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Special Report
Coldlanta
“Hotlanta” Atlanta loses its fire, amid political corruption, financial mismanagement, and education scandals.
When Atlanta hosted the centennial Olympic Games in 1996, then-Mayor Bill Campbell predicted that it would just be another step in the city’s progress as one of America’s leading boom towns. “It will put us in orbit. Atlanta will never be the same,” declared Campbell in the pages of Ebony just before the torch was lit.
Fifteen years later, the torch has burned out in more ways than one. Campbell is now far away from the A-T-L in West Palm Beach, Florida, his career extinguished by a 2006 conviction for tax evasion. Meanwhile the City Too Busy to Hate has become the Metropolis Struggling, falling far from its status as the economic terminus of the American South.
The city’s unemployment rate has hovered at double-digit levels for the past two years; the 11.3 percent unemployment rate for this past November (the most-recent available) — higher than the national average — is double the rate for the same period four years ago. Nineteen percent of the city’s houses now sit vacant and ready for vagrancy and crime, double the percentage 11 years ago. The collapse of the housing and corporate real estate markets has also crushed the city’s once-bustling construction sector; the number of homebuilding permits granted in Atlanta alone declined by 86 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The economic malaise is nothing compared to the city’s woeful fiscal condition. The share of city general fund spending devoted to its lavish public sector pensions — which allows employees to collect annuities equal to as much as 81 percent of last working salary — doubled between 2002 and 2008; it now accounts for 12 percent of the city’s $559 million budget. The city’s current mayor, Kasim Reed, has forced city employees to pay a bigger share of contributions. But he and other city official must still wrangle with a $1.5 billion pension deficit and $1.1 billion in unfunded retiree healthcare costs.
Meanwhile the dysfunctional Atlanta Public Schools has spent the past year embroiled in scandal related to alleged cheating on Georgia’s battery of standardized tests. The possible fraud (now being investigated by federal officials), along with infighting among its school board members, has led one school accreditation agency to put the district on probation. The district’s superintendent, Beverly Hall, has resigned her position, effective end of this school year; as a result of the scandal, the U.S. Senate has declined to confirm her appointment by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the agency that oversees federal research on student achievement.
The problems haven’t knocked all of Atlanta’s shine. It still has the fourth-greatest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, including the ubiquitous Coca-Cola and Home Depot. As the home to cable networks CNN and TBS, it still arguably has the largest concentration of media and entertainment outside of New York, L.A., and Washington, D.C. And thanks to musicians such as Ludacris and India.Arie, impresarios such as Tyler Perry and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, and the studios of Cartoon Network, Hotlanta remains the nation’s third cultural center, often a more-dominant force in shaping music, movies and television than its east coast and west coast rivals.
But its glittering skyline and can-do culture can no longer obscure the decades of urban decay that has grown like kudzu. Nor can it truly call itself the economic center of either in the South or its own metropolitan area. This is a problem that lies more with the city’s atrophied and scandal-plagued political leadership than with current economic travails. Whether Reed and a younger generation of city leaders can overcome this decline remains an open question.
SWAGGER AND RESURGENCE mixed with élan and a dollop of Dixie has always been at the heart of Atlanta’s mythology. That attitude — along with its original role as a major railroad hub to Southern and East Coast locales — partly explains why the city recovered spectacularly from William Tecumseh Sherman’s burning of its city center during the Civil War, and how it overcame such lowlights as the infamous race riot of 1906 and the unjust prosecution of businessman Leo Frank (who was falsely accused of murdering a 13-year old employee of his uncle’s pencil factory).
The city’s go-go culture — epitomized by nightclubs in Buckhead and meetings at the Greater Atlanta Chamber of Commerce — remains as vibrant now as it was during the days of Margaret Mitchell and Robert Woodruff. As a result, it has become a haven for college-educated go-getters — who make up 47 percent of the region’s population. For African Americans, Atlanta is a particular cultural and economic mecca. After all, it is home to historically black universities such as Morehouse College; and the birthplace of civil rights leader Martin Luther King; and the hometowns of former mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young, whose successful tenures proved that not every black mayor governs like Marion Barry.
But in neighborhoods such as Bankhead and Center Hill, there’s a different kind of moving and shaking: Drug crime and murders that have been a constant feature of life in the poorest sections of the city. Jackson and Young often downplayed the problem, to the city’s long-term peril. While the number of reported murders has declined, Atlanta still has the fifth-highest violent crime rate in the nation. Its property crime rate of 6,213 incidents per 100,000 people is higher than that of D.C., Portland, Oregon, Louisville, and Oklahoma City (which have similar sized populations), as well as higher than that of New York City, L.A., Chicago and Houston (its competitors on the national economic and cultural stage).
