Time magazine names America's best and worst mayors

<p>Time magazine has named what it calls the "five best big city mayors" in America, giving the distinction to New York's Michael Bloomberg, Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Baltimore's Martin O'Malley, Chicago's Richard Daley and Denver's John Hickenlooper.</p><p>And in a sure boon to their political opponents, Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick, San Diego's Dick Murphy and Philadelphia's John Street were dubbed the nation's three worst mayors.</p><p>The lists appear in the issue of the magazine that hits newsstands Monday. Neither list was ranked, and the mayors were listed in alphabetical order. Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, a Democrat, received an honorable mention. No dishonorable mention was awarded.</p><p>The magazine said it consulted with "urban experts" to choose from the 29 mayors of cities with populations greater than 500,000.</p><p>"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."</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>It mentioned Murphy's handling of a $1.3 billion deficit at San Diego's city's public-employee pension fund and corruption allegations involving a member of Street's administration in Philadelphia.</p>