Category: Maria’s Metro

Call it a gift made out of guilt.

This past week, Cox Enterprises donated the former downtown headquarters of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the City of Atlanta, a gift valued at $50 million.

Until earlier this year, the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution had been based in the center of the city and the center of region for more than 100 years. In their entire history, the newspapers had been located within a couple of blocks of Atlanta’s zero milepost.

So when the powers that be decided to move the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to a suburban office building located outside the city limits and north of I-285, it made a statement. The newspapers were deserting the city’s center in more ways than one.

This is a hard column for me to write because I spent 27 years

It boggles my mind.

Why would folks in this state complain about the City of Atlanta receiving a $47.6 million grant from the federal government for a $72 million streetcar that will connect Centennial Olympic Park with the historic King District?

This is the best transit news that metro Atlanta has received in years, if not decades. Earlier this year, we were bemoaning the fact that Georgia had been totally bypassed by the first round of federal transportation grants.

But last month, thanks to a thoughtful application, at long last, we will be re-investing in rail — a mode of transportation that holds the key to transforming our communities into thriving places to live, work and play.

The Atlanta Streetcar is just the beginning. Once the line begins operating in a couple of years, the region will be smitten

It was an unplanned reunion.

Eighteen years ago, as best any of us can remember, a small group of us decided to start an Atlanta Press Club debate committee.

It was a bit of motley crew: longtime political writer Bill Shipp, who had been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and had left to start Shipp’s Georgia; Atlanta Journal editorial writer Dick Williams; Denis O’Hayer, then with WGST news radio; John Pruitt, then with WXIA-TV; and myself.

As I remember, we met at WXIA one evening to talk about how the Atlanta Press Club could start organizing political debates. I believe someone may have brought some beer (but that might be my memory playing tricks with me).

And so it began. We quickly teamed up with Georgia Public Broadcasting (then GPTV) that was open to broadcasting our debates.

We started out in a relatively modest way — doing debates just

It was the perfect song for this past week.

The song? “The Beauty of Grey.”

The band? Live.

This is not a black and white world
You can’t afford to believe in your side
This is not a black and white world
To be alive
I say the colors must swirl
And I believe that maybe today
We will all get to appreciate
The beauty of grey

Ed Kowalczyk, the lead singer of the now-disbanded Live and is now embarking a solo career, played Sunday night at the Park Tavern at Piedmont Park. It was the final night of this year’s 99x Unplugged in the Park concert series. He played many of Live’s top hits, including: “The Beauty of Grey.”

Before playing that song, Kowalczyk said he was still proud of

An affordable housing dream dating back 15 years is now facing foreclosure on Nov. 2.

The historic Imperial Hotel — a place where the poorest among us have lived since December 1996 — is the latest victim of the recession.

Progressive Redevelopment Inc., which renovated the Imperial Hotel into 120 single-room occupancy residences for the poor, can no longer pay the bills on the property.

“We are out of gas,” said Bruce Gunter, PRI’s president, adding that the non-profit has invested $150,000 of its own funds in the project. “We had a big increase in costs and a decrease in revenues. All of a sudden, we were in a world of hurt.”

The Imperial Hotel, now 99 years old, had been vacant for about 15 years when PRI bought the building for $1 million in 1995. It spent $9 million to restore the property, which was opened six months after the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Is it a park? Is it a drainage basin?

Amazingly it’s both.

This Historic Fourth Ward Park is taking shape south of North Avenue just west of the Beltline — one of the most incredible green projects in Atlanta’s history.

Here is a beacon of hope — we can invest infrastructure dollars — in this case water and sewer funds — into parks with water features for the public to enjoy.

If only we had had this wisdom 10 years and $4 billion ago when the city was under the gun to improve its century-old combined water and sewer system.

Environmentalists at the time — led by activist Bill Eisenhauer — urged the city to explore green solutions to meet the requirements of the federal consent decree.

The city dismissed that approach, saying it would take too long

For as long as I can remember, there has been the 45 Virginia-McLynn — until Sunday.

MARTA, faced with operating deficits, implemented a host of service cuts this weekend — further streamlining our already meager public transit system.

And this time, the cuts really hit home. No more 45 Virginia-McLynn.

The 45 bus line initially followed what had been the No. 15 streetcar line — one of dozens of streetcar lines that had made Atlanta a hub of rail and transit.

That streetcar line, and later the 45, started downtown and went north along West Peachtree Street until Fifth Street where it meandered the heart of Midtown going along Argonne Avenue, 8th Street and on towards Virginia-Highland.

Back in the late 1960s, I started riding the 45 to get to Grady

When the Livable Communities Coalition was formed five years ago, metro Atlanta couldn’t contain all its growth.

The coalition was an offshoot of the Quality Growth Task Force that had been formed a year earlier by the Metro Atlanta Chamber to help figure out how the region could accommodate as many as 2 million more people by 2030 and manage all the development that the population growth would bring.

The coalition represented the coming together of about 50 member organizations all focused on growth and development issues in the Atlanta region. The goal was to help the Atlanta region grow in a sensible, sustainable way.

Among the many ideas promoted by the coalition included preservation of green space, increased density around town

WARNING: To people who want voters to pass the regional transportation sales tax: Fix the inequities towards MARTA.

A regional sales tax will not pass without enthusiastic support from people living in the City of Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb counties. But if the language now included in House Bill 277 is not changed, residents in the MARTA counties will realize that the regional sales tax is not in their best interest.

For nearly 40 years, people living in Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb have been investing billions of dollars in a one-cent sales tax to establish the MARTA bus and rail system — the back bone of all transit services in the region.

HB 277 does call for an additional penny sales transportation tax for the 10-county region (of which as little as 15 percent or

Atlanta Beltline or Atlanta Streetcar?

