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Posted inMaria's Metro

One of King’s dreams came true thanks to my friendship with Yolanda

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Not long after Martin Luther King Jr. died, I heard a recording of his “I Have A Dream” speech.

And it dawned on me that one of his dreams had come true in his lifetime thanks to my friendship with his daughter, Yolanda. He was able to see a black girl and a white girl join hands as sisters and as friends without the weight of prejudice and hate.

As I’ve grown older, I also have come to realize King had an extraordinary ability to speak to each one of us as individuals — to find those common threads of humanity that bind us together.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Labor Day: Female pipefitter in training gives thanks for Trade-Up’s pre-apprenticeship program

by David Pendered

As the United States pauses to honor workers on Labor Day, one Atlanta mother is thankful and proud that she’s on her way to becoming a pipefitter.

Jacquelyn Treadville-Samuels is changing careers after working as a forensic science technician in Atlanta and Alabama. She lost her taste for that work after caring for her cancer-stricken mother in Alabama. She returned to Atlanta and became homeless while looking for a job.

“This is a dream come true,” Treadville-Sanders said outside the auditorium where members of Georgia Stand-Up had just applauded the first all-female class of pre-apprentice trainees in its Trade-Up program. “I’ve prayed for something like this, but I never knew is would be like this.”

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Prince Avalanche’ – a existentialist 1980s version of ‘Waiting for Godot’

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

About as close to a good film version of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” as we’re ever likely to get, “Prince Avalanche” pairs Paul Rudd and Emil Hirsch as a couple of  road workers in Texas, circa 1988.  The time is important because it increases their isolation which is key to the film.

No cell phones or computers in a stretch of charred Texas in the late ‘80s.

No cell phones or computers pretty much anywhere, for that matter. Decked out in matching coveralls, the two look like the Super Mario Brothers rendered into flesh and blood.

Their mind-numbing job is to paint the yellow line down the middle of a road surrounded by charred trees— the result of a wildfire we’re told. These bare ruined choirs (as Shakespeare might have had it) make a fitting backdrop for a situation that grows increasingly surreal.

Posted inGuest Column

A dream for one Atlanta: Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream a work in progress

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist CEASAR MITCHELL, president of the Atlanta City Council and practicing attorney with the global law firm of DLA Piper

At exactly 3pm on last Wednesday Aug. 28th, millions joined in bell ringing ceremonies in Washington D.C. and other cities, towns and hamlets around the globe.  This ceremony coincided with the beginning of the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington.

Inspired by the clarion call of Dr. King’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King, I hosted a bell ringing ceremony at Atlanta City Hall.  This ceremony attracted a diverse array of Atlantans including civic leaders, business people, foreign consuls, community advocates and other electeds who joined with members of the Atlanta City Council and other city employees to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News

A new MARTA: Good news highlighted by GM Keith Parker

by David Pendered

MARTA GM Keith Parker on Friday painted a portrait of MARTA that’s dramatically improved from the doom-and-gloom image sketched in last year’s management audit by KPMG.

Parker presented MARTA as a service provider that’s determined to balance its budget by raising money through land leases and improving customer service so more people want to use the system. One dramatic indicator of the new approach: MARTA is hiring bus drivers, as opposed to slashing payroll expenses.

As for media reports about expanding service in the Ga. 400 corridor, Parker said the route will go into the pot for consideration with two other routes that have long been considered: I-20 east and the Clifton corridor. “For whatever reason, 400 caught the attention of the media; but as I stressed to them, 400 is not a favorite,” Parker said during a presentation to Georgia Stand-Up.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Dan Cathy: Many saw vision of new JA Discovery Center

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, August 23, 2013

Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A Inc., was beaming ear-to-ear as he witnessed the grand opening of Junior Achievement of Georgia’s state-of-the-art financial literacy and career readiness center at the Georgia World Congress Center on Aug. 20.

The Junior Achievement Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center will welcome more than 30,000 middle school students from the Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb and Marietta public school systems beginning Sept. 10 into a hands-on learning experience of how to manage money and how to explore career opportunities.

Posted inDavid Pendered

50th Commemoration: Reed, Obama discuss youth violence as world prepares for bell-ringing at 3 p.m.

by David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was among the group of 18 mayors who met Tuesday at the White House with President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss strategies to reduce youth violence.

The meeting came as some in the nation are looking for ways to continue to the spirit of progress observed in the 50th commemoration, on Wednesday, of the March on Washington and its message of jobs, justice and freedom.

