Guest Columns
By Guest Columnist KIM ANDERSON, CEO of Families First
Virtually every measure of individual success begins with a loving and supportive family. Yet on any given day, approximately 13,000 children in Georgia’s foster care system have lost the family connections essential for them to succeed in life.
The national and state trends are grim: 60 percent of children placed into foster care are there because of neglect, 10 percent because of physical abuse and 8 percent are victims of sexual abuse.
By Guest Columnist JIM MARAN, president and CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce
In Jim Collins best-selling book Good to Great, he says visionary companies don’t ask “How well are we doing?” or “How can we do well?” or “How well do we have to perform to meet the competition?”
According to Collins, they institutionalize this question as a way of life–a habit of mind and action. Superb execution and performance naturally come to the
By Guest Columnist DICK ANDERSON, executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.
When Gov. Sonny Perdue asked me over a year ago to join his administration and take look at our transportation challenges from an executive perspective, I am not exactly sure what I expected to encounter.
I had experienced congestion as a daily commuter and heard about our funding challenges, but my experience in transportation was limited to being a flagman and mower operator for Kentucky Department of Transportation during college summers.
What I found was a set of business problems very similar to ones we faced at BellSouth, where I worked for 28 years.
Our transportation network (highways, rail, transit, ports), much like the telecommunications network, is a shared network used for many different purposes. Capital for investment in the network is always a scarce resource. Success demands a clear, targeted strategy for improved performance that includes a focus on execution and measurable results.
By Guest Columnist RAY CHRISTMAN, retired CEO of the FHLBank of Atlanta who
currently is involved in a variety of housing/banking-related consulting and civic activities, including the Peachtree Corridor Partnership, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, and the Livable Communities Coalition.
While there are reasons to be optimistic that an economic recovery is beginning to take hold, both locally and nationally, the housing industry remains mired in a deep depression.
Despite the conventional wisdom that housing will rebound ahead of other sectors, it’s possible that the industry’s comeback will be protracted and anemic and, indeed, will be a drag on the overall recovery.
Moreover, it’s a sure bet that as the economy stabilizes, the housing industry – and the mortgage financing system that supports it – will function much differently than they have in the recent past.
It has become painfully obvious that the problems facing the housing and banking systems are deeply intertwined. And the changes affecting these symbiotic sectors aren’t merely cyclical, but are structural in nature, and will have long-lasting effects.
By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS: a Georgia Tech professor of architecture and planning who also served as the city of Atlanta’s commissioner of planning, development and neighborhood conservation from 1996 to 2002. Dobbins also is author of a new book: ‘Urban Design and People.
The long way around might turn out to be the shortest – and the best. Maybe the state’s transportation program ought to first be based on a statewide strategy.
Then it ought to focus on where people do their most traveling – in and around cities and towns, where more and more of the state’s population lives; where congestion is highest and air quality lowest; in centers large and small, most of which have some kind of a transit system; places where a growing majority of the people – and thus votes – are concentrated, even in rural counties.
Markets are changing, and many of the state’s towns have historic and cultural charms that haven’t yet been destroyed, the kinds of bones that can attract the flesh of growing markets for closer in living, working, and shopping. These are features that most all of the state’s towns and cities share.
By Guest Columnist JAMES OXENDINE, CEO of the Oxendine Group, a public policy consulting firm specializing in economic and transit-oriented development
Muhtar Kent, President and CEO of the Coca Cola Company, recently suggested “the current global economic crisis gripping much of the world is not, in fact, an insurmountable setback for local leaders but rather an opportunity to be seized.”
Today, Atlanta’s leadership is ardently searching for an opportunity to solve our transportation issues and jump start our economy. Indeed, some proposed changes in Federal transit policy present just such an opportunity.
The Obama administration has recently allocated $13 billion dollars for a national high speed rail initiative which has Atlanta centered at the confluence of two major corridors.
By Guest Columnist MICHAEL ROBISON, founder, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Lanier Parking Holdings.
I grew up attending Atlanta public schools, so I can appreciate the value of renovating aging schools and building new ones. At Morningside Elementary, I recall distractions such as peeling paint, noisy plumbing, and sweltering late summer heat due to a lack of central air conditioning.
So there would seem to be cause for celebration two years ago when 80 percent of voters supported extending the extra one-penny sales tax “for educational purposes” for another five years.
The problem is the Atlanta Public Schools Special Option Local Sales Tax (SPLOST), first approved in 1997, has sent the system more than $1 billion, and it should have long since solved the capital needs at Morningside and everywhere else. For that amount, APS literally could have torn down every building in the school system and rebuilt them.
By Guest Columnist JIM GEIGER, CEO of Cbeyond who serves
on the boards of the Points of Light Institute (formerly HandsOn Network), Marist School and Southern Methodist Cox School of Business.
I’m a proud business owner and entrepreneur, but I know the world is bigger than me and bigger than my business. I must give back to the communities in which my business operates and encourage my employees to do the same.
Because I believe volunteerism is essential, I built my company on that foundation.
When we founded Cbeyond 10 years ago, we strived to create a culture that supported our entrepreneurial spirit, reflected our passion for volunteer service and supported employees’ personal volunteer interests.
By Guest Columnist JANICE MCKENZIE-CRAYTON, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta
For the last several years, I have had the opportunity to talk with and also hire a number of professionals who have made the decision to transition out of corporate America and into my world of non-profit management.
