Guest Columns
By GUEST COLUMNIST JOE COOK, Paddle Georgia coordinator and guidebook series author
In the spring of 1970, Georgia’s then comptroller general and Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Jimmy Bentley, dispatched 65 telegrams to state and national leaders – including President Richard Nixon – all in an attempt to have the date of the country’s first Earth Day celebration changed.
By Guest Columnist BOB IRVIN, former Republican minority leader in Georgia’s House of Representatives
Atlanta, your city government is trying to trick you.
By Guest Columnist SAGDRINA JALAL, senior director of Community Innovation at the Center for Civic Innovation, with JENNIFER HIRSCH and DORI PAP, of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Black women are pioneers of social innovation, and their long history of working to create community – even when exhausted, even while being ignored, even as credit goes to others – should be recognized. For the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) and for Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustain-Learn-Serve (SLS) and Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI), a shared belief in the importance of supporting innovation led by Black women provides a rare example of how large institutions can propel the work of community leaders forward by playing supportive, rather than leading, roles.
By Guest Columnist NOEL MORRIS, a writer and producer who specializes in classical and orchestral music
Since the start of the pandemic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has turned up in the most unexpected places, including in the middle of a meadow in Serenbe.
By Guest Columnist WILLIAM D. BRYAN, program manager with the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance
It’s no secret that Atlanta has an affordable housing problem. The city’s recent rapid growth has depleted affordable housing stock while an inflated real estate market has displaced many long-time residents. The city has approved a $100 million bond initiative to retain and develop dwellings affordable to those earning the salary of teacher or firefighter. But housing affordability depends on more than the price of shelter; it also depends on making energy affordable.
By Guest Columnist KEVIN ABEL, State Transportation Board member for the 6th congressional district
As Fulton County cities prepare their transportation project lists for the November Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax renewal referendum, the six cities of north Fulton County – Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell, Mountain Park, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs – face an important question: Will they allocate a meaningful percentage of their TSPLOST dollars to a Transit Improvements project so that bus rapid transit on the future Ga. 400 Express Lanes can be funded?
By Guest Columnists BRUCE GUNTER and JOEL DIXON, experienced developers of mixed income housing in metro Atlanta
If you agree on the need for more housing options for those of lesser means; want to do more than plant a yard sign to address systemic racism; and decry the yawning wealth gap between black and white households in Atlanta, then here is an action that will change the trajectory regarding housing supply and racial justice, while building net worth. It is single-family zoning reform, a zoning type covering 63% of the land area of the City of Atlanta.
By Guest Columnist ISRAEL ARCE, surgical tech and Grammy-winning musician
It is a new year full of promise, particularly following the tumultuous election season. There is certainly no time to waste when it comes to promoting sensible solutions that will diversify our workforce while making our state more competitive and successful. Luckily, this seems to be exactly what Georgia state Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton) is working to achieve.
By Guest Columnist JOE BEASLEY, a human rights activist in Atlanta and founder of the Joe Beasley Foundation
American history is fraught with fables and outright lies. No one envisioned the day when Africans would become part of the mainstream of the nation, the day when our truth would have to be examined and included.
By Guest Columnist Dr. SAMUEL D. JOLLEY, Jr., secretary of the board of directors for the Development Authority of Fulton County
The call was a clear one: We were asked to help upgrade essential infrastructure at a major university center while preserving debt capacity.
By Guest Columnist STEVE VALK, an Atlanta resident who serves as communications coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby
At long last, it appears the climate crisis will finally be addressed with the urgency it demands. In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden said, “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now.”
By Guest Columnist PETER BAHOUTH, climate activist and visual artist
My very first job was raking leaves in the fall. … Now, the simple and efficient rake has been replaced by the daily intrusion of loud and polluting gas-powered leaf blowers designed to blast away any leaf that dares land on a lawn.
By Guest Columnist GREG RAMSEY, founder of Village Habitat Design
Our last forests in and around Atlanta (The City of Trees) are under assault. Sites are needlessly being cut and scraped to further a suburban, conventional style development pattern that has consumed most of the woodlands and farms in and around Atlanta. We are left with a limited number of “forest enclaves” on the remaining private tracts of land, and they are awaiting a similar fate.
By Guest Columnist MICHAEL HALICKI, executive director of Park Pride
Monday, Jan. 18, is the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, an occasion that calls on us all to honor the legacy of Dr. King and to consider whether our individual actions follow in his example.
By Guest Columnist DEBORAH RICHARDSON, executive director of the International Human Trafficking Institute.
Georgia is a case study of Margaret Meade’s words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
By Guest Columnist JOE HUDSON, trailblazing Black business advocate, mentor and coach
Today is the day that the Black business community needs to begin to step into city/community leadership roles. And, now is the time to put together funds from the Black community and its Black businesses to help build Atlanta’s Black community infrastructure and to protect our interest going forward. We have money and business leadership talent. We have many rich Black people in Atlanta who, as former Mayor Maynard Jackson used to say, “Get what they can get, and sit on the can.”
By Guest Columnist SUSAN VARLAMOFF, retired director of the University of Georgia’s Office of Environmental Sciences
As Georgia is the political epicenter of the nation with two U.S. Senate runoff races, the 1.2 million Catholics in the state may play an outsized role in deciding which party controls the Senate.
By Guest Columnist JILL BINKLEY, program director and founder of TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation
Functional limitations and issues such as numbness, decreased shoulder range of motion, weakness and reduced aerobic capacity are common side effects for breast cancer patients following surgery.
By Guest Columnist MICK COCHRAN, chairman of the board of First Step Staffing, Inc.
2020 has presented all sorts of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. The loss of income and wealth creates significant uncertainty and anxiety, coupled with fears and concerns over our family and friends’ individual health and welfare. Parents struggle with balancing childcare and maintaining secure employment. Many children are in despair, trying to keep up with school while mastering a whole new way of learning.
By Guest Columnist KAREN J. HARDWICK, leadership consultant and executive coach
Stressful doesn’t quite describe 2020. And it is the grueling pressure of this moment that is creating a leadership movement that harnesses the power of Connection. The kind of connection filled with grit and grace. The kind of connection that transforms us, our workplaces, and our relationships.
