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, November 27, 2009
The Atlanta Ballet has named a seasoned arts and cultural leader as its new executive director.
Arthur Jacobus has worked in the ballet field for nearly 20 years, serving as president of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and executive director of the San Francisco Ballet.
By Maria Saporta
Foreclosure on the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter has been averted, at least for now.
Two lenders had filed for foreclosure notices that was supposed to go forward on Dec. 1.
But on Monday, the Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was able to reach a temporary agreement with the lenders to keep the shelter open for at least another three months.
William “B” Wardlaw, who has been the
Life is not fair.
That point hit home once again this week.
On Thanksgiving morning, a friend of mine became seriously ill. She recently had moved in to our guest room — needing a place to stay and wanting to help me organize my home with 25-plus years of clutter.
So Thanksgiving morning, she tells me she is having agonizing pains in her stomach and that she needs to go to the hospital.
We get in my car, and she tells me she needs to go to Grady because she has no health insurance. This does not come as a surprise. I have known she has been living on the margins of society for years.
By Maria Saporta
The Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has been at odds with the downtown business community and others — ever since it purchased the Peachtree-Pine building 12 years ago and turned into the city’s largest shelter.
Now William “B” Wardlaw, the Task Force’s top benefactor and supporter, acknowledges that the shelter’s days are numbered.
Two of the Task Force’s lenders — the Denver-based Mercy Loan Fund and the Institute for Community Economics —
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 27, 2009
Housing advocates, and business and philanthropic leaders are keeping close tabs on the scheduled Dec. 1 foreclosure of the Peachtree-Pine shelter operated by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
Two lenders have filed foreclosure notices on the Peachtree-Pine building — the Denver-based Mercy
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Metro Atlanta Chamber has nailed down its leaders through 2011.
John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., has agreed to chair the chamber’s board in 2011, which means he will become chairman-elect next month.
By Maria Saporta
Mayoral candidate Mary Norwood has received a significant endorsement from State Rep. Margaret Kaiser, a Democrat who represents House District 59.
In a telephone interview late Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser said that her first inclination had been to remain neutral in the mayor’s race.
But as the race has entered its closing stretch, Kaiser felt it was important for Norwood to be recognized for her leadership style.
“It was time for more pro-active
By Maria Saporta
It was a first for me.
For three hours this afternoon, I interviewed the eight candidates currently in run-offs in key City of Atlanta races in a novel format that included video streaming to the web world through the use of social media.
The forum was organized by the Committee for a Better Atlanta, a coalition of several business and civic organizations interested in electing the most qualified people to elected offices.
The interviews, which took place at the
By Maria Saporta
When students return to Morehouse College in January after the holidays, their ranks will be down by between 60 and 80 fellow classmates.
Morehouse College President Robert Franklin told the Atlanta Kiwanis Club today that the economy is taking its toll on some of the historically-black college’s most financially vulnerable students.
“Many of our students can’t afford to come back,” Franklin said.
Morehouse College is only one of three
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 20, 2009
The legacy of former Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. will live on at Georgia Tech in far-reaching ways that will cover the entire institution.
The centerpiece of that legacy will be the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize in Social Courage, which will be awarded to a national or international leader every year. That leader will receive $100,000 along with the prize.
Tom Glenn, president of the Hilda and Wilbur Glenn
Our community is full of heroes who dedicate their lives to making Atlanta a better place to live.
As we give thanks this week, I would like to thank all our local heroes.
The abundance of great community leaders really hit home this past week.
It began with the induction of a new shining light — Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank for 30 years. On Monday, Bolling received the Shining Light Award from Atlanta Gas Light and WSB-Radio — placed nostalgically on Peachtree Street in front of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Then on Thursday, Progressive Redevelopment Inc. — one of
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Community Food Bank has received a $100,000 grant to help it serve more than 400,000 residents in Atlanta and North Georgia.
Humana Inc. and its Humana Foundation provided the $100,000 grant as part of its fifth annual Atlanta Benefits program. Humana is a leading provider of health benefits in Atlanta.
Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, said those funds will go towards creating a new Food Co-op that will go towards helping hundreds of thousands Georgians
By Maria Saporta
The board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber this morning adopted its 2010 legislative agenda calling for renewed initiatives related to water, transportation, education and economic development.
In the past several years, the Chamber’s legislative agenda has fared poorly in the General Assembly. And the fact that 2010 is an election year for virtually all of the state’s elected officials adds yet another complexity to the Chamber’s agenda this coming year.
John Yates, a partner of the Morris, Manning & Martin law firm who chairs the
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 13, 2009
Georgia Power Co. is donating more than 5,000 acres of significant property to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, ensuring that they will be preserved for generations to come.
The largest land gift is the Sprewell Bluff property, a
By Maria Saporta
The wooing between the Atlanta business community and the two mayoral candidates is in full swing.
Although the business community can’t produce the number of votes to get a candidate elected (partly because many executives live outside the city), their financial contributions are critical in financing campaigns in a close election.
A week ago, both mayoral candidates had back-to-back meetings with the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the executive committee of Central Atlanta Progress.
By Maria Saporta
The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has a new president.
Rogers Wade, who has been president of the conservative think-tank for 16 years, announced today that he is becoming chairman of the policy foundation’s board of trustees.
The new president of the foundation is Kelly McCutchen, who has been serving as its executive vice president. McCutchen has been with the foundation since 1993. The organization was founded in 1991.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta’s shining lights have been gracing our city streets since 1963, and today, we added a new shining light to our city — Bill Bolling.
Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Commuity Food Bank, was honored this morning at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — site of where Bolling started his career feeding the hungry and empowering those in need.
The Atlanta Gas Light Co. and WSB-Radio News/Talk 750 co-sponsor the Shining Light Award nearly every year. An actual gas light with an eternal flame is erected
Election year politics could impact the passage of a proposed sustainable building ordinance in Atlanta.
On July 6, the sustainable building ordinance was submitted to Atlanta’s city council as a way to encourage the development of greener buildings. But over the last five months, the ordinance has been stalled in the Community Development Committee.
The ordinance was held yet again at last week’s council committee meeting. The last opportunity for the bill to pass the committee this year will be Dec. 1, which just so happens to be election day for Atlanta’s run-offs.
The ordinance has to be approved by that committee before it can go to the full council for its Dec. 7 meeting, the last one of
By Maria Saporta and Urvaksh Karkira
Staff Writers
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has received its largest individual gift, to bolster its efforts to become a national leader in pediatric research.
The Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation is making a $30 million gift to Children’s Healthcare, including $25 million toward a pediatric research building and $5 million toward the Marcus Autism Center.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 6, 2009
Atlanta has a new woman executive on the scene — Kathy Betty — the new owner of the Atlanta Dream, Atlanta’s WNBA franchise.
Oddly enough, Betty becoming a professional sports team owner may have been predestined.
She remembers when both she and her late husband,
