Latest Reports

By Maria Saporta

The “Screen on the Green” will go dark this year.

Yvette Bowden, president and CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, wrote in an email that the park will not be hosting the film series in 2012.

The outdoor “Screen on the Green” was almost canceled in 2011 because Piedmont Park had not been able to secure a lead sponsor for the event. Then a few weeks later, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed held a press conference to announce that there would be a 2011 season after all — thanks to sponsorships from Delta Air Lines and Georgia Natural Gas.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

The City of Atlanta is working on a “21st Century economic development strategy” to set itself apart from other metro areas.

At this Thursday’s board meeting of Invest Atlanta, the economic development arm of the city formerly known as the Atlanta Development Authority, the agency will be hiring consultants to begin working “on a comprehensive development strategy for Atlanta,” according to Brian McGowan, president and CEO of Invest Atlanta.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

For more than 40 years, Leadership Atlanta has been nurturing leaders through a year-long training program that educates, inspires and connects with other community leaders.

On Monday, Leadership Atlanta announced its Class of 2013 — 84 established leaders who “share a common desire to move Atlanta forward by delving deeply into the city’s issues,” according to the release announcing the new class.

Through the year-long program, they will build relationships of trust and mutual understanding, the release stated.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

An international leader in socially-responsible capitalism — Muhammad Yunus — would love to forge a closer partnership with Atlanta.

Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become a global leader in microcredit lending, was in Atlanta Friday to receive the Phoenix Award from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — the highest honor given by the city to individuals for their outstanding contributions.

“This is really a special occasion for me and Atlanta,” Reed said during a briefing in his office. “I’m going to be watching how other cities are following your lead. We are looking for opportunities to provide microcredit (in Atlanta).”
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn is disappointed that U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) overwhelmingly lost re-election on Tuesday.

“I feel like I’ve lost my last name,” Nunn said jokingly, referring the important piece of legislation they had co-written in 1992 — the Nunn-Lugar Comprehensive Threat Reduction program.

“He’s a great guy,” Nunn said of Lugar. “He did a wonderful job for his state and for the country. He will be dearly missed. The Senate will be diminished, but the outside world will benefit with him being a part of it.”
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

The saga to save the Crum & Forster building continues.

The Georgia Tech Foundation made a presentation Wednesday afternoon before the Atlanta Urban Design Commission saying it was not economically feasible to restore the entire building.

Instead, Georgia Tech is proposing keeping only the front third of the historic building so it can build a major development on the balance of the block bordered by Spring Street, Armstead Place, West Peachtree Street and Fourth Street.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

This just in.

The Captain Planet Foundation has named Leesa Carter as its new executive director.

Carter has been executive director of the Georgia Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, will take over the organization “dedicated to high quality programs that empower youth to become global environmental change-makers,” according to a news release.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

The official ribbon-cutting for the new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal on Thursday evening spanned the generations of Atlanta leadership — with the city’s first African-American mayor as the central figure.

Jackson was literally a larger-than-life human being. As the youngest person to have ever been elected mayor of Atlanta in 1973, Jackson also represented a pivotal shift in power and influence in the city.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

Bus or rail? I-75 or U.S. 41?

Those are just two of the questions that are being asked on how to connect Cobb County with the Arts Center MARTA Station.

A program was held Monday evening at the Woodruff Arts Center where representatives from Cobb County and the City of Atlanta talked about the proposed alternatives that exist to serve people traveling along the northwest corridor.
Continue reading →

By Maria Saporta

One of the groups pushing for passage of the one-percent regional transportation sales tax — Citizens for Transportation Mobility — has “registered disappointment and dismay” with the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter decision to oppose the tax.

“We find it highly unusual that an organization charged with preserving and protecting our environment would oppose a transportation investment that has the potential to do exactly that,” Che Watkins, campaign manager for CTM, said in a statement. “The regional transportation referendum holds more promise of relieving congestion and reducing air pollution than any plan in decades.”
Continue reading →