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Sustainable packaging: The food container is just as important as the edible contents it transports

by David Pendered

Editor’s Note: This is the first story in our three-part series on Georgia’s sustainable food movement. The second story will explore the state of the current sustainable food industry. The conclusion will visit a farm-to-table wedding.

Consumer criticism of the basic styrofoam cup once dimmed the future of Freshens, the large Atlanta-based yogurt and smoothie company.

Freshens’ ditched those non-degradable cups and replaced them with totally compostable ones in a dramatic example of the evolution in food packaging, according to Christian Hardigree, a professor at Kennesaw State University.

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Falcons community benefits deal due amidst public distrust, as attention is diverted by Braves relocation

by David Pendered

Expect a tour de force starting Monday from those who are ready to wrap up five months worth of talks about a community benefits deal for three neighborhoods adjacent to the future Falcons stadium.

And expect the discussion to occur in a bit of a vacuum.

Public attention has drifted to Cobb County and the county commission’s scheduled vote Tuesday over public funding for a Braves stadium. In addition, the bulk of the Atlanta communities’ work product on the Falcons deal has already been introduced in the form of a resolution now pending before the Atlanta City Council and up for a vote in committee Tuesday.

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Mayor Reed: BeltLine transit should be funded with up to $4 billion in public private partnership

by David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says the planned transit system along the Atlanta BeltLine should be funded through a public private partnership.

“We’re going to have to have a public private partnership,” Reed said. “We’re going to need to partner with an investor to put up $3 [billion] to $4 billion to put up the rail component. … I believe that is the right way to go because I’d like to ride the light rail while I’m alive.”

If the project moves forward, the price would dwarf the $840 million network of managed lanes the state Department of Transportation is building in Cobb and Cherokee counties alongside I-75 and I-575 through a public private partnership. This project is the largest project of its kind in Georgia history.

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Community cut out of community benefits deal at Falcons stadium; Mayor Reed ready to engage

by David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is on track to wrap up on Dec. 2 the loose ends of the city’s promise to provide $200 million to the Falcons for a new stadium.

For that to happen, a committee that’s worked on a community benefits plan since July was told Wednesday night that it will not get to recommend a plan to the Atlanta City Council. The political fallout has already begun: Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell says the process has lost credibility; civic leaders talked Wednesday of filing a lawsuit to halt the process of providing the money to the Falcons.

While this controversy was erupting at City Hall, Reed was at a community meeting near Buckhead talking about a number of initiatives for his second term – including the demolition of Turner Field, after the Braves depart in 2017, in order to create a 57-acre tract that will be, Reed said, “wildly attractive to investment.”

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Reed expected to discuss Braves stadium with residents as Falcons community benefits deal up for vote

by David Pendered

Discussions at two meetings Wednesday night should shed more light on developments with the Falcons and Braves stadiums.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed likely will discuss the Braves move to Cobb County with the Northwest Community Alliance. Just before that event, a city committee will be asked to adopt a community benefits plan related to the Falcons stadium.

Meanwhile, at a third meeting, city planning officials will discuss a new city report that confirms that Atlanta’s football and baseball stadiums have not brought prosperity to their neighborhoods. New strategies are needed to help these areas flourish, the report shows.

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New report on school funding tees up 2014 gubernatorial campaigns

by David Pendered

A new report that calls for overhauling Georgia’s method of paying for K-12 education has landed near the starting gate of a potentially contentious gubernatorial campaign.

State Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur) has put education reform at the front and center of his new platform. Gov. Nathan Deal responded immediately that he has increased the state’s contribution to school funding despite the recession.

The timing couldn’t be better for a report from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute that calls for the creation of a funding program to replace the state’s existing school funding formula, known as QBE (Quality Basic Education).

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New report on Atlanta’s housing stock matches Richard Florida’s findings on location of class, wealth

by David Pendered

A new report by Atlanta on the city's housing stock confirms a view of the city documented in March by urban demographer Richard Florida  – Atlanta is split in half, with strong neighborhoods to the north and vulnerable ones to the south of a dividing line that passes near the Georgia Tech campus.

One interesting finding in the city’s report is that Buckhead isn’t listed as an exceptional investment area. Instead, that designation is reserved for an area that stretches south from I-85 through Morningside and Poncy-Highland toward Druid Hills. The Buckhead area is ranked as strong or trending.

