Mayor Shirley Franklin is using an array of public and private partnerships to make Atlanta one of America’s elite cities.

By Ruth King

Atlanta, Georgia, has always been a magnet for people. Its geographic area, moderate climate and transportation advantages have always attracted residents and visitors to the city. From the early 1800s when it was called Terminus (because many different railroads terminated in the center of the city) to today, when it has become a metropolitan area of over 5 million residents, people have been drawn to the city’s genuine Southern hospitality.

Railroads, and subsequently cars and airplanes, were responsible for Atlanta’s exponential growth and its concomitant problems and solutions through the centuries.

Now, the city is proactively dealing with its over 20 percent growth rate since 2000 and becoming a “Best in Class” city.

Some history: Atlanta’s first airport was started by visionary William Berry Hartsfield in 1925. As mayor from 1938 to 1961, he oversaw tremendous growth in the city. As a result, Atlanta slowly became racially divided, with the African-American population in the urban areas and the white population in the suburbs. Atlanta was becoming a city where race was an issue that divided the city and caused it to lose its attractiveness.

In 1969, when racial tension was high, the city’s leaders formed Leadership Atlanta. The organization’s purpose was to foster communication and understanding and to create an environment for different races, cultures, religions and beliefs to work together.

Leadership
Atlanta achieved its goal. It is now the oldest training program of its type in the United States and is the model for many other cities. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 1991).

Airports and roads contributed to the continued growth and urban issues. When Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta airport was expanded in the late 1970s, then-mayor Maynard Jackson was instrumental in ensuring that at least 25 percent of the work on the $450 million new airport went to minority-owned businesses. This became his legacy: an airport that was completed on time and on budget with white and minority business owners truly working together.

In the 1990s the city experienced more growing pains. The population swelled to well over 3 million people, and the city faced budget deficits and government corruption.

A strong public leader emerged. Shirley Franklin had never run for public office. However, she was instrumental in Maynard Jackson’s term in office, and was the most senior female executive on the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) for five years before and during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In 2003, Ms. Franklin was elected Mayor of Atlanta and began the difficult task of turning around the city and leading its growth once again.

She asked Bain and Company whether they would assist her in determining what a “Best in Class” city would look like. They agreed to assist the City of Atlanta pro bono. In the spring of 2003 Bain and Company began looking at best practices and developing the “New Century Economic Development Plan” (EDP). The EDP was approved by the Atlanta Development Authority in December 2004. The goals that were set were aggressive and not easily achieved.    

In addition, Mayor Franklin had to convince both the public and private sector that the EDP was a worthy goal for Atlanta. She succeeded, and over 50 private, city, county and state organizations banded together to work towards becoming a “Best in Class” city. The chart below shows the goals and results of their efforts to date.

As a result of the New Century EDP, three key initiatives emerged: the Atlanta BeltLine, The Peachtree Corridor and Downtown Development. All are receiving national attention and scrutiny.

The Atlanta BeltLine
The city wants to entice people who are interested in having greenspace and mixed developments to move to Atlanta. As in every great city, increased greenspace is a major driver for economic development. Mixed-use communities are attracted to the linear park and new park acreage. The BeltLine’s park system will be as important as its railroads, streetscapes and other infrastructure in determining the location and concentration of development in Atlanta.

The Trust for Public Land has named the Atlanta BeltLine as one of its top program initiatives. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come.

Today, Atlanta ranks near the bottom of U.S. peer cities in available park land. The BeltLine proposal increases greenspace in a connected linear system that would become, in effect, one of the nation’s great regional parks. It is the part of the New Century EDP that has progressed the least since 2004.

The goal is for the BeltLine to add 1,200 acres of greenspace to the existing 700 acres. In addition, the BeltLine will create a linear park to connect 40 of Atlanta’s existing parks.

This is a very challenging goal. However, like the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, this project has captured the imagination of Atlantans and their leaders. The beauty of the BeltLine is that it runs through 45 of Atlanta’s neighborhoods, while also touching areas that are abandoned or underutilized.

The BeltLine’s unique configuration and prime location provides the framework to concentrate Atlanta’s growth for retail and industrial business, as well as housing. As Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land, stated, “This is the most exciting urban greenspace project in any American city.”

At the present time, it is 17 percent towards achieving the goal in 2009.

The Peachtree Corridor
Peachtree Street has always been synonymous with Atlanta and the heart of Atlanta. In the 1800s it was the Terminus. Atlanta’s growth has expanded in all directions from Peachtree Street. The Peachtree Corridor, which encompasses Peachtree Street and some connecting streets and loops, is 14.5 miles in length. For some perspective, it is two miles longer than Manhattan Island. The corridor stretches through the heart of Atlanta, and is the cultural and economic spine of the city. It links many of the city’s attractions, and more than a quarter-million people travel to the corridor every day.

