Maria Saporta, executive editor, is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with a deep knowledge of our city, our region and state. From 2008 to 2020, she wrote weekly columns and news stories for the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Prior to that, she spent 27 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, becoming its business columnist in 1991. Maria received her Master’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State and her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Maria was born in Atlanta to European parents and has two young adult children. She launched SaportaReport in February 2009.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Cobb Chamber of Commerce will be able to take its time to find a permanent new president to succeed Bill Cooper, who retired at the end of 2009 after 11 years at the helm.
By Maria Saporta
Sometimes restaurants become friends of the family.
So when one of those restaurants goes out of business, it closes a chapter of memories.
That’s the way it is with the Old Spaghetti Factory on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Yesterday, I got a call from my best friend, Francie, saying that the Spaghetti Factory was going to closing its doors at the end of the week.
It just so happens that her children’s grandparents — Joyce and Candler Lasseter — have been going to the Spaghetti Factory every week for years.
By Maria Saporta
When General David Petraeus came to speak today at the Atlanta Press Club/Commerce Club luncheon, he came with star power.
About a dozen photographers and television stations were on hand to hear his every word on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan — all among the 20 countries under his purview in the U.S. Central Command.
Petraeus impressed the 600 people attending the lunch at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead with the depth of his knowledge and analysis of one of the most complicated regions
France and Haiti.
A tale of two countries — one rich, one poor — both connected by a French heritage and little else.
Earlier this month, International Living Magazine named France as the best place to live among 194 countries across the globe.
Countries were ranked based on cost of living, culture and leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and risk and climate.
“For the fifth year running, France takes first in our ‘Quality of Life Index,’” the magazine wrote. “No surprise. It’s tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care. France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don’t need number crunchers to tell you its ‘bon vivant’ lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you’ll experience it first-
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 8, 2010
More and more nonprofits in metro Atlanta are turning to the private sector when hiring executives for their organizations.
It’s a trend that Ann Curry, owner of fundraising consulting firm Coxe, Curry & Associates Inc., has been noticing over the past 18 months.
By Maria Saporta
A whirlwind of activities surround the opening of the legislative session and the annual events of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Since our esteemed media outlets will provide the straight-forward news, I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of these last couple of days (at least from my point of view).
First, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (and a former Republican presidential candidate) gave a mostly non-partisan speech as the keynoter on Monday evening at the Georgia Chamber’s annual meeting.
Huckabee, a hold-over from the days of
By Maria Saporta
It was the last “State of the County” address that Cobb Chairman Sam Olens would ever give to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
But folks attending the breakfast Monday morning would not have known that from just hearing Olens’ speech.
Olens played it straight — giving Cobb Chamber members a rundown of the county’s operations and progress in public safety, infrastructure, education, the county’s budget, its quality of life as well as acquisition of parks and green space.
The only indication that this would be his last “State of the County” breakfast was
By Maria Saporta
Georgia’s unusual politics this year is forcing the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to be more flexible than in previous years.
Traditionally, the Georgia Chamber holds its annual meeting on the Monday that marks the convening of the General Assembly. The annual meeting is tonight at the Georgia World Congress Center.
But where it gets tricky is that early the next morning, the Georgia Chamber hosts the annual “Eggs & Issues” breakfast when the state’s business leaders get to hear from the state’s top elected officials.
So on Tuesday morning, the Georgia Chamber will have Gov. Sonny Perdue
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 8, 2010
For Suzanne Sitherwood, being the first, or only, woman in a business environment is nothing new.
When she joined Atlanta Gas Light Co. in 1980, her first job was working out of one of the gas trucks doing maintenance.
This could be the year when the Georgia General Assembly agrees to allow the Atlanta region to put a referendum before voters on a penny sales tax for transportation improvements.
And after years of urging the General Assembly to do just that, now I’m questioning the wisdom of passing such a bill this year.
We probably have only one opportunity to pass a new transportation funding tool for our region. So it is critically important that we make the right choices for our future transportation needs.
Here is the problem. A possible bill to allow the region to vote on a one-cent sales tax is in the works, but an integral element of that bill is a project list of what transportation improvements the region could fund.
And it’s the project list that worries me. Will it include the kind of transportation improvements that metro Atlanta will need for
By Maria Saporta
It’s been exactly a year since the environmental website — Mother Nature Network www.mnn.com — was launched.
Founder Joel Babbit celebrated MNN’s one-year anniversary on Jan. 6 by talking to a group of Central Atlanta Progress meeting at the Il Mulino restaurant in the lobby of the 191 Tower — a building that has been integral to the website’s inception and operation.
