Category: Guest Column

I became a member of the Atlanta Tree Conservation Commission (TCC) in 2019. The 2001 Atlanta Tree Protection Ordinance (TPO) created the TCC to hear appeals of City arborists’ decisions on tree removals. The TCC hears many appeals involving developers who clear-cut a lot and pay recompense. Recompense is the amount paid to Atlanta’s Tree Trust Fund […]

Why this work and the conversations it inspires matter now more than ever: For all that separates us, food connects us. The food we grow, share, eat and even what we throw away, is at the heart of every culture. At a time when food systems are increasingly at risk, strengthening those connections can inspire […]

In March 2024, the Governor’s Office, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) and the Criminal Case Data Exchange Board (CDX) launched Georgia’s first statewide automated victim notification (AVN) system, VINE Appriss.  The cutting-edge platform was designed to unify Georgia’s 159 counties judicial data for consistent and accurate jail notifications and empower victims. The CJCC was […]

The Marks Inn East Atlanta was built in the 1960s as the Interstate system connected Atlanta to new opportunities and the Civil Rights Movement spurred transformative social change. Flash forward to 2022 and while Atlanta was booming the now named Atlanta Motel had fallen on hard times. It had become the housing of last resort […]

Editor’s Note: This piece is written in response to a March 3 column by Maria Saporta titled Metro Atlanta is dead last when it comes to economic mobility. It was painful to read in your recent article that, according to the most recent study by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, metro Atlanta ranks 50th out of the […]

During the recession in 1988, I was 27 years old with $5,000 in the bank. I didn’t have a 401K retirement plan, own a home, or have a rock-solid game plan to acquire either. But I took a chance on myself and resigned my job at an Atlanta-based architectural firm and became a freelance graphic […]

It seems as if we might have to pay more attention to things that can’t be said in certain spaces. Again.  Because if you live in the American South or know anything about its history, you know we’ve been here before. We mucked through it then, though it cost us dearly in spilled blood, lost […]

March is Intellectual and Developmental Disability (I/DD) Awareness Month, a time dedicated to recognizing the millions of individuals in our communities who live with these disabilities. It is a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come and acknowledge the work that remains to ensure inclusion, accessibility, and support for all. According to the Georgia […]

President Trump made tariffs a centerpiece of his 2024 political campaign. During his first term, he significantly increased tariffs. Now, he is levying substantial tariffs on imports via executive orders with additional tariffs and increases widely expected. So, what does history tell us about tariffs? In his 1929 address to Congress, Congressman Hamilton Fish reminds […]

Since the hasty demise of the Peachtree Street shared space project in downtown Atlanta, in 2022, it has always seemed like a matter of time before this action would lead to a preventable death. On Feb. 11 it happened, when Pradeep Sood, 67, a merchant at nearby AmericasMart, was hit by a driver while crossing […]

It’s past time we recognize that the state of Georgia is violating the 2002 U.S. Supreme ruling that bars imposing the death penalty on intellectually disabled defendants. Our procedures for imposing capital punishment — unique among all the states — are failing on two specific procedural levels, leaving disabled people vulnerable to execution when they […]

Where do we get our values from? My philosophy professor would argue it depends on whom you ask. Some say values are discovered; others say that they are cultivated, inherited, or derived from experience. Yet, no matter their origin, values shape our character, our actions and ultimately, who we become. For me, those values were […]

More than 30 years ago, theater lovers in metro Atlanta got a distressing lesson in what can happen when an arts institution becomes the victim of right-wing culture warriors. It happened in August 1993, when the conservative Republican Cobb County commission canceled public funding for all arts groups in the county as a protest over […]

When the Georgia Bar Media Judiciary Conference was first launched in 1991, the goal was to build bridges across the often tense divides between Georgia’s media, the courts, and the legal community. Convincing everyone to sit down in the same room for candid conversations was among the achievements that year.  Thirty-four years later, the conference […]

Flowing through sparsely settled country in Southwest Georgia, Ichawaynochaway Creek is small in size, but since 1997, it has played an outsized role in shaping Georgia’s boating laws. Between 1992 and 1997, a pitched battle was fought to keep the locally beloved  Baker County creek open to the public. It pitted a lone local sportsman […]

It was one of those phone calls we all dread. A call where time itself slows to such a bizarre pace. The lag allowed me to keep my composure and methodically measure each syllable being said to me in dire hopes that I would hear something else.  Alas, in those long seconds it was confirmed. […]

When it comes to tackling a challenge as daunting as Alzheimer’s disease, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. Yet, at Daughters Against Alzheimer’s, we have found that by infusing our efforts with fun, camaraderie, team building, and the spirit of hope, we have unlocked a powerful formula for success […]

Along with many of you, I have a deep respect for our former President Jimmy Carter as a human being, statesman, humanitarian and a devoted environmentalist. Indeed, an important part of his presidential legacy is his awareness of the vulnerability of our planet to human activities and climate change, and his many substantive actions to protect […]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of the Beloved Community — a society built on justice, equality, and shared prosperity — was as much about economic liberation as it was about civil rights. He understood that systems of exploitation, including financial injustice, were designed to keep marginalized communities trapped in cycles of poverty. Now more […]