Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t fool around.
She never has. Think of the tense and ultimately explosive opening of “The Hurt Locker.” Or the fatal pick-up outside a bar in her vampire-cum-biker flick, “Near Dark.”
In her Oscar-nominated movie, “Zero Dark Thirty,” she goes straight for the jugular. The screen is black and on the soundtrack we hear a building babble of voices, which — it’s almost immediately clear — are real-life phone calls made from those trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 18, 2013
Longtime Atlanta builder Hardin Construction Co. is being acquired by DPR Construction, a national technical builder based in California.
The two companies will focus on expanding their operations in the Southeast and Texas, where both firms already have a local presence. The two companies have signed a letter of intent, and the acquisition is expected to close in March.
The Xpress bus service operated by GRTA will continue to operate through at least June 2014 if the Legislature leaves intact the operating funds recommended by Gov. Nathan Deal in his budget proposal for FY 2014.
Deal also made history by including Xpress funding in the state’s annual budget, rather than its supplemental budget. That’s significant because eliminating money from programs that are included in the annual budget has, historically, been much more difficult than eliminating funding that was provided in the amended budget, or supplemental budget, the Legislature adopts in the middle of a fiscal year.
Deal provided $8.1 million for Xpress operations in the budget he unveiled Thursday. The money would offset the loss of local and federal funds, according to the line item in the governor’s budget.
Gwinnett County commission Chairman Charlotte Nash laid her cards on the table Wednesday in her “State of the County” address.
The speech presented some challenges – the economy is harsh, the county budget is lean and getting leaner. Fresh allegations of public corruption in DeKalb County are reminders of Gwinnett’s recent and continuing problems.
Nash met it all head-on in her opening remarks: “Gwinnett’s story has been filled with ups and downs and plots twists along the way. The last few chapters were painful at times, and a few characters have been removed. But overall, Gwinnett’s story is a tale of success and a testament to those who made it happen.”
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 11, 2013
The Arby’s Foundation is driving a stake in the ground to end childhood hunger in Georgia.
The company announced at a Jan. 10 press conference at the state Capitol it is making its largest grant ever — $3 million over three years — to the Georgia Food Bank Association to work with other state partners on the “Feeding for a Promising Future — No Kid Hungry” campaign.
The Arby’s Foundation hopes Georgia will develop a model to combat childhood hunger that can be replicated across the country.
Another significant figure in the history of Atlanta’s civil rights movement, and the state GOP, has passed away – former city alderman and state Rep. Rodney Mims Cook, Sr.
Cook, who died Sunday, is remembered for his work to help struggling communities when he served on the old Board of Aldermen. Cook’s efforts on behalf of civil rights in the state Legislature were noted Tuesday by Atlanta Councilperson Michael Julian
Bond, whose father was supported by Cook when state lawmakers barred the elder Bond from taking the seat he had won in Georgia’s House of Representatives.
“My family is forever grateful for Mr. Cook’s bravery and righteous fervor in defense of my father during a very frightening and difficult time,” Bond said in a statement.
The Atlanta Regional Commission is embarking on its first reorganization in a generation, in order to meet the demands of the post-recession paradigm that’s emerging from the public and private sectors.
Silos of expertise are to be replaced by collaborative teams. An example of the new approach would be for ARC planners to examine mobility rather than transportation – a shift that frames the issue in a fashion that begs for broader solutions.
“Because we are changing in so many ways as a region, ARC realizes we have to be more adaptable to help local governments solve more problems,” said Doug Hooker, ARC’s executive director.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 11, 2013
Several new initiatives will be part of the 2013 work plan for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, which will hold its annual meeting on Jan. 15 at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Those initiatives will help continue the recent success that the Georgia Chamber has enjoyed in getting its legislative agenda passed.
In 2012, the Georgia Chamber had the “best legislative session we’ve had in 20 years,” said Chris Clark, president of the organization.
The Golden Globes, Oscar’s younger, dumber and prettier sibling, threw a nice little monkey wrench into the eternal question: who will win what on Oscar Night.
Well, it’s eternal for movie critics and for pundits in general who suddenly morph into movie critics around Oscar time. I think I read what Bill O’Reilly was picking a few years ago.
The Golden Globes began as a joke: a doling out of awards by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a somewhat dubious group made up of somewhat dubious people. Well, dubious in the implication that they make their living writing about movies. A lot of them have other real jobs, but moonlight as movie reviewers.
In his eulogy for Herman Talmadge, Sam Nunn told the story of a visit to the senior senator’s office not long after Nunn had been elected to the U.S. Senate. Talmadge inquired of his young colleague whether he’d answered all his constituents’ letters, and Nunn replied that he had, with the exception of a few “nuts” who had written to him about tin foil and flying saucers.
Talmadge gave him a stern look and reached for the spitoon he kept by his desk.
“If you can’t win the nut vote,” he said, “You’re not going to carry a county in Georgia.”
That anecdote drew a rollicking response back in 2002. I imagine if a similar story were told at the funeral of some prominent politician today, it would still get a laugh, but it would be a more nervous laughter. The nuts have gone from being key to getting elected, to getting elected themselves.