Unfortunately, some Atlantans believe it’s an either/or choice.

But if both projects are pit against each other, Atlanta loses.

What many people fail to realize is that both projects are complementary and interdependent. Any progress that can be made with either project should be welcomed by advocates of the both.

The latest tension between both projects surfaced last month when TIGER II (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) federal grant applications were being prepared for both projects.

The Atlanta Streetcar’s application was for $52 million with a

Why does it seem as though North Carolina is moving forward while Georgia is slipping backwards?

At last week’s Georgia Forward Forum at Macon State University, there was at least one answer to that question.

The keynote speaker of the day was Anita Brown-Graham, director of North Carolina State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues.

Back in the 1950s, North Carolina’s social and economic indicators were at the same level of Mississippi. It was a rural, tobacco- and textile-oriented economy, reminiscent of the old South.

But in the past 50 years, North Carolina has been gaining momentum. In 1990, the population was in North Carolina was

Bipartisanship is still possible — even in a polarized state like Georgia.

That bipartisanship was in full force on Monday, Aug. 16 when U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota) gave a luncheon speech at the Council for Quality Growth’s 25th anniversary celebration at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North.

Oberstar, who chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, clearly had the clout to bring together politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Among the Georgia politicians in attendance were: U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat; U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican; U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, a Republican; U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat; and former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal,

First it was MARTA. Now it is the Xpress buses operated by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

The suburban system is facing a significant shortfall in operating funds, and as a last resort, it is contemplating having to shut down the system.

To avoid such a drastic outcome, GRTA cut service on 16 Xpress routes on July 6, and GRTA spokesman William Mecke said “we will be even more aggressive at the end of the year.”

GRTA also has a proposal to revamp its fare structure and adopt a distance-based fare increase, which will result in significant increases for some of its riders. GRTA also is proposing to end its reciprocal fare arrangement with MARTA

The magic number on Thursday morning was 17.

Seventeen homeless people Thursday morning agreed to leave the streets for a home — apartments that they would share with others.

They also agreed to work with assigned case managers and develop a plan to transform their lives — enter an addiction rehabilitation program, begin counseling for mental illnesses, help get necessary legal papers so they could begin getting disability checks or other support.

It’s called “Streets to Home” — a program that Metro Atlanta’s United Way and the Regional Commission on Homelessness have modeled after a similar program in New York City called

Too many of my contemporaries are dying, years too young.

Debra Halpern Bernes, my high school classmate, passed away last week after fighting cancer for two years. The synagogue was full of family, friends and associates who marveled at how she had been able to keep an infectious upbeat attitude despite her pain.

For those of us who attended Grady High School 40 years ago, it was another one of those unpleasant reunions. After the service, a group of us gathered to outside the Ahavath Achim Synagogue for hugs and even a group photo. Another one of our classmates had left us.

One of the last times we had gathered was in May, 2007 when

At this past week’s Regional Transit Committee meeting, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s David Emory made an interesting presentation.

A total of eight light rail projects are included in the Concept 3 plan. They would cost about $8 billion to build, and they would have an annual operating cost of $200 million.

Coincidentally, if metro Atlanta voters pass a regional sales tax for transportation, it would raise about $8 billion over 10 years.

I couldn’t help myself. I began to think about how wonderful it would be if the Atlanta region would spend most, if not all, of the new sales tax revenue on transit projects.

The eight light rail projects in the Concept 3 Plan actually would

Crosswalks. Some would rather watch paint dry than talk about crosswalks.

But well-designed crosswalks can make all the difference in the world when it comes to developing a city that welcomes pedestrians.

Atlanta’s crosswalks — or lack there of — is one of my pet peeves. There’s probably no better barometer about how pedestrian-friendly a city is than the way it designs and maintains its crosswalks.

Friends of mine roll their eyes when I start talking about the beauty of painted piano keys that safely outline the space reserved for those walking from one side of the street to the other.

Those wide white-painted stripes command respect for pedestrians and clearly communicate to cars their boundaries.

To reinforce the message, some cities change the pavement

More people living downtown is key to creating a vibrant center city for the Atlanta region.

That is the view of Paul Kelman, executive vice president of Central Atlanta Progress, who recently announced his retirement effective July 16 after 22 years with the downtown business organization.

Kelman is the longest-serving employee in CAP’s 70-year history — providing continuity for the organization through at least seven different presidents, and even filling in as interim president during one of its transition periods.

He is the one member of CAP’s staff who dates back to the tenure of legendary president Dan Sweat — who led the organization during the pivotal 1970s and 1980s — when Atlanta’s political power shifted from white leadership to black

By Maria Saporta

The magic number on Saturday was 2.5.

Jim and Sarah Kennedy donated $2.5 million to the Atlanta Beltline.

Kaiser-Permanente also donated $2.5 million to the Atlanta Beltline.

And their combined $5 million gift will build 2.5 miles of a multi-purpose trail stretching from Monroe Drive at Piedmont Park to DeKalb Avenue.

On Saturday, there was a celebration to announce both gifts and the latest development plans for the Beltline — a 22-mile corridor that will lasso intown Atlanta.

The long term vision for the Beltline calls for green space with miles of bicycle and pedestrian trails, a transit line and new

Maybe the second time will be the charm.

The City of Atlanta hopes the federal government will give its streetcar plan a green light during the second round of TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grants.

City leaders are presenting their revised streetcar proposal to the Atlanta City Council this week and need the full council’s approval before July 16 when pre-applications are to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Atlanta and Georgia did not fare well during the first round of TIGER grants — when $1.5 billion were distributed to transportation projects across the nation. In the first round, the federal government was offering 100 percent of the funding.

This round is not quite as generous. Only $600 million will be