issues and ideas for great er ’s leaders volume 1 2009

Growth and Consequences in Metro : Inside Stories from One of America’s Fastest Developing Regions Envy and Relief

Let’s start with the bad news: we can’t have their airport. The single best business decision Atlanta ever made was to lay a runway on an aban- doned racetrack in the hopes of grabbing a few government mail contracts. Who knew in 1926 that the jet age was just around the corner? Today, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta issues and ideas for greater philadelphia’s leaders volume 1 2009 International Airport is the engine room of the sprawling powerhouse that metro Atlanta has become. Philadelphia International would have to triple its customers and quadruple its flights to match it. That would be great, but we just don’t have the space, either on the ground or in the air. And we’re unlikely to get Atlanta’s population growth, either. Metro Atlanta has added 100,000 people a year for twenty years. A city can do that when it’s surrounded by acres and acres of developable greenfield. We have on the cover: room to grow, but not at that rate. centennial olympic park – atlanta But there’s another way to think about these things: it’s not that Philadelphia will never have them; it’s that we already got them. Our regional population doubled once - between 1850 and 1860. We were a global transportation hub once – when railroads were king. We captured the world’s attention as a can-do economic power once – with our 1876 Centennial. So we’ve been through Atlanta’s growth, and we’ve been through its growing pains too. Obsolete, overused infrastructure creating new costs? Check. Congested roads and insufficient public transit choking growth? Check. Booming new immigrant populations forcing new political calculations? Check. Fragmented regional governance, shortage of regional planning, and competition between city, suburbs, and up front – 1 state? Check, check, and check. In fact, over the three days of the Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange visit to atlanta and philadelphia by the numbers – 2 Atlanta, it was easy for a listener to whipsaw between two very different reactions: envy and relief. Envy that we cannot match Atlanta’s astonishing growth or replicate the con- ditions that created it. Relief that when dealing with the problems growth creates, we the atlanta way – 4 have the resources and experience they’re still developing. This is not to say that Greater Philadelphia has nothing to learn from metro Atlanta. The capital of the New South pairs an infectious optimism with an admirable culture of timeline: highlights from metro atlanta history – 10 civic inclusion. Its faith in low taxes and limited government is matched by a commit- ment to personal service and charitable giving (the head of the local United Way told us that Atlantans give twice as much per capita as do Bostonians). Civic responsibility atlanta: an airport story – 12 is deeply ingrained in their private sector leadership and is expressed in any number of successful projects and partnerships. And, the Atlanta Housing Authority pioneered the master-planned, mixed-finance, mixed-income residential development model now used growth isn’t free – 16 by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But more than anything, a visit to Atlanta is a reminder of what it’s like to aspire. Its leaders go for world class. They are into permanent problem-solving. They understand ray anderson rolls out the green carpet – 21 their strengths and build on them. In this region, we would do well to remember ours. Our renowned cluster of univer- leadership exchange participants – 22 sities, research centers, and healthcare institutions. Our irreplaceable web of roads and rails. Our variety of communities, from small towns to suburbs to downtowns. Our ac- cess to 24-hour cities to beaches to mountains. Our abundance of water. Our food. Our bringing it back home – 24 executive editor: steve wray history. Our people. These are what make us world class. We hope this issue of Insight lives up to its name. Metro Atlanta has much to teach us, editor: allison kelsey not only about what we could be, but about what we are. We’ll never have their airport, we’ve already had their growth, and we have more than enough to build a world class future of our own. copyeditor: christopher scoville Sincerely, design: tetra strategic communications

printer: offset impressions, inc. Daniel Fitzpatrick William Marrazzo Sharmain Matlock-Turner Steven Wray 2008 Co-Chair 2008 Co-Chair 2008 Co-Chair Executive Director photos: photolibrary (covers) and President and CEO President and CEO Executive Director Economy League of adam komich (interior) except where noted PA DE & NJ WHYY Greater Philadelphia Greater Philadelphia Citizens Bank Urban Affairs Coalition this edition of insight was underwritten by the william penn foundation. Atlanta and Philadelphia by the numbers

atlanta city philadelphia city metro atlanta greater philadelphia size (sq. miles) 131.8 129.7 8,376 3,855 demographics population 519,145 1,449,634 5,134,871 5,826,742 white 35% 39% 54% 68% black/african-american 55% 44% 31% 20% asian 2% 5% 4% 4% hispanic/latino 6% 10% 9% 6% foreign born 8% 11% 13% 9% median age 35 35 35 38 median household income $41,612 $33,229 $55,552 $55,593 education high school diploma 23% 38% 27% 32% some college 15% 15% 19% 16% bachelor’s degree 24% 12% 22% 19% graduate degree 16% 9% 11% 12% employment by sector manufacturing - - 9% 10% retail - - 12% 11% professional/scientific/technical services - - 8% 8% educational services - - 8% 9% health care services - - 9% 14% government - - 4% 5% innovation (% of us average) patents/100,000 persons - - 78% 92% nsf/nih funding/capita - - 114% 166% venture capital funding/capita - - 79% 120% research university enrollment - - 88% 121% infrastructure air passenger boardings/capita - - 8.5 2.6 public transit passenger miles/capita - - 181 323 population in high-broadband areas - - 91% 68% housing (2000 u.s. census) owner occupied 39% 53% - - vacant 10% 11% - - real estate commercial vacancy rate 21.1% 10% 17.6% 13.6% Quality of life average commute (minutes) 24.2 29.4 31.2 28.7 parkland acres 3,400 9,200 - -

economic contribution metro atlanta: gdp 2% of u.s. total; 67.6% of total greater philadelphia: gdp 2.4% of u.s. total; 42.7% of total

Photo by B. Krist for GPTMC

Sources: Brookings analysis of data from U.S. Census Bureau; Bureau of Economic Analysis; Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard University; Fortune Magazine; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; National Science Foundation; National Institutes of Health; Thompson Financial; Ned Hill calculations of Economy. com data; Carnegie Foundation; National Center for Education Statistics; Federal Aviation Administration; Federal Transit Administration; Federal Communications Commission; Internal Revenue Service; ESRI; American Community Survey of the U.S. Census; Free Library of Philadelphia; FBI; and, Grubb & Ellis. Data are most recent available. 2 3 L-R: Ed Baker, Atlanta Business Chronicle; Milton James Little, Jr., United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta; A. J. Robinson, Central Atlanta Progress

The phrase has a history. After race riots wracked At- less companies are mainstays of the global economy: lanta a century ago, the “Atlanta Way” came to describe Coca-Cola. Delta Airlines. CNN. The key to the city’s a peacekeeping tradition in which the city’s blacks won success, Baker said, is its way of welcoming and sup- limited autonomy and a small share of civic improvements porting the kind of dreamers who create those compa- in exchange for providing political support for white lead- nies, no matter who they are or where they come from. ership. One historian called it a kind of “racial détente” “This is a hospitable marketplace,” he said. “People are designed to keep calm in everyone’s streets and business very good, very caring, very giving, and we don’t throw in everyone’s shops. It was a strategy that helped Atlanta snowballs at Santa Claus on Christmas.” avoid the worst of the violence that plagued other south- A political balancing act; a welcoming civic culture; ern cities during the Civil Rights era. a business-driven philosophy of governance: based on Later, with the election in 1974 of Atlanta’s first black three days of panels at the 2008 Leadership Exchange, mayor, the “Atlanta Way” came to describe a careful divi- these are the threads of the Atlanta Way. Together sion of power: the political sphere to blacks, the busi- they’ve helped make metro Atlanta an international hub ness sphere to whites. Fortune described it as an alliance for business and travel. It’s the fastest-growing American of “folks who understand and accept why and how the metropolis of the last generation. The Atlanta Way: spoils of any venture must be divided between blacks But if Atlanta’s particular ways get credit for its suc- and whites.” cesses, they also get blamed for its failures. Critics point Past, Present, and Future But when asked today to describe the Atlanta Way, Ed to persistent poverty and the region’s failure to invest in Baker, publisher of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, offers its infrastructure or manage its growth. They describe something much less political. “To characterize the Atlanta ways that remain uncomfortably close to those of the Way,” he said, “at the top of my list, I believe our biggest old company town. And if those are the yin and yang point of difference is southern hospitality.” of the Atlanta Way – on one hand inclusive and coop- Baker told the Leadership Exchange that Atlanta was erative, on the other driven by elite business interests by Bill Hangley, Jr. “a city of dreamers and entrepreneurs.” Among its count- – there’s yet another way to consider: the next way.

