Guest Columns
By Guest Columnists MAYA DILLARD SMITH, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and BRINKLEY SERKEDAKIS, executive director Common Cause Georgia
Just days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in Evenwel v. Abbott that broke a recent wave of dangerously restrictive approaches by the high court that have been slowly chipping away key elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
By Guest Columnist WILL ADAMS, an Atlanta-based researcher, analyst and frequent speaker in the energy utilities industry
Many MARTA rail expansion advocates I speak with are surprised to learn the transit system’s ridership figures have been down each year since 2009, with 2014 as one of the lowest on record.
By Guest Columnist DINK NESMITH, a Jesup native who is president and co-owner of Athens-based Community Newspapers, Inc., publishers of newspapers in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina
How far back can you remember?
Our three children, Alan, Emily and Eric, joke that I can remember the day I was born in 1948. Actually, I can’t. I tease them that I do recall the ride home from Ritch-Leaphart Hospital in Jesup, 40 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
By Guest Columnist JOHN MATTHEWS, a retired city planner who specialized in urban growth policy and a retired instructor at both Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and at Georgia Tech
Metropolitan Atlanta is seeing the creation of an increasing number of local governments; there are many new cities and more are sure to come. There is additional movement to allow creation of new small school districts tied to the new cities.
By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, professor of the practice of planning at Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture and a former commissioner of planning and community development for the City of Atlanta
Transit is a good. In an ideal world it gets people where they want to go, cleanly, efficiently, and affordably. Transit fills a need. Twenty percent of Atlanta’s citizens are living at or below the poverty line; additionally, a growing percentage of the population doesn’t drive. This might be because they’re too old, too young, or because they simply don’t want to.
By Guest Columnist JASON S. DOZIER, an Atlanta native and resident of the Mechanicsville neighborhood
Fifty years ago, Atlanta’s late Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. famously quipped, “We built a stadium on ground we didn’t own with money we didn’t have for a team we hadn’t signed.”
By Guest Columnist JOHN S. WILSON, president of Morehouse College
A March 15, 2016 article in SaportaReport about the Morehouse College National Alumni Association presidential elections contained inaccuracies and misinformation about Morehouse College.
We appreciate SaportaReport for making corrections to that story, and we acknowledge that even the best institutions can be hurt by misinformation and disinformation.
By Guest Columnist JOHN MATTHEWS, a commercial real estate investor and an MBA graduate of Goizueta Business School
A debate seems to still be occurring in Georgia and our legislature about transit versus roads for the Atlanta region. Still? It is time for the debate to stop, and it is time to begin implementing solutions. Because the logic of transit is not a subject of debate.
By Guest Columnist HATTIE DORSEY, a concerned citizen who is a former president of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
A policy for affordable housing has been a long time arriving.
Soon the Atlanta City Council will deliberate a proposed policy on inclusionary housing to be submitted by Councilmember Andre Dickens, chair of the City’s Community Development Committee.
By Guest Columnist CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, director of the Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University
As a city of Atlanta taxpayer, I have a “love-worry” relationship with tax allocation districts (TADs): I love some of the projects that Atlanta has used TADs to finance, but I worry about whether we are keeping a close eye on the cumulative impact of this and other economic development finance tools.
By Guest Columnist BRIAN TOLLESON, a Georgia native who is the founder and owner of BARK BARK, a branded entertainment firm headquartered in Atlanta with offices in New York and Los Angeles
I’m a proud Georgian and a third generation entrepreneur here.
By Guest Columnist CHRIS MANGANIELLO, policy director for Georgia River Network
More than 150 conservation advocates from the mountains to the coast are making sure their voices are heard at the Capitol – urging legislators to cast votes for clean water. In the wake of the Flint, Mich. drinking water crisis, nothing could be more important than securing clean water for all Georgians.
By Guest Columnist TAIFA BUTLER, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute
People pushing proposals to bring casinos or horse tracks to Georgia are hitching their chances to the gold-plated brand that is the state’s HOPE Scholarship. Not a bad play.
By Guest Columnist DANA RICKMAN, policy and research director for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education
On Dec. 10, 2015, President Barak Obama signed into law the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA).
This law reauthorizes the “Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965,” which has been more recently known as “No Child Left Behind.” This important legislation has provided Georgia an opportunity to set its own direction and determine the best way to support schools and districts.
By Guest Columnist KEVIN R. MCGEE, a motivational speaker, business coach and blogger
As 2016 begins, many people make resolutions about the coming year. My family is no different. Our resolution is pretty simple. It’s to show more compassion for others and to find and fulfill our purpose.
Last year, on April 22, we found out that my daughter, Kayla, had a rare form of kidney cancer and would have to undergo two major surgeries to remove tumors from her body. She would also have to undergo a week of radiation therapy and eight months of chemotherapy.
By Guest Columnist KIM ANDERSON, CEO of Families First, Inc.
This month, as temperatures plunge, it is impossible not to be aware of the number of vulnerable people in our community who are without basic shelter and the bare essentials of life.
We chafe at the notion of the homeless exposed to the bitter cold, and we wince at news coverage of house fires started by people who resort to using ovens to warm their bodies and souls. This stark reality undercuts the American Dream.
By Guest Columnist JEFF GRAHAM, executive director of Georgia Equality and facilitator of Georgia Unites Against Discrimination campaign
We’re barely two weeks into the New Year, but politics here in Georgia are already in full swing.
It’s time for all of us to begin talking about a bill that protects all Georgians – people of faith, our veterans, those who are disabled, women, our elderly – and yes, gay and transgender Georgians too.
By Guest Columnist STEPHANIE DAVIS, retired CEO of Georgia Women for a Change
New Year’s Day is like every other temporal marker – our birthday, an anniversary, a holiday, a death – validating the passage of time, reminding us that it is all too short and suggesting that we can begin anew.
By Guest Columnists REV. HOWARD BECKHAM and FRANK FERNANDEZ, leaders working to revitalize Atlanta’s Westside
The Bluff is despair. The Bluff is drug infested. The Bluff is hopelessness.
The Bluff is not the residents of Vine City and English Avenue. It does not, cannot and must not define the entire historic Westside community.
By Guest Columnist GORDON KENNA, director of business development for Consensus Energy, an Atlanta-based environmental services company
To the surprise of most observers, the climate change conference in Paris produced a historic consensus document that resembles meaningful progress.
It is remarkable that nearly 200 nations were able to agree on a common position.