The city’s biggest problem can be seen just by driving along the heavily congested Downtown Connector and equally-clogged I-285 surrounding the city limits, as workers head out of the city into suburbs such as Dunwoody and Stone Mountain. One million people moved into the Atlanta metro area between 2000 and 2008, making it the second most-popular relocation destination after Dallas. But most of those new residents have all but avoided the city limits both in spirit and fact; a resident in tiny Dacula can work, shop, watch movies and go to a concert without ever stopping by the Georgia Dome. This is also true for businesses. Corporate giants such as Rubbermaid, First Data, and UPS are located in nearby Sandy Springs, while Waffle House and NCR are even further outside the city in rival Gwinnett County.
Atlanta’s decline as an economic powerhouse can be blamed in part on Campbell, who’d been handpicked by Jackson and Young to become mayor in 1994. During his tenure, he antagonized the business community and some fellow black leaders alike with antics such as handing over the vending and marketing operations for the 1996 Olympics to one of his former campaign operatives, Munson Steed III. His penchant was for steering contracts to pals by using the city’s affirmative action contract rules; by 2000, city businesses successfully challenged those race- and gender-based preferences. By the time Campbell left office in 2002 under the cloud of a federal investigation, the city labored under an $82 million budget deficit. Corporate chieftains, tired of Campbell (and decades of race-baiting), decided to focus their energies elsewhere.
His successor, Shirley Franklin, managed to clean up the corruption, closed the deficit, and won over corporate support. But during her tenure, she sweetened pension benefits for city workers that led many of them to choose early retirement; since 2001, 90 percent of the city’s police officers and firefighters handed in their retirement papers at age 55 (10 years earlier than their private-sector counterparts); actuaries expected the rate to be half that. The deals, along with $650 million in investment losses, have created an unsustainable burden. By the time Franklin left office in 2009, the city was shouldering $144 million in pension costs, a three-fold increase over the amount spent eight years earlier.
Current Mayor Reed — a former state senator and protégé of Franklin and Congressman John Lewis who won a close, racially charged campaign — has at least taken some steps to address the city’s escalating pension problems. Last week, a pension reform panel convened by the mayor offered some steps to close the deficits, including enrolling workers in Social Security and requiring future employees to enroll in defined-contribution plans. But the city’s public employee unions, already sore over being forced to contribute more to their pensions, are spoiling for a fight; Reed may not get much help down the street from the Republican-controlled legislature. Reed also has to balance efforts at economic development with placating black political and civic leaders who have spent the past two decades complaining about racial and economic gentrification.
Reed also faces an unexpected challenge in the form of Atlanta Public Schools, which was struggling academically even before allegations of cheating emerged last year. Fifty-four percent of the district’s eighth-graders tested Below Basic proficiency on the math portion of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress; just 65 percent of the eighth-graders in the original Class of 2009 made it to senior year of high school. With the cheating scandal, the disgrace of being put on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the increased scrutiny from new Gov. Nathan Deal, Reed could follow the path of mayors such as New York’s Michael Bloomberg and take control of the district.
Between the busted pensions, the economic struggles and the dropout factories, Atlanta will need all the resilience it can muster. This time, the blazes are coming from within.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.10.11 @ 6:15AM
Perhaps Atlanta, who appeared to welcome success by playing affirmative action politics, needed a black hero, and the media, who always desires black success stories, ignored or couldn't find the decay happening right in front of them.
Appleby| 2.10.11 @ 7:21AM
My former home town seems to be following the same trend as every other major area that defines progress as kicking all the White folks out and moving their own cronies in. (Remember the mascot of the Atlanta games -- who had nothing whatsoever to do with Atlantas history but was an amorphus blue blob, lest he offend those whose mantra is There Are No White People In Charge Here -- And There Never Were). Remeber the campaign to put some kind of cover over the carving at Stone Mountain -- ditto?
Nobody who ever lived in Atlanta for long should be surprised by any of this.
MAINER64| 2.10.11 @ 7:41AM
I have been living in Atlanta the past 4 years; am ready to head someplace else. The nightly news is becoming quite depressing to watch with the constant parade of criminals for senseless murders, car jackings and robberies, not to mention the situation with the cheating scandal in the public schools. I hate to say it but it seems most of these problems fall on the shoulders of the blacks here in Atlanta whether the endless stream of black perps featured on the news to the people running things in the city government.
Donna| 2.10.11 @ 8:32AM
Good assessment of Atlanta and the mismanagement of finances and public works. I am a sales person who has had numerous occasions to be in government agencies both state and city wide and there is no work being done. Everyone hangs out and chats.
