The exuberant Zoey pulled on her leash as she and her companion, Julie Glasson, strolled around Windsor Meadows Park, the newest pocket park in a metro region where residents clamor for more greenspace. These smaller gathering places are likely the future of public places as land for parks becomes ever more dear.
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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Plans to widen U.S 17 near Brunswick would ease access to Golden Isles
A highway expansion project near Brunswick will require the use of land that’s part of the historic Hofwyl-Broadfield rice plantation. The road project is to improve access from I-95 to the Golden Isles and the regional airport.
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Atlanta voices discontent over process for picking MARTA’s $2.5 billion project list
The chair of the Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee says he is not happy with the way MARTA’s $2.5 billion expansion plan pits winners against losers, and he said City Hall will soon be releasing its thoughts on expansion proposals that are due for a vote by MARTA’s board on Oct. 4.
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Georgia Aquarium’s financial support from Atlanta in 2009 led to soaring revenues
After Atlanta provided the Georgia Aquarium with $80 million in financing at favorable terms in 2009 to build a dolphin exhibit, the aquarium’s revenues soared by 23 percent, compared to the year before the exhibit opened. The return on the city’s latest financial support for the aquarium – up to $7.5 million – remains to be determined.
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Alabama gardener, possibly akin to Celestine Sibley, to speak at Atlanta History Center
An Alabama gardener who created a place as storied as that of the late journalist and author Celestine Sibley’s Sweet Apple homestead is slated to speak Wednesday at the Atlanta History Center. Louise Wrinkle is to discuss her new book and her philosophy of treading lightly on the land near Birmingham.
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Oakland Cemetery launches $1 million campaign to protect shrinking tree canopy
By David Pendered
Oakland Cemetery is launching a $1 million fundraising campaign to preserve a tree canopy that has suffered a loss of about 50 percent since 1982. This is the latest push in the cemetery’s ongoing effort to promote and protect trees in the city’s original garden cemetery.
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Business as usual for federal prosecutors, despite intense Atlanta corruption probe
Even as the federal corruption investigation continues at Atlanta City Hall, the U.S. prosecutor in Atlanta is locking up other crooks – including bank robbers, scam artists who preyed on the elderly and a former medical examiner who doled out opioids in exchange for sex and romance.
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Northwest express lanes to open Saturday in bid to boost mobility for commuters, truckers
Georgia’s major initiative to ease traffic congestion along I-75/I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties is to open this weekend. The Northwest Corridor Express Lanes are slated to open mid-day Saturday, Gov. Nathan Deal announced Tuesday.
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Atlanta’s role in Labor Day, as U.S. Labor Department erases day’s violent origins
A strike in 1881 by black laundresses in Atlanta was a precursor of strikes across the nation that led to President Grover Cleveland declaring the national Labor Day holiday in 1894.
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U.S. Mint honors ‘pristine’ Cumberland Island as feds consider allowing new houses, rockets overhead
Even as the U.S. Mint releases a new quarter to honor the “primitive, undeveloped character” of Cumberland Island, two other federal entities are considering proposals to shoot space rockets over Georgia’s coastal island and to develop houses there.
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Wildlife sanctuary tour by Atlanta Audubon on deck as Gov. Deal calls for more bird habitats
The Atlanta Audubon Society’s tour of wildlife sanctuaries in DeKalb County in September aims to highlight local efforts to provide places for birds to rest, eat and drink, and encourage others to create sanctuaries. The society’s campaign for more natural habitats coincides with Georgia’s efforts to draw attention to the loss of habitat for birds.
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Atlanta council president proposes independent office to enforce accountability
Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore unveiled Wednesday her concept to enforce legal and accountable behavior by the city’s elected officials and top officials. It is one plank in a platform of reform proposals a council committee is to discuss at a meeting Sept. 6 to address violations including those announced Wednesday by the city’s independent city auditor and ethics officer.
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Affordable homes along Atlanta BeltLine: A different perspective on the number built
The Atlanta BeltLine would be almost halfway to its goal of creating 5,600 affordable homes if it could count all the affordable homes that were subsidized by a government and built within a mile-wide corridor centered on the BeltLine, the BeltLine’s interim CEO told members of an Atlanta City Council committee Tuesday.
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A fresh outlook on exercise as metro Atlanta creates more walkable neighborhoods
Amid all the discussion of walkable neighborhoods and how they boost community health, almost overlooked is the cutting-edge research produced by the YMCA of Metro Atlanta that is helping people improve their physical and emotional health.
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‘What’s in a name?’ Atlanta memorializes civil, human rights figures, plans to rename Confederate Avenue
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare observed. Atlanta responds with plans to remove and replace the name Confederate Avenue on a Downtown street, following the renaming of Freedom Parkway for civil rights leader John Lewis and naming a future park for human rights figure Kathryn Johnston.
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Atlanta Audubon to update, expand education programs with anonymous $99,980 gift
In 2009, the Atlanta Audubon Society launched a program that tailors lessons to a teacher’s curriculum and goes to the school to teach students about birds. Now, the group plans to revise the program with proceeds of a $99,980 gift from a private Atlanta family foundation.
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New Kathryn Johnston park a link in flood relief efforts along Boone Boulevard
Residents of Westside Atlanta envisioned the newly named Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park as a site to help curb persistent flooding in the English Avenue neighborhood long before plans for a park were conceived, Park Pride Executive Director Michael Halicki said Thursday.
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Plant Vogtle: Vote to halt or continue construction expected by Sept. 30, rating action says
A vote on whether construction will continue at troubled Plant Vogtle is expected to come before its four co-owners by Sept. 30, according to a rating action issued by Moody’s Investors Service.
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Atlanta’s latest civil, human rights memorial: Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park
The newly named Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park will forever remind that crimes against humanity still occur, and that strong community leaders prevented Johnston’s death by police bullets from becoming the catalyst for civil disturbances that could have rocked the city, according to Atlanta City Councilmember Ivory Young, Jr.
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Failed S.C. nuclear plant spurs credit downgrade, political battles, lawsuits
Just as Georgia Power’s credit was downgraded this month for financial losses related to Plant Vogtle, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the rating of bonds issued by the South Carolina Public Service Authority for an aborted nuclear plant in the Palmetto State. But that’s just part of the story.
