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
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?
By Maria Saporta
There’s a Beatlemania Breeze in the air.
Walking to Piedmont Park this morning among a hub-bub of activity, one of my neighbors had set up speakers on the front porch playing old Beatle songs.
At 10 a.m., a line of about 400 people already were camped out, some who had come as early as 2:30 a.m. to be one of the first to get into the general admission show.
The past week in Midtown has felt
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 14, 2009
The possible move of Atlanta’s largest daily newspaper out of downtown concerns civic leaders and one of the city’s most accomplished journalists.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been laying the groundwork to move from its current downtown home to a location that likely
By Maria Saporta
Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 11:38am
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is laying the groundwork to move the newspaper from its current downtown home to a location that likely will be outside the city limits.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Buckhead Community Improve-ment District has tapped Atlanta civic leader Jim Durrett as its new executive director.
Durrett currently is executive director of the Livable Communities Coalition, a 4-year-old coalition of about 40 civic organizations dedicated to promoting smart-growth practices in the Atlanta region.
By Maria Saporta
The Livable Communities Coalition has named Ray Christman as its new executive director, beginning Aug. 31.
He will suceed Jim Durrett, who submitted his resignation a few days ago so he could become executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District at the end of the month.
Durrett is succeeding Scotty Greene, who is retiring after 10 years running the Buckhead CID.
It is one of the quickest management
By Maria Saporta
He may be the only guy in Georgia who feels this way.
“I can’t wait till January,” said Vance Smith, the new commissioner for the Georgia Department of Transportation. “I’m looking forward to interacting with the General Assembly.”
Smith was speaking to the board of the Georgia Department of Economic Development at the Newell Rubbermaid headquarters. Before becoming GDOT commissioner nearly two months ago,
By Maria Saporta
One of Atlanta’s top public relations professional — Claudia Patton — is on her way up.
The Edelman firm has promoted Patton as president of Edelman’s Southeast region. She will oversee the Edelman office in Atlanta and Orlando as well as the eight-state Southeast region.
Before her promotion, Patton has been president and general manager of Edelman Atlanta. She has been in the public relations industry since 1982 when
By Maria Saporta
Talk about timing.
On Sept. 25, 2008, Emory University announced a $1.6 billion fundraising campaign — the largest such campaign of any university in Georgia.
“We announced the public campaign right when the economy went soft,” said Sonny Deriso,
Without a doubt, metro Atlanta is the economic propeller for the state of Georgia.
When metro Atlanta suffers, so does the rest of the state.
But, for reasons that defy logic, there is a lack of appreciation for the positive impact that Georgia’s metropolis has on the rest of the state.
One would think that the state of Georgia would do everything it could to make sure that its economic engine was running as efficiently as possible. But whether it be economic development investment or traffic issues or water resources, metro Atlanta often finds itself at a disadvantage.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Friday, August 7, 2009
At 9 a.m. on July 23, the phone rang in Mike Garrett’s office.
It was Gov. Sonny Perdue. Would Garrett, president and CEO of Georgia Power Co., be willing to serve as the “quarterback” of the state’s efforts to get congressional authorization to use Lake Lanier for drinking water and help resolve the dispute between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over water allocation?
By Maria Saporta
Alternative, renewal energy sources appear to be gaining steam in Georgia.
At Friday morning’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, a panel focused on the environmental issues facing the Georgia coast.
In his presentation, Tybee Island City Councilman Paul Wolff talked about a wind energy study that was done by Georgia Tech and Georgia Power.
“We could generate half of our energy
A set of Atlanta’s best known twins is being honored by the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, which has almost 1,100 members throught the state.
It is renaming its GAWL Foundation Endowment as the Ruth and Ruby Crawford Endowment.
The colorful twin sisters, who were always dressed in matchng attire, both served as president of GAWL and were “widely recognized as trailblazers for professional women in Georgia,”
By Maria Saporta
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), founded by Atlantan Ted Turner and managed by former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) has developed unique ties with the Obama administration.
Three of the top officials within NTI have moed into senior-level positions in the Obama administration. They include:
Laura Holgate, NTI’s vice president for Russia and New Independent States for the past eight years, is serving as senior
By Maria Saporta
The Goizueta Foundation is donating $12 million, three-year grant to the Woodruff Arts Center to expand arts education programming for children and students up to the 12th grade.
The gift is the single largest grant that the center has rceived for its campus-wide education initiatives.
The grant also will help the arts center develop a cohesive and collaborative education platform that works with each
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 31, 2009
Central Atlanta Progress is working with city officials to secure $3.1 million to help revitalize the Auburn Avenue corridor.
Those funds are part of $42 million of unspent Atlanta Empowerment funds allocated to the city about 15 years ago to help distressed communities.
Recently, I had lunch with Taylor Glover, president of Turner Enterprises.
It didn’t’ take long for us to start talking about the environment and energy. Glover began drawing some wavy lines on the paper tablecloth at Ted’s Montana Grill.
In the past, the earth has relied on solids for energy — the burning of wood and coal. As time has passed, the world has turned more to liquids for its energy — primarily oil and petroleum products. The problem with those energy sources is that they contribute to pollution and to climate change.
In short, those are unsustainable sources of energy.
By Maria Saporta
Inclusion was the prevailing message at a mayoral forum Thursday evening sponsored by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The forum, held at the Georgia Terrace, included the five top candidates running to become Atlanta’s next mayor.
All five candidates said their administrations would work with the Hispanic community to participate in City Hall’s policies and contracts.
By Maria Saporta
The founding president of the Atlanta Education Fund, Hosanna Mahaley Johnson, has accepted a new position in New York.
Johnson has been named executive director of social justice and district innovation for Wireless Generation, which helps develop innovative technology for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The Atlanta Education Fund was started
