity and level of interest.

TNAC:Atlanta has become a big music center in the last 20 years. How, in your opinion, should city government interact and encourage a city’s music?

SF:First of all, I’m accessible to the music industry and all those genres. I mean, they have issues and plans that they need the city in support of, and my support of, and so obviously, [I’m] being accessible and being respectful of their creativity and interested in their contributions. We encourage young musicians to relocate here to contribute their talents to our community. For instance, in the summer months we’ve had music camp, and we’ve introduced kids to the violin, thousands at a time, over the course of a summer by employing teachers who can introduce them to music. We’ve supported [LaFace records R&B super-producer] Dallas Austin as he’s gone out to build recording studios in our high schools and our middle schools. So not a week goes by that we are not actively engaged.

TNAC:How do you feel about the term, “The Dirty South”?

SF:Never heard it! (laughs)