4 5 Explosive growth has created new problems that will Little was astonished by the region’s abundant and white gentleman is – I would challenge the city’s old habits. well-attended Rotary Club luncheons, which to him epito- guess close to seventy.” P. Rus- mize a culture of openness and inclusion. “You’ve got the sell Hardin, the foundation’s “people are places they never dreamed they’d be.” great opportunity to see anybody that you need to see. president, was sitting next to Milton James Little’s last job was in Boston, where at To talk about the things that phone calls don’t allow.” Ev- her when she spoke. first nobody would listen to him. “Your family had to be erywhere he got more than lip service – people who told in the ground for 400 years before you were a native,” him “call me if you need help,” he said, called later to find “We have more he recalled, and one was expected to serve a long ap- out why he hadn’t called. government than we prenticeship before being given a voice in civic affairs. Little calls it the “y’all come” culture, and he says it know what to do with, Now Little is the head of the United Way of Metro- works. By welcoming anyone who’ll join the effort to but it doesn’t have a politan Atlanta. Before he’d even moved into his office, boost the region, he said, the city has transformed itself whole lot of power.” he was on the cover of Ed Baker’s paper, named one of into a beacon of possibility. Middle class blacks now live the region’s most influential people. “I hadn’t even sat in the shadow of Stone Mountain, once the symbolic home Philipp and Saporta were of the Ku Klux Klan. “People are places where they never touching on one of the con- dreamed they’d be,” Little said. William Jelani Cobb, a pro- sistent themes of the Leader- fessor at Atlanta’s Spelman College, wrote recently that the ship Exchange: metro Atlanta city has become “what Harlem was in the 1920s: the des- may be increasingly diverse tination for a critical mass of highly educated and talented and its civic life increasingly blacks in search of a better life.” open, but the real Atlanta Way Ed Baker says it’s a mistake to read too much into At- still gives the final say to the region’s business leaders. At the pants. “When we [the business community] feel lanta’s racial successes. “Black business and white busi- best, government and civic institutions are expected to threatened,” he said, “we create something and sell it ness don’t integrate in any meaningful way,” he said. “And play a supporting role. “The state is historically extremely into our political system in a way that gives them just the belief that Atlanta is the place for minority business conservative,” said A.J. Robinson, head of a regional busi- enough say in it that we can call it a public/private opportunity is more conversation than reality...in some ness association, Central Atlanta Progress. “We have more partnership.” ways, we get more credit than we deserve.” government than we know what to do with, but it doesn’t And when the business community does push for But nonetheless, Baker said, power in Atlanta is no have a whole lot of power.” increased public investment – as it is currently doing longer nearly as concentrated as it once was. “In the six- By design, it’s the private sector that makes Atlanta around transportation issues – it is often undercut by ties, it was basically six to eight white men in a room,” he go. The signature example is the city’s successful staging a state government which sees itself as the guardian said. “Most of them were bankers.” Then came the city’s of the 1996 Olympics. The project started, in Hardin’s of a low-tax, limited government ideology. “I was at a first black mayor, , who in the 1970s words, with “brash, audacious, private sector leadership” program where the chief operating officer for the state secured for blacks control of the political sphere (includ- led by one man and funded entirely by corporate spon- was boasting that Georgia’s a ‘great state’ because we ing the city-owned airport) and with it a prominent and sorships, not public money. Of much deeper and more rank second in terms of the lowest amounts of public powerful seat at the regional table. Suddenly, dividing lasting import is the airport, a project whose development investment,” recalled Saporta. “He would call it public the civic pie became a much more complex exercise. As has always been private sector driven and on whose suc- taxation. What he thought was a great barometer, I Baker put it: “The world changed,” and Atlanta found cess the region depends. The very pattern of the region’s interpreted another way, which is that the state is not ways to change with it. growth – tract after tract of single-family homes, largely investing in who we are and what we are.” untroubled by government zoning or open space require- To Ed Baker, if the Olympics were a victory for the “the five white guys are still meeting.” ments – reflects the priorities of private developers and Atlanta Way, their aftermath was something else. “We “Things have changed,” said Alicia Philipp, “but perhaps the customers they seek to serve. woke up after the Olympics, and we had gridlock,” not as much as they should.” Philipp has run the Commu- Meanwhile, the region has not excelled at providing he said. “It had been coming. We knew it. Leadership Alicia Philipp, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta nity Foundation of Greater Atlanta for three decades. “Like the kind of services that rely on government or nonprofit ignored it, and it still remains our albatross.” Baker in the chair yet,” Little said with a laugh. “But I was in many cities, thirty-one years ago, it was five white guys at sector leadership. Public education depends on some of was speaking literally about the crippling traffic jams the center [of the cover photograph], surrounded by all the Commerce Club. And [the people] making the deci- the lowest levels of public funding in the nation, and that now threaten the region’s growth. But the re- these longtime, important people.” sions and the perspectives they represent have changed test scores and graduation rates rank among the nation’s gion’s leaders get stuck on other issues too, he said, With the warm welcome came a very clear message. somewhat, but I would still challenge that Atlanta isn’t worst. Infrastructure for transportation and water are unable to adjust a hands-off governing philosophy “It’s a reminder of the expectation. If you’re in a posi- anywhere near where it could be.” woefully outdated. The region ranks number one in child even as demand grows for someone to fix the prob- tion of responsibility in this community, somebody asks Journalist Maria Saporta put it more bluntly: “The five poverty and number two in income inequality. lems growth has created. “Leadership has not taken you to sit down at a table and bring a fresh idea. For white guys are still meeting. They meet on the board of the Robinson says the region’s businesses are more than us down the road to the promised land,” Baker said, newcomers, the expectation is that you find a place in Woodruff Foundation,” she said, naming the region’s dom- willing to team up with local governments to push “with regards to transportation, environment, air qual- civic life and become engaged.” inant philanthropy. “I don’t know how old the youngest an agenda. But he left no question about who wears ity, and water.”

6 7 The “Philly Way”

