Author Archives: Saba Long

In this land of opportunity, we are constantly faced with competing political and economic interests that cause us to investigate our values.

In the coming weeks, Washington policy makers will debate how best to address the 11 million illegal immigrants living within our borders.  Some say comprehensive immigration reform is analogous to amnesty. Others proclaim it is America’s moral obligation to welcome and support them.

We know the arguments for and against. The political right accuses Democratic backers of comprehensive immigration reform of doing this for political gain – assuming the political ideology of illegals align more with the Democratic Party.

The past decade has truly tested the American public — we have experienced tremendous hardships that have caused us to question our government, our corporate structure, our tolerance and our self-appointed role in policing the world.

As another anniversary of the September 11th attacks draws nigh, the President of the United States — Barack Obama — and Congress are in the midst of a nuanced debate, one that crosses partisan preferences and talking points.

While he certainly has the physical stature of a sheriff, Thomas Brown has the demeanor of a larger-than-life politician — the kind that kisses babies and gives you a bear hug upon first meeting you.

We recently met over breakfast in Virginia-Highlands where we happened to be seated next to U.S. Senate candidate Michele Nunn, her father, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, and other campaign advisors.

As I observed the two conversing, the point was not lost on me that these two could possibly be the next U.S. Senator and U.S. Congressman elected in Georgia.

The MacArthur Foundation announced a new initiative aimed at furthering local and national juvenile justice reform at the National Council of State Legislators’ annual conference meeting in Atlanta last week.

Its Models for Change: Resource Center Partnership, funded in part by an additional $15 million investment from the foundation, will provide programmers and policy makers support for operation and policy matters involving indigent defense, mental health, welfare and diversion programs for lesser offenders.

The four resource center partners are the National Center for Mental Health and Justice, the National Juvenile Justice Defender Center, the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps and the Vera Institute of Justice.

“Agriculture and Commerce.” It's the motto on the back (or front) of our two-sided state seal. And as State Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black reminded the audience in his keynote address at last week's Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, we participate in the state's agriculture industry three times per day.

From 1776 to present day, agriculture is big business for the state, generating more than $71 billion in economic activity, and it accounts for 87,000 full and part-time jobs.

A new study showcasing the possibility of upward mobility in America’s 50 largest cities is stirring much debate nationally about the health and wealth of our metropolitan economies. Atlanta was ranked dead last, with Charlotte just above us in 49th place.

In fact, according to the economists at Harvard and Berkeley who performed the research, Southern states hold the least amount of promise for a child raised in the bottom 5 percent income percentile to rise to the top five.

The top five percentile earn roughly $188,000 annually.

If there’s one thing the Great Recession has taught not-for-profits and government entities, it is how to get creative in providing services.

Often times, crowdfunding and public-private partnerships are the tools bridging the funding divide.

From organizations like the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra using crowdfunding for an archives project to the city of Atlanta working with the arts community to launch Power2Give, we are becoming accepting of these seemingly unconventional ways of empowering our communities.

There is a political and economic revolution taking place as cities and metropolitan regions are being recognized as the political and economic fixers of states across the country. The nation’s top 100 metro areas yield 75 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding that of Western European cities.

The metrics are similar when comparing the contribution of Georgia’s cities to the overall state economic output.

Atlanta and the region is key center for Fortune 500 headquarters and entrepreneurial activity. It has the nation’s most diverse clean tech and is the 13th-largest metro exporter in the country.

The past week has been a news whirlwind as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act and the Voting Rights Act as well as the ongoing national debate on women’s rights.

In a recent poll conducted by Fred Hicks of the non-partisan firm HEG, likely general election voters across the state of Georgia were asked their gender, political affiliation and five questions on the issues of the Voting Rights Act, abortion and gay marriage.

There has been a flurry of what-if articles and statements by politicos on the feasibility of turning Georgia purple. The poll responses speak to the conservative nature of our state’s electorate.

It is no wonder people – particularly younger folks — are increasingly disillusioned by politics. Every day, it seems, gridlock in Washington is affecting our way of life.

We have lost high school buddies, cousins and college classmates to the War on Terror, all while witnessing a long-overdue national debate on the health and wellness of military soldiers – namely “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the realities of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and sexual abuse.

Captivated by the possibilities of a President Barack Obama, youth across the country have been given a cold dose of reality that change doesn’t come in one term, and even then it may be more subdued than we expected.

Just a couple of months ago, I participated in a national security training simulation as part of a conference. Each table in the room represented key members of the President’s cabinet – the Secretary of State, Vice President, Homeland Security Chief and the Attorney General, to name a few. Also present were a group representing internet service providers.

My table was the Department of Defense.

While we worked through our simulation – how to respond to a cyber attack on a multinational banking institution by a terrorist cell – it became immediately clear of the numerous and complex variables to consider before making a unilateral executive decision that would affect the American public, the business community and, of course, national security.

