Guest Columns

By Guest Columnist BRUCE GUNTER, president of Progressive Redevelopment Inc.

It is no hyperbole to state that the upcoming transportation referendum in July this year is a momentous opportunity for Atlantans.

It is on par, as many have suggested, with the 1996 Olympics that thrust Atlanta into the ranks of global cities or the expansion of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that had such a high economic impact and spawned valuable global connections.
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By Guest Columnist DEBBIE DAY, executive director of the Georgia Solar Energy Association

Taking the reins of the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) is an exciting opportunity. My recent arrival coincides with the results of GSEA’s effort to amass a comprehensive snapshot of solar development so far in Georgia.  The picture it creates is impressive.
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By Guest Columnist BOB MUNGER, president of the Augusta Greenway Alliance, Inc.

Georgia is a global leader in production of low-speed electric vehicles — such as golf cars and other personal transit vehicles (PTVs).

Since the production of those vehicles are such an important part of our economy, shouldn’t the State of Georgia also be a leader in the use of these vehicles?
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By Guest Columnist DARAKA SATCHER, partner and chief operating officer at Pendleton Consulting Group

I arrived in Washington, D.C. after graduating from Emory Law School in 1999 full of excitement and energy. I began working on Capitol Hill almost immediately and had a front row seat to history-in-the-making working for members of Congress like John Spratt, Harold Ford Jr, and Hank Johnson.
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By Guest Columnist SUSAN VARLAMOFF, director of the Office of Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia

Social, health, economic and environmental factors now feed a grassroots movement to convert vacant lots across Atlanta into farms and community gardens.
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By Guest Columnist GEORGE CHIDI, councilman for Pine Lake, managing director of the strategic and competitive intelligence consultancy Neon Flag, and a supporter of Occupy Atlanta

Newt Gingrich, that noted exemplar of moral integrity and sober discourse, neatly encapsulated the vapid conservative dismissal of the Occupy protests with a few comments at an Iowa family values forum in November.
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By Guest Columnist RAY CHRISTMAN, senior vice president of the Mid South Division for the Trust for Public Land

We are only in 2012 but already a leading candidate has emerged as word of the decade: “sustainability.”

Everywhere one turns, one hears it. Virtually every company of any size has a corporate sustainability officer, whose job
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By Guest Columnist VAL PETERSON, first lady of Georgia Tech

Since coming to the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009, one thing I have learned is that the City of Atlanta has truly benefitted from projects created by our students, faculty and alumni. From our skyline to Atlantic Station to the Beltline, Atlanta would be a very different place without Georgia Tech.

A new project is being proposed by Mike Messner, a 1976 Civil Engineering graduate who grew up in Atlanta and still cares deeply about our city. In Mike’s mind there is far too much non-productive real estate and not enough green space in Atlanta.
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By Guest Columnist ALAN ESSIG, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

Stop any Georgian on the street and ask if our state’s taxes should be “fair,” and the answer will almost surely be “yes.”

But what does fairness mean?

A good explanation is that you’re taxed according to your ability to pay — the more you make, the more you contribute. Public investments in education, roads and public safety are vital ingredients in the success of the wealthy.
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By Guest Columnist KEVIN GREEN, president of the Midtown Alliance

For our annual meeting that we held on Dec. 14, we decided to take a different tact. Instead of focusing mainly on traditional subjects like capital projects and programs or new development currently breaking ground in Midtown, we focused instead on what we were all working to achieve: a great place where people want to be.

This requires a level of inquiry that goes beyond the physical assets we normally use to describe a place such as location, urban design, transportation, institutions and economic anchors.
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