“the profile has changed” After hearing about the Atlanta Way from a number of speakers, we asked Leader- Whatever its shortcomings, the Atlanta ship Exchange participants to share their thoughts on what might be considered the Way of attracting business and residents Philly Way. has helped the region grow at a dizzy- ing rate. Metro Atlanta has doubled in size “Too often, the ‘Philly Way’ involves people debating how to slice up the pie, instead since 1980. It accounts for 60 percent of of brainstorming about how to make the pie bigger. In Atlanta, for example, they the state’s revenue. Its leaders hope to add spend lots of time trying to attract foreign businesses – growing the Atlanta business another two million residents by 2015, and pie. In Philadelphia, the city’s current budget crisis gives us a chance to take a new this growth is itself an integral part of the approach – a new ‘Philly Way’ – which would bring everyone to the table with the goal region’s economic plan. Grow is what At- of growing the pie. At the Redevelopment Authority for example, we are working on lanta does. getting vacant parcels into the hands of the private sector more quickly – which will But as it has grown, Atlanta has changed. add to the city’s tax base and give us sales proceeds that we can use to fund develop- The region is no longer a fifty-fifty split of ment projects. Growing the pie should be the new ‘Philly Way.’” southern-born blacks and southern-born Terry Gillen, Executive Director whites. It’s rapidly adding Latinos, Asians, Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia Indians, and other immigrants, along with Americans from every state – what one local “To apply a traffic analogy: civic groups and nonprofits are in one lane, and govern- mayor half-jokingly called “foreigners from ment is in the other lane; the good news being they are headed in the same direction the Northeast and the West Coast.” – not always at the same speed, and certainly not in similar vehicles, but headed in The results have shaken up the region. the same direction. Past formulas for dividing the civic spoils “The business community, however, often lays back in the median strip, watching the are no longer sufficient: former Governor movement of government, civics, and nonprofits. The business community is often Roy Barnes faced a revolt from black lawmakers when been, the next Atlanta Way must accommodate an in- crippled by indecision as to which lane to enter to join the traffic. Once they venture he tried to change the state’s definition of “disadvan- creasingly diverse population, living in an increasingly out into the progressive traffic, there is usually a small fender-bender, but repair and taged business” to include other ethnic groups. With fragmented political landscape, depending on an unpre- recovery are quick. And that is the Philly Way!” new residents come unfamiliar problems: Fayette Coun- dictable global economy whose interests are not synony- ty officials planned to open clinics to handle the unin- mous with Atlanta’s own. Ahmeenah Young, President and CEO sured Latino families who were using the local emer- But if the tactics and conditions are changing, the over- Pennsylvania Convention Center gency room for routine care. Atlantans wanted a global all strategy that guides the Atlanta Way appears unlikely city, and after adding 100,000 people a year for twenty to change: business leads, government follows. “The “As I look out onto the tarmac, awaiting the departure of my flight to the Silicon Val- years, they have one. business community has worked with local government ley, I can’t help but think that the ‘Philadelphia Way’ should be: Always Happy; Never Likewise, Atlanta waned to join the global economy, to get us out of every scrape we’ve been in over the last Satisfied. Philadelphians should take justifiable pride in a home which has no peer and now the corporate community is losing its deep fifty years,” said Tad Leithead, a developer who’s deep- when it comes to that rare combination of authenticity, architecture, history, smarts, regional roots. “You have very few home-grown CEOs, ly involved in traffic issues. Leithead was one of many arts, recreational assets, and an abiding civic spirit. Greater Philadelphia is truly one and their companies have gone international,” said Ma- Leadership Exchange panelists who said that with better of the most livable and enjoyable regions of the world, and we’re lucky to have so ria Saporta, the journalist. “There’s not as much sense regional cooperation and planning, and better support many people who are passionate about making it their home. But we must never be that the health of the company depends on the health of from state government, metro Atlanta can improve its satisfied with where we are, lest we lose ground to some of our most ambitious sister the region. It’s becoming more and more of a struggle to public infrastructure and services without giving up its regions, many of whom are plotting, on a daily basis, to eat our lunch. Whether it is get those leaders engaged. The profile has changed.” fundamentally pro-business attitude. the relentless planning of Chicagoland, the invention and entrepreneurship of the And finally, as a region of more than a dozen sepa- That would be the Atlanta Way: balance the politics so Bay Area, or the sheer force and size of the governmental engines fueling the growth rate counties has grown and thrived, new power centers that business can thrive and make a bigger pie for ev- of Washington, D.C., we’re up against some stiff competition. But if the region that is now compete with each other. “I happen to believe that erybody. And if Atlanta’s leaders have proved anything, home to Comcast, Aramark, the University of Pennsylvania, an army of Philadelphia we’re becoming tomorrow’s Los Angeles, in many dif- it’s that they can spot a business opportunity virtually lawyers, and 60 percent of all pharma workers in the world can come together and ferent ways,” said Baker. Wealthy Gwinett County is anywhere, including the Leadership Exchange. “You are share a sense of urgency about taking Philadelphia to the next level, surely we cannot now “our Orange County,” he said, with “its own geog- all now part of the Atlanta Way,” said Hardin, the foun- fail. And somehow I think one of the projects that will get us there is right outside my raphy, with its own leadership, setting its own strategy.” dation president, as he sat in a sparkling midtown hotel, window. Can we begin by working together to make the Philadelphia International That’s not the exception – “that’s how it’s going across gazing across a room of 100-plus Greater Philadelphians. Airport a world class gateway to our world class region?” the region.” “I’m not sure what the Atlanta Way is – I missed that one. Thus the overarching sense at the Leadership Ex- But one theme here since Reconstruction days is our ear- Gregg Melinson, Chief Marketing Partner Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP change was that whatever the past Atlanta Way has nest, nonstop attempts to attract Yankee money.” 8 timelinehighlights from metro atlanta history

1837 - terminus, ga founded at the 1990 - georgia research alliance founded to termination point of several rail lines promote public-private partnerships among business, research universities, and government

1847 - terminus incorporated as atlanta 1993 – state lottery funds hope scholarship, guarantees free tuition at public colleges for meritorious students 1864 - union general william t. sherman orders atlanta burned to the ground 1996 – summer olympics 1886 - coca-cola invented by atlanta pharmacist 1996 - atlanta housing authority creates nationally-renowned model for mixed-income, 1926 – candler field opens as city’s first airport mixed-finance development

1957 – dr. martin luther king, jr. becomes 1st president of 2002 – becomes 1st african american southern christian leadership conference woman to run a major southern city

1963 – atlanta mayor ivan allen, jr. is the only white 2006 – hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport southern official to testify before congress opens 5th runway in support of the civil rights act

2007 – atlanta magazine publishes “the global city” issue, 1965 – atlanta lures milwaukee braves by profiling 55 most influential foreign born citizens building $18 million stadium

