It was a special night in Cobb County.

A confluence of all segments of Atlanta came to witness the preview of the documentary: People vs. Leo Frank.

The movie hit home. It recounted the dramatic story of the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jew who worked at the National Pencil Factory. He was convicted of sexually abusing and killing a 13-year-old girl who worked in the factory.

But the film reveals all the questions surrounding the case, the trial and the verdict; and it spotlights the many faces of prejudice against Jews and blacks that existed in 1913, the year of the murder.

It was the impetus for the creation of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization committed to fighting prejudice and hatred in our society.

What made Thursday night so special was all the people who were at the Cobb Energy Center. It was an audience that included members of the prominent Cobb families who had been involved in the lynching.

Also present were relatives of the Frank family. And then there were today’s wide array of metro Atlanta leaders — including Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and former Gov. Roy Barnes of Cobb County (who had relatives and their friends who were involved in the lynching).

The documentary was filled all sorts of familiar names in Atlanta, such as the Selig family, the Clay family, the Brumby family, among others.

Barnes rhetorically asked the audience: Who could have imagined in 1915 that in the year 2009 that the chairman of the Cobb County Commission would be Jewish — Sam Olens; and that the president of the United States would be an African-American — Barack Obama.

“How far we’ve come,” Barnes said.

Before the movie, Bill Nigut, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told those present to look around at who was in the auditorium (only a couple of miles away from where Frank was lynched in 1915).

“Look at this audience,” Nigut said. “You are the people we wanted to bring together. This story has a special resonance with us. The audience is extremely diverse. We have representatives of almost every segment of the Atlanta community.”

Nigut said the story of Frank’s lynching was a crime experienced over and over in the African-American community.

“It’s a story about the evil of bigotry and hatred. It’s our Atlanta story,” Nigut said. “But we are not going to beat ourselves up over what happened nearly 100 years ago.”

Director Ben Loeterman said he had been inspired to do the documentary after reading Steve Oney’s book — “And the Dead Shall Rise.”

As a journalist, a history buff and filmmaker, Loeterman said the question sthat still haunt him are: “How did this happen? What can we do to see that it doesn’t happen again? We are supposed to make our communities safer for all of us and make them no fly zones for hate.”

That was the theme of the evening. The Leo Frank case is evidence that hate can be healed with the passing generations, but the forces of prejudice continue to mar communities around the world.

“Unless we remember, unless those of us who are still alive tell our children and grandchildren abougt bigotry and hatred, it will rise again,” Barnes said. “We will never allow it to happen again.”

To learn more about the film, click here.

Sad news to report.

Community activist Phillip Rush died suddenly two days ago from a pulmonary embolism.

A mutual friend, Jim Durrett of the Livable Communities Coalition, told me the news this morning.

The last time I saw Phillip was when I ran into him during the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. He was sitting down watching the crowds of people walk by. We spoke for a few minutes, and I never would have guessed that it would be the last time we would see each other.

Phillip was one of those folks I would just run into — at the movie theater or at a restaurant or at a community meeting. He always had an opinion or a intriguing perspective on what was happening in our town.

Phillip Rush, 55, had worked at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta for nearly 15 years as a program officer until this past March when he was laid off due to cutbacks at the non-profit. He then started his own firm — Next Incarnation — to work with non-profit organizations.

The best word to describe Phillip was community. He was a strong gay rights activist who in Atlanta, serving as the Community Foundation’s Lesbian & Gay Funding Initiative for Youth from 1994 to 1999; and working on the National Lesbian & Gay Community Funding Partnership Advisory Committee from 1994 to 2005.

But his community work was all-encompassing — ranging from urban design to public participation to uplifting the poor.

For a wonderful tribute of Phillip Rush, read this link to a story from Southern Voice Online. There also is another tribute by Project Q Atlanta.

There will be a memorial gathering for Phillip on Friday evening, May 1, at Frogs Cantina in Midtown.

After today’s AGL Resources annual meeting, retired CEO David Jones gave one of the best compliments a former top executive can give.

“This company is in great shape,” Jones said. “And the dividend growth is solid.”

