Articles by Saba Long
A few years ago while attending a gala at a Buckhead hotel, I noticed an elegantly framed bulletin in the women’s restroom. It provided a phone number to call if the reader was a victim of sex slavery.
One would think sordid, deviant behavior of that nature would take place in the hour motels far from the highbrow crowd. Yet, sex trafficking – a $9. 5 billion criminal enterprise – happens right under our nose.
Our semi-eloquent president George W. Bush once opined: “There’s an old saying in Tennessee…” After a pregnant pause he tried again: “I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says: ‘Fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me… You can’t get fooled again!’”
No one likes egg on his or her face. Especially politicians.
Recently, I noticed my equilibrium has been unbalanced. The new year has been a constant barrage of time-sensitive calls and emails and double-digit hours of work each day. The fast pace has left me wanting.
In an attempt to quiet the mind and body, I have sought solace at Serenbe, or in town, at the Cascade Nature Preserve. Trekking deep into these places, I’ve been able to leave the city behind.
Playing partisan politics with nuclear weapons is simply not worth the risk. America leads with diplomacy, not naïve trust nor with avertable warfare.
Just weeks after Senate Republicans attempted to sabotage nuclear arms control in Iran, a historic framework for a nuclear deal has been reached.
In route to a plenary session at Park Pride’s annual conference, I passed a small, Midtown residential building located a short walk from Piedmont Park with units starting at $750,000 – a pretty penny for a town home.
It seemed an appropriate sighting as I headed to a plenary session: Just Green Enough: Contesting Environmental Gentrification. The focus was on the natural challenges of sustainable, equitable development.
In one week, Atlanta voters will decide if the City will borrow $250 million in long-overdue infrastructure repair and upgrades via a bond referendum.
For context, last November, Forsyth County voters approved a $200 million to fund critical transportation infrastructure improvements. That vote likely will require a slight property tax increase.
As someone who regularly takes public transit, I fail to realize how stressful it is to commute by car. This weekend served as an unfortunate reminder.
Not because of the person who failed to use signal lights when changing lanes – but rather the inordinate amount of time it took to get from point A to point B.
To be sure, the improved temperature was a factor on the Interstate and roadway congestion. But it wasn’t the primary factor.
Our divided Congress has once again found a new way to sink its already abysmally low approval ratings. The latest stunt: the possible shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Before the month’s end, Congress must pass an appropriations bill to prevent non-essential DHS staff from going home without pay. Secret Service, Border Patrol, active-duty Coast Guard members and other essential staffers will be required to work — without pay. Also trapped in the defunding web is more than 75 percent of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A city for all.
That’s what long-time Atlanta planner Mike Dobbins yearns to experience.
The resurgence of investment interest along with an improved economy has everyone chattering about the future growth of the city. Firmly ensconced in his second term, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has become the economic development mayor by going back to the city’s roots – real estate deals and transportation.
During the second half of the 20th century Atlanta experienced the demographic and political shifts caused by white flight.
In contrast, during the first two decades of the 21st century, Atlanta could be remembered for its class and economic moves when the pendulum swung the other way. Yet, this booming growth is not being felt across the Atlanta region.
As Davos prepares for its annual meeting, a poor man’s version of the international economic forum took place in Atlanta during the King holiday weekend.
The 2015 HOPE Global Forum, themed “Reimagining the Global Economy: Expanding Free Enterprise for All” served as an apropos tool to tackle our oft painful race relations conversations.
At the opening ceremony for the Atlanta Streetcar, Central Atlanta Progress head honcho A.J. Robinson bluntly addressed the project’s naysayers.
He plainly remarked, “We didn’t build it for you, or for me, for that matter.”
I’m a transit-riding Millenial who chose to live in the city center long before public officials and downtown boosters lobbied the public and the federal government to support the first spur of the Atlanta Streetcar.
The Democratic Party of Georgia has a relevancy problem.
As the General Assembly gears up for 2015 legislative session, transportation appears to once again be the star of the show.
On Monday, Dec. 8, a Republican Georgia State Representative posed the following question on his Facebook page: “Would you be willing to pay additional amounts per gallon of fuel for road and infrastructure build? If so, how much? 5 cents? 2 cents?”
It’s been four years since a fateful earthquake uprooted and changed the lives of the Haitian people.
As the reconstruction continues, investment is growing with manufacturing and tourism on the rise. The Francophile country has declared it is open for business.
Lately, I’ve been watching Aaron Sorkin’s latest TV series The Newsroom. In a recent episode, an official from the Environmental Protection Agency declares the impending death of humanity due to global warming.
When the fictional news anchor Will McAvoy asks how to rectify the situation, the agency head remarks, “We should have turned the cars off 20 years ago.”
In the real world, outside of climate change, there’s a different grave issue we keep ignoring – transportation infrastructure.
In the spring, I sat down with a good friend – a white, male Millennial — to discuss, among many things, electoral politics.
In the course of the conversation, he expressed his indifference towards Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter. That’s when I knew it was a goner, and Gov. Nathan Deal would end his political career undefeated.
Compelling messaging married with authentic action matters to voters, regardless of party. With Deal’s opponent lacking both, the governor’s camp smartly navigated their way to a resounding win.
During a recent campaign stop in Dahlonega, Gov. Nathan Deal opined, “If you see somebody turning purple, there’s something wrong with them. They are being starved from the truth.”
From the barrage of negative TV ads alone, Georgia voters should look like their diet consists solely of beets.
I spent some time in a few downtown dumpsters this weekend.
Don’t be alarmed.
I was viewing D_MPSTERS, a multi-artist, weeklong project by the Goat Farm and curated by Elevate Atlanta.
The public impact of art can be incredibly profound – provided we give these artists the platform – and the funding – to express these societal concerns.
As a daily transit rider, walking is part of my commute. Being a high-heel wearing urban dweller, I dare not pay close attention to the sidewalk lest I have a Samantha Jones moment and fall down a manhole.
Walking is often a forgotten segment of everyone’s commute – whether it’s from the parking garage to the office or from the chained bicycle to the front door of a restaurant.
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