In Atlanta, city council President Ceasar Mitchell has urged those in the city, and nation, to join in the “Let Freedom Ring” celebration. At precisely 3 p.m., local time, bells and devices that sound like bells are set to ring across the globe, according to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Posted inMaria's Metro

With regionalism under attack, metro Atlanta’s prosperity likely to suffer

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

For the life of me, I don’t know why or when regionalism became a dirty word.

As a student of cities, I have observed that urban areas that are able to create regional partnerships to address their most serious challenges tend to be the most prosperous metro areas.

And the metro areas that take a fractured and uncoordinated approach to dealing with their regional issues — say transportation, water and coordinated development — tend to be less efficient and effective in their ability to provide services to people living and working in their regions.

Unfortunately, metro Atlanta today is trending toward the fractured approach rather than the unified and coordinated one.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Georgia Tech’s research, economic development wing clipped by Great Recession, credit agency suggests

by David Pendered

The harsh economy hasn’t spared a nonprofit entity created to support Georgia Tech’s efforts to promote high-tech research and economic development.

Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures, Inc., which oversees projects including the acclaimed Technology Square and Technology Enterprise Park, is scraping by on a bare-bones budget, according to a rating action from Moody’s Investors Services.

Stephen Fleming, a Tech vice president who serves as GATV’s CEO, said Monday that GATV will continue to work on its core mission.

Posted inGuest Column

Two Atlantans PR veterans — Bob Cohn and Norman Wolfe — built global brand while mentoring many of us

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist MITCH LEFF, owner of the Leff & Associates public relations agency who began his career with Cohn & Wolfe in 1988

In 1970, two ex-newspaper men – Bob Cohn and Norman Wolfe — started a public relations agency in Atlanta. That in itself perhaps wasn’t remarkable. There have been uncounted PR agencies launched here over the last 40 years.

What was remarkable is how that little agency, Cohn & Wolfe, grew from four account people and two secretaries into a national and global brand and in the process became an incubator that produced some of Atlanta’s top public relations professionals.

Earlier this year, 43 years after its founding, PR Week magazine selected Cohn & Wolfe as the No. 1 agency in the United States and in the world. What Bob and Norman started, and what hundreds of us contributed to over the years, became an agency with 62 offices around the globe; from London to Cairo to Abu Dhabi to Africa.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Clues of interest rate on Falcons stadium bonds may come from another Atlanta bond sale Tuesday

by David Pendered

Atlanta is scheduled to sell more than $550 million in revenue bonds Tuesday in order to refinance existing water and sewer bonds, according to bondbuyer.com.

The refund itself appears unexceptional, though the sale may have prompted credit rating agencies to review – and improve the rating on – Atlanta’s $3.1 billion in outstanding wastewater system revenue bonds.

However, the sale planned for Tuesday does offer a window into the current state of municipal debt at a time Atlanta prepares to sell $200 million in bonds for a new Falcons stadium. Atlanta will be selling into a volatile market in which buyers demand increasingly high interest rates for bonds maturing in more than 10 years, according to an Aug. 8 report by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management:

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Fraud alleged at rebuilt East Lake apartment community

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 23, 2013

The owner of the Villages of East Lake has filed a lawsuit against the former manager of the mixed-income apartment community alleging fraud and embezzlement.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Atlanta on Aug. 12 by East Lake Redevelopment L.P. and East Lake Redevelopment II L.P. against Mercy Housing Management Group Inc., a division of Mercy Services Corp., a nonprofit based in Nebraska with its headquarters in Denver.

The redevelopment of the East Lake community has received national, if not international, acclaim for transforming a poverty-stricken and crime-ridden neighborhood into a thriving residential community with strong schools and a low crime rate.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Jobs’ — a chronicle of Steve Jobs; not a deep look at his complexities

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

“Jobs” isn’t a chore.

Unfortunately, that’s hardly a recommendation. What’s lacking in this biography of the man who made Apple is that sense of having learned something about who he was or even a hint of why he did what he did.

“The Social Network,” which so adroitly picked through the entrails of the young Mark Zuckerberg, is the benchmark these days for this sort of movie.

“Jobs” feels more routine, less organic. We get an “and then this happened” chronicle instead of getting under the skin of an admittedly complex hero-bastard.

It’s possible I enjoyed “Jobs” more than others might because I knew so little of his story. I had heard of the fat guy (read: Steve Wozniak) who was the real genius behind Apple.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Gov. Deal’s trade trip to Asia: Chinese phosphate plant to open near Savannah; tourism pitch on agenda

by David Pendered

Gov. Nathan Deal announced Thursday, on the first day of his trade mission to Asia, that a leading Chinese phosphates producer will open its U.S. headquarters and a manufacturing plant in Effingham County.

