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DEL.ICIO.USAtlanta leaders try to link into Denver’s success
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The recent trip to Denver by metro Atlanta leaders exposed several weaknesses that we face as a region.
On the 12th annual LINK (Leadership, Innovation, Networking, Knowledge) trip, about 110 Atlantans took an in depth look at how Denver has been able to progress in the past decade while metro Atlanta has lagged behind.
A number of the people on the trip reflected on our weaknesses upon their return. Incidentally, the metro Atlanta’s first LINK trip was to Denver in 1997, so this trip gave regional leaders an opportunity to contrast the two cities at two points in time.
What they found in Denver was a region undergoing an aggressive effort to build out a transit system in all directions; a region that has found ways to work together to support the arts, culture, sports facilities and transportation; a metro area with strong and dynamic leaders; and a place that had been confronting some of its toughest problems, such as indigent health care and water shortages, head on.
In every one of those cases, metro Atlanta leaders saw ways that we could improve our environment to become more like Denver.
In fact, the group was so motivated by the end of the trip that they had a lively closing session seeking ways to spark change in Georgia - particularly when it comes to transportation funding.
Sam Olens, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission (which organizes the LINK trips), was most impressed with Denver’s ability to place local initiatives on the ballot without having to get permission from the state of Colorado.
By comparison, metro Atlanta leaders, working with a host of statewide organizations, tried to get the state legislative approval so regions could go to voters to consider a one-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.
The legislation did not pass. To put it in blunt terms, the state of Georgia wouldn’t even give the Atlanta region the right to ask its voters to pass a sales tax increase to pay for its own improvements.
Like Georgia, the governor of Colorado opposed the passage of a transit sales tax for the Denver region. But unlike Georgia, the Colorado governor could not veto a grassroots initiative with broad-based popular support.
“We have gone from fourth to second in having the worst traffic congestion in the country,” Olens said. “Clearly other communities such as Denver have come together with regional initiatives for self-funding.”
The Denver region also has the ability to go before voters with proposals for a fraction of a sales tax. For example, there’s a one-penny tax on every $10 to support the arts and cultural organizations. And there’s another four cents on every $10 to support building out a transit system that is dominated by light rail lines.
In Georgia, voters are asked to support a 1 percent sales tax, whether it be for transportation, education or water/sewer improvements. There does not seem to be a mechanism to split that one percent among several quality of life initiatives. Any change would require approval from the state legislature.
“What we don’t have is the legal ability to move initiatives forward with the consensus of our region,” Olens said. “This whole idea of letting their citizens vote is really the idea of home rule. The public would have to have a buy-in at the ballot box.”
The issue is sensitive because there’s a strong sentiment that the state of Georgia is not doing its share to help the region. County and city governments are having to come up with new funding to pay for improvements that the state should be supporting.
“We are inadequately funding our infrastructure such as transportation, water and education,” said Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission. “I support property tax reform, but I also support the state handling essential government services.”
Chick Krautler, the ARC’s executive director, put it this way when comparing Colorado to Georgia. “While their state leaders are not engaged (in the Denver region), they also are not a stumbling block,” he said. “They don’t have to get approval from the state to put a referendum before voters.”
The Denver and Atlanta regions also differ in terms of the level of regional cooperation. LINK participants came away from Denver with the feeling that their region has mastered close relationships between the urban governments.
Several gave credit to the mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper. When he took office, he worked hard to build relationships with mayors from other cities in the metro area, including Aurora. Historically, the mayors of Denver and Aurora would hardly speak to each other.
Today there is a strong Mayors Caucus in Denver that can galvanize the region to affect change. When the LINK delegation members went to Chicago in 2002, the first year that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was in office, they saw a similar mayors caucus that was guided by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. When regional leaders returned home, they created the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association.
Because the Atlanta region is dominated more by county governments than cities (only 35 percent of the region’s population lives in cities, according to Krautler), MAMA hasn’t been as influential as its counterparts in Denver and Chicago.
Krautler also said that Mayor Hickenlooper not only believes that a healthy metro area needs a strong city center, but that a healthy city requires healthy suburbs.
