Category: Columns

If it’s 2010, it must be Phoenix.

About 110 leaders from throughout the Atlanta region will leave Wednesday morning to spend three days in Phoenix as part of the annual LINK trip.

This is the 14th annual LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) trip where regional leaders visit a city to learn about how that metro area is handling its challenges.

In Phoenix, the major topics the group will explore will be water, higher education, immigration and transportation.

LINK is organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission, and the decision to go to Phoenix was made shortly after U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled last July that the Atlanta region has no legal right to rely on Lake Lanier for most of its water supply.

The judge gave the Atlanta region three years to come up with a way to resolve the issue, possibly by reaching an agreement

Update: Georgia Senate Appropriations Committee restored funding for the Georgia Council for the Arts on Tuesday. The budget now has to be approved by the full Senate and by the House-Senate conference committee before going to Gov. Sonny Perdue for his signature.

“Georgia is in a race for the bottom.”

So said a community leader during a panel discussion this past week.

Although the topic of the discussion was not the arts, it might as well have been.

Last week, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a $17.8 billion state budget that would totally eliminate the Georgia Council for the Arts. That would give Georgia the dubious distinction of being the only state in the country without a council for the arts.

Few institutions are more important to Atlanta than the King Center.

And few families are more important to our city’s legacy than the family of Martin Luther King Jr.

Unfortunately, for the past several years, the three living children of the late Civil Rights leader have been at odds — saddled with legal and financial disagreements that threatened to destroy their parents’ legacy and the future of the King Center.

But now that three children have laid down their swords, partly due to the involvement of an outside mediator, the opportunity exists for each of them to follow their own paths by working in roles where they excel.

But a danger also exists that the three children will take on challenges where they could fail or give in to their own

To aspire or not to aspire. That is the question facing the City of Atlanta today.

Historically, Atlanta has always been an aspirational city. Back in the late 1800s, it willed itself to be the capital of the New South by putting on national events, such as the Cotton States Exposition in 1895.

The following century, Atlanta willed itself to be the “world’s next great city” or the “city too busy to hate.” It also built what is now the world’s busiest airport. And it aspired to host the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

In short, Atlanta is a city that has always aspired to be something grander than the city it has been. And then it has had to live up to its own hype by turning its dreams into reality.

But during our most recent mayoral election, none of the candidates offered an aspirational vision. Instead, they focused on all the problems facing the city — from budget shortfalls to

It’s a simple question.

Why hasn’t the business, political and civic leadership rallied to support MARTA in the same way it did to save Grady Hospital?

And it’s not just MARTA. It’s C-TRAN. It’s the Xpress buses. It’s Cobb Transit. And Gwinnett. In short, the region and the State of Georgia have failed to come up with a way to financially support transit.

As a result, C-TRAN is about to go out of business. And MARTA is facing a $120 million deficit in its next fiscal year — a deficit which will force the transit system to drastically reduce its operations beginning July 1.

A few years ago, Grady Hospital was in a similar precarious position.

The hospital was plagued with deficits, and there was talk the

A penny here. A penny there. And pretty soon you’re talking about some real money.

The sales tax is one of the most tempting taxes a government can pass. It generates millions and millions of dollars. And with the exception of when someone makes a major purchase like a car, consumers really don’t realize how much they’re paying.

As this column is being written, the state legislature is in a tug of war over whether it should give voters an opportunity to pass a transportation funding bill with a one-cent sales tax. It is the third or fourth year in a row when there has been a concerted, and so far unsuccessful, effort get such a bill to pass.

The city of Atlanta has the highest sales tax in the state — currently at 8 cents. (Four counties in the Atlanta region only have a 6-cents sales tax: Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas

Look what they’ve done to my school, Ma.
Look what they’ve done to my school.
(Apologies to songwriter Melanie Safka)

It used to be known as the College of Urban Life. Later it became the College of Public and Urban Affairs.

And then most recently the college morphed into the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Last week, the word came out that the GSU administration was considering folding the Andrew Young School into GSU’s Mack Robinson College of Business. That led to the forced resignation of the recently-named dean of the Andrew Young School — W. Bartley Hildreth — who had protested the potential merger.

Now it appears that the administration has backed off that plan, and GSU is now seeking to fill the dean’s position and is

The economy sucks. Local governments are slashing their budgets. MARTA is facing a $120 million operating shortfall and may have to cut its service by 25 percent. Many people are suffering from unemployment and underemployment. And our region, economically dependent on growth, is lagging.

It’s easy to get depressed, easy to feel that our best days are behind us.

But I can’t help feeling optimistic about the future. Maybe it’s because winter is finally on its way out and spring is coming. Maybe it’s because I’m tired of being depressed and pessimistic.

Yet I can point to two experiences this past week that have taken me out of my current misery and lifted me to take a longer view of the future of our city. And that future is bright.

It’s been more than a year since I launched SaportaReport.

Now — 444 posts later — it looks as though the site might be around for awhile.

SaportaReport has been my experiment into the new world of journalism. It’s become my venue to share what’s going on in our community as well provide insights on the issues of the day.

Every week, guest columnists also have generously contributed to our community conversation — stimulating thoughts and ideas.

SaportaReport is not alone. A host of websites and blogs have sprouted as traditional news organizations have had to cut costs by shedding shed some of their seasoned journalists, either through buyouts, early retirements or layoffs.

The Burge Apartments at 210 North Avenue is being dismantled — removing pieces of my past brick by brick.

For the first 14 years of my life, my parents, my sister and I lived in the Burge Apartments in Apt. 71. The eight-story, H-shaped building has stood across the street from Georgia Tech’s administration building since 1947, built as a home for married students and faculty members.

My parents moved in the two-bedroom apartment in 1948 when Papa began teaching architecture and city planning at Georgia Tech. We lived there until 1970 when we moved to a home in Midtown, which felt as though we had moved to the suburbs.

So many memories. The Burge Apartments was sandwiched between Georgia Tech and Techwood Homes — giving my sister and I an amazing contrast in cultures and communities.

As children of Georgia Tech faculty, Elena and I (as well as the