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, August 28, 2009
John Somerhalder may not know what this year’s United Way goal will be until moments before the campaign kicks off on Sept. 1.
Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources Inc., who is chairing this year’s United Way campaign, is still meeting with executives to push the goal number “as hard as we can.”
The 2008 United Way campaign raised $80.5 million,
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority’s (GRTA) decision to award two contracts worth up to $4.5 million without competitive bidding is being questioned by several people in both the public and private sector.
The two sole-sourced contracts have been awarded to McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, to advance Gov. Sonny Perdue’s IT3 initiative, which stands for Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today.
By Maria Saporta
Planned Parenthood of Georgia is merging with Planned Parenthood of Alabama.
The merged organization — Planned Parenthood Southeast — was supposed to have begun its operations on Tuesday, Sept. 1, but it has been delayed for a month to dot a “few more ‘i’s,'” according to Leola Reis, the vide president of external affairs for Georgia. The merged territory will cover all of Georgia, Alabama and most of Mississippi.
“Combining our two organizations will
For the past couple of months, I’ve been talking to the top candidates for Atlanta mayor about my concern that this could be the most divisive mayoral campaign in the past three decades.
I thought that a likely run-off election that is almost sure to include City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who is white, and any of her opponents, all of whom are all black; that race would raise its ugly head.
Little did I expect that a major racial blow-up would happen several months before the general election on Nov. 3.
But that’s what happened this week when a position statement
By Maria Saporta
One of the architects of our modern MARTA system has passed away.
Alan Kiepper, MARTA’s general manager and CEO from 1972 to 1982, passed away on Aug. 26 in Annapolis, Md. at the age of 81.
I received an email from one of his successors at MARTA — Ken Gregor — who wanted to make sure Kiepper was recognized for the influence he had on Atlanta’s growth.
By Maria Saporta
DeKalb County and the Clean Cities Atlanta Coalition has been awarded a $14.9 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The grant will fund programming designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation vehicles.
In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said: “I want to personally thank the Department of Energy and the Office of the Vice President for pushing this
By Maria Saporta
Georgia’s continued lack of progress on building a commuter rail line towards Griffin is costing the state millions in lost stimulus dollars.
Unless the state acts quickly to get the project moving, it is extremely vulnerable to losing the $87 million federal funds already allocated to the project.
Those are two concerns expressed by U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Georgia) earlier
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin believes Atlantans have moved beyond the racial divisions that afflicted the city decades ago.
After reading a position paper of the Black Leadership Forum, thought to have been written by Aaron Turpeau, the mayor felt she had to respond.
In the paper, Turpeau wrote that the black community needs to rally behind
By Maria Saporta
Race has entered the Atlanta’s mayor’s race.
A position paper by the Black Leadership Forum, written by Aaron Turpeau, is urging the black community to rally behind one black candidate to make sure Atlanta doesn’t end up with a white mayor — notably City Councilwoman Mary Norwood who currently is ahead in the polls.
Turpeau then urges black leaders
By Maria Saporta
This just in from architect and perservationist Laura DePree.
The Crum & Forster building in Midtown has just been granted Landmark status with Mayor Shirley Franklin’s signature. Last week, the Atlanta City Council unanimously supported giving the historic structure added protection, but it needed the mayor’s signature before it could receive that designation.
The building has been endangered
By Maria Saporta
“It just ain’t so.”
That was Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s response to a couple of rumors making the rounds around town.
One rumor is that the Obama administration is considering Baker to fill the open judgeship on the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a prestigious nomination.
But if that were true, it would take Baker out of the race to be the Democratic
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta’s mayoral race has one less candidate.
In a fairly dramatic moment at the end of a mayoral forum Monday evening, candidate Duvwon Robinson removed his jacket and put on a Lisa Borders T-shirt, and then he announced he was withdrawing from the race and throwing his support behind the president of the Atlanta City Council. The two then hugged.
Robinson’s withdrawal from the mayor’s
Tom Johnson knows a thing or two about power and how to use it.
Before he became chief executive of the CNN News Group, Johnson had a multifaceted career in politics and journalism.
Back in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson, no relation, brought him on as a White House Fellow. He worked for the president in various positions, including as one of the administration’s press secretaries.
Sometimes being a journalist is a frustrating experience.
The goal is to find the answers to questions until a story makes sense.
But it’s not always easy getting answers. And even when answers are provided, some stories still leave more questions than answers.
Such a story is the recent news that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is leaving downtown, its home for more than140 years, to move to a Dunwoody office building at 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, the former Southeast headquarters for Macy’s
By David Luse
Sir James Paul McCartney, the most successful songwriter according to the Guinness World Records, came to Piedmont Park for a fundraiser dedicated to expanding the park by 40 percent.
He is known mainly for his songs written with The Beatles rather than those composed through his side projects and solo work. He wrote songs such as “Yesterday,” the most covered song in history, deemed by some to be the greatest song of the 20th century. This song is listed as composed by
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 21, 2009
The economy is experiencing a “global reset,” according to Peter Evans, director of Global Strategy and Planning for Atlanta-based GE Energy.
During this global reset, American businesses have a choice to lead a “fast green growth” world or follow a “slow brown” strategy.
Evans shared that message at a New Sustainable
By Maria Saporta
Georgia Power President and CEO Mike Garrett painted a broad brush of business issues at a luncheon meeting of the Gwinnett Chamber earlier today.
From the economy to energy to water to economic development, Garrett shared his thoughts.
Because of his multiple roles, he is in a unique position to talk about all of them. He is chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He is chairman of the
By Maria Saporta
The city of Atlanta continues to do what it can to save the Crum & Forster building at 771 Spring St. in Midtown.
On Monday, in a 14-0 vote, the Atlanta City Council voted to give the building a Landmark designation, which would give it greater protection from being demolished.
Preservationists and urban advocates have made the saving of the Crum & Forster building a cause celebre as soon
By Maria Saporta
Southface has many reasons to celebrate today’s opening of its Eco Office.
The Eco Office is a demonstration model of what Southfaces has been preaching for decades — that we can build more energy-efficient buildings that use much less water than conventional buildings.
So it was with green fanfare that Southface had its “vine-cutting” ceremony. Founder Dennis Creech, who is Southface’s executive director, said
Finding the right transportation solution for metro Atlanta is getting harder by the day.
Take what former Gov. Roy Barnes told real estate agents last week. (I actually emailed the governor to make sure he was quoted accurately. Yes he was).
As Political Insider Jim Galloway reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Barnes said that MARTA should be preserved, but not expanded. Instead, the state should shift to a network of elevated light-rail lines that would run above metro Atlanta’s interstate system.
What has happened to our “smart growth” governor?
