Monthly Archives: June 2009

Mayor Shirley Franklin relieved over passage of budget, tax increase

Date: June 29th, 2009, 3:40 pm

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin deflected credit or congratulations on getting both a 3 mills property tax increase and the 2010 fiscal year budget passed by the Atlanta City Council today.

“It’s good for the city,” said Franklin in a wide-ranging phone interview this afternoon. “It’s our job to do what’s best for the city longterm.”

Had the budget and property tax increase not passed, the mayor said the city would have had to continue furloughs of employees, and it would have had to drastically reduce funding for parks and public works.

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Business leaders willing to keep working with Atlanta

Date: , 10:12 am

The Atlanta Committee for Progress plans to keep going — at least until a new mayor is elected.

The committee, which was put together in 2003 by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, includes the top CEOs in the metro region who serve as a kitchen cabinet to help the city implement its priorities and work through its challenges.

The committee met this morning for its quarterly meeting at the World Trade Center. The mayor had to leave right after the meeting to monitor the Atlanta City Council votes for a mil increase and for the city’s budget.
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Transit governance can be model for region

Date: , 5:58 am

Governance.

Even in the best of times, finding the right governance to address a problem in a fair and representative way is a tricky task.

It is just that exercise that the Atlanta Regional Transit Implementation Board has been wrestling with for the past several months.

What would be the most balanced way to oversee transit development in the 12-county Atlanta region, if and when a new funding source is passed.

The effort has been a valiant one. County commission chairs have been working with MARTA, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), the Georgia Department of Transportation, the governor’s office and the Atlanta Regional Commission to design a governance board to implement a regional transit system. Continue reading →

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Ray Christman: A long climb back for housing in Atlanta

Date: June 28th, 2009, 6:45 pm

By Guest Columnist RAY CHRISTMAN, retired CEO of the FHLBank of Atlanta who
currently is involved in a variety of housing/banking-related consulting and civic activities, including the Peachtree Corridor Partnership, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, and the Livable Communities Coalition.

While there are reasons to be optimistic that an economic recovery is beginning to take hold, both locally and nationally, the housing industry remains mired in a deep depression.

Despite the conventional wisdom that housing will rebound ahead of other sectors, it’s possible that the industry’s comeback will be protracted and anemic and, indeed, will be a drag on the overall recovery.

Moreover, it’s a sure bet that as the economy stabilizes, the housing industry – and the mortgage financing system that supports it – will function much differently than they have in the recent past.

It has become painfully obvious that the problems facing the housing and banking systems are deeply intertwined. And the changes affecting these symbiotic sectors aren’t merely cyclical, but are structural in nature, and will have long-lasting effects. Continue reading →

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New town models sought as Metro Atlanta grows older

Date: June 25th, 2009, 10:55 am

An interesting juxtaposition occurred at Thursday’s Atlanta Regional Commission board meeting.

First, new urbanism planner Andrés Duany briefed the board about the Lifelong Communities projects that his firm — DPZ — has been conducting in the Atlanta Region. The goal has been to design communities that work best for the region’s aging population.

And then, Mike Alexander, ARC research division chief, presented the latest regional snapshot showing that the metro area’s population will top 8.3 million people by 2040, roughly an additional 3 million residents.

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Sir Paul McCartney: welcome to Piedmont Park on Aug. 15

Date: June 24th, 2009, 10:39 am

How can I say no to Paul McCartney?

The Piedmont Park Conservancy has just announced that Sir Paul McCartney will perform for its second “Green Concert” on Saturday, Aug. 15. The former member of the Beatles will be the headline act for the evening.

Two years ago, the Piedmont Park Conservancy held its first Green Concert with the Dave Matthews Band and the Allman Brothers. (I couldn’t say no to that one either).

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, June 29th at 10 a.m through Ticketmaster. Continue reading →

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John Huey buys movie rights to the “The Race Beat”

Date: June 23rd, 2009, 10:43 am

Former Atlantan John Huey has bought the option to make the Pulitzer Prize-winning book — “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of the Nation” — into a movie.

Huey, editor-in-chief of Time Inc., personally bought the option for the movie rights instead of it being a Time Warner project.

The Race Beat was co-authored by Hank Klibanoff, former managing editor for news for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and Gene Roberts, former executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Grady’s Mike Young offers healthcare reform option

Date: June 22nd, 2009, 1:50 pm

If only Grady Healthcare CEO Mike Young had a hot line to the White House.

Young, speaking at today’s Rotary Club of Atlanta, said the nation’s 55 million uninsured residents could meet all their health care needs with an annual $10 billion infusion from the federal government.

Currently, healthcare reform is the topic de jour in Washington D.C., with a lively debate on how best to insure the uninsured. Estimates for a federal government program have been as high as $1 trillion. Continue reading →

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Dobbins: Create a one state solution for transportation

Date: June 21st, 2009, 10:20 pm

By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS: a Georgia Tech professor of architecture and planning who also served as the city of Atlanta’s commissioner of planning, development and neighborhood conservation from 1996 to 2002. Dobbins also is author of a new book: ‘Urban Design and People.

The long way around might turn out to be the shortest – and the best. Maybe the state’s transportation program ought to first be based on a statewide strategy.

Then it ought to focus on where people do their most traveling – in and around cities and towns, where more and more of the state’s population lives; where congestion is highest and air quality lowest; in centers large and small, most of which have some kind of a transit system; places where a growing majority of the people – and thus votes – are concentrated, even in rural counties.

Markets are changing, and many of the state’s towns have historic and cultural charms that haven’t yet been destroyed, the kinds of bones that can attract the flesh of growing markets for closer in living, working, and shopping. These are features that most all of the state’s towns and cities share.

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Time to unify Georgia for our common good

Date: , 10:01 pm

For as long as I can remember, there’s always been tension between Atlanta and the rest of the state.

Some call it the two Georgias. Others say there are three, four or five Georgias. Whatever the number, it’s become increasingly apparent that these great divides are pulling our state apart — creating a disjointed and acrimonious environment that hurts every corner of Georgia.

Those divides were even more glaring in this past legislative session when different political agendas resulted in little getting done for either metro Atlanta or the rest of Georgia.

As a result several key business and civic leaders are strategizing about a big idea to unify the state through a multimillion dollar, multi-year initiative.
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Posted in Maria's Metro | 3 Comments