Category: Maria’s Metro

In the past several months, there has been a tremendous turnover in a host of environmental organizations in Atlanta and Georgia — and it’s not over yet.

The change is bringing several new faces on the scene, and at the same time, it helps shed spotlight a whole new generation of leaders.

For example, Mark Abner has recently become the state director of the Nature Conservancy. Abner, a Georgia native, has spent the better part of two decades outside the state, most recently working for the Nature Conservancy in the Washington, D.C. area.

The Atlanta region is like Rodney Dangerfield. It don’t get no respect.

For decades, efforts to create a regional mindset have had mixed results.

Barriers are torn down just to be rebuilt — creating divisions between the inner urban core, the closer-in suburban counties and the exurban counties; between cities and counties; between the northern and southern parts of the region.

And while elected officials in all the various cities and counties in the 10-county area that makes up the Atlanta Regional Commission all agree that our problems cross over the borders of their jurisdictions, they all understand that when it comes to decision-making time they must take care of their voters first.

This article first appeared in 50th anniversary issue of Atlanta Magazine in May 1, 2011 — an issue that featured 50 people who changed Atlanta over the past five decades.

Xernona Clayton
In the 1960s, this civil rights leader struck up an unlikely friendship with KKK Grand Dragon Calvin Craig. Four decades later, Craig’s daughter and Clayton discuss their shared past with Maria Saporta.

When Xernona Clayton moved to Atlanta in 1965, she accepted a position at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, working side by side with Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. In 1967 she became the first African American in the Southeast to have her own television program, The Xernona Clayton Show, which aired on WAGA-TV (then the CBS affiliate in Atlanta).

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta region is in a precarious place.

And the next couple of months will set the stage for how the region will evolve for the next decade.

During that period, the Atlanta Regional Commission is expected to name its next director — only its third in 39 years. The new director will be in charge of putting together his or her team of senior leaders as well as implementing the board’s latest strategic plan.

At the same time, the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable will decide whether to endorse the draft list of transportation projects that was passed Aug. 15.

From the beginning, it seemed as though certain legislators wanted to sabotage HB 277 and the eventual passage of the regional transportation sales tax bill.

Those suspicious feelings were confirmed last week when Gov. Nathan Deal halted attempts to move the vote from the primary election on July 31 to the general election on Nov. 6, 2012.

The reason. The Tea Party wing of the Republican party began to make noise. If the date of the transportation sales tax were to be moved to the general election, then they should do the same for any local option tax that cities and counties might want to pass.

It’s not too late.

Georgia can regain its status as a center for innovation and leading edge technology — but it will take a concerted and collaborative effort by a multitude of entities.

At the GeorgiaForward Forum at Callaway Gardens from Aug. 17 to Aug. 18 — titled: “Creating an Innovation Agenda for Georgia,” a host of tangible ideas were presented and discussed with the hope that real progress can be made.

For starters, Georgia is well-positioned to be a center for innovation:

It has top research universities with dozens of eminent scholars breaking new ground in bio-medicine and technology every day.

Passing a draft list of transportation projects on Aug. 15 was only the first step.

The Atlanta region has two months left to improve both the list as well as the process outlined in House Bill 277.

What’s at stake? Creating a transportation system for the Atlanta region that will best serve our metropolis for decades to come.

First: the list.

The executive committee of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable — working with state and local government officials — has been hard at work for the past several months trying to come up with a list.

Through all the chatter over what should be included on the Atlanta region’s transportation projects list, a loud vacuum can’t be ignored.

The vacuum? The State of Georgia.

Just what role, if any, will the State of Georgia play in contributing to metro Atlanta’s transit systems? And what role will the State of Georgia play in controlling the future of our region’s transit governance?

Consider this. The one-penny regional transportation sales that will go before voters next year will be raised (and invested) in the 10-county Atlanta region. If passed, this is money that metro Atlantans will contribute and invest in their own region’s future.

I’m not really sure when North Carolina by-passed Georgia to become the most progressive state in the Southeast.

But thanks to the GeorgiaForward forum in Macon last year, I know how North Carolina passed us by.

It all came down to vision and leadership. Former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt (who served during two different eras) saw the merit of bringing together bi-partisan leaders to focus on the most important issues facing the state.

That’s how North Carolina was able to coalesce around a vision to become a center for high technology; around a vision to bring passenger rail and high speed trains; around a vision to have a balanced energy portfolio that included renewable fuels; and the list goes on.

The promise: a 10-year penny sales tax will help metro Atlanta create a regional transportation system that will encourage sensible and sustainable growth of our region.

The reality: a hodge-podge of transportation projects that are being pushed by individual counties and cities in the region with no overarching vision of how we want our region to grow.

The contrast between the two was highlighted this week with two back-to-back events.

The first was Christopher Leinberger, a developer and urbanist who is affiliated with the Brookings Institution. Leinberger described the choice facing metro Atlanta and other U.S. cities — develop a sprawling “drivable suburban” model or develop and close-knit “walkable urban” model.

