The YMCA of Metro Atlanta opened an early learning center in Vine City Tuesday, where advocates of children hope to break the pernicious problem of illiteracy. The YMCA’s reading program aims to teach reading and vocabulary to infants through prekindergarten in the type of low-income neighborhood where national data shows 89 percent of black children score below “proficient” in fourth-grade reading skills.
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Posted inLatest News
Criticism bubbles up under Atlanta’s policy to curtail cash bail
At public appearances, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms regularly celebrates the city’s moves to close the city jail and get rid of cash bail, but one member of City Council is using the word “failure” for how bail waivers are being implemented.
Posted inColumns, Main Slider
A conversation with Carter’s Adam Parker about Summerhill and ‘The MET’
Back in October of 2018, my second post for Saporta Report was published. In “Let’s build Atlanta as a city, not a suburb” I mentioned a few places I saw around the city and had concerns about.
That article mentioned the Turner Hill-Summerhill development, spearheaded by the developer Carter. After a conversation with Carter, I was invited to tour one of their current projects – The MET.
Posted inColumns
Swamp of Dreams: Okefenokee has been plied for riches for over 100 years
The latest plan to extract profits out of sand near the Okefenokee Swamp fits a pattern that started in the late 1800s and has ties to historic names in Atlanta’s growth – including Inman Park developer Joel Hurt, and an owner of the ‘Atlanta Journal’ who parleyed presidential endorsement editorials into a post as U.S. Secretary of Interior.
Posted inColumns
Architect Alex Garvin reflects on Atlanta and the BeltLine
It’s hard to pigeon-hole Alex Garvin. Yes, he’s an architect. But he’s also a professor, an author, a public servant, an urbanist, a visionary and someone who has had a major impact on Atlanta.
Garvin was in Atlanta last week to give a talk Aug. 15 at a luncheon organized by Central Atlanta Progress and the Urban Land Institute –Atlanta
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Two new At-Promise centers to break ground
It’s “changing lives one by one, we’re at-promise, not at-risk. And that’s a great thing,” T.J. Jones said.
Posted inColumns
‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ – film disappoints despite powerhouse performance by Cate Blanchett
When a movie starring a two-time Oscar winner, directed by a multiple Oscar nominee and based on a best-seller opens in mid-August, well, something’s wrong.
And something is.
Posted inLatest News
Metro Atlanta’s ongoing growth to get assist from expanded sewage plant in Roswell
Metro Atlanta’s relentless growth results in part from the ability to process sewage. Fulton County is poised to foster growth in Roswell, Alpharetta and other areas north of Sandy Springs with construction set to start this fall on the expansion of the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility.
Posted inColumns
Remembering Woodstock
By Guest Columnist BILL VANDERKLOOT, a film director/producer who attended the event
The late Tip O’Neill once said, “all politics is local.” As a corollary, I believe that all history is personal. That is until it grows and grows and becomes a defining cultural event. Then it is owned by everyone and the memories morph into things almost unrecognizable.
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Commuters’ trip times reduced by GDOT’s construction approach that won awards
Metro Atlanta commuters who travel on roads may take some consolation in the notion that construction delays aren’t as bad as they could be. Georgia Department of Transportation has been commended for a program that reduces construction timelines – and cut a decade off one major project.
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GSU advances research into fighting Zika virus; Dengue epidemic re-emerges
Researchers at Georgia State University appear to have made a breakthrough in the potential to harness the body’s innate defenses to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus – a disease with no known treatment or vaccine.
Posted inLatest News
96 students to start Atlanta Tech program backed by corporations in a city that needs them
A total 96 students this fall are going to join a new Atlanta Technical College program backed by some of the city’s biggest employers. And if the school’s statistics hold, graduates will be in great professional demand soon.
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Historic magnolia tree cut down in front of Georgia Trust’s Rhodes Hall
A 102-year-old magnolia tree was cut down Thursday on the front lawn of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Rhodes Hall.
The city of Atlanta determined the tree was damaged and decayed. It was deemed to be a safety hazard and was in danger of falling Consulting arborists and a landscape architect agreed.
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Georgia’s new Business Court gets first judge
About a year before Georgia State-wide Business Court starts accepting cases, members of the state House and Senate have confirmed Walter Davis as its first judge.
Posted inLatest News
U.S. Attorney BJay Pak ‘pleased with the pace’ of Atlanta corruption probe
U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak spoke briefly Tuesday about the ongoing corruption investigation into the city of Atlanta government.
Asked about the status of the investigation while attending a human trafficking meeting in Atlanta, Pak answered, “We are moving, we are definitely moving. I don’t intend on this to drag on.”
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Affordable housing may get fast-tracked in Atlanta’s building permit office
Atlanta’s focus on affordable housing has turned to the issuance of building permits, specifically, speeding up the permitting process for affordable homes. The issue was approved Tuesday, in the same meeting at which the interim head of the city’s housing authority said it has budgeted $106 million in development projects.
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We really did this for a Margaritaville?
On Thursday, Aug. 8, the demolition of 152 Nassau Street has ceased thanks to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ellen LaGura who ordered developers to stop demolition until an Aug. 29 hearing.
Posted inMaria's Metro
Atlanta needs to keep Meria Carstarphen as its school superintendent
Under the leadership of Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, the Atlanta Public Schools has experienced tremendous – and verifiable – gains over the past five years.
But, for reasons hard to explain, Carstarphen’s future in Atlanta is up in the air.
Posted inColumns
Okefenokee Swamp: Proposed sand mine may have national security implications
The proposal to mine sand near the Okefenokee Swamp could involve matters of national security. Products created with components in the sand are used in military aircraft, satellites, missiles and munitions, and naval vessels. The U.S. now imports almost 100 percent of the material and the top two sources are Japan and Russia; the Commerce Department is conducting a security analysis.
Posted inMaggie Lee
Fulton is undervaluing some commercial properties; so now what?
The people who are supposed to set the taxable value of Fulton’s buildings are “outgunned” by commercial property owners and hired experts, says a county commissioner.