1974 – Maynard Jackson takes office as 2007 – georgia governor sunny purdue Atlanta’s 1st African American mayor declares a state of emergency in response to water crisis 1976 – turner center opens, later becomes cnn center 2008 – greater philadelphia leadership exchange to atlanta 1977 – jimmy carter appoints , former 2010 - mayor shirley franklin ga congressman and will complete 2nd term future atlanta mayor, us ambassador to the un Thank the boll weevil. Thank the now stands where so many Atlanta sto- Jackson knew how badly Atlanta’s drought of 1925, too. As the Roaring ‘20s ries seem to wind up: can it keep grow- business leaders wanted a new airport. peaked, bad weather and pernicious pests ing? Optimistic Atlantans say yes, and But he also knew they had no choice but were driving farmers off their land across airport officials hope that if the global to collaborate with him. The city owned the South. To the man serving as Atlanta’s economy doesn’t cooperate right away, the airport, he was running the city, and mayor, , the sound of regional the new president will. The airport he refused to give the expansion the sup- economic collapse was the sound of op- wants to add another 30 million cus- port it needed without a guaranteed role portunity. Displaced people need to go tomers by 2015. They’re planning new for minority businesses. somewhere. Why not Atlanta? routes to business destinations in China Atlanta’s current mayor, Shirley Frank- The city was already on the rebound, and Russia even as they look for short- lin, recalled that despite their hunger for using its rails and roads to bring itself term economic help from Washington, a new airport, Atlanta’s business leaders back from the destruction of the Civil D.C. They believe in their vision of an at first flatly refused to promise a share War. Atlanta doubled in size between “aerotropolis” – what one official called of jobs or contracts for blacks. Jackson 1910 and 1920, and Mayor Sims believed a “city within an airport” featuring ho- dug in his heels for two full years to wait FROM that even greater growth was possible if tels, convention space, and retail – but them out. “You can imagine the tension,” Photo courtesy of Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport only the city had an airport. As it hap- they also know that nothing is certain. Franklin said. “They were ready to throw pens, he was right. In fact, it seems un- What started with the boll weevil is now ing plans to expand their new property. Jackson put Atlanta firmly on both the him out. But he stood his ground.” likely that he could have guessed how in the hands of the bond market. Manufacturing had never been Atlanta’s national and international map. The pub- right he would prove to be. On September 15, 1926, a Florida Air- driving force. Moving goods and people lisher of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Today, as recession redraws THE Today, in a region of more than 5 mil- ways mail plane out of Jacksonville land- was always its bread and butter. The town Ed Baker, calls the 1980s the “decade the global economic land- lion people, Atlanta’s airport is respon- ed on a dusty runway just outside the tiny originally named “Terminus” – it was the where Atlanta could do no wrong,” and sible for about one job out of every eight. town of Hapeville, Georgia. It was the last eastbound stop on the Western and the region’s signature successes all de- scape, airport officials say It moves 90 million passengers a year on first official arrival at a brand new airport Atlantic Railroad – had thrived and sur- pended on its major air hub. In the ‘80s, more than 2,400 flights a day, an -aver then known as Candler Field. Asa Can- vived by linking roads, rails, and ports. Atlanta lured the headquarters of region- they know that as the airport age of one takeoff every 36 seconds. It dler was a Coca-Cola tycoon and former Once the war was over, the city took full al and international businesses; it grew goes, so goes the region. CLEAR turned Atlanta into a hub of international Atlanta mayor whose failed venture into ownership of the property (which was new service industries to support its new business and travel, redefining the region auto racing had left him with an empty and remains outside city limits), convert- corporate community; it established itself Ultimately, Jackson prevailed. Once and its economy. racetrack seven miles south of downtown ed a surplus hangar into a terminal, and as a hotel and convention center. The air- started, the expansion was finished in Atlanta Olympic host? Made possible Atlanta. When Mayor Sims came looking started looking for business. port helped Atlanta redefine itself as the just three years – “ahead of schedule and by the airport. Atlanta, home to more than for land, Candler let him use the track for By 1948, what was now known as At- capital of the New South: cheerful, acces- under budget” was how Jackson liked to a dozen Fortune 500 companies? Score free, and the airport was born. lanta Municipal Airport moved a million sible, modern, and open for business. put it. The airport deal set a precedent: BLUE another for the airport. Atlanta, adding Initially, Candler Field’s best prospects under Jackson’s leadership, the percent- passengers a year. Within a decade, that Getting there took Atlanta through un- 100,000 new residents a year? Couldn’t for profit lay in lucrative government mail number had doubled. By the early ‘60s, charted territory. When the airport finished age of city contracts given to minority have done it without the airport. The contracts. But within five years, Delta six million passengers annually passed its 1961 major expansion, black Southern- firms went from one to 35 percent. Not story of what’s now known as Hartsfield- and Pitcairn (later Eastern) Airlines were through a brand-new terminal. By 1970, ers were still living under Jim Crow and only did the 1980 expansion usher in the Jackson Atlanta International is the story offering regular passenger service. World Atlanta planners were working to expand virtually all political decisions were made economy that made Atlanta what it is to- SKY of Atlanta’s success. War II brought the military, and by the the airport’s capacity by a factor of ten – by what Baker describes as “six to eight day – it set the template for the partner- But the tale of Hartsfield-Jackson is end of the war, Candler was the nation’s for the cool price of $500 million. That white bankers in a room.” But when the ship that has run Atlanta since. about more than laying tarmac at the right busiest airport. last step would prove to be, as they say, airport’s next major expansion started in Today, as recession redraws the global time and in the right place. It’s about a Given Atlanta’s civic DNA and the a doozy. 1977, Atlanta was run for the first time by economic landscape, airport officials say region successfully adjusting – so far – to airport’s early success, it’s no surprise The massive airport expansion com- a black mayor, Maynard Jackson. It was a they know that as the airport goes, so political and economic change. that the city fathers couldn’t stop hatch- pleted in 1980 under Mayor Maynard seismic shift in regional political power. goes the region. “We are very aware, How Atlanta very, very aware, of what our responsi- For 82 years, the Atlanta bility is as an airport,” Hartfield-Jackson made an airport – Photo courtesy of Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport airport has done nothing but official Arnaldo Ruiz told the Leadership and how an airport Exchange. “When we were first created, grow… can it keep growing? we were to be the engine that would made Atlanta drive economic development for the city The airport was born at a time when and the region. We’re still going strong.” Atlanta’s business and political commu- The numbers suggest that “strong” isn’t nities were virtually indistinguishable too strong a word: and entirely white. It was guided to - In 2007, Hartsfield-Jackson ranked as maturity by a contentious but ultimate- the world’s busiest airport, moving 90 ly productive partnership between the million passengers on almost a million business community and a newly em- flights. It ranked 7th in international powered black political establishment. flights (Philadelphia is 16th, trailing And today it finds itself at the economic Minneapolis, Detroit, and Guam). heart of an increasingly diverse region that includes much more than whites - With 56,000 employees and a payroll and blacks, thoroughly enmeshed in an of more than $2 billion, Hartsfield- uncertain and global economy. Jackson is the largest single employer For 82 years, the Atlanta airport has in Georgia. Its overall economic im- by Bill Hangley, Jr. done nothing but grow, and its story pact is estimated at $23 billion a year.

