to be pervasive," she says. "It was in the black community, the white community, the newcomers, young people, older folks. There was a sense that government couldn't do it right." But she was also growing uneasy with the career advice she was continually giving to young women-advice she was not following herself. "I was telling all these young women ... that you could do
more than 30 years. "She came into her own." Some Franklin staffers call her a visionary. But she rejects the label, replying that she has just been around longer than most of her staff. Franklin says her former bosses, Jackson and Young, "could both see into the future," but she sees herself as a "driver for change ....! push things through." She stays intensely focused on issues, building alliances with city
"If you were going to take your time as a private citizen or as a professional," she says, "we were going to work with what you recommended." After Franklin spent two years speaking about the sewerage system, business leaders started asking her how they could help. The referendum to refurbish the system received the backing of three quarters of Atlanta's residents. Her task force on the sewer issue has Mayor Shirley Franklin (center in the yellow suit) joins other Atlantans in the 2003 groundbreaking for the Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest, which was debtfree when it opened in November 2005, thanks to donations from individuals and corporations.
anything you wanted to do. And we hadn't had a woman" as mayor, she said. "I finally convinced myself that I had an obligation to break through the barrier." At ftrst she was unsure of herself; she was nervous speaking in public, and she trailed her opponents in name recognition early on. But eventually she raised $3.2 million and ran on a reform platform. She released copies of her income tax returns and posted campaign contributions on her Web site. Her campaign slogan was simple: "You make me mayor, and I'll make you proud." "When she got out on the campaign trail, she really grew," said Congressman John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, who has known Franklin for
leaders, and once she latches on to an idea she says it's a matter of crafting a clear message. "You know where she stands, and she'd tell you in a moment," says Lewis. "It's not a lot of small talk. She wants to get to the point and deal with issues." Nowhere is that drive more evident than in the more than two dozen public-private task forces she has started, which have brought in more than 75 private firms to help shape policy with city officials. "She is a skillful negotiator, mediator," says Lewis. "She's a bridge builder." Task forces are nothing new, but Franklin says the key to making her blue-ribbon panels a success has been simple: Follow the recommendations.
been a template for reform on issues such as homelessness, improving public schools and restoring fiscal integrity to the city. "Her response is always, 'What is the right thing to do, and then we'll manage the politics of the situation,''' says Pete Correll, chairman emeritus of Georgia-Pacific [the Atlantabased manufacturer of packaging, paper, pulp and building products] who is chairman of the Atlanta Committee for Progress. "While she's certainly not colorblind, she's not overwhelmed by the black-white issue," he says. "For so many years in Atlanta, I think the fIrst question we asked ourselves was what will the black community think and what will the white community think?
Shirley has brought us full circle to ask us what is the right thing to do. That is a dramatic change." Franklin's goals have shifted in her second term. She started a program in 2004 to support internships, jobs and college application fees for the city's recent high school graduates, after she found that 775 students had no postgraduate plans. In July 2005, the city opened a center to provide health care and job training to about 500 homeless Atlantans as a first step in Franklin's plan to end homelessness in the next 10 years. And now she's turning to another challenge: a massive redevelopment plan that calls for 30,000 new jobs and a $20 billion increase in Atlanta's tax base over the next 25 years. The centerpiece of the plan is the transformation of 35 kilometers of railroad circling the city's core into parklands and housing. Atlanta has turned itself around in many respects dming Franklin's fIrst term, but some critics say her pro-growth policies have hurt the city's poorest by raising the cost of living and focusing on attracting newcomers. Driving back from a meeting recently, she acknowledged the problem after pointing to new houses under construction and the new downtown headquarters of the Southern Co. "It's challenging to keep the city affordable," she says. For her personally, she'll have to maintain the energy that paid off on the sewer project. Although there were rumors about a possible run for the U.S. Senate, she says the best place for her to shape policy is Atlanta. Based on her track record to date, it's hard to argue the point. ~ Silla
Brush
is a reporter with
U.S. News & World Report.