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Golden Radish Award highlights farm-to-school program in Atlanta, six other metro school districts

by David Pendered

Atlanta Public Schools has won a top state award for its efforts to serve students locally produced, farm-fresh food.

Atlanta was among seven school districts in metro Atlanta recognized by Georgia Organics in an event Monday at the state Capitol. Georgia Organics presented its Golden Radish Awards to school districts it determined are doing an outstanding job in providing farm-to-school foods.

Atlanta’s recognition was especially poignant. The district accepted a Golden Radish Award for trying to improve the quality of food served to pupils, even as court testimony continued a few blocks away in the trial over the cheating scandal.

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Georgia’s university system noted for cost-cutting efforts, but budget requested from Legislature still rising

by David Pendered

A New York credit rating agency has named Georgia as the state to watch for its efforts to control the spiraling cost of higher education.

Moody’s Investors Service highlighted Georgia’s consolidation of universities as an example of a state’s attempt to improve the fiscal efficiency of its university system. Georgia was the only state singled out. Moody’s report stands in contrast to the current debate over post-secondary education in Georgia’s gubernatorial campaign.

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Atlanta says, ‘We did drop the ball’ by skipping residents’ input in parks contract to oversee recreation center

by David Pendered

A controversy over the management of an Atlanta recreation center illustrates the types of problems that can emerge when city departments function with an interim commissioner.

Some residents of East Atlanta are irate that the city didn’t contact them before moving ahead with a plan to extend a lease with East Atlanta Kids Club, Inc. to operate the recreation center at Brownwood Park.

The proposal was skating through City Hall until Atlanta City Councilmember Natalyn Archbong asked that it be tabled at the Sept. 15 meeting. Since then, Mayor Kasim Reed has nominated a parks commissioner, and the proposal regarding Brownwood Park is up for discussion at Monday’s city council meeting.

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Moody’s raises warning flag over college application, enrollment trend

by David Pendered

The nation’s colleges and universities face a new post-recession challenge in meeting their budgets, according to a report released Thursday by Moody’s Investors Service.

High school students who apply to college are less likely than ever to enroll. That’s because students are applying to a record number of schools and then enrolling where they get the best deal. Schools left in the lurch run the risk of providing too many resources – teachers and classes and such – for the actual student body.

This matters because the entire U.S. higher education sector already is facing tremendous fiscal challenges.

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Field test for Ebola devised by Emory students who now seek crowdfunding

by David Pendered

As the nation focuses on a case of Ebola in a Texas hospital, two students at Emory University are raising money to develop a test they think could identify the virus in the field.

The freshmen think they have figured out a way to test for the virus without the need for expensive machinery that’s generally available only in hospitals – too far from sick people in villages in Africa to be of practical use.

They’re secretive because of the intense competition for such a treatment. But they have posted a video on a crowdfunding site and raised more than $9,300 of the $14,500 they think they need to develop a cheap and fast detection method.

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Fulton County to hire lobbyists as state seeks to control tax rate

by David Pendered

Fulton County on Wednesday is slated to hire a team of lobbyists that includes a top Washington firm and two local Republican firms that have connections at the state Capitol. The annual fee would total $216,000, with a three-year renewal option.

The team at the state Capitol could help Fulton resolve disputes with top Republican lawmakers, who have sued the county over tax collections. The team would include a chief advisor to then Gov. Sonny Perdue, and a former leader of the state GOP who oversaw Republicans begin their take-over of state government in the 1990s.

In Washington, Fulton intends to hire Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm with a strong lobbying presence on Capitol Hill. The firm’s Atlanta office represents a state authority in the proposed sale of most of Fort McPherson to filmmaker Tyler Perry.

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With port deepening assured, Savannah turns to next project: More warehouses as supply absorbed

by David Pendered

Georgia’s ambition for the Port of Savannah to smother its competitors is evident in the latest initiative – calling on the private sector to nearly double the amount of warehouse space near Savannah.

This additional warehouse space is part of a double-barreled approach to grow cargo capacity. The other aspect is a planned network of inland ports that would rival in size the Louisiana Purchase.