During this down economy, it’s highly unusual for a company to be reporting good news.

But current AGL Resources CEO John Somerhalder provided a relatively upbeat report to shareholders.

For starters, AGL is in the natural gas industry, considered one of the more efficient and environmental sustainable forms of energy. It has the smallest footprint of all fossil fuels, and it is part of the longterm climate change solution, Somerhalder said.

There also is a growing demand for natural gas, which puts the company in a solid position looking forward in the next five years — with the completion of major capital projects.

All of that bodes well for future earnings.

“Our stated objective is to grow earnings consistent with 4 to 6 percent growth, and to grow dividends at the same rate,” said Somerhalder, quickly adding: “but that would require approval of our board of directors.

For the first quarter this year, earnings were at $1.55 per share compared to $1.17 per share during the first quarter of 2008.

Not bad news for a company to deliver to its shareholders in this day and time.

SunTrust’s shareholders were surprisingly respectful at the bank’s annual meeting this morning despite hearing negative financial news and receiving lower stock dividends.

“What a year it has been,” James M Wells III, SunTrust’s CEO, said in his introductory remarks to shareholders.

In looking to the future, Wells said “we know economic recovery is out there,” but he added that the bank did not know when this cycle would end. So he is fully expecting that “2009 will be another difficult year.”

On a more positive note, Wells said that he believes that SunTrust “will emerge from this period in a strong competitive position.” He reinforced the theme of the bank’s new marketing campaign: “Live Solid. Bank Solid.”

He also explained why the bank lowered dividends to shareholders, saying it was a “painful” decision but one that was financially prudent and necessary.

“We review this issue with regularity,” Wells told shareholders.

During the question-and-answer period, a shareholder asked Wells about the federal stress test on banks and whether SunTrust would need to receive more capital from the federal government as other major banks are expected to get.

“Unfortunately, the stress test is a regulatory issue,” Wells said explaining that he is restricted on making any public comments on that. “I find it interesting that others can.”

One shareholder asked about when dividends might be increased. Wells said the board routinely reviews dividends, and he has no way of predicting when the financial picture will improve and dividends can be increased.

Another shareholder asked about executive compensation and the value of stock awards given to top officers.

Wells explained that the compensation committee “meets with regularity” and receives outside advice from consultants on target amounts to remain competitive. The board did make some adjustments downward after the federal government introduced new legislation in February.

“All I can do is assure you that outside perspectives are used,” Wells said.

Former Atlantan Julius Coles sees great potential in the continent of Africa. But poverty and disease threaten to destroy that potential.

Coles, president of Washington D.C.-based Africare, was the International Day speaker at the Atlanta Rotary Club on Monday. Africare is largest non-governmental organization focused exclusively on Africa.

Hundreds of millions Africans live on less than $2 a day, Coles said. Since 1981, 25 million people have died worldwide of HIV/AIDs, with 15 milion of those in Africa. Combine those problems with malaria, starvation, draught and foreign debt.

“These statistic are not very encouraging,” Coles said.

But there’s also opportuntiy. By 2050, Africa will have one of the world’s youngest populations with only 20 percent of its people older than 60. Many nations in Africa are growing at more than 5 percent a year, faster than most established economies.

And Africa has an abundant amount of natural resources, a fact that China and India have quickly discovered.

For all those reasons, it is strategically important for the United States to develop stronger relations with African countries.

Cole credited former President George W. Bush for doing just that.

“He tripled U.S. assistance to Africa between 2001 and 2006,” Coles said.

But Coles said United States could do much more.

By the way, Coles was introduced by Dr. Louis Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services who is a longtime colleague. Both went to Morehouse College and both went to the same elementary school and high school.

It was a “Rotary moment,” fundraiser Ann Curry observed after Monday’s weekly meeting.

On Monday morning, Rotary President Alec Fraser asked John Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare, to give members an update on a possible pandemic of swine flu.

Fox described Mexico as being “ground zero” for the flu epidemic, but he hesitated calling it a pandemic. He also let Rotarians know that there have been no reported cases in Georgia so far.

