Forget about NIMBY. My protest is NIMFY (Not In My Front Yard).
Grady High School is planning to turn its beautiful front lawn into a parking lot.
The plans are part of the Atlanta Public School’s efforts to improve its schools and accommodate increased student demand.
The behind-the-scenes dealing at Fort McPherson reminds me of Marvin Gaye’s song: “What’s going on?”
The questions are numerous.
Change is hard.
We are witnessing that fact every day – whether it be turning one-way streets into two-way streets or whether it be introducing 10,000 e-scooters on our city’s streets in the past year.
When it comes to Atlanta’s trees, we can never let down our guard. Every day, there’s a new threat to cut down our precious trees.
That’s why we need a strong tree ordinance that protects our tree canopy – preserving our greatest natural amenity and retaining Atlanta’s unique stature as a city in a forest.
Something funky is going on at Fort McPherson – again.
This time it involves the 145 acres under the control of the McPherson Implementating Local Redevelopment Authority.
Back in the 1980s, I had the pleasure of getting to know one of the most flamboyant developers who had entered the Atlanta market – A.C. Toh.
Toh made headlines in the 1980s by proposing to build a high-density international village on a 19-block area on the south part of downtown. Then Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young had taken Toh on a tour of the area, and together they envisioned what the place could be – a bustling new downtown with high-rise residential and office towers.
These days, in nearly every community forum in Atlanta, someone mentions the city’s unfortunate top ranking for income inequality in the nation.
Most often, the studies cited are for the city of Atlanta, which has a population of less than 500,000 people in a region with about 5 million people.
The proposed investment priorities of More MARTA in the city of Atlanta feels as though we’re coming up short.In gauging the response of the proposed priorities and timeline of the More MARTA plan, it appears few are satisfied or comfortable with the plan as it stands.
The 2019 HOPE Global Forum, once again, showed capitalism at its best.
The forum, held at Atlanta Hyatt Regency from May 29 to 31, brought together what has become one of the most diverse gatherings of business leaders and the general public. The 4,000-plus attendees literally came from all walks of life from many different corners of the world.
And the messages were powerful.
When it comes to quality of life measures, Atlanta seems stuck in the middle.The latest example was last week’s release of the annual ParkScore ranking by the Trust for Public Land.
Despite the MARTA referendum loss in Gwinnett County on March 19, county and transportation leaders stand firm on the need to bring transit to Georgia’s second largest county.
“Regardless of the way the vote went in March, there is so much need for transit and mobility relief in Gwinnett,” said Charlotte Nash, chair of the Gwinnett County Commission.
My life was transformed at 234 Sunset Ave. – the home of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King and their four children.As I have written before, my closest friend in 1966 to 1968 was the oldest of the King children – the late Yolanda King. I had the incredible good fortune to spend the night in the home, to get to know Martin Luther King Jr., and the entire family
About 110 Atlanta leaders will be attending the 23rdannual LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) trip to Pittsburgh from May 15 to May 18.The LINK trip will be a little different this year as organizers have decided to make the experience more intentional and more impactful by targeting certain lessons that are particularly relevant to Atlanta.
For nearly five years, the city of Atlanta has been in a legal battle with Clark Atlanta University over the ownership rights of nearly 13 acres of land in the heart of Westside community.On April 18, the two sides lay down their arms and agreed to a settlement where the city agreed to pay $750,000 in legal fees that CAU had incurred due to the litigation (in which CAU won every case).
Longtime Atlanta business leader – Cecil Phillips – has a solution to the city’s affordable housing crisis. Modular housing.Make no mistake. This is not your grandfather’s mobile home. The modular homes being proposed and developed by Phillips match the quality and amenities of new home construction – except they can be built much more quickly and cost significantly less money.
The city of Atlanta dodged a bullet when the 2019 state legislature failed to pass a bill to either takeover Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport or to create a legislative oversight committee to oversee the airport’s operations.Even Gov. Brian Kemp, in comments before the Rotary Club of Atlanta on April 8, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when asked about the airport issue..
Atlanta Streets Alive is helping change how we view our city’s streets.More than 120,000 Atlantans turned out on Sunday for the Atlanta Streets Alive along Peachtree Street from south downtown to 16thStreet.It was the perfect opportunity to test out a proposal by the City of Atlanta to reimagine three key blocks of Peachtree Street – from Margaret Mitchell Square to Baker Street.
It’s such a simple notion.Atlanta can greatly add to public green space and parks by partnering with the Atlanta Public Schools to open up school property to the public.The idea is getting traction in Atlanta. The city of Atlanta, the Trust for Public Land, the Urban Land Institute-Atlanta and the Atlanta Public Schools are about to launch a pilot program that would welcome the public to use school grounds after hours and on weekends.
In the 1960s, a small group of about a dozen white businessmen held a tight grip on power in Atlanta.
That group included Robert Woodruff of the Coca-Cola Co., the top Atlanta bankers of the day – Mills B. Lane of Citizens & Southern; Billy Sterne from Trust Company Bank; James D. Robinson Jr. of First National Bank; Jack Tarver of the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution; Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. (who ran the office supply business started by his father); Larry Gellerstedt Jr. of Beers Construction; the top executives of Southern Bell, Georgia Power, Atlanta Gas Light among others.
The saga of the redevelopment of Herndon Homes is multi-layered and complex. In multiple interviews with people familiar with the project – one truth is apparent. Promises were made to the community. And promises were broken.