“He’s looking for ways to co-sponsor activities with the suburbs,” Krautler said.
Tony Landers, the ARC director who organizes the LINK trips, put it another way.
“They think about how they can affect positive change in a different way than we do,” Landers said. “They are thinking about consultations and collaborations in a broader way than we do.”
LINK delegations have gone to Denver (1997), Seattle (1998), Dallas (1999), Cleveland (2000), San Diego (2001), Chicago (2002), San Francisco (2003), Boston (2004), Portland (2005), Miami (2006), Vancouver (2007) and back to Denver in 2008.
According to Olens, these trips have helped metro leaders operate better as a region.
“I think we probably have a clearer vision of where we want to go as a region,” said Olens, who said there’s more work to do statewide. “I’m still seeing way too much of this anti-Atlanta attitude across the state.”
And until that attitude changes, the Atlanta region will continue to lag behind.
Comments
By Brian
May 12, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Mr O’Callaghan,
To borrow a phrase from Lloyd Benson, “I know John Hickenlooper and she (Shirley) is no John Hickenlooper”.
Seriously?
The only thing the two of them have in common is that they are mayors.
Hick has taken a stand to stamp out cronyism, corruption and mediocrity; Shirley perpetuates the policies of Jackson and Campbell.
Hick works in tight collaboration with the region’s citizenry and business and civic leaders. Shirley antagonizes them.
Hick and our city council spend our property tax dollars wisely; DPS is an OUTSTANDING urban school district, crime is non-existent by ATL standards, sanitation services are outstanding and our property taxes are reasonable.
Atlanta public schools set the standard for mediocrity (I’m being generous), the infrastructure is crumbling, police services are non-existent and property taxes are onerous.
Coors and Turner like cousins? Really. In what way? Turner Field’s location (according to MLB) is the least safe of ANY MLB ballpark and is absolutely devoid of any gameday atmosphere. By contrast , walk out of Coors Field and one might think he’s in Wrigleyville.
We moved to Denver 5 years ago, and while we miss the food (don’t eat anything West of the Mississippi someone calls ‘barbeque’, especially if it’s accompanied by , ’ the owners are from Memphis’.) the people , the greenery and , of course , the Dawgs. But we’d never come back to Atlanta. Never.
Having lived in the South for nearly 32 years, I never knew one could live as well as we do here.
Again, how is it you think Hick and Shirley are similar?
Or, maybe you’re one of the concessioneers at the airport whose thankful for Shirley’s ‘leadership’.
By Rob
May 12, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this
Brian, I whole heartedly agree… to add to your comments -
How many years did it take the Atlanta City Government to “ban” aggressive pan handling? It was a widely known fact that the behavior of ATL’s homeless were driving away tourism and conference business to the tune of millions in lost revenue, but the government still didn’t get the clue. And where is this “ban” today? It may as well not even exist.
Metro Atlanta business and residents have gotten the clue. More of Atlanta’s finest restaurants are now located outside the perimeter - a big shift from ten years ago. Now with the new amphitheater in Alpharetta, the Gwinnett Arena and many others, there’s less and less reason to ever have to venture into that third world area formerly known as downtown…
By Jason
May 12, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this
You can sum up this conversation in one word: Leadership. Denver has it, Atlanta does not. I’m speking as a native Georgian, over 60 years of age and thoroughly disgusted with all phases of local, county and state “governments” (in quotes to distinguish the word from actuality). Far too much lack of vision, intelligence, forward thinking, working together, etc. here. Don’t know about Denver though I’ve been there many times. We can only imagine what a great city Atlanta could have been had it not been for the Maynards, the Andys, the Bills (Campbell), et al. that have brought this city to it’s knees. Fiefdoms, CYA’s, hiring idiots from the family into jobs that far surpass their feeble abilities (breathing being the most difficult part of their lives), and an erer-lasting racial problem has doomed Atlanta forever. Add the State Government with it’s brain-dead “leaders” and you have the ultimate recipe for disaster. We’re a train wreck only one last stop before wrecking… Jason
By BillW
May 12, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this
What kind of a boondoggle is LINK? Tell me they aren’t using taxpayer money for these junkets. They should be visiting Detroit - that’s the future of Atlanta.