The agreement continues Georgia’s traditional efforts to secure foreign direct investment. This trip also intends to foster China’s tourism to Georgia, and nurture the relationship with Georgia’s second-largest export market.

The trip represents Georgia’s attention to China, the world’s largest travel spender and soon-to-be top oil importer. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed led a trade mission to China in March 2012, aiming to focus the country’s importers on metro Atlanta’s offerings such as bio-tech products and engineering services.

Posted inTom Baxter

A Republican-Democratic tag team, on the road for immigration reform

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell make a great tag team for a nonpartisan effort to pass immigration reform because, as Barbour noted after a session hosted by the Essential Economy Council this week, neither is nonpartisan in the least.

Getting Barbour, the chairman of the Republican National Committee when the Contract with America was signed, to co-chair an initiative on this sensitive political issue with Rendell, who chaired the Democratic National Committee during the tangled 2000 presidential election, does show broad support for an agreement on immigration reform.

But it’s broad and thin, with very little chance Congress can pass a bill this year, and the certainty that moving it next year with congressional elections looming won’t be easy.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Metro Atlanta after Great Recession: Hanging in, way off 30-year averages

by David Pendered

Metro Atlanta continues to bob along in the debris left by the Great Recession, according to two recent reports.

The Atlanta Regional Commission used the word “muted” to describe the growth rate of 10-county metro Atlanta during the past year. In addition, the number of residential building permits issued was less than a third of their 30-year average.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank reports that growth rates and expectations are moderating in home construction, mortgage refinancing and consumer spending. Overall, the broader economy of the Deep South continues to expand modestly.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Georgia’s latticework of roads to benefit from GDOT’s new freight designation that unties funding rules

by David Pendered

With little fanfare, Georgia has entered a new era in which road construction is to be based less on geography and more on the need for congestion relief.

The step isn’t expected to be a panacea because Georgia doesn’t have any more money than before to spend on road improvements. However, the measure does provide the state with flexibility to target the resources it does have in areas where they’re in greatest demand, according to advocates including Gov. Nathan Deal.

The board of Georgia’s Department of Transportation voted last week to adopt a list of designated freight corridors. Now, these corridors can be upgraded without the legal constraint of balancing highway spending among congressional districts. The list was envisioned in House Bill 202, which Deal signed in April.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Looking in plain sight for Atlanta’s random signs of optimism

by Ben Smith

A random shoe track on a downtown Atlanta sidewalk turned into a  “spontaneous smiley”—a feat akin to finding the face of Elvis in a piece of toast, but a whole lot easier.

People all over the world (like me) discover, photograph and post spontaneous smileys to social media as a creative challenge to others. It is tailor made for creative thinkers and distracted people in our crowded and gridlocked city. This fun scavenger hunt can be done anywhere, and a handy time-killer when you’re stuck waiting.

Looking for the most basic sign of happiness in ordinary circumstances will shift your mood and mindset. Looking for a smiling face can release positive brain chemicals like dopamine. The scientific term for this pursuit is pareidolia, when a vague and random stimulus is perceived as significant (after all, it was just a footprint…). It is an example of how mindfulness identifies the extraordinary in ordinary life.

Posted inMaria's Metro

A weekend witnessing Atlanta’s own 50-year march from MLK to Josie Duffy

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Atlanta can be a rather amazing place. Take this weekend for example.

On Saturday, there was the kick-off at the King Center complex for the celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

On Sunday morning, the ongoing parallel sagas of the future of Friendship Baptist Church and Mount Vernon Baptist Church in relation to the proposed new Atlanta Falcons stadium were surprisingly non-confrontational.

And on Sunday afternoon, a who’s who of Atlanta leaders came to celebrate one of its youngest stars — Josie Duffy — upon her graduation from the Harvard Law School — a path that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed compared to the one chosen by President Barack Obama.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Future of Xpress bus service so rosy that GRTA looking for better bus barn

by David Pendered

GRTA is looking for a better place to store and maintain its fleet of Xpress buses.

This is a dramatic turn-about for a transit service that seemed imperiled by the failure of the 2012 transportation sales tax referendum. The future is rosier, now that Gov. Nathan Deal and the Legislature have inserted money for Xpress bus operations into the state’s continuation budget.

“We feel more confident than we had before,” said GRTA Executive Director Jannine Miller.

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