Often times when reading the story of a successful company, the entrepreneur started exploring business opportunities at a young age. It has been no different for JuShawn Carter, a recent participant of Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia (YE- GA) and a May graduate of Benjamin E. Mays.

“My family has always encouraged me to work for and support myself,” said Carter, a college-bound senior. “I even started a bean bag businesses with my grandfather once.”

During her junior and senior year at Mays, Carter honed her entrepreneurial skills through a Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia sponsored elective.

“Patience, grasshopper,” was the tone last week at an Urban Land Institute (ULI) panel discussion titled “Downtown: Community or Amenity?”

Downtown Atlanta is most often seen as a tourist center within the city’s largest central business district — but a further look reveals there is more than meets the eye.

According to Central Atlanta Progress (CAP), compared to the rest of the city, downtown has the largest concentration of jobs, the largest share of college students, and with five hospitals, is the medical hub of Atlanta.

In its four square miles, are a number of distinct communities including Fairlie-Poplar, Luckie-Marietta and South Downtown. Census data reflects a 48 percent increase in the average family income of downtown residents over the past decade– which should be a clear sign of the need to cater to the needs of the community.

For over two centuries, the United States has been bound together by founding documents that defined who we are as Americans, and they served as our compass through every type of change, President Barack Obama asserted in a speech last week at the National Defense University.

The hour-long speech touched on a number of topics including a brief historic account of the numerous terrorists’ attacks on Americans in the 1980s and 1990s – a clear reminder that we have faced threats and assaults long before September 2001.

In the spring of 1983, Regan Administration dealt with the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 17 Americans, and just a few months later suicide bombers attacked Marine barracks killing 241 serviceman.

There is something liberating about casually strolling down the middle of Peachtree Street as out-of-towners standing on the sidewalk gesture with an air of perplexity.

Rain aside, hundreds of Atlantans joined together this past Sunday to celebrate another Atlanta Streets Alive, the first on our city’s signature street – Peachtree.

From downtown to Midtown, families and friends walked, cycled and skateboarded up and down the street sans cars. Along the nearly three-mile route were food trucks, outdoor games and plenty of familiar faces greeting each other and sharing in the communal spirit of Atlanta Streets Alive.

“At first I didn’t think about college. I just wanted to get out of high school…but after I graduated I realized that wasn’t enough,” stated Kristy Williams.

Williams, a 2006 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and the first of her family to earn a high school diploma remarked during a Project GRAD Atlanta panel discussion at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema following a recent screening of First Generation — a feature-length documentary following four California high school students hoping to break the shackles of poverty by pursuing a college degree.

Shot over three years, the documentary captures the struggles of these four students — Dontay, the inner city athlete; Soma, a fatherless Samoan; Jess, a straight A student afraid to leave her small town behind and; Cecilia, the fiercely independent track star and daughter of migrant workers.

Transportation for America, a Washington, D.C.-based organization pushing for 21st century transportation infrastructure improvements across the country, recently announced nineteen states have put forth plans — some have already failed to pass —  to raise revenue for transportation projects.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley successfully lobbied the state’s General Assembly to pass a 20- cent increase to the gas tax phased in through year 2016. In the future, the gas tax will be indexed for inflation. Dubbed the Maryland Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act, the legislation will also impose a 3 percent sales tax on gasoline purchases. The two revenue models are expected to raise $4.4 billion over six years.

After the bomb blasts, the graphic photos of dismembered runners being carried to medics leaving behind a red-stained Boylston Street, and the subsequent manhunt for the two brothers who brazenly committed a grim act of terror, only one thought remains in the minds of the American public.

Bring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to justice.

It has only taken a few days for our political leaders to find a way to divide a virtually unanimous public. We want justice while it seems they want talking points. The primary question at hand is should the United States treat Dzhokhar as an unlawful enemy combatant under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 or receive the legal rights granted a naturalized American citizen.

Atlanta politicos sometimes forget Republicans live, work and play in the city and also vote in municipal elections.

During the 2009 City Council elections, Peach Pundit, a right-leaning political blog I had been following for a while, had a “meet and greet” in Midtown, and only one candidate attended. That candidate ended up making a solid impression on the group of Republicans present, including Charlie Harper, the blog’s editor.

In a sea of partisan pandering, Harper is often a lone voice of reason — ready to call either side out on their respective shenanigans. Recently, he’s admonished Better Georgia, a progressive organization, for calling on Gov. Nathan Deal to publicly support Wilcox County’s first integrated prom.

For Georgia Democrats, the ability to win the seat soon to be vacated by Republican Sen.Saxby Chambliss is improbable. Yet it could set the stage for the future of Democratic politics in the state.

There is much scuttlebutt surrounding the Republican primary and the merry-go-round of career politicians that have expressed an interest in the Senate race and possible subsequent open seats as a result.

Declared candidates include Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) and Congressman Paul Broun (R-Athens).