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
Two buildings face each other across the street — one a symbol of despair, one a symbol of hope.
On the north side of Memorial Drive downtown is the Atlanta city jail, officially known as the Atlanta Department of Corrections. It’s a building that houses broken laws and crippled lives
And on the south side of the street is Welcome House — a perfectly-named place where people are encouraged to rebuild their lives.
None of that symbolism is lost on
By Maria Saporta
More on the 14th Street bridge. Little did I know when I wrote a short item about the reopening of the 14th Street bridge that it would generate such thoughtful commentary from friends and readers.
According to people familiar with the project, the $88.5 million project cost identified by the Georgia Department of Transportation did not reflect the true actual cost.
It cost the state up to $106 million to acquire the right of way for the project,
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 4, 2009
After five years, David Ratcliffe stepped down as chairman of the Georgia Research Alliance at the organization’s quarterly board meeting on Sept. 2. Ratcliffe is chairman and CEO of Southern Co.
He was succeeded by Bill Linginfelter, area president for Georgia and South Carolina for Regions Bank, who has been serving as vice chairman.
John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric Co., was elected as the new vice chairman.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 4, 2009
In the end, it all comes down to memories.
On Nov. 16, 2006, Jill Albert passed away from cancer entrusting her husband, Jon Albert, and their two young children to carry on her legacy of family and fond memories.
That’s how the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation was formed. The national foundation based in Atlanta provides families with a terminally ill parent a special gift of lasting memories.
Just when you think it can’t get any worse…
For years, metro Atlanta has been seeking new funding for transportation. The last couple of years, the Atlanta region has been begging the state legislature for the right to pass a one-cent sales tax on itself to tackle its transportation problems.
But for the last two years, a proposed transportation funding bill has died in the last few hours of the session. This past session, it failed because the Senate favored a regional approach while the House favored a statewide sales tax, and the two houses couldn’t resolve their differences.
Such inaction infuriated metro Atlanta’s leaders. The business community even went so far as telling legislators that if they
By Maria Saporta
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to reopen the 14th Street this morning was moved to the nearby Courtyard by Marriott because of rain.
And even after the ribbon-cutting, the bridge would not be opened for a couple of more hours, a disappointment to several folks in cars who were waiting to be among the first to traverse the new bridge.
Speech after speech heralded this new east-west connection between Georgia
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