12 13 Flagged for racism Why not us? (Philadelphia International employs ple stop flying,” Ruiz said. “That’s fewer ber of development projects on land about 42,000 people, and provides an people that park, fewer people that spend around the airport that they hope will estimated economic impact of about their hard earned dollars on food and attract hotels and office parks, and with It’s enough to make a Philadelphian mad In the category of unin- $14 billion.) beverages and retail, fewer people that them airline passengers. with jealousy. In the three days of the tended consequences, - Hartsfield-Jackson is indirectly re- rent cars.” Altogether, airport officials want to in- Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange, the airport’s success sponsible for almost 400,000 jobs, Ruiz remains optimistic – “it’s a roller crease traffic from 90 million passengers the words “Atlanta airport” and “regional helped force Georgia or about 15 percent of the region’s coaster, but we’ll get through” – but sink- in 2007 to 121 million passengers in 2015. growth” were mentioned together, by to give up a treasured workforce. By comparison, Tom Morr ing revenues are combining with the fro- Their belief in the unlimited potential of unofficial count, approximately a hundred piece of its Confeder- thousand times. Philadelphia will consider of Select Greater Philadelphia says a zen bond market to cast a shadow on the their region is probably no different from ate identity. Since airport’s ongoing expansion projects. This that of Mayor Walter Sims, who started itself lucky to meet Mayor Michael Nutter’s 1956, the Georgia state similar number of people work in this goal of adding 75,000 new residents in the region’s life sciences industry. “If you fall, airport officials failed to sell $600 the whole thing when he had the word flag had prominently million in municipal bonds needed to fi- “airport” painted on the roof of a barn next five years. By comparison, metro At- understand how important that is to lanta has added as many as 100,000 new featured the Confeder- our economy, then you get a sense nance construction of a new internation- in 1926. ate “Stars and Bars” – al terminal. They say they may have to But the global economy is slowing, residents a year over the last decade. of how important the airport is to The airport gets much of the credit, not to some a symbol of re- suspend the project, which broke ground and Atlantans are adjusting. City officials Atlanta,” says Morr. only for creating jobs, but for serving as a gional pride; to others, last summer. “We’re still hoping to get into recently completed a “wish list” of infra- an emblem of violent racism. The flag had white guys come out that hadn’t voted in - Overall, since Atlanta’s last major air- bridge to global capitals and their immi- the [bond] market,” airport manager Ben structure funding requests they’ll send long stirred controversy, but by the late fifty years,” Barnes recalled. “They usually port expansion was completed in 1980, grants to metro Atlanta. So, can Philadel- Acosta told the Atlanta Business Chroni- to President Barack Obama. On it: $500 phia replicate that success? Here are some 1990s, Georgia Governor Roy Barnes was hunt that time of year. That year, the deer the population of the city itself has held cle in November. “But we don’t have any million for airport expansion. “There’s of the issues: hearing a steady stream of complaints were safe.” fairly steady at around 450,000. But the sense that the markets are thawing yet.” no harm in asking,” one city councilman from the national and international busi- population of the region has exploded room on the ground. Fellow Leadership Exchange panelist Jack told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. nesses he was trying to lure and keep. from about 2.2 million to well over 5 Atlanta’s airport is sited on some of Smith, an official in Fayette County, wryly Altogether, airport officials “That seems to be how we govern these the region’s most sparsely developed Those were the sorts of million. That includes booming new days, ask the president-elect.” communities of Asians, Indians, and want to increase traffic land. Highways offer the biggest physi- complaints Barnes paid close Latinos who are redrawing the ethnic cal obstacles to growth, and a recently attention to. “My theory is, from 90 million passengers added runway solved that problem with you keep business happy, and map of a region once divided evenly an overpass. Philadelphia International between whites and blacks. in 2007 to 121 million they’ll keep bringing in money, ATL & PHL: Airport, by comparison, is hemmed in by and you can do anything you And yet, as strong as its performance passengers in 2015. roads, water, and people. A recent draft want,” Barnes told the Leader- plan to add a runway would require the may be, Atlanta’s airport is not invincible. Side by Side ship Exchange. Executives from airport to buy and tear down 72 houses one major German firm told him, As rising costs and slackening demand Officially, the plan is to keep grow- and a mail sorting plant in the neighboring force carriers to cut back the number of ing. Airport leaders are counting on the town of Tinicum. Residents aren’t happy – “We only see that flag when we flights, officials expect about a -five per new international terminal to increase the township claims that would cost them see Nazi skinheads marching in cent drop in passengers in 2009 – approxi- the number of direct flights to what they NUMBER OF PASSENGERS (annual) 3,000 jobs – and they’ve vowed to fight. Berlin.” When the CEOs of all the believe are the business world’s growth city’s Fortune 500 companies mately 12,000 fewer people each day. “As ATL: 90 million - PHL: 32 million room in the air. airlines start reducing capacity and people markets: Russia, India, South America, collectively asked Barnes to get AVG FLIGHTS PER DAY With heavy traffic coming from airports rid of the Stars and Bars, the start worrying about the economy, peo- and China. They’re also planning a num- in New York, Washington, Newark, and ATL: 2,400 - PHL: 600 Baltimore, the federally-controlled lanes governor pushed a bill through for planes above the Northeast seaboard the legislature creating a new RANK AMONG WORLD’S BUSIEST flag with only a tiny confeder- AIRPORTS are every bit as congested as the region’s interstates. The Federal Aviation Adminis- ate symbol at the bottom. The Jack Smith, Chair, Fayette County Board ATL: #1 - PHL: #10 tration has a plan to add new flight paths move probably cost him his of Commissioners out of Philadelphia, but the proposed “air- job. Barnes, a Democrat, lost RANK AMONG PROVIDERS OF space redesign” would mean new flights his 2002 bid for re-election, with the flag confirmed the governor’s analysis: “I get INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS and new noise over homes in Delaware issue playing a major role. “I believe in around Georgia. I have relatives all over ATL: #7 (trailing New York, County. Thus, an already-long process that full voter participation. But I made some the state,” he said. “I can assure you, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago) includes extensive environmental reviews the flag did get him beat.” Barnes PHL: #16 (trailing Minneapolis, has been slowed further by strong com- was replaced by Republican Sonny Detroit, and Guam) munity opposition. Purdue. But even so, the 1956 INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS international destinations. flag was not to rise again. Purdue organized a statewide referendum ATL: nonstop flights to 85 cities Atlanta officials say their strategy is to get including London, Moscow, as many direct flights as possible to the that included several choices for Rio de Janiero, Tel Aviv, Tokyo globe’s business capitals. They estimate a state flag, and despite protests that the Atlanta-to-Shanghai run generates PHL: nonstop flights to 38 cities in he chose not to include the 1956 $400 million a year in economic develop- version. The flag that won, with Europe and the Caribbean, with a ment, in part by attracting businesses to Beijing route slated for 2010 three-quarters of the vote, doesn’t Atlanta that want to ship to or from China. include the Stars and Bars at all. NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Atlanta officials are planning new runs to India, Russia, China, and Brazil. Mean- ATL: 56,000 - PHL: 42,000 while, Philadelphia’s international runs are mostly to Europe, Mexico, and the Carib- Former GA Governor ESTIMATED REGIONAL ECONOMIC bean. But federal officials recently gave Roy Barnes IMPACT US Airways the green light to add direct ATL: $23 billion - PHL: $14 billion flights from Philadelphia to Beijing starting in 2010. 14 15

Photo courtesy of Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport Metro Atlanta growth trajectory, 1950-2000 (Source: Atlanta Regional Commission) Beach is the president of the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, rep- resenting a county of almost a mil- lion people that sits four miles north of downtown Atlanta. On the day he spoke to the Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange, Fulton County was scheduled to break ground on a two-mile stretch of four-lane high- way designed to reduce congestion J on the local interstate. The West Side Highway was eight years in the mak- ing, and the process left Beach – an outwardly mild-mannered man who A also sits on the board of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) – disgusted. Federally man- dated environmental studies took five years to prepare. In that time, Beach said, the price went from $16 to $25 million. Can Atlanta grow out “Now I’m all for the environment,” Beach said. “I love trees. But we’ve M got to have a little common sense. If of its traffic troubles? we had to build an interstate system today we couldn’t do it. It’s mind- Brandon Beach knows it isn’t 1956 boggling. I’m tired of hearing ‘it’s federal when they do there’s a mile of traffic to Drive, I can drive it across Lower Roswell money’ – it’s our money, and we’ve got get to the stoplight.” Road, I can take I-85, I can take 75, or anymore. That’s the year Dwight to fight like hell to get it back. So it’s not What happened to Brandon Beach is I can take Georgia 400. But either way Eisenhower started building roads, fair,” he went on. “We’re mired in conges- what happened to Atlanta. The city and I’m gonna get stuck in traffic, and I’ll be tion, and we can’t build our way out of it its leaders know how to grow. But they in my car by myself.” Leithead is an op- M because of the time and the bureaucracy struggle to solve the problems growth timist who calls Atlanta a “can do” place and it took just 14 years to lay that it takes to build the roads.” creates. Another Leadership Exchange that will solve its problems. But the prob- 44,000 miles of interstate. Beach Beach paused. Then he talked some panelist, Tad Leithead, Senior Vice Presi- lems are undeniable. This year, Forbes more about the improving state of col- dent of Cousins Properties, put it this rated metro Atlanta’s traffic as the nation’s knows that feat would be politically laboration among metro Atlanta’s many way: “The good news is, Atlanta is the worst. Atlanta drivers spend an average of and financially impossible today. He transit agencies. He talked about the need fastest growing city and will continue to sixty hours a year in traffic, trailing only E to overcome the region’s reflexive oppo- be. The bad news is, Atlanta is the fastest Los Angeles. Every day, 300,000 of its 2.3 knows that the only readily available sition to high-density developments. He growing city and will continue to be.” million workers drive more than an hour talked about the chronic and worsening to get to work. solutions to Atlanta’s notorious traf- shortage of transportation funding at ev- “we’re number one.” One could call this the price of suc- ery level: local, state, and national. Leithead knows both sides of the story. cess. “How big is the economy?” asks Mike fic problems lie in regional planning, As a private developer, he’s seen metro Alexander. “I like to say it’s bigger than D public transportation, and a shift to- “The good news is, Atlanta thrive on a steady diet of afford- Argentina.” Alexander is a planning spe- Atlanta is the fastest growing able, suburban, single family homes built cialist with ARC. He arrived at the Lead- wards high-density development. on former farmland – what some call ership Exchange with a laptop full of city and will continue to be. “greenfield development” and others call charts, graphs, and slides that add up to But a big part of Brandon Beach The bad news is, Atlanta is the “sprawl.” But as a transportation commit- a simple story: Atlanta has been growing wishes someone would just give him tee chairman for the regional planning like crazy for thirty years. fastest growing city and board (the Atlanta Regional Commission, “We’re number one,” Alexander said. and his roadbuilders some money will continue to be.” or ARC), Leithead suspects the strategy “Atlanta has outgrown every other met- has reached its limit. He says Atlanta’s one ropolitan statistical area in the U.S. since and get the heck out of the way. “I get But as he spoke, he stopped to recall a transportation option is no longer enough. 2000. We’ve added over a million people. time when he was in charge of a road. “I “I have a brother-in-law who lives in You made the slide, though” he told his passionate about how long it takes didn’t know what I was doing,” he said. Jersey and works in New York City,” he audience, pointing at Greater Philadel- to build roads,” he said. “I think it’s As a new town official, he’d approved a said. “When he wakes up in the morn- phia’s spot at the low end of his chart. developer’s plans to build hundreds of ing, he has five choices for how to get to “You added 144,000 people. We added a U ridiculous.” homes in clusters of cul-de-sacs connect- work. He can drive his car, he can car- million,” and that’s just in this decade. ed to the main two-lane road by only a pool with his next door neighbor, he can In 1980, metro Atlanta was home to just single entrance. “There’s only one way in take a ferry, a taxi, or he can ride the more than two million people. Today, the and one way out,” he said. “Now these train. When I wake up in the morning, I region’s workforce alone is more numer- by Bill Hangley, Jr. people are cussing me because they can’t also have five choices,” Leithead contin- ous than that, and the total population P ued. “I can drive my car down Riverside has climbed to more than five million. The even get out of their subdivisions, and

