Category: David Pendered

A handful of recent economic-types of reports portray metro Atlanta and Georgia as continuing a slow recovery from the depth of the recession.

The news offers little hope for the type of immediate turn-around that’s needed by folks who post blogs saying they’ve been out of work for more than six months and aren’t getting call-backs to their job inquiries.  But most signs do point toward a rising tide that eventually will reach most boats.

A new report from the Metro Atlanta Chamber showed job postings in high tech and a few other fields grew faster in this region than nationally. The Federal Reserve’s report for the first quarter indicates a slow recovery in Georgia that’s broad-based. A Georgia State report in May predicts continuing headwinds from the sluggish global economy, with 2014 expected to be a better year for the economy.

An Atlanta police officer who was struck and killed by a drunken driver at the Brookwood Interchange has been memorialized with the naming of the interchange in her honor.

Senior Patrol Officer Gail Denise Thomas was honored with a sign to be placed at the interchange of the Downtown Connector and exit 251. The exact location and date of installation is still being determined, the state Transportation Department said Friday. The ceremony was Thursday at Atlanta’s Public Safety Headquarters.

Thomas, 46, died Jan. 24, 2012 while working a car crash scene shortly after 11 p.m. near the intersection that leads from southbound I-75 to northbound I-85. The driver who struck Thomas pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced to 16 years in prison on two counts – vehicular homicide and failure to obey the directions of a police officer.

Attention to the calendar will enable Georgia to shift to the federal government about $80 million of the cost of the managed lane project along I-75 south.

Georgia’s Department of Transportation had planned to borrow the $80 million. But the state and ARC were able to able to shift the funding source by tweaking the region’s long and short transportation plans before the state’s fiscal year ends June 30.

In the scheme of things, $80 million is a small sum. But the endeavor does indicate how far the state will go to stretch its transportation budget. The GRTA board on Wednesday provided the last approval that’s needed.

Atlanta is on track to spend up to $770,769 to remodel space for an art gallery in the city’s office building that once housed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The planned exhibit space will encompass 3,400 square feet and provide two galleries accessible through one entry, according to Camille Russell Love, who heads the city’s cultural affairs programs and who presented the plan Tuesday to the Atlanta City Council’s Community Development Committee. The council is expected to approve the spending at its June 17 meeting.

The proposal to spend money for a city gallery elicited a protest from Ron Shakir, an Atlanta resident who’s a regular opponent of spending proposals when they’re discussed at committee meetings. Councilperson Cleta Winslow pushed back, contending that support for public arts is a wise investment.

Atlanta has opened its newest facility in the city’s never-ending quest to improve public safety and promote neighborhood cohesion.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed presided over the ribbon cutting ceremony on June 6, the 69^th anniversary of D-Day. Reed sounded little like a candidate for reelection, and a lot like a community leader, as he summed up a wide array of interests that are bound up in the new Fire Station No. 28.

“A building like this should represent the best version of ourselves,” Reed concluded. “God bless you. It’s only going to get better in the city of Atlanta.”

An interesting meeting is set for June 10, one that will bring elite bankers together with street-wise advocates of the working poor in order to help a low-wealth community in Atlanta.

The goal is to devise a program that will teach financial literacy to those who don’t live in a world where financial advisors reach out to them. There’s a chance that lessons in entrepreneurship may be in the curriculum that is to begin this autumn.

Sun Trust Banks and Operation HOPE are partnering to offer the program. It’s a way for Sun Trust to return to its roots of community building, and Operation HOPE already is a good partner, Sun Trust executive Dan Mahurin said Wednesday.

Kennesaw State University is starting a new degree program in culinary sustainability that will teach best management practices for the food service industry.

The new program, reinforced by two sustainability awards in May from the National Restaurant Association, is part of KSU’s effort to establish its place in leadership training for nation’s $632 billion marketplace of restaurants.

“We’re all fighting for the same consumers,” said Christian Hardigree, who devised the curriculum. “The question is: How can we do things that are more efficient, more effective, and that improve the bottom line?”

