Why Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin Doesn't Cry Over Spilt Milk

She came in as the reformer but for her last few months in office, she seems to have lost her momentum. Find out why Mayor Franklin is unapologetic even in the wake of hard times as she leaves her post as Mayor.

ESSENCE.COM Oct, 22, 2009

Completing her second term in office as the Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin’s, hope and dreams for one of the most thriving cities in the South has now pretty much gone down the drain. When she was elected in 2002, she was hailed as a reformer who tackled Atlanta’s infrastructure issues and brought a real sense of change to the city. Fast forward a few years and Franklin, 64, now is experiencing legal woes in her family. Her daughter Kai, pleaded guilty in 2008 to illegally structuring a financial transaction for her ex-husband, who is serving a life sentence on drug charges. Word also came when the state shut down three stores, which had been owned by the Mayor’s former husband for failure to pay $176,000 in taxes and penalties, according to the Associated Press.

Franklin, who has received a lukewarm reception from the people of Atlanta as of late, told the Associated Press, “I find being depressed and regretful are time-consuming and unhappy and contentious. As a working, single mother for most of my life, I’ve just decided there are some things that don’t have a place in my everyday life and one of them is crying over spilled milk.”–WLW