When I have called a government office, I have been treated like scum and have never gotten any help. I have to physically go down there to impose my will to get answers. I wrote Perdue (former Gov’na) about a couple of blatant situations. They road block you. Speaking of road block, did you ever see the Freaknic black spring breaks? Thank goodness they stopped that after a couple of years. You should role tape on that spectacle to put even more perspective on our precarious situation.
Also the crime here is exacerbated by Katrina evacuees and Detroit migration. There’s definitely a problem with very delicate circumstances to navigate here. It’s not far off the New Orleans mayor’s “chocolate” comments.
Appleby| 2.10.11 @ 4:12PM
We used to head for Mama and Daddy's place in Alabama on Freaknik weekend. Lots of the shops around us (in Buckhead) closed down and locked up because of the vandalism and "dine and dash" crowd. I moved out 13 years ago and it doesn't sound as if y'all have been making improvements meanwhile.
Walden| 2.10.11 @ 9:58AM
I shed my Atlanta skin 3 years ago (after 21 years of residency) and its the best move I've ever made. In 1986, Atlanta had a population of around 2 million; by the time I left in 2008, it had more than doubled, while the infrastructure hardly held pace. That place is whacked yo!
Walden| 2.10.11 @ 10:08AM
Another one of Atlanta's major problems is the fact that it is so full of "passers through." Hardly anybody in Atlanta is from Atlanta; it became a joke in social settings to say "yeah, old Bob here is actually from this town." And all those eager beaver young college grads that come to Atlanta seeking fortune? Yep, that's true, but 9 out of 10 of them are as deep as a thimble and vapid as nitrous gas.
Southern John| 2.10.11 @ 10:41AM
Atlanta is certainly far from perfect, but what major metropolitan area is? Name one of the top ten U.S. metro areas that is in great financial condition. Comparing the crime rate to Portland, Louisville or Oklahoma City, really? I believe the Atlanta metro area is larger than all three of those combined.
I think the best point the author makes is about education. Atlanta city schools are atrocious and can be dangerous.
Derek Leaberry| 2.10.11 @ 12:03PM
Who is Mr. Biddle fooling. The city of Atlanta has been in decline for over forty years. Meanwhile, the Atlanta suburbs are a sprawl-diseased wasteland, a concrete jungle similar to the wasteland we have in Northern Virginia.
Redstateboy| 2.10.11 @ 3:31PM
been to Buckhead (once), conventioned in downtown Atlanta a few times (don't leave the Hotel at night for a walk if you value your life) and did the underground - which was ... alright. But never witnessed the urban sprawl like I did in N. VA. - being from Knoxville? My cousin wanted me to come to work for him.. I took a look around at that urban jungle.. and ran back for the hills of E. TN.
Torstin| 2.10.11 @ 1:18PM
I have been in the northern Atlanta suburb or Alpharetta (now Johns Creek) for nearly 13-years watching this story unfold. It is really the same story you see in many liberal city strongholds where black, public officials and their cronies are feeding on the city like cows at the proverbial trough. Here, Hartsfield Airport and Grady have been the biggest feeding troughs, followed by the Atlanta Public Schools. The traffic is ridiculous and one finds oneself literally living and shopping within a 5-mile radius because to venture out beyond that perimeter means gridlock and endless waits. Even in my own area, to travel from my house to the local middle school (5 miles) in the afternoon means a roughly 1 hour drive. Welcome to Dixie, ya'll come on down!!!
skip| 2.10.11 @ 1:40PM
All that and not even a mention of the world class idiot and liar newspaper editorialist Cynthia Tucker. What a dispicable human being, if in fact she is one.
Torstin| 2.10.11 @ 1:51PM
Do not get me started on the nasty racist Cynthia Tucker. She is a race pimp striving to be the female equivalent of Jesse Jackson or Sharpton. She constantly spews hate and race and wins a Pulitzer Prize. The AJC is pure garbage.
Sheila| 2.10.11 @ 2:32PM
RiShawn Biddle somehow manages to write all about Atlanta's ills without once mentioning what every single commenter here has noted: they are the result of black pathology. Typical movement conservative drivel; after all, race is a merely a social construct (you'd better agree quickly, bigot!).
cicero| 2.10.11 @ 2:35PM
This is so reminiscent of my hometown, Detroit. When its slide began, the hew and cry was that you couldn't abandon the central cities. Then, the people began to ask, Why not? The polititions wailed that everyone needed the City. The suburbs proved than wrong. Detroit is saddled with a beaurocratic workforce geared to serve a city of 1.5 to 2 million taxpayers. Detroit only has 700,000 citizens, most of whom do not pay taxes. The school district is a disgrace, graduating less that half of its highschool students (less that 25% of the male students). When the decline bfgan in earnest, no one wanted to point out the obvious, for fear of being politically inccorrect. They all covered their eyes. Those who could voted with their feet, and moved out. Yet, the band kept playing the same old song, expecting everyone to keep right on dancing. You can't pump oxygen into a corpse and declare it to be alive and well.
jasperbob| 2.10.11 @ 4:05PM
Please name ONE well-run city in the WORLD
where Africans, African-Americans, Blacks, etc
are 40%+ of the population. Dare ya!