By Stephen Smith
May 12, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this
I went to Denver last summer with my son and was real impressed with the city. The 16th street mall is something Atlanta should have thought about. It is auto free with free bus rides on the street. The city felt safe with a lot of folks out on the streets going to Coors Field as we were. It’s a different experience than Turner Field.
By Left to Right
May 12, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this
So the answer to Atlanta’s problems is to raise taxes? At a time when the Atlanta city government has shown itself unable to manage the tax money it already collects?
Rather than raise taxes for the projects Ms. Saporta endorses, the city of Atlanta should instead be attempting to free up revenue by cutting the number of city employees. Mayor Franklin has cut a small percentage of jobs, but much deeper cuts should be made. The city of Atlanta has three times as many city employees as New York City. Many city jobs exist solely for power and patronage purposes. Eliminate those excess jobs and there will be more than enough funds available for civic improvement, or dare I say, a decrease in tax rates for city residents.
By SUBURBAN OVERLORD
May 12, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this
What Ms. Maria left out, is that the GOVERNOR led the effort to kill the transportation initiative because rural districts were not getting a CUT of the metro Atlanta’s tax money. This extortion is something right out of the Sopranos, with Sonny acting like as a corrupt County sheriff from middle Georgia shaking down a moonshiner to get his cut.
Sonny probably rationalizes this because he thinks metro Atlanta is only a bunch of carpetbaggers, scalawags, city slickers, and high-faultin’ business types – not “real” southerners. The only time Sonny cares about tax “fairness” is to ensure metro Atlanta tax funds are being squandered around the state for “economic development” roads and municipal pork projects like horse barns.
It is high time to scrutinize the GRIP program and other rural projects to the same level the state does to metro Atlanta. It is not enough that metro Atlanta provides 65% of the state’s tax revenues, yet gets back only 50 cents out of every dollar we pay, to finance this foolishness.
By Disgusted City Dweller
May 13, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
I know this is not the first time that I have read that “Atlanta City Leaders Come Away Impressed with Denver” or something to that effect. They have been to Denver before and have been “impressed” before and little or nothing has been done to model the model. The problem is the “City Leaders” and the state “leaders” for that matter lack vision, chutzpah and cojones to make anything of value happen. Atlanta will forever be known as a city with great “potential” that is never realized. The “leaders” are small minded and dim witted. This city and state will only get worse not better. The DOT is comprised of a bunch of idiots, the city planners are fools and state reps are ignoramuses. This city and state are still mired in good old boy politics (no matter the race), hand slapping and greasing and the citizens are the one who suffer.
By bill
May 14, 2008 8:39 AM | Link to this
now take a good look, this was how many trips atl to den they have taken and you ask what the difference……….lets look at the facts denver acted and moved into getting the job done, atlanta is still looking at who is going to make a doller on it , the state or atlanta less talk got the job done while here we talk and talk and talk about it
By Native Son
May 15, 2008 4:23 PM | Link to this
I’m grew up in Atlanta and moved to Colorado for a year and I moved backed to Atlanta. Denver is a beautiful city and they do have great regional cooperation, but they are 30 years behind Atlanta in terms of development. Atlanta has 3 million more people than Denver and we never adequately planned for the increase in population. Denver just opened their light rail in 2006. MARTA introduced heavy rail in Atlanta in 1979. The difference between Denver and Atlanta in my opinion is race. Denver attracts upwardly mobile white professionals and Atlanta attracts upwardly mobile black professionals and I’ve learned from my experience that white people don’t like it when they are not in charge. But for all the talk about how poorly Atlanta is run, other cities are trying to emulate our accomphishments. When has Denver put in a bid to host the Olympics? They’re hosting the DNC Convention this summer, but Atlanta hosted it 20 years ago! Atlanta is a model for race relations in the country. The so called “public-private” relationship was coined in Atlanta and has worked well in my opinion. So for all of the white males who don’t like or appreciate black leadership please by all means go to DENVER! You will not be missed.