By Guest Columnist TERESA WREN JOHNSTON, director of the KSU Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery; state coordinator of Georgia Network; and founding president of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education
Please answer the following employment application questions honestly: Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness? Have you been treated for alcoholism or substance use?
By Guest Columnist JUSTINE BOYD, UNCF’s regional development director in Atlanta
Education is being called by many the civil rights issue of today.
“We are a country lurching backwards on the issue of education,”said Freedom Summer organizer Bob Moses, who is known for leading the historic voter registration drive in Mississippi in the 1960s.
By Guest Columnist TANYA EGINS, executive director
of Cool Girls, Inc.
In the last year, Site Selection Magazine, Area Development Magazine and CNBC named Georgia the #1 state for doing business.
The Metro Atlanta Chamber boasts of 16 Fortune 500 companies in the region. Many other substantial companies, with thousands of well-paid jobs, have headquarters here.
By Guest Columnist NANCY FLAKE JOHNSON, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Atlanta
In the aftermath of the protest rallies and reactions here in Atlanta, across our nation, and indeed throughout the world, in response to the St. Louis County Grand Jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, we have to ask the question: “Where do we go from here?”
By Guest Columnist JOHN AHMANN, principal of Ahmann Inc., a public policy consulting firm and an Atlanta dreamer
I love Atlanta. Born at Grady Hospital, and growing up in Druid Hills/Candler Park area at a time many were leaving the City, to now witness the ascendant trajectory of the City with its influx of population and businesses, is energizing and deeply gratifying because the hard work of so many leaders through the years has been validated.
By Guest Columnist SALLY BETHEA, founding executive director of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper who is retiring at the end of the year
The second of Bethea’s two-part series about water issues in the Atlanta region. Last week: fixing Atlanta’s sewer system.
Twenty-five years of gridlock among Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over the allocation of water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin among competing interests can be summed up in three words: litigation, negotiation, study.
By Guest Columnist SALLY BETHEA, founding executive director of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper who is retiring at the end of the year
This is the first of Bethea’s two-part series about water issues in the Atlanta region. Next week: the tri-state water conflict.
Thirty years ago, the city of Atlanta’s sewer system was so overloaded that any significant amount of rain sent raw sewage into city creeks – leaving toilet paper hanging in trees and human waste festering in stagnant pools.
By Guest Columnist JOHN KANE, a residential technical trainer for Southface and a veteran who spent eight years in the U.S. Navy
The most recent employment numbers show that opportunities are improving across the nation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September 2014 national unemployment rate of 5.9 percent is the lowest it has been since the beginning of the Great Recession.
However, this downward trend is not distributed equally across the states. Georgia has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the nation, tipping the scales at 7.9 percent.
A great city offers not only excellent services and resources, but it also serves as a cultural hub. Arts and culture play vital roles in helping define and enhance the social fabric and the quality of life of its citizens and visitors.
By Guest Columnist REBECCA SERNA, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Atlanta Streets Alive, a car-free initiative of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, this Sunday, Sept. 28.
Last year, Atlanta Streets Alive attracted 83,000 participants. That’s greater than the capacity of the Georgia Dome! And half of these participants arrived by bike.
By Guest Columnist CHANTELLE RYTTER, community parade artist and captain of the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons (founder of the BeltLine’s Lantern Parade)
In 2010, Art on the BeltLine gave a call for proposals for visual and performing art projects to happen on the interim trails of the Atlanta BeltLine. This was when the Eastside Trail was that dark creepy place behind the dumpsters. Pricilla Smith, executive director of Eyedrum and one of the Art on the BeltLine founders, called me and suggested I propose a parade.
Priscilla knew the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons from our participation in the Little Five Points Halloween Parade and Inman Park Festival Parade. More importantly, she knew that the idea of civic play — making people active participants in the culture of their city — was the fuel that drove me.