What a year it’s been.
“We have about one million people coming to our site each month from 200 different countries,” Babbit said.
The major ratings firm for websites — Alexa — follows 6,200 websites in the environmental space. Of those, Mother
By Maria Saporta
After decades in the real estate business, Hal Barry took time Wednesday to reflect on his career and the state of the industry in a talk to the Atlanta chapter of the Urban Land Institute.
He has seen the ups and downs of Atlanta real estate economy, and what he has seen is that “the playing field has changed and it’s changed again and again.”
Barry has not been immune from the downturn in the economy, but he has seen other real estate recessions in Atlanta.
“I have no idea where 2010 is going to take us, but I feel it’s going to be better than 2009,” Barry said.
Up until 2007, there was a range of
By Maria Saporta
In his first public address after being sworn in as mayor, Kasim Reed charmed the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta today at lunch.
He was greeted by a standing ovation. And the audience of longtime Atlantans, many of whom probably had not voted for Reed, interrupted his speech several times with applause.
At the end, Reed received another standing ovation and Kiwanians seemed dutifully impressed.
During his talk, Reed told the Kiwanis Club that he woke up at 5:30 a.m. on his first full day as mayor “with a broad smile on my face.” He then declared his love for Atlanta, and told Kiwanians that
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell released his committee assignments today, and it appears as though the legislative body will be undergoing some changes.
Interestingly enough, to of the committee chairs are brand new council members.
Aaron Watson, an at-large councilmember, will chair the zoning committee. He also will serve on city utilities and the finance/executive committee.
Newcomer Yolanda Adrean, who represents the Buckhead area, will chair the finance and executive committee. She also will serve on city utilities and public safety.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 1, 2010
As we enter 2010, the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America will be celebrating several new beginnings.
It has a new scout executive — Tracy Techau — who is coming to Atlanta after serving as scout executive of the Council in Cincinnati. He succeeds Don McChesney, who has been promoted to regional director of the Northeast region for the Boy Scouts of America.
By Maria Saporta
Last summer, the Metro Atlanta Chamber released its New Economy Task Force report on what the region needs to do to remain competitive in growing and attracting new jobs.
So the Rotary Club of Atlanta thought it would be a good idea to have David Ratcliffe, who chaired the New Economy Task Force, give a talk on the report’s findings.
Ratcliffe was invited to speak at the Nov. 9 Rotary meeting.
But when Ratcliffe came, instead of speaking about the New Economy Task Force, he spoke about the Southern Co., the energy industry and proposed global warming legislation.
As Atlanta Federal Reserve President
Dear Readers,
I took off a couple of weeks from SaportaReport to enjoy the holidays and prepare for a new year and a new decade. I hope you missed me.
But now that the weekend is coming to a close, the world of work and news and commentary beckons.
Starting tomorrow, you can expect regular updates from me on what’s going on in our town, our region and our state.
Let’s hope common sense and enlightened progress will greet us in the new year.
Thanks for visiting SaportaReport. Please come back often.
Maria Saporta
An older and more subdued G. Lars Gullstedt returned to Atlanta last month to visit the place where his dreams were never fully realized.
Back in the early 1990s, Gullstedt, a Swedish developer who had turned his sights towards Atlanta, was on top of the world.
He had built a real estate empire in Sweden, and he was well on his way to transform Midtown Atlanta.
One Gullstedt monument was built in Atlanta — the 51-story building that is the home of the Four Season Hotel. When it opened in 1992, the building was a one-of-a-kind development known as the GLG Grand.
The multi-layered building, which sits on 14th Street between the Peachtrees, includes an underground parking garage, a hotel with a conference area, offices, apartments, townhomes, condominiums, an athletic club and penthouses.
Gullstedt and his wife returned as hotel guests at the Four
By Maria Saporta, J. Scott Trubey and Douglas Sams
Friday, January 1, 2010
One of Buckhead’s most prominent new developments — the Mansion on Peachtree — could be heading back to the lender.
Barring a last-minute deal, the high-end Mansion on Peachtree is facing imminent foreclosure, according to the project’s developer. A 30-day foreclosure notice is expected to be advertised on Jan. 5.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, December 18, 2009
Finding a business executive to chair the 2010 United Way campaign has been a challenging task. Given the tough economic environment, interested CEOs have had to beg off, at least for this coming year.
So United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta Inc. is doing something it has never done before — having the same
