Author Archives: David Pendered

By David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told DeKalb County’s Chamber of Commerce Monday that the planned transportation sales tax must be approved to ensure the region’s economic vitality in the future.

The transportation projects are part of about $14.5 billion in public infrastructure projects that are planned or underway, Reed said.

Taken in total, the projects represent such a major investment that competing cities never will be able to overtake metro Atlanta as the top region in the Southeast, Reed said.

By David Pendered

A statement released by Atlanta’s airport refutes findings by an economist at Georgia State University concerning the amount of information that’s readily available about the concessions trade.

The study by Bruce Seaman found that Atlanta’s airport is less transparent than other North American airports in revealing details of its concessions business. Passengers could be affected if some quality concessionaires decide the lack of information is enough to keep them from trying to open shop at the airport, Seaman said.

The airport’s statement contends that the airport does release large amounts of information about its concessions trade, and it urges researchers and the media to accurately report available information.

By David Pendered

A statue of Brer Rabbit has been taken from its pedestal in front of the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton, the hometown of Atlanta author Joel Chandler Harris.

“Speculation, as far as motive, runs from prank to scrap-metal sale,” said Stanley Lines, a retired school librarian who resides in Eatonton and runs a lively Twitter update about his community.

But there may be a more sinister motive to the missing statue, one inspired by politics and related to the current flap involving a congressman who compared President Obama to the “Tar Baby” story, said Lain Shakespeare, the descendant of Harris who oversees the Wren’s Nest, in Southwest Atlanta.

By David Pendered

Faced with a list of road and transit projects they just don’t want to cut any deeper, local elected officials now intend to ask the state Legislature for access to possibly more sales tax dollars.

But their hopes already have been dashed. Asked for comment on the pending request, a spokeswoman for the governor said late Thursday that the Legislature will not consider it during the special session that begins Aug. 15.

Clayton County Chairman Eldrin Bell did his part to raise the heat of debate by suggesting that the proposed – and moribund – commuter rail line from Atlanta to Griffin is the victim of a state agency’s effort to protect its bus service in the area.

By David Pendered

The political theater of the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation played out Tuesday in a harbinger of things to come as the final list of projects is crafted.

The day started with a show of solidarity by the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable. The committee voted unanimously to approve what turned out to be about $715 million in sales-tax-funded road improvements in five outlying counties – Cherokee, Douglas, Henry, Fayette, and Rockdale.

The day ended with remarks from DeKalb County officials and advocates who forcefully requested the committee to add the proposed MARTA rail extension along Eastbound I-20. Construction costs of the 5.4 mile route range from about $523 million to $769 million, depending on whose estimate is used.

By David Pendered

The political optics of the region’s proposed $6.1 billion transportation improvement program begins Tuesday, as the battle over projects spills for the first time into the public arena.

DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May has called a noon press conference – complete with “elected officials and supporters” – to discuss the exclusion of any new transit project to serve south DeKalb on the tentative short list that was approved last week.

May intends to pick up where he left off last week, when he addressed the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable’s Executive Committee after it voted for a $3 billion tentative list of transit projects. May took the podium to ring the bell of equity in transit and finance:

By David Pendered

It says something about the transparency of governance at Atlanta’s airport when more information is publicly available on LinkedIn than is provided by the airport.

The Linkedin page of an airport manager says concessions generate over $336 million in annual revenue. That sort of figure may be of interest to concessionaire competitors in the city’s current effort to sign vendors for the airport’s 125 food and beverage sites and 27 retail shops.

No such total revenue figure is available – much less more detailed data – in the airport’s concessionaires’ brochures or its presentations to prospective concessionaires, according to a new study by Bruce Seaman, an economist with Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

By David Pendered

Metro Atlanta’s plans to use federal funding in addition to revenues from the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation were thrown into jeopardy Friday.

The chairman of the House Transportation Committee said he will not compromise on the spending plan he submitted last month, according to a report in the Aug. 6 edition of The Wall Street Journal. The budget proposal would cut current spending levels by about a third, according to some reports.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said he will fight as vigorously for the proposed cuts in the transportation budget as he did against certain spending in the battle that shut down the Federal Aviation Administration.

By David Pendered

The initial shape of a project list that voters are to see on a ballot next year for the 1 cent transportation sales tax referendum was approved Thursday.

This list is only a beginning point, and even it won approval by a narrow 3-2 vote. (See below for the roll call.)

Seven transit projects made the initial list, with a value of $3 billion. These projects were defined as “kickoff projects” because they are not guaranteed a spot on the list.

There is no list of road projects – yet. The initial shape of a road list is to be formed at a meeting to be scheduled within the next week by the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable. Aug. 15 is the deadline for a final list.

By David Pendered

The ceremonial groundbreaking on Wednesday for a Cancer Treatment Centers of America hospital in Newnan is expected to attract an audience of 500 onlookers.

Part of the draw is just the pure joy watching economic development: Construction is pegged at $150 million, and the economic impact over five years is projected to be $500 million.

