Category: Archived Columnists

Forty. It is a number of biblical significance. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, God used the number 40 as a time period of intense trials and testing of the peoples’ faith. Goliath terrorized the Israelites for 40 days before a young shepherd boy hurled a stone toward his forehead. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and was then tempted by the devil.

And in just 40 days, the Georgia General Assembly blazed through the legislative session in what seemed to be a race to take the logic out of lawmaking.

Too frequently, Georgia’s children take the proverbial bullet for legislators and “suits” lacking the spine to stand up to interest groups and the old way of doing things. We saw it firsthand this session with the attempted rush job at privatizing foster care. But perhaps where this behavior hurt Georgia families the most was with the failure to pass the medical marijuana and autism insurance bills.

A personal friend of mine watched with deep disappointment the hacking of and eventual demise of the autism insurance bill. He and his longtime partner have already spent thousands in healthcare costs associated with their toddler’s autism.

Earlier this week, I took advantage of a rare evening of sunshine to enjoy sushi and sake outside at Strip in Atlantic Station. While dining, I watched young children playing tag, couples chatting on benches, a photo shoot taking place, amongst other activities.

My thoughts drifted to a recent The Urbanist podcast from Monocle featuring Dr. Ray Oldenburg, who coined the term, the “third place.” Our private home is considered our “first” place while our “second” place is the work environment.

“Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle. Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community.

Six years ago, Vladimir Putin, then prime minister of Russia, accused the United States of stirring up conflict in the Republic of Georgia as a way to influence the 2008 presidential election.

The Kremlin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, called the Bush Administration’s support of Georgia a “special project” and warned the United States it would have to choose between future ties to Moscow and its relationship with Georgia.

Putin banned exports from a number of U.S. poultry companies under the guise of failed health inspections, alleging that meat being transported to Russia contained arsenic.

In the book, “A Little War That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia and the Future of the West,” one can indeed get a glimpse into Putin’s soul.

“You think you can trust the Americans, and they will rush to assist you?” Putin asked, according to a Georgian record of the talk. “Nobody can be trusted! Except me.”

Atlanta – this may come as a surprise, but when it comes to transparency in data keeping, we’re faring better than other large cities.

Through events such as Random Hacks and Govathon, civic hackathons are becoming the norm within the city limits. In fact, just this weekend, Atlanta transparency advocates participated for the first time in CodeAcross, a global event in its third year organized by Code for America, the Sunlight Foundation and the Open Knowledge Foundation – all leading open government organizations.

This year’s theme Beyond Transparency focused on establishing an open data inventory to include, among other items, city code enforcement violations, business listings and procurement processes.

Nationwide, CodeAcross participants assessed the availability of city data and catalogued its inventory on the U.S. City Open Data Census. Of the participating cities, Atlanta received high marks in transparency, ahead of Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

The K-12 education system is overwhelmingly rote in nature. Students memorize formulas and facts year after year, moving from one standardized test to the next.

Yet we know real life application and tangible problem solving skills gives students a sense of place in the world around them.

Across the country, school boards are hearing proposals to bring the Maker mentality into classrooms. Four years ago at the request of the school superintendent, Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller of Studio H developed a yearlong lesson plan for juniors at a high school in Bertie, a sprawling, rural county in North Carolina.

The students, they proposed, would design and build projects meaningful to the town’s agricultural economy, including a chicken coop. Students would learn welding, and the basics of architecture would be acquired. Soft skills such as team building and critical thinking would be developed during each project.

The federal minimum wage debate is taking place in editorial boards, gold-domed capitols and boardrooms across America. Raise it to lift people out of poverty, some say. Others argue an increase will cripple job growth.

The waters of truth are murky in this hyper-partisan climate, making it difficult to determine the credibility of economic forecasts footed by various chambers of commerce and policy.

Last week, national journalists unapologetically exposed Georgia and metro region’s dirty laundry. A mere few inches of snow crippled the state and the ninth largest metro area in the union. Frustrations and anger were displayed. And the blame-laying commenced.

An hour before the snow began to fall, I walked (a reliable form of transportation in a snow storm) to a Capitol press conference.

A few days ago, Arizona’s GOP leadership formally censored the state’s senior U.S. Sen. John McCain for what they deem to be a liberal voting record.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who infamously stated that the single most important thing the Republican Party could achieve was for President Barack Obama to be a one-term president, is facing primary opposition for not being a conservative Republican.

Four months ago, two Atlanta technology leaders, Scott Henderson and Rhonda Lowry, organized Core Reaction, a regional collaborative focused on helping the greater Atlanta area to thrive, play and grow.

Moving swiftly from ideation to sustainability, 13 teams ultimately transitioned to six final projects that are now in the early stages of public use.

Later this year, the metro Atlanta region will reach the end of the state mandated 24-month cooling off period before voters can reconsider another attempt at a regional transportation referendum.

With no known “Plan B” in the works, the Atlanta Regional Commission is in the process of revising the PLAN 2040 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) to reflect current funding realities and updated MAP-21 requirements – ahead of a federally mandated 2016 RTP update.