Articles by Maria Saporta
For more than 31 years, Julie Ralston has been the communications voice for the Atlanta Regional Commission.
On Feb. 21, she retired as ARC’s director of the Center for Strategic Relations – complete with a state proclamation, slide show of Ralston through the years as well as video, a reception following the organization’s board meeting and a party at Manuel’s.
The 79th annual meeting of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce featured Bill Hornbuckle, president of MGM Resorts International, as its keynote speaker.
It was a bit unusual because the state legislature is considering bills that would permit voters to allow casino gaming with a resort – but it is virtually predetermined that the main location would be in Fulton County, state’s most populous county located just west of DeKalb. Of course, the lunch was held at the Georgia Aquarium, which also is in Fulton County.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 17, 2017
Atlanta Magazine, a fixture on the city’s media-scape for 56 years, is for sale.
Emmis Communications Corp., an Indianapolis-based public company, which has owned the monthly publication for 23 years, has placed all its city and regional magazines on the market to pay down debt.
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were awarded Georgia Tech’s prestigious 2017 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage Friday – linking the legacies of two iconic Georgia political families.
It was the first time in its five–year history that the Allen Prize has been given to a couple rather than an individual.
Nearly 350 people attended the Climate & Health Meeting at the Carter Center – led by former Vice President Al Gore – to learn of the public health impacts of climate change.
Originally, the meeting was supposed to have been a three-day session held at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the CDC cancelled the event on the eve of Donald Trump being inaugurated into office, likely for pre-emptive political reasons.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 10, 2017
Kelly Dolan, a veteran nonprofit leader in Atlanta who has been executive director of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation for the past four years, is moving back to Chicago to be near her aging parents.
The foundation’s board has named Kari Brown Love, vice president of development and communications, as Dolan’s successor. The transition of leadership will occur at the beginning of the nonprofit’s fiscal year on July 1.
The City of Atlanta will allocate $3 million of a $4.5 million Proctor Creek initiative to build a seven-mile bicycle and pedestrian and bicycle trail, according to an announcement by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
Stephanie Stuckey, the city’s chief resilience officer at a Climate & Health meeting being held at the Carter Center Thursday, said the additional $1.5 million will be invested in a study to improve water quality in the Proctor Creek Corridor.
Atlanta is preparing to host Rotary’s 108th annual international convention from June 10 to 14 – with at least one super-star keynote speaker.
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will be one among a lineup of world-class speakers. The Gates Foundation and Rotary International have an ongoing match of 2:1 to support polio eradication efforts up to $35 million a year.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 10, 2017
The pressure is on — not only on the Atlanta Falcons to make a return trip to the Super Bowl — next time bringing home a win.
The pressure also is on Atlanta — to deliver a successful 2019 Super Bowl — one at least as good as the one that Houston hosted the first weekend in February.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 3, 2017
Central Atlanta Progress, the downtown business organization, will pay tribute to two distinguished Atlantans at its annual breakfast meeting on March 14 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.
Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young will receive the prestigious Dan Sweat Award.
And retired Atlanta Police Chief George Turner will receive the annual Turner Downtown Community Leadership Award.
Stephanie and Jerome Russell were enjoying themselves at a Super Bowl party in Houston Saturday night when their 16-year-old daughter reached out to them.
Someone had vandalized one of her friend’s car parked in front of the Russell’s Ansley Park home by writing racist slurs – including “nigger”, “faggot”, “kyke”, “hollacauct” (sic) meaning holocaust, and “fag.”
Parks will be a priority of Atlanta’s next mayor – at least that’s what the eight leading mayoral candidates said during a Park Pride roundtable Thursday morning.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 3, 2017
As Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed faces his last year in office, he looks to continue the city’s growth by completing several deals and also hopes to secure his legacy as a fiscally-responsible city leader.
Reed sat down with the editorial staff of Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 31 to preview his State of the City address scheduled for Feb. 2.
The old City Council Chambers at Atlanta City Hall were filled with 406 boxes containing 1.476 million documents related to the federal bribery investigation involving contractor E.R. Mitchell.
With a huge stack of boxes as a backdrop, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said the city was making the documents available to the media in an effort to be transparent. Information in the files had been redacted to protect the release of social security numbers and other personal data of people not directly related to the case.
The words of Coretta Scott King are breathing new life after U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) was silenced by her colleagues Tuesday night while reading a 1986 letter from the civil rights leader objecting to Jeff Sessions becoming a federal judge.
For Warren, the words were especially meaningful at this moment in time when the U.S. Senate was preparing to vote on whether Sen. Sessions should become the nation’s next Attorney General.
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 27, 2017
Nonprofit leader John Moeller will be the new CEO of Lutheran Services of Georgia, a statewide organization serving vulnerable populations, beginning Feb. 15.
Moeller has been president and CEO of Action Ministries since 2011, and his last day with the Atlanta nonprofit will be Feb. 14.
HOUSTON – Atlantans are hungry for a Super Bowl win.
That was pretty much the consensus among dozens of folks who made the trip from Atlanta to Houston to be in the city hosting Super Bowl 51.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who arrived Saturday night, went to a party put on by the NFL and Ebony Magazine. He said he was feeling good about Atlanta’s chances.
By Maria Saporta HOUSTON – Win or lose on Sunday, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank believes his team will be one to reckon with for years to come. “It is not an end of a journey for us,” Blank said at a Friday afternoon press conference in the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown […]
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 27, 2017
Some of Georgia’s top entertainment venues are banding together to speak out about the potential downside of casino gambling if it becomes legal in the state.
The Georgia Arts and Culture Venues Coalition, which includes 16 facilities such as the Fox Theatre and Woodruff Arts Center, says casino resorts could add unfair competition in the market when it comes to booking top musical performers, Broadway shows, comedians and other acts.
The coalition is vocalizing its concerns just as Georgia legislators, for the second year in a row, are proposing to legalize casino gambling in the state. Bills spelling out the details were expected to be introduced into the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate on Jan. 25.
The city of Atlanta and the United Way of Greater Atlanta will be launching a $50 million initiative to reduce homelessness in the city, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced at his State of the City Business Breakfast Thursday morning.
