Judging by the responses posted on social media, expectations are great that the Atlanta Task Force for the Promotion of Public Trust will produce results that fulfill its name.
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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College students promote sustainability in world’s challenged communities
From helping cocaine farmers in Columbia shift to other products, to providing efforts to aid and repatriate migrants at the U.S. southern border, college students from metro Atlanta and across the Americas met Wednesday via Skype to discuss shared efforts to improve the world’s sustainability.
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Atlanta’s proposed transportation department to be a horn of plenty for mobility
Atlanta’s proposed stand-alone transportation department is expected to salvage a mobility system that’s so systemically broken the city has a long history of farming work to outside entities – including the Atlanta BeltLine, Midtown Alliance and Central Atlanta Progress.
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Nation at ‘pivotal moment’ in environmental laws; Monday deadline for comments
The nation is at a “pivotal moment” in environmental law and Monday, April 15 is the deadline for public comment to a proposed ruling by the Trump administration that would reduce the amount of waters and wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act of 1972.
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City Nature Challenge combines two of metro Atlanta favorite pastimes
Two of metro Atlanta favorite pastimes – crowd sourcing and nature watching – are to come together this month in a competition led by the Fernbank Museum that involves citizen scientists from more than 100 cities around the world.
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Data center planned near BeltLine may exceed size allowed under pending rules
Plans are advancing to enable the expansion of a data center in the vicinity of the Atlanta BeltLine near the Bellwood Quarry. The new facility would be larger than allowed under pending restrictions on the size of data centers near the BeltLine, though it’s not immediately clear if this site would be in the restricted area.
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Gov. Kemp’s first act in charge of SRTA: Provide funding to fix washed out road
At $1.3 million, the grant isn’t big in the context of state highway funding. But Gov. Brian Kemp won praise from local residents for overseeing approval of funding to help restore a road washed out in February by a rockslide in Pickens County – just north of metro Atlanta.
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Tree protection: ‘Atlanta City Design’ to shape discussion over new tree ordinance
Some people fear a tree is going to fall onto their home and cause damage if not death. The new tree ordinance Atlanta is to begin drafting this month is to address this concern, as well as the widespread alarm over tree removal for new buildings and an ambitious goal about the tree canopy.
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Atlanta races ahead of consultant’s advice in proposed Transportation Department
Atlanta’s proposal to create a freestanding Department of Transportation – reporting exclusively to the mayor – was part of the long-term plan suggested by the city’s management consultant, but only after a slow transition to a new department. The Atlanta City Council begins its deliberations on April 22.
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Unlike Atlanta, New York aims to improve transit with congestion tax, not sales tax
New York City has a new method to improve mobility – by charging a congestion tax to raise money to improve transit. Atlanta hasn’t broached this approach and appears committed to sales taxes to pay for regional transit improvements.
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Proposed state oversight of 104 local airports would include Gwinnett’s growing field
A pending renewal and expansion on the runway of Gwinnett County’s airport evidently is the type of job that some state lawmakers had in mind when they talked about greater state involvement in local airports. Gwinnett’s airport also highlights the impact of the state’s 104 publicly-owned, public use airports.
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Obama blocked Trump from offshore oil drilling; House votes to oppose drilling
President Obama’s administration blocked President Trump from expanding the area open to offshore oil drilling, including off Georgia’s coast, a federal judge has ruled. On a related front, the Georgia House approved Tuesday a resolution opposing the exploration and drilling for oil off Georgia’s coast.
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Reports suggest shine is coming off metro Atlanta’s image as land of equal opportunity
Jaw-dropping is one word for a description of Atlanta by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The Fed’s report is one of a trio that paints a less than flattering image of metro Atlanta on issues of gender pay equity and economic mobility for children, and as a magnet for millennials.
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Cancer patients to gain options, non-profit hospitals to disclose assets under pending law
A for-profit cancer treatment center in Newnan will be allowed to treat more Georgia patients and non-profit hospitals will be required to highlight their expenses – ranging from the cost of naming rights for an amphitheater to salaries paid to C-suite executives – under breakthrough changes to Georgia’s healthcare laws passed by the Legislature amid support from the governor and lieutenant governor.
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Federal aid for Plant Vogtle doesn’t ease fallout for halted S.C. sister project
The very low interest rates provided in a federal loan guarantee to Georgia’s Plant Vogtle nuclear plant ease the project’s financing and cost pressures. But the nightmares around a shuttered sister plant in South Carolina continue for those caught up in the bankruptcy of the former contractor for both plants, Westinghouse Electric Co., according to federal court records.
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ARC still accepting responses to 2019 Regional Commuter Survey
Metro Atlanta commuters who received a postcard about a survey being conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission still have time to respond and enter to win one of 50 Amazon gift cards valued at $250. The deadline is Sunday, March 31.
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Atlanta preparing to help residents cross digital divide for 2020 Census
Atlanta’s digital divide will present challenges to getting an accurate count in the 2020 Census, a city official said Tuesday. Another challenge is to get residents to overcome aversion to participating in the Census, an Atlanta City Councilmember said at the same meeting.
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Oil drilling off Georgia’s coast an issue for Trump’s nominee for Interior secretary
The debate over oil exploration and drilling in federal waters off the Georgia coast, and much of the nation’s offshore waters, is likely to resume this week in a confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of the Interior.
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First an apartment tower, now a senior facility planned on grassy plot near Lenox Square
Nature abhors a vacuum – the truth of the maxim is evident in the ongoing efforts to develop a grassy plot that neighbors have embraced as their park near Lenox Square. First it was a high rise apartment building, now the proposal is a senior living facility.
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Nesting shorebirds protected from predators in pilot program on Georgia’s coast
In the push and shove of the food chain, two bird species on Georgia’s coast received help from researchers who prevented coyotes and raccoons from eating nesting birds, their eggs and hatchlings.
