Articles by Maria Saporta
MARTA executives on Thursday unveiled plans to make the transit agency more customer friendly. They announced a new partnership between MARTA and Uber as well as unveiled a pilot program to have wi-fi on 50 MARTA buses
The Uber partnership already is on MARTA’s mobile app; and executives said that free wi-fi should be available throughout the whole system (on all buses, rail stations and trains) within a year.
By Maria Saporta Atlanta business, political and civic leaders gathered under the sweltering hot sun on Tuesday morning to thank Ted Turner for helping put the city on the map. Hundreds of people came – many sitting in the shade of a huge tent provided by the City of Atlanta on the parking lot across […]
The West End MARTA Station could be a window into the future.
There was a time when MARTA discouraged commercial activity within its stations.
But on Friday, Jan. 17, transit executives welcomed the official launch of the Fresh MARTA Market at the entrance of the West End station.
A giant oak in Atlanta’s education forest has fallen.
Dr. Wood Smethurst, co-founder of the Ben Franklin Academy – and its headmaster until July 1, passed away Tuesday morning of pneumonia.
Smethurst was a quiet yet powerful force in Atlanta’s education circles – pushing the envelope in ways to teach students who may have faced a myriad of challenges in their lives.
Less than two weeks after Dentons placed its signature in Atlanta, the world’s largest law firm announced the hiring of a couple of new members to its government affairs practice.
Jeff Hamling, who has been serving as vice president of state and federal affairs for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, will join Dentons on July 27 as senior managing direct.
Before the official unveiling of the Atlanta United name and the logo of the Major League Soccer team, Arthur Blank marveled at the thousands of fans who had shown up Tuesday night at the SOHO Lounge in west Midtown.
The name given to MLS-Atlanta’s team was so fitting – Atlanta United.
And how appropriate Blank said that a new stadium for football and soccer was being built in the heart of downtown rather than in the suburbs.
Greenberg Traurig law firm has just become a more important player in the public policy space in Atlanta and Georgia.
The firm has expanded its government law and policy practice with the addition of Chuck McMullen, Tharon Johnson and Blake Ashbee – three political insiders who have just left the McKenna Long & Aldridge law firm, which has become part of the world’s largest firm – Denton’s.
Friends and associates from near and far joined in a retirement celebration for Milton C. Clipper Jr., who served as president and CEO of the public broadcasting entity PBA/Channel 30 and WABE-FM (90.1) for 20 years. Clipper was presented with several gifts – a set of golf clubs, a small metal sculpture and a speedily-done painting of him.
The controversial deal to sell Tyler Perry 330 acres of land of Fort McPherson for only $30 million could close as early as Friday morning.
But on the eve of the transaction, State Sen. Vincent Fort cautioned that the deal is likely unconstitutional and illegal.
The Atlanta Streetcar. People instantly have an opinion ─ regardless of the facts.
Some call it a boondoggle. Others say it doesn’t go where they want to go. Inevitably the conversation will go to the $92 million cost to build the 2.7-mile loop that connects Centennial Olympic Park with the King Center through the heart of downtown Atlanta.
In a hastily-called, open-ended press briefing, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin Thursday was particularly reflective.
She answered numerous questions about public safety — police and fire — as well as possible future budget cuts. But in between the questions, she sprinkled some of her views of politics as well as her life lessons.
Here are a few:
Transportation politics was all the buzz at Thursday night’s annual meeting of the Civic League for Regional Atlanta.
The news that the board of the Georgia Department of Transportation had fired Commissioner Gena Evans had come out only a couple of hours before the dinner at the Twelve hotel in Atlantic Station.
First person I talked to was Sam Olens, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission and chairman of the Cobb County Commission.
“The working relationship between the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, GDOT and MARTA was
Up until now, proponents for new transportation funding were taking a neutral stand on which version of two bills they preferred.
There’s the Senate version, which would provide a regional two-step approach. First, voters would be asked whether they would favor changing the state constitution to permit a regional one-cent sales tax. Then the region would come up with list of transportation projects that would then be presented to the voters so they could decide whether to support that sales tax.
Then there’s the House version, which calls for a statewide one-cent sales tax with a list of projects already identified by the House.
The current economic and political climate is giving rise to extremists, according to Bill Nigut, the Southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
“In times like these, hatred and bigotry flourish,” said Nigut, whose organization fights prejudice in society. “We have even seen a backlash to the (President Barack) Obama election in the white extremist community.”
Nigut, a longtime political reporter for WSB-TV, joined the ADL in January, 2007 after serving as executive director of the Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition for three years.
After 30 years at the Georgia World Congress Center, Khalil Johnson announced today that he will retire as chief operating officer on Aug. 1.
Johnson has been an integral part of GWCC’s operations for decades.
Before he was named COO in 2002, Johnson was general manager of the Georgia Dome. In that role, he was involved in the 1996 Summer Olympics, two Super Bowls, SEC football championships and several basketball tournaments including one Final Four and several NCAA regional matches.
Dan Graveline, GWCC’s executive director, broke the news at the monthly meeting of his authority.
Our own Sam Olens is receiving national recognition.
The past weekend, Olens was presented the Tom Bradley Leadership Award from the National Association of Regional Councils at its national conference.
Olens is chairman of both the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Cobb County Board of Commissioners.
The award is given to leaders who excell in advocating for regional concepts, approaches and programs at all levels of government.
Chick Krautler, ARC’s director, said that Olens was
Don Nicholaisen, former chief accountant of the Securities & Exchange Commission, started off his talk at Atlanta Rotary today by addressing students in the audience.
He told them they should feel excited about the future because they can help model the new economy.
And then he spoke to the other people in the room.
“Those of you who have been around a while should be scared to death,” he said. “We are seeing something we’ve never seen
Atlanta lost two of its great ones this past week — Margaret Munroe Thrower and Don Elliot Heald.
I was lucky to have known both of them in different contexts, but mainly I admired both from afar.
Margaret Munroe Thrower was a warm, striking woman who celebrated her 70th wedding anniversary with Randolph Thrower, a legend in his own right.
The executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce heard an outsider’s view Thursday morning of how our region is faring from an economic development perspective.
Bob Hess, managing principal of NKF Consulting which helps companies in assessing their location needs, told the executives that the economic development world has become “fiercely competitive” as there are fewer and fewer projects on the horizon.
And those competitors are not just other U.S. cities but cities from across the globe.
Again, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport clearly is metro Atlanta’s key magnet in attracting and retaining companies to the area. The region also has a young, educated workforce, cultural amenities, corporate headquarters, strong colleges and a competitive cost of living.
But our weaknesses are becoming greater.
Irony of ironies.
For nine days, new urbanist Andres Duany and his team have been in Atlanta working on ways to design pedestrian-friendly communities that welcome all generations.
And on Tuesday, the day of his last presentation, one of the out-of-town participants was hit by a car at a crosswalk at Courtland and Ellis while walking from her hotel to the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The woman was in Atlanta with the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the key sponsors of Lifelong Communities planning endeavor.
It just so happened that Sally Flocks, executive director of PEDs — an advocacy organization for pedestrians, was participating in the