Rotarian Gen. Russel Honoré, best known as the commander of the Joint Task Force Katrina, told people to read the the U.S. government’s plan for a pandemic at www.pandemicflu.gov.

“Most people in government haven’t read it,” Honoré said, before warning folks who have invested in the airline industry. “If we have a death, this thing will kill the airline industry,” he said.

Then Salvador de Lara Rangel, Mexico’s consul general in Atlanta, asked to address the luncheon crowd.

“What’s happening in Mexico at the moment is that we don’t have enough vaccines,” he said. “So what we are doing is using vaccines for physicians and healthcare.”

The Mexican consul general then told Rotarians that even though more than 100 people in Mexico had died, the situation is “still under control.”

The exchange between these folks at Atlanta Rotary show the depth of leadership that exists at the downtown club, which is why Curry called it a “Rotary moment.”

At least three other Rotarians are directly involved in public health.

There’s Dr. Louis Sullivan, former secretary of Health and Human Services; there’s Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE and a former executive at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and there’s also Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and a former director of CDC.

Underground Atlanta will not be getting a casino anytime soon. But as one door closes, another one opens.

As my colleague, Scott Trubey, and I reported in this week’s Atlanta Business Chronicle, plans to turn the retail and entertainment complex into a c asino of “video lottery terminals,” is on hold, at least until Gov. Sonny Perdue leaves office.

Perdue has let the Georgia Lottery board, the group that would have to approve the casino, that it won’t happen on his watch.

There’s a wide range of opinions — for a myriad of reasons — on whether such a casino would be good for downtown, the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia.

No doubt, boosting Atlanta’s tourism and hospitality industry would be a plus. Generating new dollars to pay for the Georgia Lottery’s HOPE scholarship program would be a welcome turn of events.

But the proposal that was under consideration had several drawbacks as well. To call the development a casino was a bit of stretch. It would have had rows and rows of video terminals — a far cry from the Las Vegas-style of casinos with Black Jack tables and a communal experience with other players.

As some have observed, if we’re going to have a casino in downtown Atlanta — let’s go all out and have one the best. After all, we have the world’s largest airport and the world’s largest aquarium. Why settle for second or third best?

There were other issues with the proposal. The city of Atlanta owns Underground Atlanta, but the biggest beneficiary of the casino would have been the Georgia Lottery and the company that has the longterm leasehold interest on the property.

Somehow, the developers were able to get off easy when they sought support for the casino from the Atlanta City Council. They promised to beef up security around the complex. They said they buy out the remaining $56 million in bonds still outstanding on the project, which costs the city between $7 million and $8 million a year.

But why should the city, which has invested millions in the project for decades, all of a sudden sell all its rights to Underground Atlanta for others to make a windfall?

One aspect of the project that received little scrutiny was the fact that Phase 2 of the project would have called for a 29-story hotel to be built on what is now the urban plaza leading towards Underground.

That is the public space where there’s the annual Peach Drop. That is where thousands of Atlantans gathered early one morning in September, 1990 to watch on a super-sized screen Juan Antonio Samaranch, then president of the International Olympic Committee, say the 1996 Summer Olympic Games were being awarded “to the city of Atlanta.”

Public spaces, urban plazas and parks are far too precious for our city to just let the be replaced by development. There are so many surface parking lots in downtown Atlanta. Couldn’t one of those be the site of a mega-casino instead of one of our few urban plazas?

So that brings us back to the present. What is the best vision to transform Underground Atlanta, the Five Points MARTA station, the railroad gulch — all key stops in the corridor between the state capitol and the Georgia Dome?

This past week, the Urban Land Institute, meeting in Atlanta, held a special workshop to discuss the area and a plan — called the “Green Line” — that has been proposed by Central Atlanta Progress and designed by HOK-Atlanta.

As the name implies, the Green Line would connect the east side of downtown near the state capitol and Underground to the west side of downtown with Philips Arena, CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park with new development and green corridor.

The out-of-town planners had plenty of advice on how to improve the plan, inlcuding having greater density of housing bordering the green corridor and to create a thriving neighborhood that goes beyond office buildings.