Once again, the Atlanta region and the State of Georgia are seeking ways to improve the state’s competitive edge.

For more than a decade, economic development leaders have been trying to figure out what industries Georgia should target to strengthen the state’s economy.

The latest version of this endeavor is Gov. Nathan Deal’s Competitiveness Initiative — an effort that is being launched by Chris squared — Chris Clark, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Deal’s initiative was launched in April, and it includes 23 business leaders from

As it currently stands, the vote on the regional transportation sales tax is scheduled for July 31, 2012.

But some people familiar with political timing and transportation referendums believe that holding the vote during the primary election will make it an uphill battle to pass.

That’s because most of the likely voters next July are expected to be Republican, conservative and suburban. And they tend to have more of an anti-tax attitude than liberal, Democratic and urban voters.

But several observers believe that the political dynamics would be totally different and much more favorable if the referendum were to be held during the general election on Nov. 6, 2012.

Against all odds, public broadcasting is alive and well in Atlanta and Georgia.

This is true despite the ongoing divide between the state’s two largest public broadcasting entities — Georgia Public Broadcasting and Public Broadcasting Atlanta (but more on that later).

Case in point: the recently-released documentary: “Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel,” shows how great local public broadcasting can be. The one-hour documentary was produced, directed and written by Atlanta’s-own Pamela Roberts.

“It’s a gift for the ages to Georgia,” said Teya Ryan, GPB’s president and executive director. “We don’t use any state money for production and

Such a strange juxtaposition.

Internationally-acclaimed Atlanta architect and developer John Portman is finally getting his due. Eighteen months ago, the High Museum of Atlanta featured a retrospective of his life’s work in art and architecture. The City of Atlanta has been going back and forth about getting a downtown street named in his honor.

And now a new documentary — “John Portman: A Life of Building” — has been released that places Portman as one of the most important architects of the 20th Century.

But at the same time as Portman is receiving his due, key pieces of his architecture are being destroyed.

Last year, the Portman-designed Antoine Graves Senior Housing High Rise was demolished by the Atlanta Housing

Few occasions are as uplifting as those when a city can dedicate a splendid new park for its residents.

That air of celebration was readily apparent at the opening of the Historic Fourth Ward Park on Saturday, June 18.

“There’s a saying among mayors,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, while dedicating the park. “Boy, when it’s good, it’s good.”

As in all successful endeavors, many people deservedly are given credit for their roles in bringing the park to life — beginning with the vision of community activist Bill Eisenhauer.

The park is an amenity with multiple functions — the 2-acre lake serves as a

For decades, the third rail for transit in Georgia has been money.

The state’s gas tax is constitutionally limited to funding roads and bridges — giving the state a convenient excuse for not investing in public transit or alternative transportation modes, such as sidewalks, bicycle and multi-purpose paths.

As a result, almost all of the state’s transit systems have been financed by county governments, or in the case of the Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb — the one-penny MARTA sales tax.

If the Atlanta region wants the regional transportation sales tax to pass in 2012, it will need the votes of at least some conservatives.

Plus the region will need to convince those same conservatives that investing in public transit is in their own best interests.

That was the message that William Lind, director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation based in Arlington, Va., delivered to the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable breakfast meeting on June 3.

But Lind also advised metro Atlanta leaders the referendum would have the best chance to pass if it were held during the general election in November rather than as it’s currently scheduled — the July 31 primary

By Maria Saporta

Over the years, metro Atlanta’s leaders have been willing to invest in our future.

There was Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield, who had the foresight to see the future of aviation and positioned the city to become a leader by investing in the building of a major airport.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, there were Atlanta mayors Ivan Allen Jr. and Sam Massell, who promoted the development of a modern transit system — MARTA — a rail

By Maria Saporta

It’s a well known pattern.

Public transit systems experience a financial squeeze. They raise fares. Ridership drops. That causes more financial hardships. So then transit services must be cut. That causes ridership to decrease. So fares are increased. And the downward cycle spirals further down.

Now MARTA finds itself in just this situation. It currently is considering a 25-percent fare increase from a $2 fare to $2.50.

Raising fares at this time is the wrong move for MARTA and metro Atlanta.

Leadership in metro Atlanta is in a state of flux at one of the most crucial moments in the region’s history.

Those nagging questions of leadership were ever present during the 15th annual LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) to Seattle from May 4 to May 7.

The annual LINK trips provide a windowpane on the state of the Atlanta region, and the 2011 trip was no exception.

But this trip felt particularly weighty given a widespread appreciation of what was at stake for the Atlanta region — will we be able to develop a strong consensus in the 10-county metro area around a regional vision that will compel voters to pass a one-cent sales tax for transportation in 2012.

The most pronounced void exists at the Atlanta Regional Commission — the 10-county entity responsible for planning the future of our metro area. The top three staff