Guest Columns
By Guest Columnist JENNIFER S. SINGH, associate professor of sociology at Georgia Tech
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Georgia, and in Atlanta it disproportionately affects black and low-income communities. To address heart health disparities, Georgia Tech college students are getting involved through a community service-learning program at Georgia Tech in collaboration with American Heart Association and Grove Park Foundation.
By Guest Columnist BAMBIE HAYES-BROWN, president and CEO of Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc.
The affordable housing crisis is a choice. We have the resources to solve it. Elected officials must garner the political will and work to end this crisis. The 2020 elections are the focus of a national effort by housing advocates with the motto – “Because housing is built with ballots.”
By Guest Columnist MELITA EASTERS, executive director of Georgia’s WIN List
As Georgia legislators grapple with how to divide a smaller budget among a variety of state services, the growing percentage of women legislators has shifted both how discussions of issues take place under Georgia’s Gold Dome and which issues are discussed.
By Guest Columnist LEIGH BURTON FINLAYSON, a resident of Grant Park
According to a report distributed by the Atlanta City Planning Department at an Atlanta City Council tree ordinance work session last autumn, 48,306 healthy trees were cut or cleared in the last six years within the city limits of Atlanta (Fiscal Year 2014 to 2019). The City blessed the cutting of these trees, issuing the necessary permits for their removal.
By Guest Columnist KIMBERLY N. STRONG, MBA, president of Atlanta’s chapter of American Marketing Association
Looking toward West Midtown from Atlantic Station, the number of cranes dotting the Atlanta skyline speaks to the city’s economic vitality. More than a decade after the Great Recession, Atlanta has proven its resilience as a regional business hub that is adept at creating jobs. This accomplishment is undoubtedly worth celebrating, but it also comes with a risk: Passivity.
By Guest Columnist JASON EVANS, a local film critic who is a voting member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival may sound small and niche but it is a big deal. The AJFF started exactly 20 years ago and has grown into the largest film festival in the state of Georgia and the biggest Jewish film festival in the world. The AJFF features world premieres of domestic and international films and brings in actors, directors, and experts to speak about the movies. Around 40,000 people are expected to attend this year.
By Guest Columnist TOM ODER, former news editor of The Atlanta Journal and author of ‘It’s Atlanta!’ when the city was awarded the Olympic Games
A new book about the Olympic Park bombing brings back memories about how the headline ‘It’s Atlanta!’ was created, a story told here for the first time in Saporta Report.
By Guest Columnist REBECCA SERNA, executive director of Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
There are billions of dollars of street, highway, and transit projects coming to the City of Atlanta over the next few decades. But there is one project we could undertake right now. It would save lives and have minimal costs — setting a safer speed limit. We could follow the lead of other cities around the country and the world by setting a consistent citywide speed limit of 25 mph.
By Guest Columnist DAVID L. SJOQUIST, professor of economics at Georgia State University
In 1936, Mississippi adopted what is claimed to be the first modern industrial tax incentive program, the objective being to lure northern manufacturing firms to Mississippi. Since then, tax incentive programs have mushroomed across the U.S. as local and state governments compete for development investment. This focus has expanded to include almost every larger development project.
By Guest Columnist CHRIS WOMACK, executive vice president and president of external affairs for Southern Company
Without federal tax policy that fueled sorely needed capital investment in her long-neglected community, Gloria Kitchens might not be where she is today – studying at Tufts University after graduating Drew Charter Senior Academy in 2017.
By Guest Columnist FRED O. SMITH JR., a founding member of BeltLine Rail Now
Trust is a strange thing. It is easy to lose. And once lost, it is difficult to regain. When it comes to transit in this city, an imminent decision by the Atlanta Regional Commission and MARTA officials will help determine whether they retain the citizens’ trust, or squander it. If it is squandered, this could negatively impact transportation in this city for generations. The draft of the 2020 Atlanta Region’s Plan Regional Transportation Plan is in its final public comment phase at the Atlanta Regional Commission, and it will not be revised again for another four years.
Guest Columnist NANCY K. DAVES, retired international specialist, NOAA Fisheries
Every Winter, many North Atlantic right whales make their way home to the ocean off Georgia’s coast to calve, seeking safe and warmer waters to have their babies before the long voyage home to the New England and Canadian waters in the Spring. North Florida and Georgia coastal communities play an important role in the stewardship of one of the largest whales roaming the seas. However, these whales face much danger in their corridor of migration and the time has come to pass federal legislation calling on the federal government to help conserve right whales.
By Guest Columnist JEREMY DEVRAY-BENICHOU, vice president of customer success at UrbanLeap
UrbanLeap is a small company that is among those contributing to a big change in the way cities, nonprofits, and organizations – including MARTA – evaluate new ideas before putting them into place.
By Guest Columnist HOWARD S. WERTHEIMER, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
A number of years ago, when I was leading the Office of Capital Planning and Space Management at Georgia Tech, at a time when the City of Atlanta was deep into the throngs about building a new streetcar system, many people questioned the merits of making such a significant financial investment into a transit modality with limited flexibility. … It was more than obvious to many thought leaders that we should not invest in 19th century technologies….
By Guest Columnist GIL FRANK, co-founder and executive director of Historic Westside Gardens
In the affordable housing crisis that brews in Atlanta, lower-income people and marginalized populations suffer most.
Historic Westside Gardens focuses on food justice, primarily on the Westside, where it is essential to note at the outset that around 70 percent of residents are lower-income renters. … Historic Westside Gardens chose to focus on the lack of food access, the “food desert” problem, while recognizing that people do not live their life in a silo. HWG is aware that, for residents, food access is not, today, their priority. Housing is their priority. How to link these two rights?
By Guest Columnists STEVE GOTTLIEB and BILL BOLLING, executive director, board member (respectively) of Atlanta Legal Aid
Children in foster care throughout Georgia – and those of us fighting on their behalf to improve their lives – have received some good news about an important program.
As chair of the Judicial Council Budget Committee, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Michael Boggs made the case to the state Senate Appropriations Committee to recommend $375,000 in additional funding to expand Kinship Care, a program created by Atlanta Legal Aid, to the rest of the state.
By Guest Columnist NICK STEPHENS, an Atlanta writer and parks advocate
Earlier this year, over 15 years after it was first proposed, construction on the Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry finally began. The promise of the huge greenspace has been spurring private development nearby. As the area prepares to undergo dramatic rapid change, community activists have been raising concerns, with one major project recently arousing controversy.
By Guest Columnist BETTY WILLIS, president of the Clifton Corridor Transportation Management Association
As far back as 1961, transportation planners at the predecessor of the Atlanta Regional Commission had the foresight to anticipate where MARTA rail lines would best serve the metro region’s transit needs, years before construction began in 1975 on the heavy rail system.
By KEVIN GREINER, president and CEO of Gas South
If you’re a mature (i.e., middle-aged) music fan like I am, and you happened to show up at Music Midtown last month, you probably asked yourself: What happened to all my people?
Answer: Your friends’ kids came instead.
By Guest Columnist SANJAY PATEL, director of special projects at Soccer in the Streets
It’s Saturday morning in late August and a soccer team from the Garden Hills neighborhood is aboard a MARTA train heading southbound. As the youngsters approach their destination, the recorded announcement on the speaker system exclaims, “Welcome to West End Station, exit here for StationSoccer….”