Atlanta is lucky that Georgia State University’s campus is adjacent to Underground Atlanta. The university is in dire need for more student housing, and it has been focusing its residential development on the eastern fringe of downtown along Piedmont Avenue.

The best, longterm solution for Underground would be for it to become overrun with students living next door. Several parking lots exist between Decatur Street (where the campus really begins) and Underground Atlanta. Imagine if those concrete holes were filled with midrise dorms and housing for thousands of students.

Underground then could organically develop into a gathering place for college students. Coffee shops, galleries, music halls, off-beat retail and a place for a fresh market selling vegetables, fruit and other essentials for downtown living.

Cities after cities have seen their downtowns transformed when young people are able to individualize the community with their unique personality. Downtowns that have a special style of their own turn into tourist attractions as well.

Now that Georgia State has a new president, the opportunity exists to create a whole new campus vision that looks to spread a campus-like feel towards Underground.
But several other pieces of the puzzle are just as important. Something must be done with MARTA’s Five Points station. The design just doesn’t work for the space.

For starters, the roof structure over the station needs to be removed to open up the environment. And MARTA, the city and Central Atlanta Progress need to come up with a strategy on how to make the whole area around the station more inviting and welcoming to residents and visitors alike.

Ideally, MARTA would decide to relocate its headquarters from the Lindbergh Station to its hub station at Five Points. The transportation nexus would be further enhanced when the city and state finally build the multimodal rail and bus station across the street.

Creating a community for students at Underground Atlanta, renovating the Five Points MARTA station and building a multimodal station would spark a true renaissance in this oft-forgotten part of downtown.

With such a strategy, we might not need a casino after all.

By Guest Columnist WALTER BROWN, chairman of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, and co-founder/senior vicew president for development and environmental affairs of Green Street Properties

As is unfortunately apparent from the daily headlines, the United States, as well as Georgia’s economy, is going through a difficult economic transition that has prompted business closings and job losses.

However, these times also present a huge opportunity for our state and progressive policymakers to take charge of both our economic and environmental futures by making renewable resource development such as solar energy a priority.

A key theme of this transition is the decline of traditional industries – think newspaper publishers and automakers. On an equally noteworthy front, the economic incentives and job creation afforded by green industries and the manufacturing that supports them – industries supported by stimulus and in some instances private capital – may be overlooked.

Green industries are ripe for job growth and economic development, but the state needs to better harness available resources.

For example, if the right decisions are made, Georgia can become a leader in the rapidly-growing solar power industry.

We know solar works well in sunny Georgia – if we can grow pine trees and kudzu better than most, the same applies to making solar energy from the sun. Georgia receives 5.5 peak hours of sun per day – twice as many hours as Germany, the international leader in solar power.

By 2020, if we do things correctly, Georgia could be ranked in the top 10 states in solar power jobs and revenue. At average national growth rates, this equates to a $2.8 billion dollar annual industry supporting 15,000 jobs.

So, what can state leaders do right now to ensure that we benefit from the growing demand and incentives focused on fostering this industry?

In its most recent session, the Georgia legislature approved a measure that will provide grants for clean energy from federal funds, allowing businesses to install solar panels and pay only 35 percent of the cost out of pocket.

In addition, efficiency measures are eligible under the new tax bill for commercial building and more energy efficiency is needed to work with renewable energy. This measure, HB 473, will save Georgia taxpayers money and relieve the uncertainty businesses now face when planning projects financially dependent on the current tax credit. Certainly a positive step, but we need more.

With the right policies in place – from increased caps on solar capacity to greater incentives for business and residential customers – Georgia could continue to foster dynamic companies such as Suniva, a Norcross-based facility that uses technology developed at Georgia Tech to manufacture high-efficiency photo-voltaic (PV) cells.

But regretfully, there’s money being left on the table.

There is no one in the state manufacturing solar panels, so Suniva must ship cells offshore instead of fostering vertical integration right here at home. And Suniva isn’t the only growing solar company here. Companies like One World Renewable Energy, Radiance Solar, Hannah Solar, SoEnSo, Georgia Solar Electric Power, and many others are well positioned to help grow clean energy along with the economy.