16 17 Greater Philadelphia – Metro Atlanta comparison (Source: Atlanta Regional Commission) long, steady pattern – less a boom than tally believe, as Alan Greenspan said, counties run their own bus services, for is, all it would have taken to a swell – has been driven by Atlanta’s economies are resilient, and ours to a the most part with their own schedules, pass this landmark legislation unique combination of climate, space, af- large degree will be driven by popula- routes, and fare structures. was leadership.” fordable housing, and above all, jobs. tion growth,” said Alexander. The U.S. But Alexander and Leithead said At- Ken Steele is the mayor of Atlanta’s airport, low taxes, and fa- Census predicts that Georgia, Florida, lanta’s transit problem goes beyond its Fayetteville, a small city 22 mously business-friendly state and local and the Carolinas will add tens of mil- shortage of bus stops. Planners in metro miles south of Atlanta. He governments have helped it attract and lions of residents in the coming decades. Atlanta are discovering what their coun- told the Leadership Exchange retain the headquarters of dozens of na- Atlanta’s planners believe they can add terparts in Los Angeles and Long Island that any increase in state sup- tional and international companies, from another two million people by 2030. learned long ago: it’s virtually impossible port for transportation will Coca-Cola and CNN to Rubbermaid and “Which is an opportunity to sell a lot to retrofit a transit system to efficiently require legislators to embrace Waffle House. It trails only New York of houses,” Alexander said, “but a chal- serve an established region of sprawling, a fundamental shift in their re- and Houston in its number of Fortune lenge to provide infrastructure.” single-home developments intermingled sponsibilities. “Eighty percent 500 companies (13). With corporations with countless clusters of business and of the budget of the state of come support services, and, to take one “density was a bad word.” retail centers. Alexander says ARC has Georgia is tied up in education example, Atlanta now employs more Over the last forty years, metro At- spent “millions” investigating options for and health care,” he said. “We data-hosting workers than any other city lanta’s most visible transportation-related the region without anything close to a so- need leadership to go before in the nation. Still more jobs come from failure has been its inability to create a lution. “Fifty percent of the people who the people and make the ar- government and military bases. The fed- truly regional public transit system. The commute do not go from the suburbs to gument that we have to spend eral Centers for Disease Control and Pre- city of Atlanta boasts a clean, comfort- the center,” said Leithead. “They go from more and dedicate more to vention alone employs 15,000 people. able subway called MARTA that serves suburb to suburb. And there is no transit transportation.” Steele believes Last but far from least, metro Atlanta just two of more than a dozen counties solution to that.” there’s a good chance the re- makes money by growing: adding devel- in the region; voters in the other coun- Ideally transit systems link neighbor- luctant legislature will come opments, building houses, filling them ties wouldn’t approve a one percent sales hoods with high concentrations of people around in 2009. with carpets and furniture. “I fundamen- tax to bring the system their way. Some to neighborhoods with high concentrations “I hope that’s right,” replied of jobs. So the best option, said Leithead. “I’m afraid it’s not. Leithead and Alexander, is to steer We‘re a red state. We have a Re- future developers to create pock- publican governor, a Republican ets of density wherever possible. lieutenant governor, a Republi- And that’s where government can Senate, a Republican House. steps in – or doesn’t, as the case All these folks ran on low taxes, may be. When density doesn’t no new taxes. We’re in a strange happen naturally – as it did in cit- starting to recognize that they’re paying a disconnected because they can’t get to situation where the business community ies that predate the car – it can be price for sprawl. Tad Leithead once again ball games and dinner on time, companies at a 60 to 65 percent level is demanding a encouraged with zoning, plan- is on the front line. He says that one losing millions of dollars in productivity.” state funding mechanism for transportation. ning, incentives, and regulations. of the region’s selling points is its large Polling is off the charts, but for some rea- In a place like Atlanta, where de- workforce (“we brag about that a lot”), “we’re in a foxhole.” son we came three votes short.” velopers always have the option but employers are starting to tell him When it comes to the power of the pri- The absence of funding hasn’t stopped of building yet another batch of that the region’s traffic is cutting them off vate sector, it’s fair to say that Atlanta has a surge of planning. Atlanta’s burgeoning single-family homes on the empty from its workers. developed a civic culture of true believ- traffic problems helped convince all the re- field beyond the last cul-de-sac, ers. At the heart of the so-called “Atlanta gion’s alphabet soup agencies to sit down density is virtually synonymous “All this prosperity could come Way” is a conviction that business and at the proverbial table with county officials with government intervention in industry should lead, and government and hash out a 30-year investment plan. It private development. to an end because of one should follow. And while Georgia loves was a group that included such regional That may be one reason den- thing – transportation.” to tout its business-friendly labor laws planning agencies as ARC and GRTA, At- sity has long been spelled with and low taxes, the Chamber’s op-ed is lanta’s public transit system, and the state’s four letters in metro Atlanta. An- “What our customers are telling us a reminder that government isn’t neces- department of transportation. other is the belief that apartment is that we really don’t have 2.3 million sarily inclined to follow when business Mike Alexander, the ARC planner, was complexes and high-density de- potential employees,” he said. “We have leaders cry, “Spend!” thrilled with the plan they produced. “I velopments drive down the value people that are willing to drive only about On the last day of its 2008 session, the can tell you, having 20 counties at the ta- of adjacent homes. “Density was 30 minutes maximum. So what we have Georgia state legislature was presented ble talking about transportation resourc- a bad word,” recalled would-be are about ten employment centers that with a bill that would have allowed local es is a challenge,” he said. “But they’ve roadbuilder Brandon Beach of each has access to about 500,000 poten- counties to raise their own taxes in order to come together. The politicians have real- his time in local government. tial employees.” fund transportation. It wasn’t a tax increase. ly stepped up to engage a different level “The neighbors came out and Thus, the region’s business community It was a bill to allow voters to choose to tax of planning.” fought you, and if anything was sees its growth threatened by – well, by themselves. Despite strong support from Known as “IT3,” the plan calls for im- over eight units per acre they’d growth. “All this prosperity could come business interests, one minute before mid- proved inter-county bus and rail options, come out in force.” The result: to an end because of one thing – trans- night, the bill failed by three votes. among other things – an unprecedented sprawl. “We have been sprawl- portation,” wrote the Georgia Chamber The op-ed was the Chamber’s response. achievement. Doug Tollett, a real estate en- ing in Atlanta for 30 years,” said of Commerce in a recent op-ed. “Even “We face another year of increasing traffic trepreneur who helped steer the process, Alexander. “Every time it gets though we are one of the fastest-growing congestion, less time with families, worsen- said the transportation crisis has forced crowded, we go north.” states, we invest in transportation infra- ing air quality, continued unsafe roads, and many of the region’s players to shed their It is only now that the region’s structure at the lowest rate in the entire lessened economic development across parochial interests and think regionally for business and political leaders are country. The result is gridlock – families Georgia,” the authors wrote. “The shame the first time. “Some of the people at these

