Articles by David Pendered
A little bridge to be built in the corridor between Atlanta and Chattanooga shows that a little investment can go a long way.
The Tiger Creek replacement bridge could easily be overlooked on the list of 20 contracts GDOT let on May 16. It is less expensive than almost every other project, and is dwarfed by a third of its classmates.
But the Tiger Creek bridge was funded. That fact alone makes it special.
Metro Atlanta’s traffic congestion may be a mess, but the region is at the forefront of changing the vehicles in which people travel.
Atlanta ranks No. 2 in the nation for electric car sales. Georgia Tech engineers are devising self-driving cars. Uber – the rides-on-demand service that fended off the state Legislature this year – on Friday announced it has raised $1.2 billion from investors who now value the four-year-old company at $18.2 billion.
Taken together, these developments point to a vastly different future in terms of how people metro Atlantans may commute in the future. Although the vehicles won’t be flying cars like in the Jetsons cartoon, the trajectory seems toward a very different mix of vehicles and drivers on roadways.
The student-run summer farmers market has reopened at Kennesaw State University, marking another milestone in the expansion of shops for locally grown food.
The KSU market is open Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., placing it among the markets that aren’t competing in saturated Saturday morning time slot. For example, the ELF Market, East Lake Farmers Market, is open Tuesday evenings.
The size of these local markets is in stark contrast to Your DeKalb Farmers Market, generally viewed as the granddaddy of them all and preparing for a massive expansion. And the little farmers markets represent the growing appetite for locally grown food products sold in a neighborhood setting.
A mixed-use project of the type that abounded in metro Atlanta until the recent recession is shaping up on Roswell Road, right on the border of Atlanta and Sandy Springs.
JBL Builders has scraped two apartment complexes off the site and earthmovers on Tuesday were preparing the site for new apartments, retail and office space. Gov. Nathan Deal announced last week the state would provide Sandy Springs with a grant of $750,000 to help pay for the $3 million-plus realignment of Windsor Parkway at its intersection with Roswell Road.
The Chastain project spans about 22 acres and is located about 2 miles south of the storied Prado shopping center, which was redeveloped in 2008. The community has responded to both the projects in much the same way – generally glad to see the old buildings removed, and apprehensive about future traffic.
Ads for alcohol could become commonplace on MARTA buses, trains, stations and shelters as early as January.
MARTA is in the process of hiring an advertising firm and has asked proponents to estimate the amount of money MARTA could make from alcohol ads. The bids are due June 10.
The decision to allow alcohol ads is one of MARTA’s latest efforts to raise money to operate the system. The decision also leads MARTA into territory that it traditionally has avoided, and entered just this year by allowing ad vendor CBS Outdoor to sell alcohol ads on MARTA property.
A group of German aerospace engineers are to tour the booming aviation industry in Georgia and Alabama after attending a science seminar Monday at Georgia Tech.
The scientists are traveling in a group of about 50 individuals, all of whom are part of a broader trade mission that seeks to foster relations among German engineers and manufacturers and their U.S. counterparts. The trip’s being coordinated by the German American Chamber of Commerce in the Southern U.S.
These conversations underscore the tremendous advancement in the aerospace industry since aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh flew his first solo flight in Georgia, in 1923 from Souther Field, in Americus. Four years later, Lindbergh entered the annals of history with his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.
Some economic indicators just don’t make sense and that adds to the uncertainty of forecasting this phase of the economy, a leading Atlanta economist said Thursday.
Rajeev Dhawan, of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, wondered, for example, how the construction industry could have added jobs in the first three months of the year, when the region was paralyzed by two ice storms.
“Construction was so strong in February; that is a mystery to me,” Dhawan said, before concluding that he is “gingerly betting on growth” in the regional and state economy.
The Sweet Auburn Curb Market is finally in a comfortable place, as its retail spaces are full and the Atlanta Streetcar promises to bring more customers to its doors near Grady Memorial Hospital.
“People won’t hesitate to jump on the streetcar from the 191 [office tower near Woodruff Park] and ride to the market,” Pamela Joiner, the market’s director, on Tuesday told a committee of the Atlanta City Council.
Shop clerk Karen Bullock is ready to serve customers, old and new, at the market’s Sweet Auburn Bakery. Tuesday afternoon, Bullock was peeling a fresh batch of saucer-sized chocolate chip pecan cookies off parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Priced at $1.25 each, the cookies caught attention.
If Atlanta receives a favorable interest rate on $250 million it may borrow in 2016 to repair roads, bridges and sidewalks, the rate will be due in part to pension reform completed in 2011.
Standard & Poor’s specifically cited Atlanta’s pension reform as one of three reasons it raised Atlanta’s fiscal outlook to stable from negative in 2012, the most recent rating of the city’s general obligation debt. The credit-rating agency also affirmed its investment-grade rating of the city’s debt.
As crowds on Sunday depart the Atlanta Jazz Festival, they have some unlikely sponsors to thank for the free entertainment – travelers who have rented cars at Atlanta’s airport.
Atlanta provided up to $100,000 to the festival from the city’s motor vehicle excise tax. Citing a decline steep decline in sponsorship due to the economy, the Atlanta City Council voted unanimously to approve the funding at its April 21 meeting.
The festival was established in 1978 by then Mayor Maynard Jackson. Today the event is produced by the Atlanta mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
Now that Congress has approved federal funding for the deepening of the Savannah Harbor, construction is expected to begin this autumn.
