Author Archives: Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist TERRY LAWLER, executive director of the Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta

Last month metro Atlanta’s primary source of water reached a milestone: Lake Lanier is back to full pool and rising.

Not only is Lake Lanier full, Lake Allatoona is also full, and every lake on the Chattahoochee, Etowah, Coosa, Ocmulgee, Flint and Oconee rivers are either full or within a foot of being full.

But before we start to celebrate, let’s not forget that our presently abundant water resources can change quickly.

Things were a lot different last year. Last year at this time Lake Lanier was five feet lower and dropping.

By Guest Columnist HATTIE B. DORSEY, president of HBDorsey & Associates and founding past president of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership

“A city of aspiration embraces the fundamental principal that one of the historic roles of cities has been to nurture and grow a middle class.” — Joel Koplin, lecturer in 2007 for the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation lecture series

“The neighborhoods of Vine City and English Avenue have suffered too long, mistakes were made in the past, but we can fix this – we can do this.” — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed

Let me start off by stating I am elated the Falcons will stay in Atlanta. I applaud Arthur Blank, the Mayor Kasim Reed, and the Atlanta City Council for working together to keep them here. Now it is imperative that the new stadium has a sustainable benefit on the neighborhoods that surround it – Vine City, English Avenue and Castleberry Hill.

By Guest Columnist KEVIN KUNTZ, president of the Southeast Division of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

I write today as a conservative and registered Republican, a descendant of German immigrants to America, and a 30-year veteran of the construction industry.  I started on the jobsite and worked my way to a senior management role with one of the country’s oldest and largest general contractors.  These threads all tie together.

When the economy collapsed in 2007 and 2008, the construction industry was hit much harder than most.  For the past several years, our unemployment rate has been double the national average, hovering at times near 25 percent.  The January 2013 employment data showed an increase in construction jobs across the United States, but even now the industry remains two million jobs below its April 2006 peak.

By Guest Columnist LUIS IMERY, president and CEO of the Imery Group, a full-service construction, green rating and real estate group

The housing industry is showing signs of recovery, but it will never be the same.

I’m not referring to the size of the industry — though it’s unlikely we’ll reach again the tremendous volume of construction that took place in Atlanta before the Great Recession. I’m referring to the product. The new homes themselves will certainly never be the same. They’ll be much better.

The National Association of Home Builders says single-family housing starts have risen steadily since January 2011, a figure that supports McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2013 Construction Outlook, which predicts a 21 percent year-over-year growth in new single-family homes.

By Guest Columnist JOHN KEYS, transportation consultant on mobility management

Transit systems in many areas of the country successfully build cooperative, cost-effective, partnerships to deliver service. Partnerships are used to provide quality transit service at cost savings and to maintain vehicles and facilities with workers frequently hired through community organizations served by the transit system.

In these systems, the use of partners ranging from private companies to non-profit agencies, from transit unions to volunteers and faith-based groups, enables them to deliver customer-focused, tech-based mobility management. Everyone works together to meld numerous transportation options into a system benefiting all, and frequently under leadership that embraces problem-solving rather than turf-guarding.

By Guest Columnist BILL GOLDEN, an independent Realtor with RE/MAX Metro Atlanta Cityside

You know what they say about there being no rose without a thorn? Well, the real estate market in Atlanta is looking quite rosy these days, but that does bring its share of thorns into the landscape.

With a record low inventory of homes on the market, houses are selling like hotcakes. Every agent I know has a backlog of ready, willing, and able buyers waiting for the right listing to come up. The same scene plays out over and over again — a good new listing comes up for sale, and there are multiple bids on it within a few days, sometimes within a few hours.

By Guest Columnist MERIDITH FORD, editorial director of the Reynolds Group in Atlanta

A recent meal in Providence, R.I., sent my brain on a trip. The journey? Trying to define, once and for all, what the term “farm to table” actually means. I’m not sure, after so many years of overuse, it means anything anymore.

The meal was at a much-talked about restaurant, the Dorrance, where the chef, Ben Sukle, mines the mastery of this lauded movement with the precision of a dental hygienist.

By Guest Columnist HEATHER ALHADEFF, president of Center Forward, a woman-owned land-use and transportation consulting business

My incessantly analytical brain is ruled by logic. So, to me it just made sense — evolve or die on the proverbial vine. It did take me a while, however, to realize I was hating the very thing I should love.

This incredibly distressing recession required me to question all assumptions. In so doing, it prompted me to launch my own business, doing the work I love while creating more time for friends and family.

By Guest Columnist MIKE GERBER, founder and president of Cross Channel Initiatives

If this were the game show Jeopardy, the answer would be: “two and a half times.”

The question: “How much more in state taxpayer money does Georgia spend annually to keep someone incarcerated than it does to send a student to a public four-year university?”

That’s right. In fiscal year 2011, the average taxpayer-funded cost per inmate in a state prison was $16,250. That compared to $6,300 in state funding per full-time equivalent student at a University System of Georgia institution.

By Guest Columnist JEFF SWEENEY, co-founder and executive vice president of East-West Manufacturing, an Atlanta-based domestic offshore manufacturing company

Is offshoring inherently bad? Do manufacturing jobs “belong” onshore? Both questions are based on an erroneous assumption that trade creates winners and losers.

A job producing something in China does not mean one fewer job here in the United States. It is not a zero sum game. My experience has shown that a properly executed strategy can and should create winners on both sides.

It’s long past the time to instead ask “where is the best place to manufacture?” I have been working in international trade for two decades and help American and Georgia-based companies source components and products from a variety of nations, including China, Vietnam and India.

By Guest Columnist DAVID FREEDMAN, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council, Georgia Chapter

Can the forestry industry and the green building industry co-exist in Georgia?

Most Georgians would think the answer to this question is, “yes.”

Both industries support protecting natural resources, clean water and clean air; preserving green space; utilizing local building materials and creating jobs.

By Guest Columnist ALAN ESSIG, executive director of the non-profit, non-partisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

You’ve heard the old joke. The Georgia Legislature is back in Atlanta, so you better hang on to your wallet. But overspending by state legislators hasn’t been a problem for the better part of a decade. Lately we’ve become so tight-fisted we’re hurting ourselves.

Anyone who still finds the joke funny hasn’t been paying attention.

By Guest Columnist TERRY LAWLER, executive director of the Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta

As we approach 2013 and the potential “fiscal cliff”, the metro Atlanta region is facing some challenges and opportunities during the coming year.

Regardless of what Congress does, here are some of the challenges the Regional Business Coalition (metro Atlanta’s chambers of commerce), local businesses, employees and metro Atlanta residents will be experiencing in 2013.