18 19 All W.E.T. KEYNOTE SPEAKER organizations are great people with bright Atlanta’s extraordinary growth has ment categories, from graduation ideas,” he said. “And leadership gets in the exacerbated what critics call the “WET” rates to SAT scores. But state funding way. They have finally decided that they problems: water, education, and remains at one of the lowest per capita have to work together.” transportation. As with traffic issues, rates in the nation, and even Frank- Leithead put it another way. “We’re in those who promote regional plans lin – a Philadelphia native and Girls RAY ANDERSON a foxhole,” he said. “We panicked, and and funding increases for schools and High graduate who betrays no fear of it’s brought us together and that’s the water infrastructure struggle to gain confrontation – learned quickly to keep good news.” traction in a state committed to low her distance from what she called At- taxes and limited government. Here’s lanta’s “very territorial” school board, ROLLS OUT “if we don’t give ‘em gas, they a quick look at the other two-thirds of one of more than thirty separate can’t get on the roads.” the WET problem: boards in the region. The bad news is that no one can say Atlanta’s City Council President, how much of the multi-billion dollar IT3 Water. Metro Atlanta outgrew THE GREEN Lisa Borders, described a system in plan will get the support it needs. The its plumbing decades ago, but state recently announced plans to expand crisis. “Today, unfortunately, in the no one wanted to pony up the cash to Atlanta area, we lose fifty percent some bus services and introduce toll lanes fix it. It took the threat of federal action by Bill Hangley, Jr. to reduce congestion. But in the wake of of our ninth graders [before gradua- CARPET – the system was in violation of the the legislature’s failure to pass the tran- tion], and the largest education system Clean Water Act – followed by a long is the penal system. The number that sit-funding referendum, the governor, political showdown with ratepayers, lieutenant governor, and the speaker all we use to predict the number of prison For most of his career, Ray Ander- from his customers. It turns out that In other words, Anderson says, it’s business interests, and state govern- unveiled their own transportation plans. beds we’ll need in future years is the son’s only environmental mission was they, too, wanted assurance that the not only immoral for companies to ig- ment for Mayor Shirley Franklin to win “It’s strange,” Leithead said. “They bear number of third graders who aren’t to stay out of trouble with the govern- products they were buying reflected nore the mess they make, it’s bad busi- very little resemblance to each other.” state approval for a massive, $3 billion reading at grade level.” ment. Then, at the age of 60, the self- an environmental awareness. So, what ness. “They say those kinds of things One plan calls for 4,000 miles of new dollar repair plan. Attempts at funding and account- highway lanes. We have some serious Opposition to that kind of spending ability reforms launched in the 1990s described “recovering plunderer” had began as a personal mission to recy- [environmental impacts] don’t count – disagreement not only on how we raise was not confined to the region’s big have slowed under Republican an epiphany: “Compliance,” he said, cle textiles and eliminate smokestacks that they’re ‘externals,’” Anderson told businesses – some residents, too, were money, but on what we do with it.” Governor Sonny Purdue. Today, the “is not a vision.” ended up as a boon to Ray Ander- the Leadership Exchange. “With this All this leaves metro Atlanta where it furious about the prospect of rising legislature is principally interested in Today, Anderson’s Interface, Inc. is son’s business. kind of thinking, no wonder the eco- started: dependent on the magic of the water bills. “If I didn’t have a fed- exploring vouchers, charter schools, marketplace to shape its environment. eral judge saying, ‘you will,’ I never and other alternatives to public one the corporate world’s green pio- nomic system is in a shambles.” Regional officials say they already see it would have done it,” said Franklin. schools. “It is our job to make sure neers as well as its largest manufac- “What has it cost? It hasn’t,” happening: data show the city of Atlanta’s “It’s too hard. I have people follow- [parents] have other options,” said one turer of modular carpet. Based in the population on the increase as residents es- said Anderson, who says sales Learn more at www.MissionZero.org ing me around the grocery store! An local legislator. chew long commutes for downtown con- small city of LaGrange, Georgia, Inter- and www.InterfaceGlobal.com. older gentleman was following me Of course, the “choice” argument are up by two-thirds since the dos. Former Governor Roy Barnes believes face has adopted what Anderson calls around, said, ‘You think you’re some doesn’t sit well with everyone. “The project began. density’s best friend is the fact that com- kind of mayor!’ I said, ‘I’m just trying “Mission Zero,” a strategic plan to muting is getting more expensive as well only coherent policy we’ve been see- to buy groceries.’ He said, ‘Mayor ing is… a plan to gradually disinvest in completely eliminate the company’s Since the launch of Mission Zero, as more unpleasant. “The price of gasoline Jackson never would have done this.’ is going to do more for transportation than public education,” wrote the head of negative environmental impacts. “A Interface has cut its landfill and fossil [Maynard Jackson was Atlanta’s first the state educators’ association in a all of the smart planning these whiz kids black mayor, elected in 1974.] I said, ‘If competitor looked me in the eye and fuel use by two-thirds, eliminated eight have been telling us about,” he said. recent op-ed. “When the current lead- Mayor Jackson had done it, I wouldn’t ership gets done with their business called me a dreamer,” said Anderson. out of ten effluent pipes, salvaged In that, Barnes echoed a frequent have to!’” refrain from this year’s Leadership Ex- experiment, we may well have set our “I say, the entire industry can travel thousands of tons of old carpet, and change, which took place as Atlanta driv- Education. Georgia ranks near the public schools back by decades.” this road.” launched a successful line of “climate ers were waiting in long lines to pay $4 bottom in many educational achieve- Interface was already a success neutral” products. “What has it cost? It a gallon or more for gas. “We were trying when Anderson read the book that hasn’t,” said Anderson, who says sales to get a plan through, if we don’t give ‘em gas, they can’t get on the roads, and sparked his epiphany. Paul Hawken’s are up by two-thirds since the project it’ll clear up the problem,” joked Doug The Ecology of Commerce is a com- began. “Costs are down, not up, and Tollet. “It helped out in our area. Nobody prehensive assessment of the global our products are the best they’ve ever could get gas, and I didn’t have a prob- lem getting here this morning. ecological impact of the modern in- been.” “So I think we ought to continue it for dustrial system. “In my whole life I’d Now 74, Anderson travels the globe awhile,” he went on. “It’ll help transit too. never given one thought to what im- spreading the story of his epiphany. Since July, transit’s increased 15 percent pact our company was having,” An- The world’s industries still aren’t assess- just because of the high price of gas. If it doubles again we could probably have derson told the Leadership Exchange. ing their true environmental impact, he “In the first fifty pages I was convicted says. And just because a company’s everybody on the train.” Atlanta Mayor “That’s a unique strategy for transporta- Shirley Franklin as a plunderer of the earth. It was a balance sheet doesn’t reflect the cost of tion issues,” the panel moderator told him addresses the spearhead to the chest.” pollution doesn’t mean those costs dis- as the audience chuckled. “You’ve got to Leadership Exchange think ahead,” said Tollett. At the same time, Anderson was appear – they just fall to someone else hearing a growing chorus of concern and eventually impact the economy.

