By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 15, 2012
More than 300 Atlantans participated in the 2009 design competition for a proposed National Center for Civil and Human Rights. In a public forum, the five teams of finalists presented their vision for what was destined to become one of Atlanta’s marquee attractions.
NEW YORK — The parallels are striking — an unused rail line being transformed into a green, public space. In Atlanta, it’s the BeltLine. In New York, it’s the High Line.
Thousands of New Yorkers and tourists flock to the High Line — an elevated oasis linear park that gives people a respite from the constant street-level conflict between motorized vehicles and pedestrians.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 07, 2012
A group of Olympic athletes are doing what they can to keep Atlanta’s Olympic legacy alive.
On June 23, Georgia’s Olympians and Paralympians will hold a “Walk to London” at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. The “Walk to London” is being held in cities across the country to help build awareness for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games that will be held in London beginning next month.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 07, 2012
It’s the beginning of a new era for the Woodruff Arts Center with the June 4 naming of Virginia Hepner as its next president and CEO.
Hepner, who will be the first woman to lead the multidimensional arts and cultural institution since its founding in 1963, comes to the table with a strong business background and with a deep passion for the arts.
Few industries have experienced as dramatic a blow as has the U.S. housing market in the past three years.
Now the housing market has forever changed — a reality that metro planners and developers are beginning to digest.
Arthur “Chris” Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah who previously had been a professor of planning and public policy at Georgia Tech, shared his research with the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum on June 6.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 01, 2012
The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta is celebrating.
After five years of declining dollars coming into its annual campaign, the situation has turned around.
The Jewish Federation’s 2012 campaign has raised $15.4 million — about $720,000 more than the year before.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 01, 2012
Atlanta often claims to be something it’s not — hoping it eventually will become what it claims.
Ironically, Atlanta can accurately claim to be a leading center for global health. But for a host of reasons, Atlanta has yet to fully capitalize on the presence of numerous global health institutions based in the metro area.
For 40 years, Communities In Schools has been working with the Atlanta Public Schools to help the most vulnerable students stay on course and graduate.
The organization, which was founded in Atlanta as Exodus in 1972, now is in 24 states and the District of Columbia working with about 3,000 schools across the country. It is considered one of the nonprofits that has been most successful in getting tangible results.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 25, 2012
Atlanta Life Financial Group, a 107-year-old African-American-owned company, is going back to its roots.
When there’s a pothole on a city street, work crews usually are out within days fixing the hole so that cars won’t get damaged while driving on the roadway.
But if a sidewalk is broken and presents a hazard to pedestrians, it takes years if not decades to fix.
Why? Because of poor public policy.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Friday, May 25, 2012
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is determined to restore the Cyclorama into a significant attraction for the city.
But he has yet to decide on the best location for the Cyclorama, a historical three-dimensional depiction of one of the most important confrontations of the Civil War — the Battle of Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 18, 2012
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is on the campaign trail — this time to help pass the regional 1 percent sales tax for transportation in metro Atlanta and in 11 other regions around the state.
Consider this constructive criticism.
The campaign to pass a regional transportation sales tax seems to be getting derailed — literally and figuratively.
So far, the campaign has been targeting Republican, conservative voters in the suburbs — people who tend not to support new taxes. And the campaign seems to be ignoring Democratic voters inside the perimeter who would be more likely to vote for the tax.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Chick-fil-A Inc.’s stability in its management team continues with the promotion of five senior vice presidents to executive vice presidents.
Dan Cathy, president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, made the promotions to better reflect the company-wide roles that its executive team members have played as well as to provide more opportunities for the next rank of executives.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Friday, May 11, 2012
The proposed College Football Hall of Fame is now in full restart mode with definitive plans to open the attraction by the end of 2014.
The project is receiving renewed commitment and support among its various partners and sponsors following a change in leadership late last year.
Atlanta. We used to stand for something.
When other cities in the South were being torn apart by hatred and racism, Atlanta emerged as a city of tolerance, pragmatism and good will.
The willingness of the community’s leaders to gracefully change from a segregated city to an integrated city helped give Atlanta an aura of progress and patience — a reputation that served it well as it grew from a small Southern town to a metropolis.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 4, 2012
Georgia Power Co. President Paul Bowers is emerging as the state’s business champion for educational improvement.
Indulge me.
My son, David Luse, graduated from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville on Saturday — an occasion that gave me an opportunity to reflect on the passage of time — both in our personal life as well as the in the evolution of our state.
For those of you who do not know the beauty and gentility that exists in historic Milledgeville — do yourself a favor. The county seat of Baldwin County was Georgia’s first state capitol, and the town is full of treasures that predate Gen. William Sherman’s march through Georgia.
By Dave Williams and Maria Saporta
Friday, May 4, 2012
A nonprofit foundation, formed to raise money to support the work of Georgia’s cash-strapped natural resources agency, is showing its first results — two years after the General Assembly approved the initiative.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 4, 2012
The downtown home of Atlanta Life Financial Group may soon be owned by Georgia State University.
Georgia State University will seek approval from the Georgia Board of Regents at its May 8 meeting to purchase both the Atlanta Life property and the building that houses The Integral Group LLC development firm for $10 million, according to Kerry Heyward, GSU’s attorney who oversees real estate transactions for the university.