These expansion plans are founded on the deepening of the Savannah shipping channel to accommodate huge vessels. On Monday, the ports authority announced that a necessary contract with the federal government is to be signed within two weeks. Construction is likely to begin in early 2015.

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Pin color shifts blue to pink as focus moves from prostate to breast cancer

by David Pendered

Rockdale County Chairman Richard Oden is preparing to change his lapel pin from a light blue ribbon to a pink ribbon.

At the ARC meeting last week, someone commented that Oden’s pin wasn’t pink, to recognize October as breast cancer awareness month. Oden responded that his blue pin recognizes September as prostate cancer awareness month, and he would change to a pink pin on Oct. 1.

Awareness pins are a subtle but stark reminder that Georgia leads the nation in the rates by which individuals developed or died from prostate or breast cancer in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Fort McPherson: “No deal is currently imminent,” Army lawyer says

by David Pendered

The Army that still owns Fort McPherson and a state authority that wants to buy the fort, and flip most of it to filmmaker Tyler Perry, disagreed Friday in federal court over a critical point: When will the deal close?

The judge seemed to think the date important. A lawyer for the Army said: “No deal is currently imminent.”

The comments in U.S. District Court in Atlanta were the latest contortion in the proposed reuse of a military base whose decommissioning happened to occur at the end of the great recession. After eight years of digging a dry well in search of developers with money to invest, the state authority tasked with crafting a civilian use for the fort is caught between two film studios that see profits in a film industry burgeoning because of state tax incentives.

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Tyler Perry hearing involves high flyers of Atlanta’s bar debating rights to build studios at Ft. McPherson

by David Pendered

A star-studded group of lawyers is set to appear Friday in federal court in Atlanta to begin the debate over whether Tyler Perry got a sweetheart deal to buy most of Fort McPherson to build a film studio.

Positioned against Perry as the plaintiff’s lawyer is Tony Axam, a noted death penalty attorney who once was called to serve on the defense team of convicted serial killer Wayne Williams – until Williams fired him without explanation at the outset. Axam specializes in complex business litigation, as well as capital and criminal defense.

Leading Perry’s defense is Larry Dingle, a former Atlanta police officer who earned his law degree from Georgia State and rose through the ranks at Atlanta City Hall during the terms of former mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young to the positions of department head and city clerk. Dingle specializes in local government law and land use.

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ARC board defers decision on seating developers, votes to allow public comment during board meetings

by David Pendered

The issue of whether the ARC board should seat citizen members who are developers who lead self-taxing-and-spending entities called CIDs gained some clarity Wednesday.

The ARC again released at its monthly meeting a response that cites two legal opinions and a ruling from a former state revenue commissioner. The opinions say, essentially, developers are not precluded from serving on the board of the Atlanta Regional Commission even if they serve on a board overseeing a community improvement district.

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Cobb County kicks off sales tax campaign amidst clamor over Braves, transit; little mention of 2011 results

by David Pendered

When it comes to sales tax campaigns, the one that begins in earnest Wednesday night in Cobb County has to rank among the most politically loaded in a long time.

One issue that’s not being raised seems significant – almost no one is discussing the historic importance of 90 votes. There’s plenty of buzz about the Braves and bus rapid transit. But not much about the narrow approval of a similar 1 percent sales tax referendum in 2011 – a 90-vote margin for passage out of 43,014 ballots cast.

Nor is there much talk about how voters have seen many of the proposed road projects before. A fair share of the current proposals was on a list in 2012, when voters in metro Atlanta rejected the proposed regional transportation sales tax.

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Atlanta BeltLine: North gets parks, trails; South gets affordable housing, according to little known report

by David Pendered

Southwest Atlanta has received less than 6 percent of the $126.8 million invested in parks and trails by the Atlanta BeltLine, according to a little known report that’s now one year old.

The BeltLine has provided public amenities, such as trails and parks, in the north and has provided most of its affordable housing in south Atlanta, according to the report commissioned by the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership.

The report was not distributed to the general public following its submission in September 2013. The report’s title is, “An Atlanta BeltLine for All: Equitable Development Assessment.”