21 leadership exchange participants

Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, Co-Chair Pamela Browner-Crawley Carol S. Fixman Ernest E. Jones Natalye Paquin, Esq. Claudia Springer, Esq. Citizens Bank of Eastern PA / NJ / DE Citizens Bank Philadelphia Education Fund Philadelphia Workforce Development Kimmel Center, Inc. Reed Smith, LLP Corporation William Marrazzo, Co-Chair George R. Burrell, Esq. Mark J. Foley, Esq. Bret Perkins Harris Steinberg WHYY PRWT Services Cozen O’Connor Kenneth E. Lawrence, Jr. Comcast Corp. PennPraxis Temple University Sharmain Matlock-Turner, Co-Chair Regina Canfield Earl R. Gage H. David Prior, Esq. David Thornburgh Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs PNC Bank County of Salem / City of Salem, Paul R. Levy Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP Fels Institute of Government, Coalition New Jersey Center City District University of Pennsylvania Brian Clapp Pedro Ramos, Esq. Laurie Actman Aon Consulting Melissa Weiler Gerber H. Craig Lewis, Esq. Blank Rome, LLP Andrew Toy CEO Council for Growth WOMEN’S WAY Norfolk Southern Corporation Philadelphia Chinatown Development Della Clark Chris Ross Corporation Carol Aichele The Enterprise Center Nancy Gilboy John MacDonald Pennsylvania House of Representatives Chester County Board of Commissioners International Visitors Council of Impact Services Corporation Christopher M. Veno John P. Claypool, AIA, AICP Philadelphia Philip J. Santarelli Trion Steve Aichele, Esq. AIA Philadelphia / Center for Architecture Jerry J. Maginnis Parente Randolph, LLC Saul Ewing, LLP Terry Gillen KPMG, LLP James R. Waddington, Jr. Danielle Cohn Redevelopment Authority Philadelphia Chris Satullo Lockheed Martin Steve Albertini Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau Marianne Martelli Philadelphia Inquirer Tierney Communications Sallie A. Glickman Chester County Chamber of Kera Walter Denise Collins Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board Business & Industry Rick Sauer Ceisler Jubelirer Andrew Altman Holy Redeemer Health System Philadelphia Association of Community City of Philadelphia Bill Green Shawn McCaney Development Corporations Patricia Washington Patricia Coulter City Council, City of Philadelphia William Penn Foundation Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Rick Altman Urban League of Philadelphia Mark S. Schweiker Corporation Radian Group, Inc. Melissa Grimm Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr. Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Helen Cunningham Aqua America Temple University Commerce Laura Weinbaum Peggy Amsterdam Samuel S. Fels Fund Project H.O.M.E. Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance Anuj Gupta Bruce Melgary David Seltzer Stephen M. Curtis, Ph.D. Office of the Managing Director, Lenfest Foundation Mercator Advisors, LLC Lewis C. Wendell John K. Ball Community College of Philadelphia City of Philadelphia University City District Shoemaker Construction Co. Gregg R. Melinson, Esq. Donald Shanis Edward M. D’Alba, PE Elinor Haider Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP Delaware Valley Regional Planning Anthony J. Wigglesworth Lawrence F. Bell Urban Engineers City of Philadelphia Commission Philadelphia Area Labor-Management University of Pennsylvania Athena D. Merritt Committee Karen B. Davis Kimberly A. Hall Philadelphia Business Journal Frances Sheehan Matthew Bergheiser Arts and Business Council of Chester County Historical Society Delaware Valley Grantmakers/ Miles H. Wilson Knight Foundation Greater Philadelphia Elizabeth K. Miller Brandywine Health Foundation People’s Emergency Center Beverly A. Harper Community Design Collaborative Suzanne Biemiller Fred Dedrick Portfolio Associates, Inc. Laura Shubilla James K. Wujcik The Pew Charitable Trusts Pennsylvania Department of Labor & John Miller Philadelphia Youth Network, Inc. Sovereign Bank / Burlington County Board Industry Michael E. Harris Braithwaite Communications of Freeholders Patricia Blakely University of Pennsylvania John F. Smith, III, Esq. The Merchants Fund Liz Dow Thomas G. Morr Reed Smith, LLP Ahmeenah Young LEADERSHIP Philadelphia Patricia A. Hasson Select Greater Philadelphia Pennsylvania Convention Center James Francis Bogrette Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Patricia L. Smith Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site, Inc. James P. Dunigan Delaware Valley Jeffrey L. Nash The Reinvestment Fund PNC Wealth Management & Camden County Board of Freeholders J. Blaine Bonham, Jr. Institutional Investments Joseph M. Hoeffel Phyllis Snyder Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Montgomery County Board of Kathleen O’Brien, Esq. Council for Adult and Experiential Learning Phillip T. Eastman, Jr. Commissioners Montgomery, McCracken Walker & David William Brown PECO Rhoads William Spang BrownPartners Feather O. Houstoun Mitchell & Titus, LLP Brian K. Edmonds William Penn Foundation Anne O’Callaghan Concordis Key Advisors Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians economy league of greater philadelphia 2008 greater philadelphia leadership exchange foundation investors Mercator Advisors corporate sponsors Barra Foundation Mitchell & Titus, LLP Lenfest Foundation Montgomery McCracken Philadelphia Foundation, Walker & Rhoads Malinda R. Farrow Fund Naroff Economic Advisors Samuel S. Fels Fund Norfolk Southern Corporation William Penn Foundation Northmarq Advisors corporate investors Parente Randolph, LLC Pepper Hamilton, LLP regional visionary Philadelphia University foundation supporters PECO PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP RAIT Financial Trust regional steward Reed Smith, LLP Saul Ewing, LLP Charming Shoppes, Inc. Sovereign Bank bringing it back home Rohm & Haas Company Spencer Stuart session sponsors Temple University Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP regional leader Tierney Communications CEO Council for Growth Bank of America Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Comcast Corp Against a backdrop of national fi- The Atlanta Way also means forward Cephalon, Inc. Urban Engineers, Inc. Cozen O’Connor nancial crisis, last September 24 to 26, movement. Mayor Shirley Franklin Citizens Bank Verizon Delaware Valley Regional Planning 100-plus Greater Philadelphia civic, in her address to us emphasized the Comcast Corp. Widener University Commission GlaxoSmithKline WolfBlock, LLP business, and government leaders success that her administration – and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Independence Blue Cross Trion joined the Economy League in Atlanta prior administrations – has had in le- Keystone Mercy Health Plan regional entrepreneur for the Greater Philadelphia Leader- veraging private sector assistance to KPMG, LLP Tactix Real Estate Advsiors, LLC regional exploration sponsors ship Exchange. From our base in mid- tackle big problems, such as rebuild- Lockheed Martin Mission & Univision 65 & Telefutura 28 Community College of Philadelphia Combat Support Solutions Greater Philadelphia Tourism town Atlanta, we learned about how ing a crumbling sewer system. PNC Bank the Atlanta region is tackling issues of Sometimes it is easy to say that we regional citizen Marketing Corp. Radian Group, Inc. The Reinvestment Fund environmental and economic sustain- can’t do something because of others. Right Management James P. Dunigan Judith E. Tschirgi ability, traffic gridlock, governing the But if recent economic events tell us Shire dine-around hosts nation’s fastest growing region – and anything, it is that we all are connect- SEI, Inc. Sunoco, Inc. staff Aqua America much more. While Blackberries and ed; no one individual, institution, or Trion Steven T. Wray Aon Treos were burning with the latest company will be able to solve prob- University of Pennsylvania Executive Director International Vistors Council of Philadelphia news, the participants remained fo- lems by themselves. Such challenging University of Pennsylvania Jennifer Egmont Meredith L. Garfield Kimmel Center, Inc. cused on learning more from Atlanta times as these require new collabo- Health System Wachovia Bank Alison Gold Montgomery McCracken and each other in a shared commit- rations and alliances, new ways of Robert Lee Gordon, IV Walker & Rhoads ment to make Greater Philadelphia a looking at problems, and new resolve regional partner Erik Johanson PECO Allison Kelsey Philadelphia Convention & world class region. to seize opportunities. A Leadership Aon Consulting, Inc. Visitors Bureau Christopher Scoville So, what did we learn about Atlanta Exchange is not merely a conference Aqua America PNC Wealth Management Richard M. Stein Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP Shoemaker Construction Co. that will resonate as we think about in another city – it is a way for lead- Judith E. Tschirgi Blank Rome, LLP Urban Engineers Philadelphia’s future? Most striking is ers to develop true relationships with Brandywine Global Investment the combination of optimism, south- their peers who care deeply about the Management ern hospitality, and cross-sector col- future of Greater Philadelphia and to Brandywine Realty Trust laboration that Atlantans refer to as challenge themselves to think, and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia the “Atlanta Way.” While our speak- then act, differently. We are on the Community College of Philadelphia ers were very honest and forthright in way to building a new culture of col- Cozen O’Connor pointing out how much work Atlanta laboration and action in this region – Deloitte still has remaining on tough issues and given the world we find ourselves Drexel University dealing with race relations, integrating in today, it is not a moment too late. Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP Fox Rothschild, LLP an exploding immigrant community, Holy Redeemer Health System and handling growth, it is clear that Jeffrey P. Lindtner & Associates there is a “cultural DNA” that is passed La Salle University on from generation to generation. Executive Director Liberty Property Trust Mendoza Group 24 As of 12/08 25 The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to research and analysis of the region’s resources and challenges with the goal of promoting sound public policy and increasing the region’s prosperity.

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