Part of the draw is political: The groundbreaking culminates a multi-year battle in the state Legislature. The debate was portrayed as pitting those who promoted choice in cancer treatment against those who wanted to keep insured patients at Georgia’s existing hospitals.

By David Pendered

Bennigan’s may be trying to make a come-back in its hometown by opening at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The restaurant appears to be in the group of restaurants that are in a white-hot battle to win a food or drink concessions contract at Atlanta’s airport.

Fifty-eight companies are competing for just a dozen spaces at which they can open a restaurant or beverage location – 11 spaces located on concourses and one in the coveted Atrium. Some companies likely represent several restaurants.

By David Pendered

Two of Georgia’s leading advocacy groups for the disabled have come out in favor of many findings in the state’s draft report on how to improve the system that transports the poor, elderly and disabled from home to health care in rural Georgia.

“It is a terrific start and we look forward to working with you,” concludes a letter by the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia.

The advocates contend that the state’s $138 million a year rural health care transit program would be eligible to receive funding from the proposed penny sales tax for transportation – if some recommendations outlined in the report are enacted.

By David Pendered

Manuel’s Tavern may open two taverns next year at Atlanta’s airport.

Atlanta’s iconic neighborhood bar has signed franchise agreements with two companies that are competing for a slice of the food and beverage business at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, tavern owner Brian Maloof said today.

A Manuel’s Tavern would open in Concourse A if one company wins. If the other wins, a tavern would open on Concourse D. There would be two taverns if each company wins an airport concessions contract, Maloof said.

“They will have what will look and feel like a Manuel’s Tavern at the airport,” Maloof said. “The menu will be the same as here. They will reproduce some of the original artwork. They are great people to work with.”

By David Pendered

MARTA’s general manager is sharply questioning the way costs are being calculated for transit systems in the proposed penny sales tax for transportation.

The cost estimates for transit include 20-years worth of maintenance and operational costs. The estimates do not include any revenues – nothing from fares, federal transportation sources, or even local property taxes, such those that pay for shuttles at Atlantic Station.

Beverly Scott, MARTA’s GM and CEO, said she intends to provide a counterpoint to the current cost estimates for new transit.

“When you talk about what the split should be [between roads and transit], when you see prices on transit become enormously big, it has an impact on what people will want to build because transit becomes so much more expensive,” Scott said.

By David Pendered

The proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation that voters will decide next year may last longer than the 10-year period that will be on the ballot.

That’s because elected officials are starting to talk publicly about the as-yet imaginary second phase of the proposed sales tax.

Two reasons for the presumed desire to extend the 10-year sales tax appear to be emerging:

By David Pendered

The recent white paper by the Fair Share Initiative on the need to fund transit projects with the proposed penny sales tax contains a footnote that’s startling enough on its own merit.

But it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The footnote raises the issue of the pending federal reauthorization bill for highway and transit spending.

The current proposal before Congress is to cut federal revenues to Georgia by 35 percent in the next fiscal year, according to one report.

By David Pendered

Fair Share for Transit released Tuesday a $4 billion wish list of projects and a policy statement on what it says is the need to invest sales tax dollars in transit and other modes of alternative transportation.

The document was released in advance of a Thursday morning meeting of the five voting members of the executive committee of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable. The committee is to work on the draft list of projects to be put before voters for funding in 2012.

Fair Share’s document concludes with this chilling statement:

“If we do not advance viable alternatives now … we will mark the passage of half a century since our region took a significant step forward on permanent public transportation while cities like Dallas and Denver, Charlotte and Houston, Tampa and Phoenix celebrate what they have built.”

By David Pendered

Atlanta has strengthened its economic development ties with Paris, which is on a $50 billion program to secure its position as a capital of global commerce.

Atlanta and Paris signed a five-year deal last week to promote each other as a business destination. The target audience is companies that already do business, or may expand, in one of the cities and want to reach a foreign market.

Paris evidently has a plan to develop its business ties to the Southeast, and Atlanta is now part of it. Paris signed a similar trade agreement in April with Memphis.

The Paris/Memphis deal envisions the strengthening of an air-freight trade route between the cities. The goal is to put businesses, and their products, just a few hours from their clients and end markets.

By David Pendered

Atlanta has increased the pressure on companies that want to sell food, drink and other concessions at the Atlanta airport’s new international concourse that opens in Spring 2012.

The shops must be open by April 15, 2012 regardless of the date a company is allowed to begin construction on space it leases in Concourse F, according to city’s new terms for the concessions contracts.

For passengers who use Concourse F, the new requirement seems intended to ensure that service will be available at all of the planned restaurants, beverage and retail shops. And there isn’t to be any annoying sound of construction.

By David Pendered

Atlanta appears to be reinforcing its effort to help small businesses get a piece of the pending food and drink concessions trade at the airport.

The city’s procurement department has added language to its request for proposals for the airport concessions contracts.

The new language hammers home Atlanta’s decision to require the big prime operators to allow their sub-tenants to join up with other prime operators that are competing for contracts.

The amendment, released July 6, will result in the city being about a month behind schedule in receiving proposals to run the airport’s food and drink concessions.