YMCA opens learning center in Vine City: Teach toddlers to read, job skills for adults

August 20, 2019, 7:31 pm/0 Comments

The YMCA of Metro Atlanta opened an early learning center in Vine City Tuesday, where advocates of children hope to break the pernicious problem of illiteracy. The YMCA’s reading program aims to teach reading and vocabulary to infants through prekindergarten in the type of low-income neighborhood where national data shows 89 percent of black children score below “proficient” in fourth-grade reading skills.

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A conversation with Carter's Adam Parker about Summerhill and 'The MET'

August 19, 2019, 7:29 pm/1 Comment

Back in October of 2018, my second post for Saporta Report was published. In “Let’s build Atlanta as a city, not a suburb” I mentioned a few places I saw around the city and had concerns about.  

That article mentioned the Turner Hill-Summerhill development, spearheaded by the developer Carter. After a conversation with Carter, I was invited to tour one of their current projects – The MET.

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A familiar face comes to town

August 19, 2019, 5:42 pm/0 Comments

“The play’s the thing.” You’ve heard that phrase. Shakespeare wrote it. Hamlet says it. So it must be true. And, though probably not in the same vein that Hamlet meant it, the play certainly was the thing when it came to 19th century Atlantans. Opera and the theatre captured the attention of 1800s Atlanta in […]

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Architect Alex Garvin reflects on Atlanta and the BeltLine

August 19, 2019, 4:55 pm/1 Comment

It’s hard to pigeon-hole Alex Garvin. Yes, he’s an architect. But he’s also a professor, an author, a public servant, an urbanist, a visionary and someone who has had a major impact on Atlanta.

Garvin was in Atlanta last week to give a talk Aug. 15 at a luncheon organized by Central Atlanta Progress and the Urban Land Institute –Atlanta

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Remembering Woodstock

August 18, 2019, 12:22 pm/3 Comments

By Guest Columnist BILL VANDERKLOOT, a film director/producer who attended the event

The late Tip O’Neill once said, “all politics is local.” As a corollary, I believe that all history is personal. That is until it grows and grows and becomes a defining cultural event. Then it is owned by everyone and the memories morph into things almost unrecognizable.

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Families First picks new CEO

August 15, 2019, 2:25 pm/0 Comments

Families First has selected DePriest Waddy as its new CEO – culminating two years of transitional leadership over the past couple of years.

Waddy will begin his new job on Sept. 16, succeeding Marybeth Leamer, who has served as the interim CEO of Families First for the past year.

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Across the rural South, chicken plants become a social and economic flashpoint

August 12, 2019, 7:37 pm/0 Comments

Coming only three days after the murderous attack on the El Paso Walmart, last week’s ICE raids on seven Mississippi chicken plants drew a lot of national media attention and caused a lot of disruption in the small towns that were affected. Federal officials said this was the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in history, but it wasn’t the first time a chicken plant raid has wreaked havoc in the rural South.

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