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Martin Luther King III’s renewed focus on role of big lenders in foreclosure crisis could impact governor’s race

by David Pendered

Martin Luther King III has called on the federal Justice Department to intervene in the nation’s foreclosure situation, a call that could have the effect of energizing voters in Georgia’s gubernatorial election.

King issued his letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on the heels of a controversial report on the nation’s housing market by the chief economist of Freddie Mac. The report paints a fairly rosy picture of the trend line of the jobs and housing sectors, at least on the national level.

At the state level, King’s call reminds Georgia voters of home foreclosures during a campaign in which Sen. Jason Carter, a Democrat, is pressing his point that Republican Gov. Nathan Deal hasn’t done enough to help the middle class. Deal points to jobs created since the end of the great recession.

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Atlanta Streetcar route on track to receive new wayfinding signs

by David Pendered

Historic sites along a portion of the Atlanta Streetcar’s route will be better marked if the plan to install wayfinding signs wins expected approval from Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission.

The UDC is slated to consider the application to install the signs at its Sept. 24 meeting. The proposal calls for new signs to be installed at a series of addresses along Auburn Avenue.

The start date for the streetcar’s operation has not been finalized. Mayor Kasim Reed has said he expects the system to begin before Dec. 31. The system still is being tested and evaluated by the appropriate governmental entities.

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Jay-Z, Beethoven and EarSketch: Tech remixes masters to engage students in computer science

by David Pendered

Even Beethoven and Jay-Z may be impressed by a Georgia Tech program that just won another federal grant to expand a program that teaches computer science through music.

The idea is to intrigue high school students who haven’t shown much interest in computer science by showing its application in music and the recording industry. Minorities and women are a primary focus.

Tech announced Thursday it had won a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further the work of EarSketch. The award extends a $2 million grant NSF awarded EarSketch in 2011.

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A final frontier in Atlanta: West End could grow new homes, shops, while sheltering current residents

by David Pendered

West End may be an ideal candidate for redevelopment in this unusual era of the economy.

The newly released study of West End by Georgia Tech students sees opportunities in situations that would have been clear threats to redevelopment before the great recession. The report suggests that West End is ripe for new investments in retail and residential.

These ventures could both stabilize and benefit from the redevelopment of a stretch of Northside Drive, an historic industrial corridor that begins at the tip of Buckhead, passes Atlantic Station and the future Falcons stadium, and ends in the vicinity of West End and Fort McPherson.

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A final frontier in Atlanta: Northside Drive plans complete – Buckhead to Falcons stadium area, to West End

by David Pendered

The final piece is in place of a framework plan by Georgia Tech students that could guide development along the frontier of an historic Atlanta industrial corridor.

Just like Buckhead, the West End neigbhorhood that’s at the heart of the newly released plan developed around a tavern – Charner Humphrie’s two-story White Hall Tavern. West End’s beginnings as a travelers’ rest stop date to 1835, three years before Buckhead was established.

The latest plan provides a method to link the shops, homes, parks and places of worship of West End with the Atlanta University Center – the nation’s largest concentration of historically black colleges and universities.

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Atlanta’s airport to get ads pasted on windows, hung from roof, and more

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s airport could soon have advertising pasted on windows, hung from rooftop banners, and streamed across a screen above the central atrium.

The airport intends to open these areas, and more, as part of its upcoming contract with a company to sell and manage commercial advertising. The airport’s ad business now grosses more than $10 million a year, city records show.

It’s all part of the airport’s effort to reach its No. 1 goal with the new ad contract: “To increase Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s advertising revenue.” The airport could use the money, according to the city budget.

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Ga. 400 tolls: Gov. Deal reminds that tolls are history, closure wins awards

by David Pendered

The issue of tolls on Ga. 400 may not be a hot button issue in this fall’s race for governor, but a recent media release reminds voters that tollbooths came down during the term of Gov. Nathan Deal.

The State Road and Tollway Authority, which the governor chairs, issued a statement about SRTA winning a national award related to the toll closure. The release was dated Sept. 5 and referenced an award bestowed Aug. 13.

Meanwhile, the Ga. 400 tolls are featured on Deal’s campaign website. They’re listed in the section titled, “The Results,” where the website states without elaboration: “Promise Kept, End of GA 400 Toll.”

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