It’s been more than a half century since streetcars ran on Atlanta’s roads.
But that’s about to change — despite numerous obstacles that have revealed that we’re a bit rusty in the streetcar development business.
Construction work is progressing on the Atlanta Streetcar — and it currently appears that service will begin in the spring or early summer of 2014.
That is about six to seven months after the original schedule. But the project has experienced unforeseen delays — primarily over the relocation of underground utilities and the surprises of what exists underneath out streets. More than 15 utilities have been impacted.
With debate looming over construction funding for a Falcons stadium, another issue is taking shape – this one over who will get hired for construction jobs.
The Atlanta City Council is considering legislation to require eligible construction contracts funded by the city to employ a certain proportion of unemployed and under-employed residents of Atlanta. The proposal requires the workers to be either skilled, or in an approved training program.
The legislation does not specify whether its scope would reach to include the hotel/motel tax, which is set by the city council. The tax is now planned to help pay for construction of the new stadium that is to have a retractable roof.
By Guest Columnist PAT GARDNER, state representative for House District 57 (D-Atlanta)
Two important healthcare issues loom large for the General Assembly beginning January 14th.
Legislators will engage in a hot debate and intense negotiations over the renewal of a hospital assessment fee.
They will also consider a related issue — whether Georgia takes advantage of federal funds available to families newly eligible for Medicaid. And that one seems a nonstarter at this point. Why? Short term vision.
MARTA GM Keith Parker got a warm reception from the GRTA board when he visited on Wednesday.
Parker made a few remarks in which in he introduced himself as a complete person – a manager who favors “low cost, high impact improvements,” a leader who’s a good listener, and a family man with three children – including one just a month old.
The visit was just the latest of Parker’s stops on his outreach tour. Parker didn’t make any grand announcements, but he did make the important effort to meet his professional colleagues in the public transit arena.
Entertainment entrepreneur Tyler Perry contributed to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s campaign war chest that now contains just over $1.2 million, according to a campaign finance disclosure dated Tuesday.
Perry’s contribution of $2,500 on Dec. 17 was part of the $363,690.13 listed in itemized cash contributions Reed raised during the final reporting period of 2012, the report shows. The report shows an addition $20,233.44 in in-kind contributions, plus $2,020 in cash contributions of amounts of less than $100 each.
Kevin Rathbun Steak, on Krog Street, was one of the places Reed’s campaign spent a portion of the $176,459.22 in itemized expenditures, the report shows. Rathbun was paid $273.20 for two events listed as “official business meeting(s)” in September and October, the report shows.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 4, 2013
Skyland Trail, a nonprofit treatment facility for adults with mental illness, is starting a new chapter in its development.
After 25 years leading the board, Mark West has stepped down as chairman. He will be succeeded by John Gordon, president of Gordon Document Products and managing partner of its sister company — Perfect Circle Renewable Energy.
The front third of the Crum & Forster building in Midtown will be saved, and the rest of the building razed, according to a consent order signed Tuesday by Fulton Superior Court Judge John Goger.
These terms were reached Tuesday in an amended consent order negotiated by lawyers for the Georgia Tech Foundation and two defendants – the city of Atlanta and its Board of Zoning Appeals. The ruling appears to end a preservation battle that has raged since GTF filed a request for a demolition permit in April 2008.
Goger denied a motion to allow five interveners in the case, a ruling that affirmed a comment from a lawyer for the city who said all concerns of the proposed interveners were resolved by the consent agreement.
Atlanta’s development authority, Invest Atlanta, is open for business in new office space that offers a panoramic view of the city and region.
Invest Atlanta now fills the 29th floor of the Georgia-Pacific Center. The modern architecture is a far cry from the exposed brick-and-beam look of the old space, so popular among start-ups at the end of the 20th century.
The new space is all about gleaming fixtures and views that intend to convey a confident message about Atlanta’s future. The look speaks to the agency’s renewed focus on creating jobs, as opposed to incentivizing development.
It’s only fitting the first annual Lovebug Award for Congressional Cooperation should go to the representative of a Gulf Coast district familiar with those pesky winged insects which show up a couple of times a year to sacrifice themselves on the windshields of automobiles.
Rep. Steven Palazzo of Biloxi was one of 67 Republicans who voted Friday against a $9.7 billion relief bill for the part of the country hit by Superstorm Sandy. He was joined by five members of the Georgia delegation – Paul Broun, Doug Collins, Tom Graves, Tom Price and Rob Woodall – as well as representatives from several other states which have been recent recipients of federal disaster aid. But the prize for sheer glass-house, pot-call-the kettle-black brass has to go to Palazzo, who represents the district where Hurricane Katrina hit land, in the heart of a region where rent-seeking isn’t a dusty economic term but a way of life.
By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 4, 2013
Ten architecture firms are vying to become the lead designer of a new $1 billion stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.
It’s a lucrative project for an industry that’s seen tough years since the Great Recession. Design fees could command 6 percent to 11 percent of the approximately $700 million construction budget, said Richard Sawyer, stadium procurement director.
