Franklin: Obama’s victory will be good for Atlanta
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Maria Saporta Staff writer
Georgia may not have gone for Barack Obama in his successful presidential campaign. But Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin says we shouldn’t underestimate the role Georgia and its capital city has played in helping Obama get elected.
Case in point: The one story Obama chose to spotlight in his acceptance speech Tuesday night was that of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old Atlantan.
Cooper lived during a time when women and African-Americans couldn’t even vote. And on Tuesday, Obama celebrated her dedication to go to the polls to vote for the first African-American president of the United States.
Calling Cooper’s story “the Atlanta touch,” Franklin says Obama would not have been elected president had it not been for Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders fighting for the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s.
“Not bad news for Atlanta in this presidential election,” says Franklin, who sums up her reaction to the election as: “Wow!”
Franklin, in a wide-ranging interview, speculated on what Obama’s election might mean for Atlanta and Georgia during the next four years.
In some ways, parallels exist between what Obama faces when he takes office and what Franklin faced seven years ago when she took over a City Hall in financial shambles.
But she says one can’t compare a troubled city budget of a half-billion dollars to that of the gargantuan U.S. budget.
The current financial crisis will dominate Obama’s agenda, yet Franklin believes there are opportunities for Atlanta as he works on solutions.
She believes Obama will move quickly to adopt a comprehensive energy plan with a fuel and oil policy that will lead to more predictable prices. That will help the city’s budget, Atlanta families and the city’s airlines.
Health care is another issue she expects Obama will address, especially the 100 million uninsured and under-insured Americans.
Also, Franklin says Obama already has said he will have an “urban agenda” to help revitalize cities around the country. And during his campaign, he frequently stood alongside the nation’s top mayors.
“The country has some serious financial challenges, and we need investment in infrastructure, whether it’s sidewalks, bridges, transit, schools, water and sewer,” she said. “Those are all investments that put people to work, and I do believe that the recovery is going to require federal investments and incentives to put people back to work.”
Franklin, who acknowledges that she has been actively engaged in Obama’s campaign, was quick to not overstate her relationship with the president-elect, saying she offered “limited” advice.
And she is open to working with the new administration — as long as it doesn’t mean she’ll have to step down as mayor before her term is up in January 2010. She says there’s still too much unfinished business in Atlanta for her to leave.
“There are tons of people who will want to work in an Obama administration,” Franklin says. “I don’t expect to be asked. The president of the United States is not likely to talk to someone who already is publicly saying ‘No.’ ”
Then she gives herself a small out. “You never say ‘absolutely no.’ The bottom line is that I have three grandchildren in Atlanta, and I want to spend more time with them,” Franklin says. “I feel that I’ve already given at the office.”
But she identifies a dozen or so Georgians who would be strong candidates to serve in an Obama administration, including: Georgia State University President Carl Patton, state Sen. David Adelman (who raised a lot of money for Obama); Dr. Helene Gayle, CEO of CARE; and Renee Glover, CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority.
Although she won’t join the administration, she says she “would like to help President Obama in some capacity” — perhaps serving on a panel or task force that focuses on urban issues.
Top of mind for Franklin is the city’s difficulty in issuing municipal bonds because of a “freeze” in the Wall Street bond market.
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