Second column in a two-part series on the Chattahoochee River
Cities rise and fall on their ability to dream and implement “big” ideas.
For Atlanta, turning five miles of the Chattahoochee River into an easily accessible waterfront is one such big idea that could change the city’s profile.
But two pending projects could severely limit Atlanta’s ability to turn the Chattahoochee River into a linear park.
Remember 17 years ago when the Atlanta BeltLine was just a glimmer in Ryan Gravel’s mind?
Now imagine the Chattahoochee River as reinventing the western edge of Atlanta in the same way the BeltLine has transformed our communities.
The two stories are strikingly similar.
The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is celebrating its 80th birthday this year.
To mark the occasion, the festival has decided to give a gift to Atlanta. It has commissioned a bronze interactive sculpture of a dogwood branch with blooms to adorn the edge of Lake Clara Meer near the Charles Allen Dr. entrance.
Atlanta prides itself as being the birthplace of the civil rights movement and a place where people of different races can succeed.
But it’s hard to reconcile that truth with the harsh reality that Atlanta in the 21st Century has had the largest, most rapidly growing gap between rich and poor of any major American city.
Roasts are dangerous. But when Better Georgia representatives asked if I would be willing to roast former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, I couldn’t resist.
The City of Atlanta is going where it has never gone before. It is developing a “design” for the city.
In January, the City hired Ryan Gravel, best known as the visionary behind the Atlanta BeltLine redevelopment, to be the manager of the Atlanta City Design Project.
Shifting Atlanta from a city centered around cars to one focused on people on foot or bicycles faced a reality-check on Friday.
Alexis Hyneman, a 14-year-old student at Grady High School, lost her young life when a car hit her while she was riding her bicycle Thursday at the super-confusing intersection of 10th Street, Monroe Drive and the Atlanta BeltLine.
For decades, Georgia has had several road-building initiatives geared to attracting new companies to the state.
They’ve been called developmental highways or the Governor’s Road Improvement Program (GRIP) – and they’ve all involved spending hundreds of millions of dollars of state money to build four-lane roads to almost every corner of the state.
If we can get the City, the BeltLine and APS all working in concert to promote quality development in marginal Atlanta neighborhoods, an economic renaissance could be in our future.
The bottom line is that multi-use trails have a greater economic return on investments than stand-alone parks. Trails also are a way to provide greater equity by offering greater access to green space that connects diverse neighborhoods.
After nearly a month of radiation treatments five days a week, I’m happy to say that today (Monday) was my last day. It is one more step along the way towards my recovery from breast cancer.
When I wrote my first column about having breast cancer, I promised I would keep folks informed at key steps along the way, The response I received from that column was overwhelming, inspiring and heartfelt.
The fourth annual HOPE Global Forum in Atlanta was a testimonial to the economic revolution that Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant has been building since 1992.
No, Operation HOPE’s revolution is not a sit-in or a protest march or an ultimatum to big business or Wall Street.
In journalism school, we were taught that every story must answer the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how?
Often, the hardest of those questions to answer are the why and the how. So as a journalist, I have always tried to find out the story behind the story.
New Year’s Eve has always been one of my favorite nights of the year.
Growing up, my family would welcome the New Year at the spectacular neon Coca-Cola sign on top of the Russell Stover store on Peachtree Street at Margaret Mitchell Square.
Call it the maturing of our mayor.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, in his last two years in office, seems positioned to make a constructive impact on our city.
During a conversation on Dec. 16, Reed acknowledged that he had developed a much greater appreciation to preservation and sustainability during his years in office.
Dating back to 1998, Georgia environmentalists have longed for a dedicated fund for land conservation.
But getting a dedicated fund approved and implemented has proven elusive.
Alex Cooley, who passed away on Dec. 1, was the heart and soul of Atlanta’s music scene for decades.
My earliest memories of Cooley date back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when he would put on free concerts at Piedmont Park on Sunday afternoons.
When I got the call that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer on the morning of Oct. 13, my first reflex was: “I don’t have time for this. Take it back.”
No one plans to have cancer. No one has time for it. Instead, it hits you upside the head and tells you to wake up and make time for yourself and your health.
Dear SaportaReport readers,
The entire team at SaportaReport would like to wish you a heartwarming Thanksgiving holiday.
We are particularly thankful to have so many wonderful and thoughtful readers who have helped make our website as strong as it is today.
Personally, I have a great deal to be thankful for – especially this year.
The draw that evening was Tim Keane, Atlanta’s relatively new commissioner of planning and community development, a welcomed strong voice for quality urban design in Atlanta.
Even Thomas Wheatley, editor of Creative Loafing and moderator of the panel, was surprised, telling the audience “it felt great there was this type of hunger for design in Atlanta.”
As Fulton County leaders weigh two different approaches to fund transportation, they may end up in a head-on collision where everyone loses.
Or, if the various parties can work out a compromise, everyone can win.
One approach is for Fulton County’s mayors and commissioners to ask voters to support a full-penny five-year transportation sales tax.
The other option is passing a half-penny, 40-year sales tax to expand MARTA.