By Guest Columnist JOSEPH R. HUDSON, author and unabashed Black business and inner-city commerce advocate
We live in a region where African-American mayors, local and national elected officials, the success of Black businesses, and Black leaders of corporate organizations and municipalities are recognized nationally. This recognition includes media moguls, pop stars, real-estate kingpins, social justice pioneers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, ministers, TV stars and educational institutions that reign supreme.
Atlanta is also recognized for a multitude of historical sites and events. This includes: the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the Carter Center, the National Black Arts Festival, Paschal’s Restaurant, East Lake Golf Club, numerous conventions and home of some of the world’s most famous Black people including Presidential Medal winners.
By Guest Columnist MATTHEW GARBETT, a community activist who lives in Atlanta’s Adair Park
As I talk to Atlantans about transit, walkability, and parking – especially parking – I am often confronted with what I have come to call the “Tipping Point Theory of Transit.”
The theory, often summarized with a simple “We’re not there yet”, goes like this:
MARTA is a bare bones system that doesn’t go anywhere, and where it does go, it goes slowly. If we keep building the BeltLine, expanding the Streetcar, and growing MARTA, one day there will come a Tipping Point, when people will begin abandoning their cars for our finally completed system. Until we get there, however, we need to recognize reality and continue to build for cars, especially via parking.
By Guest Columnist TERESA WREN JOHNSTON, director of the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery at Kennesaw State University and founding president of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education
In a world where mental health and substance use disorders get top billing only when a tragedy occurs to a celebrity, a famous athlete or a music superstar, it is easy to overlook the millions of people suffering unnoticed.
When the headlines read heroin overdose, death by suicide or famous entertainer enters treatment, we stand up and take notice; in fact, we can’t get enough.
By Guest Columnist KATHI WOODCOCK, a resident of the West End Historic District for five years and member of the West End Preservation Committee
The Atlanta Urban Design Commission’s website states: “It is the mission of the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance that any changes which occur to a designated property be in keeping with the historic character of the building or district.”
The West End Historic District, once known as White Hall, was established in 1835, and predates the City of Atlanta. West End is a vibrant community that takes pride in its 100-plus-year-old homes and designation on the National Register of Historic Places.
By Guest Columnist JOHN EAVES, chairman of Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners since 2007.
Fayette. DeKalb. Cobb. Clayton. Gwinnett.
Each is one of Georgia’s 159 counties, and each one has been charged with making decisions on behalf of its citizens. As such, each has a board of commissioners that have been asked by voters to provide government services ranging from public safety to libraries.
Each is responsible for managing emergency responses and gauging potential threats to public health. Each has workers who take these tasks very seriously.
By Guest Columnist GARRY HARRIS, president and CEO of HTS Enterprise Energy Solutions as well as president and CEO of Center for Sustainable Communities and the executive director of Emerald Cities Metro Atlanta.
Although we are now feeling the heat and humidity of summer, only a few months ago, Atlanta was brought to a virtual standstill by a rare snowstorm.
The storm was a glimpse of the challenges the region could see as a result of climate change causing extreme weather.
By Guest Columnist GARFIELD L. PEART, an architect and sustainable business consultant, serves on AIA Atlanta’s board of directors
Architects have the power to take Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “outside the building envelop” to transform communities by leading diverse design teams and community stakeholders to combat some of our most pressing social and public health issues in the metro area.
Environmental justice presents a unique opportunity for community leaders and public officials to engage Atlanta architects to address these challenges.
Now with all the pressing economic issues facing communities in metro Atlanta, you may wonder why we should focus on environmental justice and how architects can possibly make an impact in an area traditionally addressed by city planners, community development corporations and policy makers.
By Guest Columnist JOHN SIBLEY, former president of the Georgia Conservancy and a concerned citizen
Georgians have many joys in common, but is any greater than the moment when our coastal marshes break into view? The majesty and vastness of our marshes touch something essential for the human spirit, lifting it every time.
And that moment also reminds us of our shared history and joint obligation to be the best stewards we can be of the natural wonders with which our state is so greatly blessed.
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