When it comes to creating a sense of place, the three-year-old City of South Fulton started with a blank slate – for starters, the name doesn’t refer to a previously known community. Now it has Wolf Creek Amphitheater, a 200-acre development planned along the Chattahoochee River, and a detailed economic development plan that offers a vision of a Town Center.
Category: David Pendered
Articles by David Pendered
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BP disaster 10 years later: Lessons learned almost too much to bear amid COVID-19
Five recommendations could prevent another BP type of disaster from damaging the environment. Just five, if they were followed, according to a report released Tuesday by Oceana, the international ocean conservation group that has an office in Savannah and fights efforts to drill for oil off Georgia’s coast.
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Citizens’ letters question Atlanta’s proposed tree protection ordinance
Frustration among Atlanta tree advocates over the two-year process of writing even the draft version of a tree protection ordinance is bubbling up amid the coronavirus-related shutdown of public conversation – and the clock is ticking toward a final vote on a new city code.
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Stuck in Texas: Swedish songstress writes of virus, still hopes to perform in Decatur
A Swedish songstress who’s to perform in Decatur in August has written a song about the global pandemic. Sofia Talvik has a special perspective, given her new song, her scheduled show in metro Atlanta, and her livestream Quarantine Concert series that on Sunday featured a virtual dinner party.
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Chattahoochee Nature Center nears fundraising goal as economy shudders
The Chattahoochee Nature Center is conducting a capital campaign that is to be one of many gauges of the region’s philanthropic capacity as the economy responds to the pandemic of the coronavirus.
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Carol Tomé’s rise at UPS comes as companies pay greater heed to social values
Carol Tomé’s appointment as CEO of Atlanta-based UPS adds to the growing, global movement around leadership metrics involving environment, social and governance issues. UPS has joined BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, two other companies that have taken advanced ESG positions this year.
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Online education a growing alternative to survive, thrive in modern economy
The Big Three worker training programs – re-skilling, up-skilling and now, out-skilling – may best be addressed by credentialed, online classes that students have found – even as policymakers are focused on tuition-free and debt-forgiveness campus-based programs.
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Coal ash settlement in N.C. a guideline for Georgia – bury in lined basin or recycle
A legal settlement over coal ash in North Carolina has resulted in the type of outcome Georgia environmentalists would like to reach here – excavation of coal ash from all of a power company’s unlined basins, and placement in an onsite lined landfill or recycled for industrial use.
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Unmet demand for higher-priced units adds to lack of affordable housing options in Buckhead
Higher-income folks play a part in the affordable housing discussion because there is an unmet demand for rental apartments at their price points in at least one area that was studied – Buckhead.
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New mural, ‘Seeds that are Planted,’ aims to inspire viewers in Atlanta’s Westside
The new mural that aims to connect the “past struggles, sacrifices and triumphs of our ancestors” stretches 130 feet along Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, welcoming visitors and residents to Atlanta’s historically black Vine City neighborhood.
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How Georgia received what MLK later called a ‘promissory note’ of freedom
Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Declaration of Independence a “promissory note” of freedom. Now, the very letter John Hancock sent to Georgia in 1776 announcing the former colonies’ independence from Great Britain has just sold at Sotheby’s.
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Sea level rise could erase gains Florida seeks in water war: New federal research
Sea level rise that a federal program predicts will inundate land far inland of Apalachicola Bay by 2060 could wipe away gains Florida hopes to gain in its water war with Georgia.
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Peachtree Creek: ‘A gift waiting to be rediscovered again’
A new bridge across Peachtree Creek in Buckhead is the latest fruit of relations being woven by the South Fork Conservancy as it establishes an urban nature trail and park system that spans 25 acres.
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Gov. Kemp’s remarks on street gangs renews interest in report on repeat offenders
Some Atlanta residents who track crime are returning their attention to a report that portrays Fulton County judges as lenient on repeat offenders. Early criticism of the report dwelled on a perceived shortcoming of not being robust enough to inform a meaningful conversation of sentencing reform.
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Report of 2,000-plus felony charges released on ‘own recognizance’ sparks concerns
A report that criminal suspects facing more than 2,000 felony charges were released without bond last year in Fulton County – including 35 charges of child molestation and 11 charges of enticing a child for indecent purposes – has renewed calls for reform from members of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods.
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Shaping the news in 2020: Predictions for journalism
Editor’s Note: This is the first of four stories this week that look at topics and trends likely to appear on devices and news platforms in metro Atlanta in 2020.
Journalism that appears this year in metro Atlanta on screens small and large, on radio and in print, will inform and engage with elements that will be like fresh air to some readers – including more diversity in voices in stories, more podcasts, more visual stories, and more stories that percolate up from neighborhoods, according to a collection of predictions gathered by an affiliate of Harvard College.
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Federal program extended to foster jobs in low-income areas: A partial win for advocates
A threatened federal program that has helped fund redevelopments throughout Atlanta has been taken off life support – for another year. The Flatiron Building, Christo Rey Atlanta High School, Grady Memorial Hospital and the Tyler Perry studio are among the projects Invest Atlanta has funded through the New Market Tax Credit program.
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Sandy Springs embarks on mixed income housing; wants nothing like ATL BeltLine
Sandy Springs’ city officials have called for mixed income housing development to be on the site of a zombie shopping center, and have hired a consultant to help devise a plan to with input and support from city residents. Mayor Rusty Paul has specifically warned against any outcome that looks anything like the sky-high housing market typical along the Atlanta BeltLine.
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Atlanta’s ‘Superstar’ status as high tech center brings spiraling housing costs, traffic: Brookings Institute
Atlanta has made the list of “Superstar Metro Areas” for the number of jobs in the innovation sector. Long commutes and sky-high housing costs come with that badge of honor, according to a report released Monday by the Brookings Institute that recommends a set of national policy solutions.
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Georgia’s estimated $34-plus billion in heirs property could ease wealth, housing gap
In Georgia alone, an estimated $34-plus billion in property has no owner with a clear title. If the value were unlocked, this heirs property – most of it presumed to be in black hands – could help address the black-white divide in homeownership and issues related to poverty, according to an emerging body of research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and others.