Appleby| 2.10.11 @ 4:15PM
They tell me that's why the Dominican Republic is successful and Haiti isn't -- because one of them drove out the White folks and the other did not.
Dr. Dre| 2.10.11 @ 4:21PM
I attended a program on ICE (Interstate Crime Enforcement) the other evening in my TN town which has an interstate running thru it that heads to/from Atlanta. The officer presenting it asked us if we knew which US city east of the Mississippi was now the biggest drug capital and the answer was Atlanta. And the reason was their hosting the '96 Olympics, putting the place "on the map" in a lot of ways. BTW revenues from our county's ICE interceptions has dropped in the past couple of years because the bad guys now take the back roads and stay off the interstate when they come this way.
MikeD| 2.10.11 @ 4:38PM
I left the Atlanta area in 2003 after many happy years there. I frankly didn't pay attention to the city's problems, and neither did most of the area's residents. Within a metro area with a population in excess of 4 million, Atlanta's "hemmed in" population of about a half million is in a box. The city has tried about every way possible to tap into the property values and high incomes of the professionals and executives living tantalizingly out of reach beyond city limits. But, those in the suburbs are wary of the city's unending need for money and are dedicated to keeping it just out of reach.
Like too many other mega-cities in America, the racial divide just got so wide that the 'evil' Whites and the 'Uncle Tom" wealthy Blacks (Who 'acted white by studying and working hard) left town and resettled in the suburbs as soon as they were able. This left a city with insatiable needs but few, if any, ways to meet those needs.
We have many dear friends in the Atlanta area and there is much to offer there; just not exclusively within the city limits. One startling difference easily visible when making a final approach into Hartsfield Airport is the sea of green that covers most of the city and suburbs. But the single fact that the airport's name was changed a few years back from "Hartsfield" to "Hartsfield-Jackson" so the name of a Black politician could be added is just the latest reminder that race drives way too many things in Atlanta; and the city will never experience a true sense of community and brotherhood until race is displaced by common interests in the hearts and minds of those who make up the city government.
Redstateboy| 2.10.11 @ 4:58PM
Let's see... Atlanta? Washington, DC.,? Buffalo,? Detroit,? Kill-a-Delphia? Now what do these crumbling failures all have in common hmmmm?
huge unemployed, uneducated, un-wed Mother, high crime, poverty-ridden neighborhoods (Hoods) Governed by Black Democrat bureaucracies mirred in debt but oh...! We can't talk about that now can we?
Marxfreesociety| 2.10.11 @ 6:18PM
Bravo redstateboy!
I generally do not think about race until some prominant black racist or liberal white sympathizer throws into my face like battery acid.
Occam's Tool| 2.10.11 @ 11:42PM
You know, Dante's Down the Hatch has incredible steak fondue with a sweet jazz combo in Buckhead.
I dislike all big cities. Not a one I would live in if I had the choice. Of course, I also avoid Valley Forge, Penn. Too many pinheads, and the Summers are too warm for me (and the Winters aren't cold enough, either, although some pusses think so.) I like it North of Fargo. Of course, Houston has its charms, too, if you can handle the summers. The people there are the nicest big city people I've run across.
Old Soldier| 2.11.11 @ 7:49AM
I'm with you - I dislike and distrust all big cities. I don't think people were meant to live stacked up that close together. My whole life I've been hearing about cities in decline - but the great cities of history - London, Paris, Rome, Constantinople - all had enormous slums and open sewers. Every city is in decline once the population hits a certain level.
I commute from a rural town and if I live long enough to retire, I'll be moving as far out to the boonies as possible.
Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 4:09AM
When Atlanta hosted the centennial Olympic Games in 1996, then-Mayor Bill Campbell predicted that it would just be another step in the city's progress as one of America's leading boom towns. "It will put us in orbit. Atlanta will never be the same," declared Campbell in the pages of Ebony just before the torch was lit.
Reebok | 8.11.11 @ 3:56AM
is good
العاب | 4.11.12 @ 4:32PM
What a dispicable human being, if in fact she is one