Many exchanges begin with, “I want to give back and make a difference. I am ready to get out of the rat race.” The economic climate and changes in social norms have instigated a fascinating migration of corporate executives to the public sector.
This phenomenon is having an interesting and for the most part positive impact on the non-profit sector. Subject matter experts with years of invaluable training and varied experiences are migrating to the non-profit world, excited and passionate about helping the community while being truly valued by the organizations they
By Guest Columnist CATHERINE ROSS, director of the Center for Qaulity Growth and Harry West Professor at Georgia Tech
They came from all over the southeast and New York. They came because they heard our infrastructure was wearing out. They came because they are concerned about preserving our competitive advantage, and the quality of life in the south eastern United States.
They came because they know we have arrived at a time when we must build a new economy, one that is responsive to opportunities in the global marketplace and sufficient to assure employment and a continued high quality of life for Americans.
By Guest Columnist GEORGE ISRAEL, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor of Macon
Congress heard some good news this past week as Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernake testified that the U.S. economy should start growing out of the recession by the end of the year.
But that is cold comfort to the 5.1 million people who have lost their jobs during this recession, including nearly 500,000 in Georgia.
Despite these trying economic times, the Georgia General Assembly took clear steps to position Georgia for economic growth and job creation. Legislators took decisive action to provide a state economic stimulus package with passage of bills to stimulate job creation and economic investment along with tax relief for
By Guest Columnist ALICIA PHILIPP, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta
Some call it the new normal. Others call it a sea change. Whatever you call it, it’s clear that all organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit, are looking at new ways to do business in today’s world.
In the nonprofit sector, organizations are working with a decrease in dollars paired with an increase in demand. But even as this shift in balance makes work challenging, it’s also critical to remember that in the nonprofit field, the success of the clients we serve depends on a wide network of organizations.
The issues facing today’s families don’t occur in isolation – if income security is a challenge, it’s likely that financial literacy or child care could be needed as well. A nonprofit may focus on one area of a client’s needs
By Guest Columnist WALTER BROWN, chairman of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, and co-founder/senior vicew president for development and environmental affairs of Green Street Properties
As is unfortunately apparent from the daily headlines, the United States, as well as Georgia’s economy, is going through a difficult economic transition that has prompted business closings and job losses.
However, these times also present a huge opportunity for our state and progressive policymakers to take charge of both our economic and environmental futures by making renewable resource development such as solar energy a priority.
A key theme of this transition is the decline of traditional industries – think newspaper publishers and automakers. On an equally noteworthy front, the economic incentives and job creation afforded by green industries and the manufacturing that supports them – industries supported by stimulus and in some instances private capital – may be overlooked.
By Guest Columnist ED ELLIS; transportation engineer; Regional Vice President of Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
It’s just plain hard to talk about transportation in Georgia without cussing.
I’ve been in the transportation engineering business for over 35 years and it hasn’t been easy. I know what you’re thinking – nobody in their right mind would admit that, but I like to tell folks things would have been much worse if I hadn’t been here, and you can’t prove me wrong.
I also like to remind folks that Atlanta has been called the fastest growing human
By Guest Columnist SAM OLENS;
Chairman of the Cobb County Commission
Chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission
President Barack Obama’s stimulus package is bad unless it helps balance the State budget; property tax reform is needed but not accomplished; trauma funds are essential but not approved; water conservation and supply was a non-issue; transportation funding and MARTA were left in the dark; a win for the Governor on Georgia Department of Transportation governance; and confirmation of last year’s homeowners tax relief grant with a huge property tax increase later this year.
Guest column by Doug Shipman,
Executive director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights
When Billy Payne stated during a speech in 2006 that the opportunity to build a civil and human rights oriented institution was bigger than the Olympics, more than a few heads turned.
Only recently has an understanding of the opportunity Atlanta and Georgia now possesses come into clear focus. Great places have a theme that binds their collective memory and current action together.
Guest Column by JIM JACOBY,
Developer of Atlantic Station
With the passage of time, it is easy to forget the economic insecurity and fear that followed Sept. 11, 2001. The appalling human tragedy of that awful moment in our nation’s history dwarfs the financial market shock of Sept. 15, 2008.
But one cannot avoid a sense that we have been here before. I am confident that we will rise to the occasion once again.
Guest Column by SAM WILLIAMS,
President of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
Georgia desperately needs a voter-approved transportation sales tax to deal with congestion in metro Atlanta and provide more resources around the state.
That is the answer to a call that has both been set forth in many transportation reports and by frustrated motorists in the metro area.
However, we first need the legislature to give us the tools we need to take action
By Guest Columnist Kevin Green
Executive Director of the Clean Air Campaign
With the headlines piling on more bad news, sometimes it’s tough to notice the good things. The dialogue about our bleak economy, mounting job losses and state budget crises commands our attention like a bad car wreck on the side of the road. There are certainly tough times ahead, much of which is beyond our ability to influence in the short term.
But let’s stop rubbernecking for a moment and acknowledge some encouraging
By Guest Columnist JOE BANKOFF;
president of the Woodruff Arts Center
People sometimes politely wonder why I would leave the law practice to work in a large not-for-profit arts organization like the Woodruff Arts Center. Me included. If timing is everything – then (with apologies to Charles Dickens) it is both the worst of times and the best of times.
The events of September 2008 are having even greater impact on our society than those of September 2001. In 2001 we had an instantaneous shock and a common foreign enemy. Today we are living with a series of “after shocks” that are getting more – not less – intense.
