Maria’s Metro

Affordable housing developer, PRI, going out of business after 25 years

Date: March 4th, 2013, 8:02 am

The demise of Progressive Redevelopment Inc. — once the largest nonprofit owner and developer of affordable housing in the state — is a sad commentary of our times.

Specifically, it points to the nearly insurmountable hurdles that exist to provide supportive housing to those with the greatest needs — especially during trying economic times.

A reflective Bruce Gunter, one of PRI’s co-founders and its CEO, is now working without a paycheck, expecting to phase out what’s left of the organization within the next six months.
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For SCLC — the struggle continues

Date: February 25th, 2013, 12:41 am

A prism of the Civil Rights Movement is on display at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library — an exhibit featuring archives from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

The title of the exhibit is: “And the Struggle Continues: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Fight for Social Change.”

And while the exhibit is an historical retrospective of the Civil Rights organization, the title also applies to the SCLC itself — an entity that has been searching for its own post-Civil Rights Movement identity and leadership in this new millennium.
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Poverty in metro Atlanta’s suburbs growing faster than in the city

Date: February 18th, 2013, 1:07 pm

Metro Atlanta’s profile is changing with a dramatic growth of poverty in the suburbs.

Several recent studies point to reality challenging the perception that the poor are concentrated in the central city while the middle-income and higher-income populations are living in the suburbs.

“In Atlanta, since 2000, the number of poor people living in suburbs grew by 53 percent,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, who was in Atlanta presenting her findings. By comparison, the number of poor people living in the City of Atlanta grew by 24 percent.
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City of Atlanta in pivotal position to benefit from new Falcons stadium deal

Date: February 11th, 2013, 8:13 am

The City of Atlanta has now become the center of gravity for a new deal on a proposed stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

The city government was put in that position because state elected officials chose to bypass voting to raise the bonding capacity of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) because they were concerned about a possible political backlash.

Consider this statement Gov. Nathan Deal shared with me on Jan. 25: “I have tried my best to relieve the members of the General Assembly from difficult decisions that they have to make that have political consequences.”
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Despite lower bonding limits, new Atlanta Falcons stadium would receive same amount of hotel-motel taxes

Date: February 4th, 2013, 7:51 am

It’s time to set the record straight.

Reducing the bonding capacity on the proposed $1 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium from $300 million to $200 million will not impact the amount of taxes that will be invested in the project.

The amount of hotel-motel taxes that would be invested in the project was determined nearly three years ago when the General Assembly agreed to extend the hotel-motel tax collected in the City of Atlanta and in unincorporated Fulton County.
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Fayette Chairman Steve Brown — who has criticized the Atlanta Regional Commission — joins its board

Date: January 28th, 2013, 4:05 pm

One of the most vocal critics of the Atlanta Regional Commission attended his first board meeting on Jan. 23 as a new board member.

Steve Brown, the recently-named chairman of the Fayette County Commission, was an outspoken critic of last summer’s regional transportation referendum, also known as the T-Splost.

The referendum failed, thanks partly to Brown and the Tea Party’s strident opposition to it and its project list.
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Atlanta’s destiny — gateway of ‘global development from the bottom up’

Date: January 21st, 2013, 7:01 pm

Atlanta’s destiny is coming into focus.

The latest evidence of that was Saturday night at the Salute to Greatness dinner — the annual fundraiser for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

It was at that dinner when Laura Turner Seydel introduced honoree Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-credit who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

“Professor Yunus is a close friend to my family. He’s like a brother to my father,” said Seydel of her father Ted Turner.

In fact, Yunus is a longtime board member of the United Nations Foundation, which was started by Turner to help improve the lives of people around the world.
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Ups and downs of Atlanta Streetcar project due to reintroducing transit

Date: January 14th, 2013, 11:44 am

It’s been more than a half century since streetcars ran on Atlanta’s roads.

But that’s about to change — despite numerous obstacles that have revealed that we’re a bit rusty in the streetcar development business.

Construction work is progressing on the Atlanta Streetcar — and it currently appears that service will begin in the spring or early summer of 2014.

That is about six to seven months after the original schedule. But the project has experienced unforeseen delays — primarily over the relocation of underground utilities and the surprises of what exists underneath out streets. More than 15 utilities have been impacted.
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With such a great story to tell, Atlanta should share its tale with the world

Date: January 7th, 2013, 11:43 am

Atlanta really does have a great story to tell.

And it is a story that needs to be told for the sake of Atlantans and outsiders alike for generations to come.

That point was brought home to me over the weekend when I finished reading Frederick Allen’s 1996 book: “Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996.”

The book has been part of my collection of books about Atlanta — some read, some not yet — that I’ve been holding on to for that elusive period when I’ll have time to leisurely consume the information on their pages.
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MARTA and MARTOC — relationship may be thawing, but gulf remains

Date: December 30th, 2012, 10:49 pm

Call it a honeymoon.

From the looks and sounds of it, we’re witnessing a honeymoon between MARTA and the legislative oversight committee — MARTOC.

The reason for this thawed relationship is Keith Parker, MARTA’s new general manager. During his first month at the helm, Parker is making many of the right moves. He has spent time with State Rep. Michael Jacobs, MARTOC’s chair, as well as other legislators on the committee.
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