The proposal to close strip clubs and other “adult-oriented businesses” along Cheshire Bridge Road isn’t the only urban renewal issue facing the Atlanta City Council Monday.

Also on the agenda is a small item that has become part of a much bigger picture – the potential for community renewal in neighborhoods near the future Falcons stadium.

The small item is a proposal to spend $460,617 to continue making it more pleasant to walk between the Atlanta University Center and West End. Incidentally, West End is the first commercial district south of the new stadium and is located closer to the stadium than Atlantic Station.

Cousins Properties, Inc. has broken ground on a 29-story office tower in downtown Austin.

Cousins is a bellwether Atlanta real estate firm that has said it intends to reduce the proportion of Atlanta properties in its portfolio. Evidently, Texas is a favorite locale, as Cousins purchased an office tower in Austin this year with a portion of the $165 million it raised in an April 12 stock sale.

Two tenants have committed to the new building – a 371,000-square-foot, class A structure designed by the same firm based in Durham, N.C. that is designing a second tower for Cox Enterprises. The cost of the new building was not released.

Who will profit from Atlanta’s new programs to reduce homelessness? Will the homeless be moved to dwellings in blighted neighborhoods west of downtown Atlanta? What will happen to the homeless shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets?

These central questions arose in a discussion Tuesday about Atlanta’s proposal to create a non-profit organization to take over the city’s federal and state funding that’s intended to reduce homelessness.

No solid answers were provided before the proposal to create the non-profit was approved unanimously by the Atlanta City Council’s Community Development Committee and sent to the council for a vote June 3. The mayor retains considerable influence over the planned non-profit.

Atlanta’s latest approach to reduce homelessness in the city calls for the creation of a non-profit organization under the control of the mayor.

The proposal arises from the city’s work conducted with a portion of the $3.3 million innovation grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The new non-profit is to raise money from public and private sources, hire an executive director, invite relevant partners to join the program, and comply with all federal laws.

The legislation is to be discussed Tuesday at Atlanta City Hall. Topics likely to be addressed include how the non-profit will relate to existing regional programs for the homeless including the Gateway Center, Metro Atlanta Tri-Jurisdictional Collaborative on Homelessness, United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness – not to mention the homeless shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets.

The sea turtle nesting season is off to a slow start this year along Georgia’s coast and other southern beaches.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources reports that the first loggerhead nest to be found in Georgia this year was located May 13 on Wassaw Island, off the coast of Savannah. May 5 is the average arrival of the first female to lay eggs. Last year the first nest was discovered April 25 on Cumberland Island.

North Carolina beaches evidently are a little more inviting this summer. The first loggerhead nest was spotted May 12 on Oak Island, near Wilmington, according to seaturtle.org.

Sometimes the political theater at Atlanta City Hall is pure spectacle. Thursday was one of those days.

A union leader won applause for her speech, including from councilmembers Michael Julian Bond and C.T. Martin. Bond, who chaired the meeting, quickly regained order and seemed to smile as he said such outbursts were not in order.

The wife of a policeman also was applauded after her brief comments about low pay for cops and helping to buy a billboard to highlight the police pay issue. She wrote a blog in December titled, “City council is a joke,” in which she discussed the size and dialect of a councilmember.

Bob Perciasepe, the acting administrator of the EPA, took about a nanosecond to recall the old Atlantic Steel mill near downtown Atlanta.

Perciasepe picked the area that now is Atlantic Station as his example of metro Atlanta’s national reputation for turning brownfields into vibrant communities: A place known to execute plans that are big, bold and game-changing.

Perciasepe’s choice is a reminder that efforts to clean up hazardous materials in metro Atlanta communities go beyond the Atlanta BeltLine. There’s a former smoldering landfill in Acworth that’s now Lakeside Marketplace; the Aerotropolis Atlanta development at the former Hapeville Ford Assembly Plant; and, just last week, the Proctor Creek watershed.