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.
SAN DIEGO, CA – On the second day of the metro Atlanta LINK trip to this southern California city, Georgia leaders discovered differences and similarities between the two regions.
In San Diego, one out of every four jobs is related to the military, generating an economic impact of $50 billion a year and employing up to 140,000 people in the south California region.
SAN DIEGO, CA – It’s hard for residents of San Diego and Tijuana to see where the U.S. border begins and Mexican border ends.
In fact, San Diego and Tijuana consider themselves to be “CaliBaja” or “Calexico” or “Mexicali” – all names that represent a mashing together of the southern edge of California with the northern edge of Mexico.
The Atlanta delegation arrived in San Diego Wednesday morning – West Coast time – spending its first stop at Liberty Station, a redeveloped Naval training center that has been turned a complex of art galleries, shops, offices and restaurants.
Mark Cafferty, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., told the Atlanta delegation that Liberty Station is one of the most successful redevelopments of a former military complex in the United States.
The environmental destruction surrounding the redevelopment of the Bobby Jones Golf Course continues.
The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is strongly opposing a plan by the Bobby Jones Golf Foundation to encroach within the stream buffers of Tanyard Creek and Peachtree Creek.
Talk about timing.
Morehouse College hosted a town hall meeting Thursday afternoon with Howard Schultz, founder and executive chairman of Starbucks; and Rosalind Gates Brewer, Starbucks’ president of the Americas and chief operating officer.
The town hall, which had been planned for month, took place less than a month after two black males were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia for hanging out at the café without buying anything.
In 2016, the Home Depot Foundation committed to investing $250 million veteran-related causes by 2020.
On Friday, the foundation will announce it has reached its $250 million goal – two years early.
Leadership Atlanta has released the names of 89 community leaders who will participate in its Class of 2019 program – the largest class in the organization’s 49-year history.
The Class of 2019, representing such diverse industries as education, law, corporate, religious, nonprofit, technology, media, healthcare, politics and government, share a common desire to move Atlanta forward by delving deeply into the city’s issues, according to a Leadership Atlanta news release.
Housing affordability and transit will be key focus areas of the 2018 LINK trip to San Diego, which will take place from May 9 to May 12.
Ever since 1997, a group of more than 100 Atlanta leaders – representing governments, businesses and nonprofits – go to a different city to learn about the best practices that we can bring back to our region. And it also provides an opportunity for leaders from the 10-county region to get to know one another.
The Coca-Cola Co.’s 2018 annual meeting of shareholders at the World of Coke was one of the tamest in the company recent history.
There was no one shouting “Killer Coke.” There were no protesters out in front. There were no angry vocal shareholders. There were no combative exchanges with executives. And no one had to be forcefully removed from the meeting.
A regional initiative to improve educational outcomes in metro Atlanta’s five core counties – Learn4Life – released its second annual report at a Metro Atlanta Chamber event Tuesday morning.
The “State of Education in Metro Atlanta” report highlights the cradle-to-grave approach to improve outcomes for all students. Learn4Life encompasses eight school districts in those five counties – Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, Decatur, Cobb, Marietta, Gwinnett and Clayton.
John A. Williams would have loved his memorial service.
Family and friends gathered Monday at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Buckhead to remember the 75-year-old apartment developer who died on April 16.
“He was larger than life, but most of all my father was a builder,” Jay Williams told a full sanctuary. “He built companies – two great ones.”
Recent actions by the Atlanta Housing Authority need to be viewed through a magnifying glass.
Despite owning hundreds of acres of land, AHA is spending millions of dollars to buy more land from the City of Atlanta, another public entity.
AHA couches these land deals as helping fulfill its goal to develop more affordable housing in the City of Atlanta. But over the past eight years, AHA has not developed any new housing units on its significant land holdings.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Dec. 22, 2017
The Trust for Public Land has reached its $12.7 million goal to build out the Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Vine City, with the hope that it will be open in time for the Super Bowl in February 2019.
George Dusenbury, state director of the Trust for Public Land, said the grand vision for the park appealed to both the community and the philanthropic community.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Dec. 22, 2017
During a recent tour of English Avenue and Vine City, Frank Fernandez of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation highlighted numerous initiatives that have begun to take root on the Westside.
A former check-cashing business is being transformed into a restaurant. Several vacant lots have been turned into neighborhood parks. Police officers are moving into the neighborhood thanks to an initiative of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Westside Works has a new home where it is training residents in the fields of construction, heath care, culinary arts and soon childcare.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Dec. 15, 2017
The Woodruff Arts Center will be able to continue its Family Fun programming over the next three years thanks to a new philanthropic grant.
The Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, which is part of the Robert W. Woodruff family of foundations, has awarded the Woodruff Arts Center an extension grant of $5.1 million to allow Family Fun to continue – offering free access to music, visual arts and theater for another three years.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Dec. 8, 2017
Atlanta’s housing advocates reminded newly-elected leaders of their commitments during the campaign to address the city’s affordability problems.
“It’s an exciting and challenging time for us,” said Bill Bolling, the facilitator of the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum meeting at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Dec. 6, a day after the election. “We finally got affordability to the top of the list. We need to hold [elected leaders] accountable and be allies” in helping make Atlanta more affordable.
The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Clark Atlanta University over ownership of former Morris Brown College land – virtually exhausting Invest Atlanta’s legal options on the case.
The Georgia Supreme Court reaffirmed last year’s ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals, which agreed that Clark Atlanta had legal right to the Morris Brown property.
Updated: A memorial service to celebrate the life of John A. Williams will be held on Monday, April 23 at 2 p.m. at Peachtree Presbyterian Church at 3434 Roswell Road NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30305. A reception will follow the service at the Cherokee Town Club at 155 W. Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta Ga 30305. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Piedmont Heart Institute or a charity of your choice
As the Atlanta region becomes more interested in mass transit, the question now can be boiled down to expand rail lines or invest in bus rapid transit.
Recent conversations from key state and county leaders in the Atlanta region seem to be leaning towards a bus solution rather than rail.
Listening to Atlanta’s own Shawn Mullins at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival on a beautiful Saturday night in Piedmont Park (Photo by Maria Saporta)
