By: King Williams What started as an initial tweet on my Twitter timeline concerning freeway removals has led to a great online conversation on what to do concerning our highways. So hear me out before you say “we don’t have money for X, Y, and Z.” The city and state are willing to spend money […]
Author Archives: King Williams
King Williams is a multimedia documentary film director and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. King’s documentary “The Atlanta Way: A Documentary on Gentrification” will be released this Summer.
He is an associate producer on the upcoming Sara Burns (daughter of documentarian Ken Burns)/Dave McMahon’s 2019 documentary – ‘East Lake’ – on the former East Lake Meadows housing project.
King can be reached at king@saportareport.com or @iamkingwilliams on Instagram and Twitter. His number is: 470-310-1795.
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MAGA, abortion and transit
By King Williams en·mi·ty /ˈenmədē/ noun the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. Earlier this week we saw the defeat of mass transit expansion in Gwinnett to start the week. And by the end of the week, we saw one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the […]
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The future of Metro Atlanta transit is pending on Gwinnett County
By King Williams Gwinnett County, the soon-to-be-largest county in Georgia by population, is the state’s most diverse county – representing a microcosm of what the future of American politics and economic development could look like. Gwinnett currently is a majority-minority county, meaning that no racial or ethnic group dominates its population. Gwinnett’s county-level leadership on […]
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Hip Hop is one of Atlanta’s greatest exports; so why isn’t it embraced like it?
By King Williams When it opened in June 2017, the Pink Trap House became an instant phenomenon, not only in Atlanta, but in the United States and the global Hip Hop community. In a few short weeks, the Pink Trap House became the actual artistic, cultural and community gathering spot that so many gentrified real […]
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Auburn Avenue is our most important street. Here’s what we should be doing
As we close out Black History Month, I think it’s time we show some love towards the most important street in Atlanta – Auburn Avenue.
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A Conversation with Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens
Andre Dickens is the Post-3 At-Large, Atlanta City Councilman, who has been in office since 2013. Andre Dickens has been one of the few councilmen to be outspoken on issues of gentrification and housing affordability.
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The Super Bowl is finally over but another side of Atlanta hid in plain sight
The Super Bowl is over…finally.
Most of the remnants of the ‘Big Game’ are gone from downtown but many of the problems that were here before kickoff still remain.
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Sports and venture capital meet at Morehouse before the Super Bowl
Amidst a slew of events for Super Bowl week, Morehouse College was the host of “Hearing Our Voices” – a panel of former athletes, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
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Breaking Barriers, a conversation with trailblazing athletes
By King Williams Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights convened a special panel on Jan. 23 to discuss the role of activism in sports and among athletes, particularly those affecting women and the LGBTQ community. The title of the panel was: “Breaking Barriers: Sports for Change.” It was part of a rotating exhibition that […]
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The Super Bowl is here
In the last 25 years Atlanta has hosted the big game two times, and we are on the eve of hosting our third. Each of our Super Bowl eras has marked a different phase of Atlanta.
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$100 Billion
On Jan. 11, MARTA CEO Jeff Parker stood before the audience of the 6th annual State of MARTA address announcing that within the next few decades the metro Atlanta area would need to invest $100 billion in new transit & developments to meet future needs by 2045.
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The 18 Best, worst and most important trends in 2018 – Part 2
The following is a continuation of the 18 best, worst, and most important trends and developments emanating from within and throughout metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia for 2018. This list was compiled by me with input from people within SaportaReport and beyond.
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18 best, worst and most important trends in 2018 (Part 1)
By King Williams The following is a compilation of the 18 best, worst, and most important trends and developments emanating from within and throughout metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia for 2018. This list was compiled by me with input from people within SaportaReport and beyond. The list comes from a combination of hard […]
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Atlanta United are our champions
I remember being up late in my cousin Chris’s open area ranch home living room off Columbia Drive in October of 1996 watching the Atlanta Braves lose the World Series to the New York Yankees despite having a commanding 2-0 lead.
My younger brother, my cousin and I were in utter disbelief at what we had just witnessed.
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The suburbs are becoming more urban
By King Williams At the end of this post there will be a survey on what do you think about the suburbs, I hope you fill it out, let me know how you feel and share it. No one actually knows what a suburb is. No one. But neither does the federal government, which classifies […]
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‘The ATL’ board needs more visionaries and fewer political appointees
Atlanta is a city founded on transportation.
Railroads were the economic engines of Atlanta and the state. After the railroads, there were horsecars, streetcars, buses and pedestrian-filled streets that enabled the city’s growth.
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Lessons from Amazon HQ2 – let’s invest in our state and create our own
By King Williams After weeks of rumors, Amazon, the second trillion dollar U.S. company, confirmed that it would be selecting not one but two U.S. cities for its North American second headquarters known colloquially as ‘HQ2’. The search for HQ2 was publicly announced at 6 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2017, spawning a litany of 238 […]
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Georgia’s 2018 elections brought out the best and worst in us
By King Williams On Nov. 4, 2008, in downtown Atlanta, I experienced one of the greatest moments of my life – the election of Barack Obama. Watching Obama’s victory in a friend’s apartment with a dozen others, there was a sense of collective joy that I had never felt in my life. People were celebrating […]
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New mobility options like Uber and Bird present challenges for transit
I remember growing up in the 1990’s daydreaming during community meetings while my mom and countless advocated for better MARTA bus service in our section of Decatur. As a kid, the walks seemed endless – miles between our apartment complex and South DeKalb Mall – our connection point for buses and the occasional expensive cab ride.
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MARTA stations can become true community centers
By King Williams Recently it was announced that MARTA, in partnership with Soccer in the Streets would be expanding its popular soccer program to 10 additional MARTA transit stations. Soccer in the Streets with support from Atlanta United Football Club, hopes to expand the program into a city-wide youth soccer league for kids in the […]
