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, 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
By Maria Saporta
The only executive director the Georgia World Congress Center has ever known — Dan Graveline — announced today he is retiring at the end of the year.
He will cap off his 33-year career by working until midnight, Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome’s Chick-fil-A Bowl game.
It will culminate an amazing career by one of Georgia’s unsung public servants.
Graveline, 68 as of July 1, was named
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009
The final numbers are in for Atlanta’s United Way 2008 campaign.
Several amazing developments occurred among local companies despite one of the worst economic climates in metro Atlanta’s history.
By Maria Saporta and J. Scott Trubey
Friday, July 24, 2009
Delta Air Lines Inc., recently criticized by African-American leaders for its diversity record, has taken a key step.
By Maria Saporta
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not against health reform.
In fact, he told the Rotary Club of Atlanta today that health reform is necessary.
“What I’m opposed to in any health reform in this economy that will mean a tax increase,” Gingrich said. He then added that the bill that is in the House of Representatives today “will kill jobs.”
Gingrich has been working on healthcare
How far we have fallen.
Today Georgia finds itself in the weakest political position it has ever been at the national level, at least for the last six decades.
Currently, there is virtually no direct link to the party in power at the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. And Georgia is at risk of being left out in the political cold when it comes to power and influence.
Take the battle over the $1.75 billion appropriation for new F-22 fighter jets. Both U.S. senators from Georgia — Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson — had placed the continued
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009
The defining moment in Ralph de la Vega’s life happened when he was 10 years old.
By Maria Saporta
After a pow wow on water at the Governor’s Mansion earlier today, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gave a luncheon speech to the Buckhead Business Association, where she praised Gov. Sonny Perdue for taking a lead on this issue.
The water summit followed last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that most of metro Atlanta does not have the legal right to access water from Lake Lanier. The judge gave
By Maria Saporta
Although Gwinnett County is planning to remove its signature water towers along I-85 proclaiming that “Gwinnett is Great,” the county continues to anticipate strong growth for the next 20 years.
Economist Roger Tutterow of Mercer University participated in Gwinnett’s first annual “Transportation Summit” on Wednesday at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters.
By 2030, Tutterow said that Gwinnett will
By Maria Saporta
Tom Bell, who retired earlier this summer as CEO of Cousins Properties, is carrying the flag for free enterprise.
Bell is vice chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is in line to lead the organization from July, 2010 through June, 2011.
But starting in September, Bell will chair the U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, a national campaign that is expected to last through the 2010 mid-term elections.
It’s been pretty easy to blame the state legislature for the lack of progress on regional transportation issues and MARTA during the last session.
But part of the problem rests within the region. There has been a lack of consensus among local governments and their delegation of senators and representatives on how to proceed on key regional issues.
A significant meeting took place last week at Fulton County that hopes to change that backdrop.
The meeting included top elected leaders from the city of
By Maria Saporta
Metro Atlanta has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, but its income and job growth has not kept up with population.
By Maria Saporta – Friday, July 17, 2009
Back in the day, metro Atlantans were well-represented on the boards of the major banks doing business in the city.
Readers,
After five months online, SaportaReport is delighted to let you know of some improvements to our site.
Most significantly is the addition of Lyle Harris, a longtime colleague of mine at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lyle was a reporter and later an editorial writer focusing on the environment, housing, land-use and transportation issues.
Now he will be contributing his expertise
A lot can happen in 20 years; it’s hard to believe “Do the Right Thing,” Spike Lee’s searing portrayal of urban race relations, debuted way back in 1989 when “Poppy” Bush was in the White House and asking us to read his lips. Two decades hence, we’ve wished “buh-bye” through gritted teeth to the Junior Bush-in-chief.
For Bush II’s beleaguered successor, fixing the economy and restoring our battered national character at home and abroad are, of course, top priorities. But, by virtue of his cross-cultural ancestry, President Obama is also implicitly tasked with re-defining our outdated notions about race.
On that score, Obama certainly has his work cut out for him. Come to think of it, as residents of metro Atlanta, so do we.
Hopefully, the recent 20th Anniversary celebration of “Do the Right Thing” at the Fox Theater will occasion more than wistful nostalgia for the late 80’s. It’s an opportunity also for metro Atlanta to examine anew some of the troubling issues Lee’s film dared to raise.
By Maria Saporta
Spreading the word.
James Shepherd, the inspiration and co-founder of the Shepherd Center, used Facebook to send his friends the message, along with this link, that the Atlanta hospital is among the top 10 rehabilitation centers in the United States.
U.S. News & World Report has just put out a ranking of the “Best Rehabilitaton Hospitals.” Atlanta’s Shepherd Center ranked 9th among a list of more than 150 hospitals in the country.
The rank was based on Shepherd’s reputation by specialists in the medical
By Maria Saporta
City of Atlanta bonds already allocated to the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights will pay off the balance of a $32 million loan used to buy a premier collection of Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers.
The finance/executive committee of the Atlanta City Council just approved the plan this afternoon in a 4-0 vote. The plan still needs to be approved by the full council and the Atlanta Development Authority.
Three years ago, Atlanta leaders came together to buy the King papers on the eve before they were to be sold at a Sotheby’s auction. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