Atlanta says this report on the city’s housing is the first-of-its-kind study of 285 neighborhoods. It’s intended to enable policymakers to promote equitable residential development throughout the city. The city has scheduled two community meetings to discuss the study’s results – on Monday and Thursday evenings.

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Mayor Reed departs Monday for tour of Panama Canal with Biden, Isakson

by David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is to leave Monday to meet with Panama President Ricardo Martelli and tour the Panama Canal expansion with Sen. Johnny Isakson and Vice President Joe Biden.

The mayor’s participation in the economic development trip was announced Friday, as discussion continues over the decision by the Atlanta Braves to move to Cobb County.

The trip comes right after Gov. Nathan Deal announced his plans to provide an additional $35 million in state funding for the proposed deepening of the Savannah port. The deepening is needed to handle the larger vessels expected to transit the bigger Panama Canal.

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Falcons funding deal oh so close, but politics and opposition could extend debate into first quarter of 2014

by David Pendered

The stage is all but set for the Atlanta City Council to approve on Dec. 2 the community benefits deal that’s required for the city to provide its $200 million to help pay for a new Falcons stadium.

Whether that will happen remains a huge question. There likely is a good deal of political pressure mounting on one side for the council to pass the measure, and on the other to defer a vote until two newly elected citywide councilmembers take office in January – Andre Dickens and Mary Norwood. Both were opposed by Mayor Kasim Reed.

In addition, a scathing YouTube video was posted late Thursday. The two co-spokesmen are the Rev. Anthony Motley and the Rev. W.L. Cottrell, Sr. – both with deep ties to the stadium communities and both of whom have criticized the city’s process for crafting a community benefits deal.

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ATL chief: Paulding County’s planned airport won’t thrive in tough industry

by David Pendered

The planned commercial airport in Paulding County won’t do well in the competitive airline business, the chief of Atlanta’s airport on Wednesday told members of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

“The possibility of a second airport thriving is not so likely,” Louis Miller, general manager of Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told a group gathered in Atlanta for the annual State of the Ports Luncheon and Transportation Conference.

Hurdles at the proposed commercial airport include high operating costs for airlines, the trend toward bigger jet aircraft, and the history of aviation that favors new airports being built to relieve crowding at  smaller, older airports, Miller said.

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Cobb County’s coliseum authority may have capacity to fund Braves stadium within its existing powers

by David Pendered

A public authority in Cobb County may have the financial capacity to help pay for the planned Atlanta Braves stadium without a vote by the public, the county Board of Commissioners or a city council.

The Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority (Cobb-Marietta) has the sole power to set the hotel tax rate, according to state law. The Braves began talks with the coliseum authority in July, according to espn.com.

The coliseum authority now operates three destinations in the Cumberland area near the site of the planned Braves ballpark – Cobb Galleria Centre, Galleria Specialty Shops, and the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

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Braves in Cobb: Traffic, transit access to stadium near Cumberland Mall may be less a nightmare than some predict

by David Pendered

The notion offered by the Atlanta Braves that fans will find it easier to get to a ballgame in Cobb County than in downtown Atlanta ran into a buzz saw of criticism Monday.

“What a traffic nightmare!! I-75 and I-285 are already [troubled],” a writer identified as MayorDowning commented on ajc.com. “Now you’re adding to it.”

In reality, the Cobb site isn’t a hopeless traffic nightmare. The planned ballpark is alongside Gov. Nathan Deal’s major highway initiative. It’s in the middle of a grid of big roads served by three interstate highways. And it’s about a mile from the transfer station of Cobb’s bus system and its linkage to MARTA.

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Buckhead CID plans precisely for public gardens along Peachtree Road

by David Pendered

It takes thousands and thousands of flowering plants to keep the Buckhead business district looking like a million dollars.

Just last week, the Buckhead Community Improvement District went to market with a request for proposals to maintain all the greenery in public spaces within the CID. Proposals are due Nov. 18 and, keeping in step with the times, questions are being accepted only by eco-friendly email.

The greenscape request for proposals provides an insight into the level of detail the Buckhead CID pays to its common spaces. Consider the requisites for only the seasonal color on the segment of Peachtree Road from Maple Drive to Peachtree Dunwoody Road:

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Chief of Americans for Progress-Ga departing for position with Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition

by David Pendered

The head of the Georgia branch of oil billionaire brothers Charles Koch and David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity announced her resignation Friday.