Consider this: if each of Georgia Power’s 2.3 million customers contributed only one dollar per year to support the production of green energy from solar systems, Georgia Power would have enough resources to expand its current solar power capacity nearly 20 times over.

The typical response to solar power is “we just can’t afford it.” I would subscribe that continuing to provide only cheap, low-value energy is not the way to tackle global warming or creating a new economy. But if we focus on quality – think Prius verses the standard gas-guzzling engine – we will have the right alignment of economic and environmental goals.

The promise of solar is that it is a completely renewable; a home-grown resource that can be made here. The need now is to move rapidly through the learning curve. Already, many states are way ahead of us on (North Carolina has now installed roughly 10 times Georgia’s solar PV capacity; Florida is even further along).

The sooner we all work together for our energy independence, a cleaner environment and the promise of new high paying jobs, the sooner we can reap these clear benefits. And, perhaps equally important to our economic development teams and corporate relocation specialists, allow Georgia to compete with more progressive states that are leaving us in the dust when it comes to adopting progressive energy policy.

Let our time in the sun begin today!

This last week’s Urban Land Institute’s meeting in Atlanta was a shining moment for Ron Terwilliger, chairman of the Trammell Crow Residential.

Terwilliger, who calls Atlanta home, chaired the ULI Spring Council Forum — a national gathering of planners, developers and real estate professionals.

Terwilliger was instrumental in securing the keynote speakers: former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee; and Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Interestingly enough, Donovan had agreed to serve on the advisory committee of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing (the result of a $5 million gift that Terwilliger made to ULI).

“The only thing that could have kept me from serving on the advisory board was President Obama appointing me to be his HUD secretary,” Donovan told Terwilliger and the crowd before he laying out the administration’s agenda.

After the end of the three-day conference, Terwilliger was relieved with how it turned out.

“For 2,400 people to come at this point and time was a real testament to ULI,” Terwilliger said.

Although there have been larger Spring forums in the past, especially in the larger cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Terwilliger said that the attendance in Atlanta was quite respectable, especially during the current serious economic downturn.

That said, Terwilliger already was looking forward beyond the conference.

“What I really want to talk about is the Atlanta Dream,” Terwilliger said about the professional women’s basketball team that he owns.

The economic prognosis continues to be challenging, according to two of Atlanta’s top CEOs.

Frank Blake, CEO of the Home Depot, and Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, were interviewed this morning by public broadcasting talk show host Charlie Rose.

They were part of the closing session of the 2009 Urban Land Institute’s 2009 Spring meeting, which brought thousands of real estate, planning and development professionals to Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center over the past three days.

“We still think we are in a very difficult time,” Blake said. “We see 2009 as a negative year. As we progress through the year, it gets less negative. The real test for us is do we start to see some sequential improvement. That hasn’t happened yet.”

One of the most important economic indicators for Home Depot is the percent of Gross Domestic Product that the country spends on residential construction. That number was higher than 6 percent three or so years ago. Today, it’s at 3.1 percent. The lowest it had ever been (before) was 3.2 percent.”

Blake expects it to drop even further. “We need to have some stability around housing prices,” Blake said. Until then, consumers will be uncomfortable spending money.

At Turner Broadcasting, the recession didn’t really hit until the first quarter of this year, Kent said. Although the economy has been struggling for the past four to five quarters, Turner’s revenues were strong. (The company receives about half of its revenues from cable subscriptions and the other half from advertising).

Some advertisers have cut back, and others, such as those in the fast food business, see this as an opportunity to improve market share.

By comparison, Kent said that “local broadcasting is a disaster right now.” The company has one local station, TBS, also known as Channel 17. “The revenues are down in the high double digits,” Kent said.

Both Kent and Blake said CEO behavior now is facing greater scrutiny.

“I have a real problem with the cult of the rock star CEO,” Kent said. “I have a huge problem with the CEO who spends millions of dollars to renovate his office and act in an imperious way.”

“We are not rock stars,” Blake said, adding that a major job of the CEO is to inspire “confidence in country, our industry and our associates.”