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.
Life can be so fleeting.
That was the first thought that came to mind when Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen called me early Saturday afternoon to tell me Alvah Hardy had been killed in car accident Friday night.
Hardy was the executive director of facilities services for APS, and he was responsible for all the capital improvements underway at numerous schools across the city.
In a highly-anticipated Monday morning release, Truist – the entity created by the merger of SunTrust and BB&T – unveiled its logo, symbolizing the concept of a true merger of equals.
For example, the color is a deep purple, the merging BB&T’s burgundy with SunTrust’s blue.
City leaders heralded Tuesday’s official ground-breaking of Herndon Square on Northside Drive as the start of a new day for Atlanta Housing and affordable housing developments.
But not everyone at the ceremony was convinced.
World-class cities have world-class New Year’s Eve celebrations – free events in public places where people can celebrate – out with the old and in with the new.
Sadly, Atlanta was absent this year as we saw the calendar turn from 2019 to 2020.
By Maria Saporta For the past several weeks, I’ve been absorbed with the story of Richard Jewell – thanks to a book and movie that have resurfaced controversial memories of more than 23 years ago. Jewell was the security guard at Centennial Olympic Park the night of the bombing that caused the death of two […]
By Maria Saporta For the past several weeks, I’ve been absorbed with the story of Richard Jewell – thanks to a book and movie that have resurfaced controversial memories of more than 23 years ago. Jewell was the security guard at Centennial Olympic Park the night of the bombing that caused the death of two […]
The era of lawsuits and countersuits at Atlanta Housing and the city of Atlanta appears to be nearing an end.
Eugene Jones, president and CEO of Atlanta Housing, said through a spokeswoman that the authority has reached a settlement agreement with developer Egbert Perry, CEO of the Integral Group.
While Atlanta did not land the headquarters of the newly-formed Truist, it will be the bank’s most important market in its footprint.
Plain and simple. Ted Turner deserves more.
On Dec. 6, WarnerMedia brought its top brass to Atlanta to dedicate the media company’s Techwood campus to Ted Turner. They also unveiled a mural and a plaque describing Turner as “the original maverick pioneer in the media industry” and as a “champion of the environment.”
An important link to Atlanta’s architectural history has died.
Architect Jeffrey L. Robinson, 58, died suddenly on Nov. 30. Robinson was president of J.W. Robinson & Associates – the oldest African-American architectural firm in the state of Georgia. It was founded by his late father – Joseph W. Robinson Sr. – in 1970.
WarnerMedia on Friday honored media pioneer Ted Turner by renaming the company’s Techwood campus in his honor.
At a press conference Wednesday morning, Gov. Brian Kemp said it was a “historic day” as he named businesswoman Kelly Loeffler as his pick to fill the seat of out-going U.S Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia).
It’s a story of rebirth – the human kind and the physical kind.
A benefit concert for the Westside Singing Ambassadors on Nov. 29 at 960 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard provided a symbolic spark of what once was and what could be again.
Recently it has felt as though I’ve been spending too much of my energies complaining and worrying about the current state of affairs.
So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I began to count our blessings, and I realized there are so many that they won’t all fit in one column.
JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon visited Morehouse College on Friday carrying a figurative “Help Wanted” sign.
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is making the largest grant in its 25-year history – $50 million – to Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
Former Atlantan Barron Segar has been named president of and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based World Food Program USA – effective Jan. 21.
Segar currently is executive vice president and chief development officer for UNICEF USA in New York City. Before that, Segar led fundraising efforts for UNICEF’s Southeast region based in Atlanta.
The tapestry of Atlanta’s civil rights history is getting a colorful new thread with the addition of the new Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Bridge.
An official dedication of the bridge will be held on Monday, Nov. 25, and it will highlight the contributions of one of Atlanta’s greatest mayors. Allen served as Atlanta’s mayor between 1962 and 1970, one of the most tumultuous times in the city’s history.
For women serving on boards of Georgia’s public companies, 2019 was a good year.
OnBoard, the nonprofit that tracks the presence of women directors and officers on Georgia’s public company boards, says in a new study that for the first time in the organization’s 27-year history, the top 50 public companies in Georgia all now have at least one woman on their boards.
It’s been two years and five months since Raphael Bostic became president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – a district that covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia as well as parts of Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Bostic calls it one region with many different economies given the spectrum of economic vibrancy and prospects for the future.
