Time Names Franklin Top-5 Mayor

Oh wow, it's been a while. Considering that I've been gone for a bit, I figure this AJC article that I read was a great way to make somewhat of a comeback. In it, it describes how Atlanta mayor, Shirley Franklin, is one of the best mayors in the country.

"It is tempting to judge our mayors for the little things that make city life livable, the depth of the potholes, the smell of the streets, whether or not the traffic lights are in synch," the magazine said. "But the best mayors have also been those who act on a grand scale, building bridges, saving schools, finding the funds that cities lack."

Time praised O'Malley, a Democrat, for implementing the computerized statistics program CitiStat and Bloomberg, a Republican, for trimming New York's budget deficit and taking control of the public schools.

In part, it cited Daley's "near imperial power" in Chicago, Franklin's work on a new ethics code for municipal employees and Hickenlooper's high approval ratings.

The magazine criticized Kilpatrick, a Democrat, for the city's signing of a $24,995, two-year lease for a red Lincoln Navigator for police to use to drive the mayor's wife and children, despite a multimillion dollar budget deficit.

The blurb about Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, is a bit disappointing and discouraging. I've seen him on C-SPAN quite a few times, and he's a very charasmatic person. Oh well...