The Peachtree Corridor represents both the center of Atlanta’s existing economic strength and one of the greatest opportunities for economic development and commercial activity. Effectively coordinating, planning and developing the city’s efforts will encourage balanced growth in the corridor and, with other city initiatives, will support increased connectivity in Atlanta.

The Peachtree Corridor Task Force has just completed its comprehensive set of recommendations to Mayor Franklin. The plan includes trolley systems as well as residential, commercial and walking areas.

The recommendations are for a pedestrian-friendly Corridor, supported by a transit system that will promote economic development by encouraging significant new commercial and residential activity. It is modeled after Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and many other walking city streets worldwide.

The overall plan is for a 20-year, approximately $1 billion development that brings together public and private money. Although the Peachtree Corridor will not be completed by 2009, it shows the ability of the city to bring public and private sectors together to work toward a common goal that is good for the city and the region.

Downtown Development
Creating and sustaining a true middle class is an important goal of Mayor Franklin, according to Sonya Moste, Communications Director for the Atlanta Development Authority. This requires both housing and job opportunities.

Housing
As part of the New Century EDP, Mayor Franklin established a goal of creating 10,000 units of affordable workforce housing by 2009. To assist in accomplishing this endeavor, the city, the Atlanta Housing Authority and the Atlanta Development Authority have partnered to implement a new $75 million workforce housing initiative for persons and families who desire to reside in the city. The program has already received unanimous support from the City Council, the Atlanta Housing Authority Board and the Atlanta Development Authority Board of Directors, and funding should be available in 2008.

More than 900 housing unit buildings have been approved for the homeless and are in various stages of construction. The goal is to end long-term homelessness and help homeless families stabilize their lives and regain a stake in the community.

The single-family mortgage assistance program is geared toward helping people make down payments to purchase their first homes. It attracts potential buyers who might not have been able to afford a home in the city without the assistance.

The Eastside Tax Allocation District (TAD) Affordable Housing Purchase Program is helping to make home ownership affordable for low- and moderate-income buyers. There are more than 180 homes available within TAD, and since 2006, 24 homeowners have purchased homes.

Other programs are ongoing with the Atlanta Development Authority the Atlanta Housing Authority, and private builders to reach the goal of an added 10,000 housing units for the Atlanta workforce.

Job Opportunities
Job opportunities are also critical for those who seek jobs and those who run businesses.

For job-seekers, many organizations are working toward attracting businesses to the Atlanta area. The Economic Development arm of the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is committed to creating a high-quality business environment in what the chamber calls “Industries of theMind.”

These are companies that are heavily dependent on intellectual capital, including biotech and other technology-oriented companies, as well as logistics/transportation, computer software and services, and telecommunications companies.

The Chamber’s 2007 goal is to bring 50 new companies and 3,900 new jobs to Atlanta. This will spur a ripple effect that brings the Chamber’s contribution to new job growth to 10,000 in 2007.

For business owners and potential business owners, help is available to start and grow businesses. Metro Atlanta is home to three thriving business incubators and at least one more will be completed this fall.

Major Atlanta universities teach business and entrepreneurial courses as well as offer aid to new and existing business owners. The Small Business Development Centers, with offices at Georgia State University and other locations around the metropolitan Atlanta area, and Georgia Institute of Technology, with its Atlanta Technology Development Center (ATDC), are two examples.

The Women’s Economic Development
Agency (WEDA) was founded in 1992 as the Women’s Entrepreneurial Center (full disclosure: I was one of the founders; however, I had lost touch with the group and didn’t know that it had merged until I did the research for this article). To date, WEDA has assisted over 10,000 Atlanta area residents through a variety of economic development programs. The organization includes programs in English, Spanish and Braille, and makes accommodations for physically challenged clients.

Since 2002, nearly 900 businesses have started as a result of WEDA’s programs, which include a 14-week business planning process. Within one year 75 percent were still in business and within three years 55 percent were still in business. Nearly 200 jobs were created (excluding the owner’s position).

WEDA is one of the 12 organizations created to assist new and existing businesses in Atlanta. Other major organizations include the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and University Based Technical Advisors.

Will Atlanta become a Best in Class city by 2009? Mayor Franklin has pulled together the community and focused it on achieving that goal. Economic and other forces could derail the goal. However, with a strong leader and a strong history of successful public/private partnerships, Atlanta is poised to become a “Best in Class” city by 2009. This will be Shirley Franklin’s legacy to Atlanta.

Ruth King is a serial entrepreneur. Over the past 25 years she has owned seven businesses. Her first, Business Ventures Corp., began in 1981. Through Business Ventures Corp., she travels throughout the United States coaching, training and helping small businesses achieve the business goals they want to achieve. The Ugly Truth About Small Business: 50ThingsThatCan Go Wrong and What To Do About. It is her first business book.