Virginia Galloway, state director of AFP-Georgia, sent an email saying she will take a new position early next year with the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Ralph Reed serves as president of FFC.

Galloway leaves AFP as a major tax reform proposal is ramping up for debate in the 2014 session of the state General Assembly. Galloway has been a leading voice in the fair tax movement and testified in favor of it in July before the Senate Fair Tax Study Committee.

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$1.1 billion in spending approved Tuesday by metro Atlanta voters for roads, redevelopment, schools

by David Pendered

If metro Atlanta voters aren’t willing to pay higher taxes to ease traffic congestion and promote schools and development, that’s not the message they sent in Tuesday’s elections.

Voters approved more than $1.1 billion worth of spending in five jurisdictions – $852 million for projects including roads and urban renewal, and $280 million for the Clayton County school district.

Voters in Peachtree City approved a tax incentive program that favors development. Fairburn voters rejected an identical proposal. Two cities approved Sunday alcohol sales – Dacula and Palmetto. All votes results are unofficial pending certification.

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New Airport West CID hangs in balance as influential backers eye decision of Fulton tax commissioner

by David Pendered

The year-long effort to create a special tax district near Atlanta’s airport in order to promote economic development may be near a successful conclusion.

On Wednesday, representatives of the Fulton County tax commissioner and the proposed Airport West CID are slated to meet to see if they can clear up some discrepancies. The tax commissioner’s report, released Monday, showed the CID missed the mark by 4 percent of property owners.

“There are a couple of hundred houses that have been listed as commercial properties,” said Emory Morsberger, who is helping to lead the effort. “Once we figure out how to knock out the residential, we’ll exceed the threshold very nicely.”

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Atlanta welcomes kempt vendors; MARTA to allow food concessions in 2015, starting with four stations

by David Pendered

A trip to downtown Atlanta may soon include the chance to buy snacks and souvenirs and even a meal from vendors along Atlanta’s sidewalks and in MARTA stations.

The Atlanta City Council approved a plan Monday that is to have vendors back on the streets before Christmas. MARTA could have sandwich shops and coffee kiosks in stations within two years, based on results of a study due by February.

One thing everyone in charge agrees is that the vending programs will look nothing like the “Third World flea market on steroids” that set up shop in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games, to cite a description coined by Dick Yarbrough, chief communications officer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

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Atlanta vendors could work before Christmas as Mayor Reed, AJC spar over Reed’s handling of issue

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s street vendors could be back in business before the Christmas holiday season if the Atlanta City Council approves Monday the proposal submitted by Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration.

The council is expected to vote for the proposal that was passed Oct. 29 by the council’s Public Safety Committee, though the committee left the door open for any last-minute revisions to be made before the final vote. Vendors generally support the plan.

The politics of the vending issue now unfold in a very public debate between Reed and Kyle Wingfield, a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This back-and-forth arises even as Reed’s reelection campaign is promoting a brochure featuring positive comments about Reed published in the AJC.

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ARC’s State of the Region breakfast returns to message of hope, progress

by David Pendered

The tone of this year’s annual ARC State of the Region breakfast was dramatically different from the 2012 event.

The 2013 State of the Region returned to traditional themes of hope and progress that were notably absent from last year’s event. The 2012 breakfast seemed overshadowed by a subtext of “lift yourself up by your bootstraps” despite a sour economy and voter rejection of a proposed sales tax for transportation.

The event Friday looked ahead to long-term prosperity expected to come out of an emerging development trend that’s been quantified in a recent report by urban land use strategist and developer Chris Leinberger, the keynote speaker. In addition, the ARC formally unveiled a survey showing that two thirds of respondents are happy to call the region their home.

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Post Properties sells Renaissance in downtown Atlanta as corporate revenues dip lower than expected

by David Pendered

Atlanta-based Post Properties has sold its Renaissance community in downtown Atlanta for a price that exceeded the company’s expectations.

The sales price was a bright spot in a quarterly report released Wednesday that showed the company’s revenue forecast has slowed more than expected. The decline prompted the company to reduce rents in order to maintain occupancy rates going into winter, though evidently not in the Atlanta market because leasing here remains strong.

Post announced it had closed the sale of Renaissance for a gross price of $47.5 million. Renaissance is the second Atlanta property Post has sold in the past two years. In early 2012, Post sold its 35 percent ownership in the Post Biltmore for a gross price of $51 million.

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