Neighborhood Notes

"The Greening of Atlanta: The Revitalization of an Urban Landscape" 

In 2001 Shirley Franklin, a first-time candidate for public office, was elected to serve as the 58th Mayor of the City of Atlanta. She was not only the first female mayor of Atlanta, but also the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city. Since her inauguration, Mayor Franklin has worked to build a "Best in Class" managed city by strengthening existing frameworks, implementing progressive changes and making the tough decisions necessary to improve Atlanta. In 2002 she appointed a task force that recommended the city double its green space to 6,000 acres within 10 years.

Mayor Franklin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Ebony, Black Enterprise and many other local and national publications. In 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the top five mayors in the country; she is ranked among the top ten mayors in the world by the World Mayor internet organization and has been named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. In 2007, she was featured on the cover of Newsweek Magazine. Mayor Franklin is also a recipient of the 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In 2006, she won the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics' Ethics Advocate Award.