This year’s City Nature Challenge isn’t a challenge at all, but a shared opportunity for citizen scientists to watch and record species in an urban environment. Fernbank Museum is, for the second time, coordinating the event across metro Atlanta.
Author Archives: David Pendered
David Pendered, Managing Editor, is an Atlanta journalist with more than 30 years experience reporting on the region’s urban affairs, from Atlanta City Hall to the state Capitol. Since 2008, he has written for print and digital publications, and advised on media and governmental affairs. Previously, he spent more than 26 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and won awards for his coverage of schools and urban development. David graduated from North Carolina State University and was a Western Knight Center Fellow.
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Before Earth Day, before ‘Silent Spring,’ Rachel Carson introduced life’s synergy
Rachel Carson’s 1951 book can be argued as the impetus of Earth Day, which celebrates its 50th anniversary today and through the week with multiple digital gatherings. And the book is not “Silent Spring,’ published in 1962.
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MARTA records first employee death related to COVID-19, a station maintainer in Decatur
MARTA has confirmed its first death related to COVID-19, a 53-year-old station maintainer who died Monday. His last day of work was April 10. Four co-workers at MARTA’s Decatur Station were notified and instructed to self-quarantine.
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City of South Fulton: Creating a sense of place on a blank slate
When it comes to creating a sense of place, the three-year-old City of South Fulton started with a blank slate – for starters, the name doesn’t refer to a previously known community. Now it has Wolf Creek Amphitheater, a 200-acre development planned along the Chattahoochee River, and a detailed economic development plan that offers a vision of a Town Center.
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Atlanta’s proposed $200 million debt for affordable housing resembles balloon mortgage
Terms of Atlanta’s plan to borrow $200 million to fund affordable housing resemble a balloon loan on a residence – interest-only payments for the first two years, plus a higher interest rate than other types of debt and the ability to stretch the loan out to 50 years to lower the payment due each year.
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Sonny Perdue announces new food supplies for food banks, help for farmers
Sonny Perdue emerged Friday in the role of helping to shift $3 billion of the nation’s food supply to food banks and similar facilities before farmers destroy the food because they can’t afford to get it to market. The $19 billion relief program includes $16 billion in direct aid for farmers.
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Grove Park, other hungry neighborhoods to receive meals with help from Mercedes Benz
Residents of the hard-hit Grove Park neighborhood on Friday were among the first to receive meals prepared and delivered by Mercedes Benz USA as part of its new program to deliver food and help other organizations feed needy residents in Atlanta during the COVID-19 shutdown.
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Atlanta Fed president: ‘It’s going to be tough’; Prices up for agricultural commodities
The Federal Reserve confirmed the obvious Wednesday – “Economic activity contracted sharply and abruptly across all regions in the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Price hikes are reported across the Southeast in grains, milk and eggs, as well as demand for oranges.
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Virtual Talk: Congress’ new female caucus, as 40 female Democrats seek office in Georgia
The Georgia women campaigning for the state House and Senate represent the type of political dynamic to be discussed Wednesday evening in a virtual talk with the author of ‘The Firsts: The Inside Story of Women Reshaping Congress.’
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Grady Memorial Hospital bed supply to remain at half strength; 76 ventilators available
Grady Memorial Hospital will have barely half of its beds available for patients even after up to 52 beds are opened with proceeds of a $2.1 grant from the Marcus Foundation, state records show.
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BP disaster 10 years later: Lessons learned almost too much to bear amid COVID-19
Five recommendations could prevent another BP type of disaster from damaging the environment. Just five, if they were followed, according to a report released Tuesday by Oceana, the international ocean conservation group that has an office in Savannah and fights efforts to drill for oil off Georgia’s coast.
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Atlanta’s planned $200 million housing bond faces grim, volatile market
One city government saw a five-fold hike in borrowing costs amid the coronavirus-spurred turmoil. This price hike is an indication of the volatile market into which Atlanta intends to sell up to $200 million in bonds to help secure affordable housing in the city.
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Long silent bells at Clark Atlanta University to ring on Easter, recognize COVID-19
Clark Atlanta University will ring the long-silent bells at Harkness Hall on Easter Sunday morning in a celebration that honors the culmination of Holy Week and recognizes those touched by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tribute is to be broadcast via the school’s page on Facebook.
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COVID-19: Progress at Emory on new drug; survey shows doctor support for anti-malarials
Treatments of the coronovirus are emerging from two groups in metro Atlanta – a drug that Emory University is helping to create; and a nationwide survey of doctors that shows a majority would prescribe to their family members a malaria drug cited by President Trump.
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600-plus fraud reports so far during pandemic; authorities set up statewide task force
With more than 600 complaints of price gouging and other crimes reported in Georgia, all related to the pandemic, federal and state authorities announced Tuesday the formation of a statewide task force to fight criminal fraud.
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Citizens’ letters question Atlanta’s proposed tree protection ordinance
Frustration among Atlanta tree advocates over the two-year process of writing even the draft version of a tree protection ordinance is bubbling up amid the coronavirus-related shutdown of public conversation – and the clock is ticking toward a final vote on a new city code.
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Federal transit relief: $371 million to metro Atlanta, $448 million total statewide
Metro Atlanta transit agencies are to receive $371 million from the federal coronavirus aid package. It’s part of a total package of $448 million in federal transit assistance headed to Georgia to help offset the economic losses related to response to the cornoavirus, according to the legislation.
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Federal environmental cutbacks concern watchdogs; Atlanta says consent decree on track
The federal cutbacks in environmental standards enacted during the coronavirus outbreak have drawn sharp rebuke from metro Atlanta watchdogs. The rollbacks include car fuel efficiency and monitoring of environmental enforcement actions.
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College students brainstorm to promote UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nation’s sustainability goals prompt some folks to think big. A top Georgia Tech official was moved during a discussion Wednesday to blue sky about Tech’s role in offering its help to guide the future of a world bending toward sustainable practices.
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Foreclosure crisis isn’t on horizon as pandemic roils mortgage industry: Harvard Center
A surge of foreclosed homes isn’t on the horizon because of the pandemic, but the fate of renters is less than certain because they’re harder for the government to protect, according to a comments in a forum sponsored Tuesday evening by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
