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
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?
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