The Georgia Ports Authority said Thursday the first construction projects are to include: dredging the Savannah channel entrance seven miles farther into the Atlantic Ocean; recovering the CSS Georgia ironclad warship; and mitigation features including a freshwater storage facility for Savannah.
Incidentally, Congress did not give Savannah an exclusive on a harbor-deepening project. Similar projects were approved for Boston and Jacksonville, Fla., enabling all of three ports to handle the bigger ships expected to visit the East Coast once the Panama Canal is expanded next year, if the current construction schedule is maintained.
More money is soon to be available for developers who need loans for projects in metro Atlanta neighborhoods still reeling from the housing crisis and, in some cases, woes that preceded the crisis.
The additional capital is to flow from a new partnership between Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. and The Reinvestment Fund.
“Some metro Atlanta submarkets are slowly rebounding from the great recession, while others are experiencing considerable growth,” ANDP President/CEO John O’Callaghan said.
The way Decatur historian Wendy Venet tells the story, Atlanta residents were weary of the Civil War by the time Union General William T. Sherman advanced on the city and “schmoozed” the Union general who presided over the city during Reconstruction.
“After 1863, loyalty becomes a highly contested issue in Atlanta,” Venet said. “It took a variety of forms including acts of lawlessness, particularly the draft, people hiding horses or mules to keep them from being impressed. So by the time Sherman seized the city in 1864, Atlanta was becoming unglued.”
An urban renewal program that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed proposes to close has achieved less than half the goals that were outlined in 2005, and it has a long way to go toward fulfilling its mission as stated when it was created in 2003, city records show.
When the Eastside TAD was created, the vision was for it to spark $1.51 billion in private and public/private investments. The result has been an additional $300 million in increased property value through 2010, the latest reporting year readily available in city records.
Reed proposes to close the Eastside Tax Allocation District in order to free about $5 million a year for use in the citywide budget. Currently, this amount of property taxes can be spent only to promote development within the borders of the Eastside TAD.
The air quality in metro Atlanta is showing significant improvements in terms of a reduction in the amount of fine particulates, according to a preliminary report by GRTA.
The number of “good” air quality days reached a preliminary figure of about 50 percent in 2013, the best year on a chart that shows years going back to 2004. The air quality index hovered in the mid 60 percentile range from 2012 back to 2009.
If the preliminary findings stand, the region will meet the stricter air quality standards the federal EPA imposed in December 2012. Metro Atlanta’s improvements coincide with the great recession and a number of rules implemented by Georgia.
Georgia is going to be hard pressed to transport the poor, elderly and disabled from home to health care in rural parts of the state, according to an analysis of a new report by the Governor’s Development Council.
The consequence is that rural Georgia may become an increasingly difficult place to live for current residents who hope to age in place, and for those who move from a city to a small town or the countryside. The government likely will have to determine whether to pay for a steep rise in the cost of helping rural Georgians travel to see a doctor or get treatment such as dialysis.
Two years ago, consolidation of service providers seemed to be the solution for containing costs. The idea was that costs could be lowered through better management of services provided by three state entities – the departments of transportation, human services and community health.
The home construction industry in the city of Atlanta remains erratic, and other market sectors are still shaking themselves out after the recession, according to a review of figures provided in Mayor Kasim Reed’s budget proposal.
The value of homes built in the city of Atlanta fell by 48 percent in 2013 compared to 2012. However, once all construction categories are included, the budget shows revenues from building permits are increasing steadily in the city.
The value of lumber sold in the city plummeted during the recession. And lumber isn’t the only market sector that sank – and hasn’t recovered – in Atlanta during the economic reorganization that started before and continued after the recession.
PSC Commissioner Tim Echols, who normally helps set utility rates, recently convened a panel of state and regional leaders to discuss the trafficking of children and look ahead to solutions.
“There is no nexus between the PSC and the sexual exploitation of children, but as a constitutional officer in the state of Georgia I believe it is my duty to uphold the constitution that says, ‘Wisdom, Justice, Moderation,” Echols said after the Lunch and Learn event he hosted May 9 at the Troutman Sanders law office in Atlanta.
During the two-hour discussion, GBI Director Vernon Keenan said metro Atlanta has a high national ranking for prostitution because the state takes the crime seriously. Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Toccoa) said the Legislature will resume its law-making on the topic next year, after it “stepped back” in this election year.
Atlanta has won the first round of the legal fight over its authority to issue more than $278 million in bonds for the future Falcons stadium.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville ruled last week in the city’s favor. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s office issued a statement saying the mayor was “pleased” with the outcome.
However, the city cannot issue any bonds during the 30-day period during which the opponents can appeal the court ruling. Opponents said Sunday they are weighing their options and previously have said they would appeal an unfavorable ruling. They already have delayed a sale that was on a fast track in February.
Georgia’s deficit of jobs was 372,300 in March 2014 and Georgia companies employ fewer workers than before the recession began as they continue to hire slowly, according to a report released Thursday by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
To fill the gap by March 2017, the GBPI report states: “Georgia’s economy would need to add an average of about 13,000 jobs per month. Georgia averaged only 5,670 jobs per month over the past year.”
The GBPI findings on employment trends are in line with those contained in the April 16 Beige Book, released by the Atlanta district of the Fed. The Fed report states: “Firms continued to show a preference for implementing technology to increase output as opposed to adding staff.”
