The allure of self-driving cars and other connected vehicles just suffered another ding, this one in a report of Georgia Tech research into the traffic gridlock that could be created if hackers immobilized vehicles. Metro Atlanta is especially vulnerable because of the layout of the region’s road network researchers said.
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.
Posted inLatest News
Climate experts say rescue food can reduce warming; it now feeds those in need
Climate-change scientists meeting in Geneva released a report Thursday that locks on to one of metro Atlanta’s popular social action programs as a way to stem global warming – rescuing food that’s destined for the landfill and getting it on someone’s table.
Posted inLatest News
Late Fulton Commissioner Joan Garner honored by naming of Ponce de Leon library
The public library on Ponce de Leon Avenue is to be named for the late Joan Garner, Fulton County’s first openly gay commissioner and a strong advocate of public health. Fulton County’s board of commissioners voted unanimously for the measure Wednesday.
Posted inColumns
ARC goes high tech to reach public to devise plan for 2050
By David Pendered
Think of ARC’s long-range, regional planning blueprint done with 3-D animation. It would feel more alive, more real-time representational of the region it aims to serve. And the conversation has already started about the future the blueprint aims to inform.
Posted inLatest News
Aerospace sector stands out among Georgia’s economic success stories
Of all the “gee whiz, Georgia’s great” economic stories, the aerospace and defense sector stands out – The United States ranks No. 1 in the world and Georgia ranks No. 2 in the nation, and Georgia’s education system has the capacity to help workers into transition the jobs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, two recent reports show.
Posted inLatest News
Just as mayor sings of ‘birds in the air,’ little Pine Lake named Wildlife Sanctuary
Pine Lake folks talk big about theirs being the smallest city in DeKalb County. On Thursday, this self-described “micropolitan” was recognized as the latest Atlanta Audubon Certified Wildlife Sanctuary. There was no word if the mayor will be singing about the award.
Posted inLatest News
Summer rite of ‘Shark Week’ highlights bipartisan support for shark conservation
Bobby Kennedy’s grandson might not have much in common with a Texan who taught high school English before she was elected to Congress. But both congressmembers have signed legislation intended to protect sharks – an effort gaining attention during ‘Shark Week.’
Posted inLatest News
Housing costs barely a blip for Atlanta’s well-paid, 20-something IT pros: CBRE report
Housing prices are little concern for metro Atlanta’s burgeoning population of young IT professionals who, according to a new report by the real estate firm CBRE, pay an average rent-to-wage ratio of 15 percent. This ratio is less than half the standard measure for an FHA loan.
Posted inColumns
South River Watershed Alliance to DeKalb County: Stop dumping raw sewage into river
A polluted river isn’t like a pothole – it doesn’t shriek for attention every time you drive over it. The polluted South River is quiet like that, though now its advocates are calling on DeKalb County to stop dumping raw sewage into the river.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta’s economic development agency to face tighter control by Atlanta City Council
The Atlanta City Council is set to impose greater control over Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm that acts as Atlanta’s agent to promote housing, economic development and redevelopment – all of it under control of a board chaired by the mayor, whose top advisor argued against the council’s exercise of authority.
Posted inLatest News
HIV/AIDS atop agenda for Atlanta’s new chief health officer, Fulton’s expanded services
Two significant changes in public health and HIV/AIDS programs are underway in Atlanta and Fulton County. The measures include: Atlanta’s newly created position of chief health officer; and Fulton’s expansion and renaming of its HIV services program to manage President Trump’s goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States.
Posted inLatest News
Muslims to help fill refugees’ back-to-school needs: Backpacks, pencils, paper
At a time DeKalb County’s school system expects students to have a home computer, a Muslim organization is leading an effort to give away to refugee children a back-to-school need that’s far more basic – backpacks, paper and pencils.
Posted inLatest News
‘Heartbeat bill:’ Dem lawmakers plan strategy; petition seeks to delay start date
The pace of activity is increasing in the effort to halt the pending restriction of abortion in Georgia.
Six Democratic lawmakers have just returned from a training seminar sponsored by a group founded by the former political director of NARAL, a pro-choice group. On Tuesday, the ACLU asked a federal judge to delay the Jan. 1, 2020 start of the “heartbeat bill.”
Posted inColumns
Justice for black youths, reparations in Atlanta’s conversations this summer
The nation’s conversation over the related issues of justice for black youths, and reparations, has its home this summer in Atlanta.
This week, two published authors have added their insights – one a historian whose first day at Emory University was Monday, the other a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who presented Monday at the Atlanta History Center. Meanwhile, remarks continue to resonate from last month’s congressional hearing on reparations – legislation endorsed by Georgia congressmembers John Lewis and Sanford Bishop.
Posted inLatest News
Valdosta non-profit cited for shorting pay to disabled workers; Biltmore Estate cited for immigrant
A non-profit in Valdosta was cited for stiffing disabled persons out of wages, the U.S. Labor Department announced last week. It’s the second case in a month the DOL has brought against a Georgia employer for shorting workers of pay. DOL’s investigations into wages are gaining currency in an era of employers offering fairly flat wage growth, as recorded in last week’s edition of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.
Posted inLatest News
Leadership search for politically active Sierra Club of Georgia begins Saturday
The discussion begins Saturday about replacing the departing director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia chapter, one of the state’s few environmental organizations that endorses political candidates, seeks to influence legislation and sway public opinion.
Posted inLatest News
New audible crosswalk alert helps blind college student, reminds of simpler times
It’s a simple story from a simpler time. A mother asked a man to help her blind son. The man agreed. An audible tone was added to a crosswalk on a busy road. The son now can safely cross the road between his home and a bus stop after his ride home from school.
Posted inLatest News
ATL Fed reports affordable homes hard to find as employers offer modest pay hikes
Demand for affordable housing comprises a fair amount of the housing sales in Georgia and the Southeast, even as employers offer incentives other than money to attract and retain labor in what remains a tight labor market, according to Wednesday’s edition of the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.
Posted inColumns
Taggers as a focus group: PATH400 to place art in areas street artists have found, decorated
Taggers as a focus group. That’s a new twist in Atlanta’s uneasy accord with graffiti and is one being taken by the developers of PATH400, who think good graffiti can keep amateur and vulgar taggers from leaving their mark.
Posted inLatest News
Conventioneers overlooked in Downtown mobility plan; entire concept to be reviewed
Transportation planners overlooked one aspect of Atlanta’s convention industry – the people who attend – and that evidently contributed to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ decision to halt the first step in a plan aimed at making Downtown more pleasant for pedestrians. In addition, the mayor ordered a review of the entire Downtown mobility plan by the city’s newly approved Transportation Department, which is to be functional by late 2020.
