Bob Cramer's Blog

I like Mayor Kasim Reed, though I only met him one time for a fleeting second.  He has a nice way about him on television, and I was rooting for him not to mess up when he was on “Meet The Press” last weekend.  He did not disappoint, and his directness and willingness to engage problems head on are winning characteristics in my book, no doubt.

Interestingly, I thought he made a startling admission about Atlanta in a Feb. 6^th AJC article where he was quoted telling a group that “there’s a pall that over this town that is unacceptable” and “when you’re not trying to be the best you are declining.”  I appreciate his honesty, being a one-year Mayor just shaking off the light feathering he got from a well intended but botched ice storm response and facing difficult pension decisions, police brutality issues and all the rest.

You know, I agree with him about this “pall” thing.  Atlanta has lost its way over the past few years, and I would argue that the “pall” that over this town is self inflicted and requires deep introspection for us to get over it.  I think Atlanta has lost its heart. 

We really are two cities; the divide is not purely racial, it is not just the highway that divides our city, it is also economic.  We have great wealth and great poverty, a lively aquarium and deadly gangs, a wonderful airport and a broken school system.  We have dropping property values, massive foreclosures, and a growing homeless population like we have never seen before.  We have people who live in Buckhead who have no idea what goes on in the inner city.  We have remarkable people dedicating their lives to helping people who live in the inner city.  We have a Ying and Yang here in Atlanta that keeps us in our own little worlds and we are missing that piece that really unites us.

 In a small way, I thought the 13 and 3 Falcons were going to help address this issue, if just temporarily, but their unfortunate rapid implosion against the Packers quickly loosened some strings that were pulling people from all walks of life together.  We could have used a Super Bowl championship to rattle off this pall that hangs over us, but it wasn’t to be. 

But I have an idea that might just do the trick.  I know of a 95,000 square foot building that sits right directly in the heart of our city, at Peachtree and Pine streets (many of those who know me can see where this is going).  I and an incredibly talented and dedicated group of people have worked for more than a decade to turn this mammoth building into something all of Atlanta could be proud of.  We have not done a very good job explaining ourselves, our goals and objectives, mainly because we have been too busy caring for hundreds of vulnerable people every single night since 1998 (that is fast approach 5,000 nights of service, caring for an average of 500 people nightly, meaning that we, like McDonalds, housed, fed, loved and served more than 2.5 MILLION people during this time period. Amazing numbers if you really think about it). 

The other amazing thing has been the response of the City and its previous Mayors (before Mayor Reed mostly), the downtown business community especially Central Atlanta Progress, the all powerful Woodruff Foundation (who somehow saw this project as a problem and not an opportunity) and some in the media (yes, the AJC and even Cynthia Tucker before she fled the city) to think that we have done something incredibly terrible at this building.   All of this has culminated in a serious of massive lawsuits, depositions, crazy allegations, funding stoppages, and hostility that is unprecedented in the world of social service.

 I don’t believe this is Atlanta “trying to be the best” as the Mayor said.  This is Atlanta at its absolute worst.  So my idea is for our highly talented Mayor, who clearly has big, national ambition, to step up and lead us out of this mess.   This issue was not his doing, but he now has a golden opportunity at a time when we need him.  Yes, the City is a party to lawsuits, but you are the Mayor who takes challenges head on.  You are an African American man who should come see how hundreds of other African American Atlantans are trying to make it.  You have the chance to help make this city more than “shameless booster, collector of business headquarters, Olympic City” as the same AJC article said, you can make it a place with a heart, with a soul, and in the process, maybe the pall you cite will be lifted once and for all.

 (Blogger’s note: I served on the Board of the Metro-Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless for 25 years, and in the role as Board Chairman for 15 years.  I resigned in May, 2010, because of all the lawsuits, though I remain a huge supporter and advocate.)